Man's six-year hunt to expose Al Fayed abuse after fiancee said she was a victim

A antheral has described however helium helped exposure "seismic" rape and intersexual battle allegations astir Mohamed Al Fayed aft his fiancee told him she was a unfortunate of the Harrods billionaire.

Keaton Stone spent years speaking to women astir the world, gathering a "damning" dossier of evidence.

He took that to the BBC successful 2023 and helped to marque the documentary, Al Fayed: Predator astatine Harrods.

His present wife, Sophia Stone, had been a idiosyncratic adjunct to the businessman aft joining Harrods astatine 19.

Mrs Stone revealed to her hubby successful 2018 that she had been groomed, sexually assaulted, and astir raped by Al Fayed.

It emerged arsenic helium helped rewrite his wife's CV. After realising that she had worked for Al Fayed, helium enactment it astatine the apical of her resume.

"Harrods to me, I conjecture we each thought it was this amazing, prestigious store, truthful I made a immense woody of that," Mr Stone said.

"When I yet presented that to her reasoning she's going to beryllium perfectly made up with this - it wasn't the absorption I expected.

"She perfectly conscionable wholly broke down crying, shaking, [saying] 'why person you got his sanction connected there, get him off, get him off'. This horrible visceral upset distraught reaction.

"So that's erstwhile I knew something's not close here."

Her statement of what happened became the catalyst for a six-year-long journey, yet resulting successful an exposure and the documentary.

Mr Stone, who acted arsenic a advisor for the programme, said: "It was precise hard for her to archer me. She inactive finds it truthful traumatic."

She told her fiance that Al Fayed tried to rape her respective times portion she worked for the steadfast betwixt 1988 and 1991, astir succeeding connected 1 occasion.

There was besides "constant harassment and intersexual assault" some successful the bureau and everyplace she went with him, including backstage helicopters and planes.

Mr Stone added: "I'm keen to marque the point: Why didn't these radical leave? They couldn't, they could not leave, they were threatened, they were silenced, they were terrified.

"That's wherefore [Sophia] wasn't capable to leave.

"It wasn't a fortunate escape, due to the fact that what happened happened and he's traumatised her to this day."

He added that Al Fayed's actions against the galore women who person shared their experiences were "absolutely beyond despicable and depraved".

The mates person moved around, surviving successful Birmingham and London earlier yet settling successful the tiny municipality of Lichfield, successful Staffordshire.

It was there, archetypal successful a spare room, past successful an bureau successful their plot that Mr Stone began piecing the grounds together.

He said his woman had buried what had happened to her for a agelong time, which helium says is the lawsuit for galore survivors astir the world.

"The bulk of them person deeply, profoundly enactment this successful a container and buried it away," helium said.

When helium contacted erstwhile employees of Al Fayed, helium said: "I can't archer you however galore times I had idiosyncratic accidental thing like, 'you've nary thought however agelong I've waited for this email oregon this text. I've waited 25 years for idiosyncratic to inquire maine astir this.'

"Things had tried to travel retired astir him before, [but] they ne'er landed and helium was capable to swat them away."

Since the documentary, the squad person been "inundated" with much survivors coming forward, and Mr Stone believes determination are present much than 100 of them.

Al Fayed died successful August 2023.

"He knew thing was happening, helium was aware," Mr Stone said.

"The overwhelming tendency was to exposure him and to clasp him to relationship whilst helium was alive.

"We desperately didn't privation different [Jimmy] Savile concern - we wanted him successful jail.

"How large it was meant that it took arsenic agelong arsenic it did, and sadly helium did die, but it's inactive of overwhelming value to the survivors that the satellite knows the information astir him."

Mr Stone besides hopes the revelations volition assistance guarantee those who facilitated Al Fayed's actions volition beryllium held to account.

In a connection past month, Harrods acknowledged that astatine the clip of Al Fayed's ownership it had "failed our employees who were his victims and for this we sincerely apologise".

It added "the Harrods of contiguous is simply a precise antithetic organisation".

"Sophia is tired, she's had to unrecorded with this each time each time for six years," helium said.

"She is profoundly inactive traumatised and she conscionable wants it implicit with. She wants to enactment it down her, but she's adamant and truthful staunch successful her content that this should beryllium exposed.

"It needs to be, for the greater bully and for each the different survivors - it indispensable proceed to beryllium investigated and exposed."