Former Harrods chief executive James McArthur witnessed “abhorrent” behaviour from Mohamed Al Fayed, but not sexual abuse, he has told the BBC.
The late Harrods owner has been accused of sexual assault and rape by more than 20 women who spoke to the BBC for a documentary broadcast last week.
Mr McArthur was chief executive at Harrods for 10 months in 2008, a time when the Metropolitan Police investigated an alleged assault on a 15-year-old girl in a Harrods boardroom.
He says he was unaware of the investigation, even though it was covered in the media at the time, which he says he does not recall.
In a written statement, he told the BBC: “I was indeed CEO of Harrods for a short, and most unpleasant, 10 months during 2008 under Fayed.
“While Fayed’s behaviour was often abhorrent in many ways, and professional relationships with him were largely dysfunctional, I was not aware of any sexual abuse by him – if I had been, I would have taken action,” he said.
The “abhorrent” behaviour included Fayed’s inappropriate sense of humour, and lack of professional conduct, he said.
Ten months is a very short stint for a chief executive, and turnover of chief executives and other directors was high at Harrods under Fayed’s ownership.
Mr McArthur added: “I was also not aware of a Met Police investigation into Fayed’s conduct during 2008. Fayed would, I imagine, have tried to keep anything like that closely under his control within the secure precinct of the chairman’s office.”
The initial accusation in 2008 and the subsequent investigation were covered in a number of newspaper articles. Questioned about this, Mr McArthur said: “I do not recall that at all.”
A file was passed to the Crown Prosecution Service, who decided there was not enough evidence to secure a conviction.
Mr McArthur added: “I am absolutely horrified by the details of the allegations bravely brought to light through the BBC. My heart goes out to Fayed’s victims, and I do hope very much that they will get the justice and closure that they are seeking.”
After leaving Harrods, Mr McArthur was chief executive of handbag maker Anya Hindmarch for four years, then held a number of roles including chairman of Lulu Guinness, according to his LinkedIn profile. He now lists his occupation as “investor/director/adviser”.
The BBC has contacted a number of former Harrods directors from the time of Fayed’s ownership.
It emerged this week that Harrods is investigating whether current staff were involved in any of the allegations against Fayed, who died last year aged 94.
The store says there is an ongoing internal review which includes “looking at whether any current staff were involved in any of the allegations either directly or indirectly”.
On Monday the chief executive of the department store Selfridges, Andre Maeder, who was a director at Harrods for six years between 1996 and 2002, told the BBC he was “horrified” to learn about the alleged rapes and sexual assaults detailed in the documentary, but said he “never saw or heard anything” about this “abhorrent” behaviour.
Richard Simonin, chief executive from 2003 to 2005, declined to comment when contacted on the social networking site LinkedIn.
Maria Mulla, from the barrister team Justice for Harrods Survivors, told the BBC that she feels the investigation Harrods has launched is neither impartial nor independent.
“The way they looked into those allegations was to undermine them,” she said, citing “extensive correspondence” between the Harrods lawyers and the people she is representing.
She added the scale of the allegations could be “absolutely massive”.
“Last week we represented 37 women, since then we’ve had more than 100 further inquiries through to our team, many women raising serious allegations, from all over the world, and people contacting us wanting to help with documents and evidence.”
Dame Vera Baird, the former victim’s commissioner for England and Wales, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that investigations into the allegations “should have and could have” been done by the police at a much earlier stage.
“One just looks at these young women who had to report against a man with royal connections, clearly a hard-nosed individual, they must have been absolutely terrified, they were humiliated , abused, ravished – dealt with worse than animals.”
“Somewhere along the lines there was an atmosphere of ‘goodness me it’s Al Fayed’ when it should have been ‘look how terrifying it is what they have to face – what have they got to gain if isn’t true, lets get some real evidence’.”
Harrods was bought by the Gulf state of Qatar in 2010. The new owner has admitted that victims were failed, and said it would settle legal claims.