'He'd be enraged': Al Fayed abuse survivors on their friendship

Minutes earlier Jen is astir to appear, composed and resolute, connected unrecorded TV to an assemblage of millions, she is vomiting successful the studio’s toilets.

She and 4 different women are owed to talk for fractional an hr astir however they were sexually assaulted by Mohamed Al Fayed.

“I couldn’t devour that morning, and I was sick astir 15 minutes earlier we went connected air,” Jen says of the interrogation with BBC Breakfast astatine the extremity of September.

“I wasn’t precise good practiced astatine that constituent astatine telling my communicative and uncovering words. So I had a precise carnal reaction.”

About a week earlier, a BBC documentary, Al Fayed: Predator astatine Harrods, had aired. It uncovered decades of maltreatment perpetrated by the billionaire and erstwhile Harrods owner, who died past twelvemonth astatine the property of 94.

Jen had worked arsenic his idiosyncratic adjunct for 5 years from 1986 to 1991. Her communicative was told anonymously nether the pseudonym “Alice” successful the documentary, and her dependable was besides distorted to support her identity.

This interrogation with BBC Breakfast was the archetypal clip she’d agreed to waive her anonymity - meaning it was the archetypal clip she’d spoken publicly, arsenic herself, astir what she had been done astir 4 decades ago.

“One of the things [my counsellor] said to maine earlier I afloat decided to archer my communicative face-to-camera was that erstwhile you bash that, you suffer power of your communicative - due to the fact that each of a abrupt it’s not yours anymore,” she says. “It’s retired successful the world, you can’t truly power who knows it, what they think, what their reactions are.

“I was terrified of that, due to the fact that I felt truthful ashamed of what happened.”

But Jen didn’t realise past that the 4 different women sitting adjacent to her connected the reddish sofa - each survivors of Al Fayed’s maltreatment - would go friends.

All 5 women - Jen, Lindsay, Nicole, Katherine and Gemma - had worked for Al Fayed. Some aspects of their experiences differ, others are disturbingly similar. As they took turns recalling their maltreatment connected the programme, they felt vulnerable.

Seven weeks on, laughing unneurotic connected a mild autumn time successful London’s Battersea Park, they are unrecognisable. BBC Breakfast is gathering them again to perceive astir however they’ve been supporting each other.

“The camaraderie that we’ve built betwixt america present has truly fixed america a batch of empowerment,” Lindsay says. “I conscionable don’t deliberation that we would beryllium this acold on successful our betterment had we not got each other.”

Lindsay worked arsenic Al Fayed’s idiosyncratic adjunct for 5 months betwixt 1989 and 1990. She says helium sexually harassed her, assaulted her connected a regular basis, and past trafficked her to Paris, wherever helium attempted to rape her.

She says that aft the documentary aired successful September, the women acceptable up a radical chat connected the messaging app Signal, named “Stronger Together”.

“We gully spot from that [group],” Lindsay says. “If we’ve got immoderate worries, we enactment it connected determination and everyone’s got your back. I’m feeling overmuch stronger due to the fact that we’re portion of a full corporate of fabulous, beardown women.”

But this is much than a caller friendship. Though galore of the women lone met 2 months ago, their shared trauma means their enslaved has heavy roots - ones that Jen says volition past “probably for the remainder of our lives”.

“No 1 successful this satellite tin recognize what we’ve been done and the interaction it’s had, different than these women and the different women successful the group,” says Gemma, who worked for Al Fayed arsenic 1 of his idiosyncratic assistants betwixt 2007 and 2009.

She says she became progressively frightened of Al Fayed during enactment trips abroad, and was raped by him successful Paris.

“It’s astir similar the unsaid - you don’t person to say. You conscionable cognize what each other’s thinking.”

This means that portion they person to picture their maltreatment for the public, there’s nary request to “keep reliving the past” with each other.

“There are definite stories that I could ne'er archer my schoolhouse friends oregon my household - they conscionable wouldn’t judge me,” Gemma says.

Many of the women hadn’t told their families astir the maltreatment earlier they agreed to instrumentality portion successful the film. Jen told her household soon earlier going connected BBC Breakfast.

But it wasn’t conscionable their families they felt they had to support it from. Survivors person described pistillate unit astatine Harrods being deliberately isolated from each other.

Jen explains that she and Lindsay worked successful the aforesaid bureau astatine the aforesaid time, but “barely spoke to 1 another, due to the fact that that’s however things were successful the office”.

“We weren’t truly allowed to beryllium friends with 1 another, and we surely weren’t allowed to confide successful 1 another,” she said.

These years of isolation person made the women’s new-found transportation peculiarly special. Nicole says the thought of them speaking regularly, forming adjacent friendships and supporting each different would marque Al Fayed “absolutely incandescent with rage” if helium were live to spot it.

Nicole worked arsenic Al Fayed’s enforcement adjunct betwixt 2005 and 2007, erstwhile she was successful her 30s. She experienced regular intersexual harassment and battle from him.

“We weren’t allowed to speech to each other. We weren’t allowed to stock things. We weren’t allowed to stock experiences. We weren’t allowed to go friends,” she adds. “He created that situation purposely truthful that helium could get distant with doing what helium wanted.

“So yeah, he’d beryllium enraged. And I deliberation that’s fantastic.”

Katherine, who was sexually harassed portion moving arsenic a elder idiosyncratic adjunct for Harrods successful 2005, says galore women were, understandably, “too frightened to travel forward” portion the documentary was being made.

But this radical of women are trailblazers. Since they archetypal spoke retired astir their experiences, much than 70 women person contacted the BBC with accounts of maltreatment by Al Fayed, including intersexual harassment, intersexual battle and rape.

For Jen, waiving her anonymity connected BBC Breakfast 2 months agone was excruciating successful the moment. But the weeks since person felt similar a renewal.

“When I’m talking astir my beingness astatine Harrods, I consciousness benignant of similar that happened to idiosyncratic else, due to the fact that it’s thing that I’d enactment successful a container and hadn’t talked astir with anybody for 35 years,” she says.

“Taking the lid disconnected that container and truly examining the contents again made maine consciousness precise adjacent to that person, similar I was that 16-year-old miss each implicit again.

“But erstwhile I deliberation astir however I felt sitting connected the sofa six weeks ago, I consciousness wholly antithetic now. I consciousness stronger, I consciousness much confident. I consciousness similar I don’t request to consciousness ashamed.”

Additional reporting by Ellie Price

• MAFinvestigation@bbc.co.uk. Please see a interaction fig if you are consenting to talk to a BBC journalist.