The BBC has discovered that the Metropolitan Police were informed of allegations of sexual assault by Mohamed Al Fayed a decade earlier than previously acknowledged. Samantha Ramsay reported Al Fayed to the Met in 1995 when she was 17 years old after he groped her in Harrods. The Met had previously claimed that its first report was from 2005. Ramsay’s family says the Met dismissed her claims. They fear that if the force had acted, numerous women could have been saved from sexual abuse.
While some reports were still paper-based in 1995, the Met maintains Samantha’s report does not appear on current computer systems. However, Samantha’s mother Wendy and her sister Emma claim that the police told them in 1995 that multiple women had complained about Al Fayed. Questions now arise as to whether the Met has admitted the full number of reports it received from victims and acknowledged the extent of its failure to investigate them.
Samantha moved to London to work at Harrods in 1995, but her family claim that what transpired there changed the course of her life. Al Fayed began inviting her to his office before assaulting her at their second meeting. When Samantha reported the assault, police apparently told her she was “not the first”. Al Fayed was never charged over any report of abuse made during his lifetime.
Wendy and Emma believe that not being believed at such a young age had a considerable effect on Samantha’s mental health. They suggest that Samantha’s subsequent erratic behaviour was the result of the assault. Samantha died in a car crash in 2007, aged 28, after numerous suicide attempts. The family supports calls for a public inquiry into Mohamed Al Fayed’s abuse and have spoken to law firm Leigh Day regarding possible legal options
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