Met Police told about Al Fayed’s abuse ten years earlier than they admit

The Met Police were made aware of allegations of sexual assault by Mohamed Al Fayed a decade earlier than they admitted, the BBC can reveal.

Samantha Ramsay, who has since died, was 17 when she reported Al Fayed to the Met in 1995 after he groped her in Harrods. So far, The Met has said the first report was in 2005.

Samantha’s family says US police have denied her claims. They believe several women could have been saved from sexual abuse if violence had occurred.

The Met says there is no history of Samantha’s report on current computer systems, but that some reports in 1995 were paper-based and may not have been transferred.

“While we cannot change what has happened, we recognize that trust is affected by our past approach and we are committed to doing better,” Cdr Stephen Clayman said of the Met’s overall response to Al Fayed.

Samantha’s mother Wendy and sister Emma say for the first time that police told her in 1995 that several women had complained about Al Fayed.

The revelations raise questions about whether the Met has acknowledged the full number of reports from victims and the extent of its failure to investigate them.

Wendy and Emma describe Samantha as full of life, bubbly and always willing to help. “Everyone loved her,” says Wendy.

In 1995, Samantha moved to London to pursue her dream of working in Harrods. But her family says what happened there changed the course of her life.

“If it hadn’t happened, I think she would probably still be here. Really,” Emma tells the BBC.

Shortly after Samantha started working in the toy department at Harrods, she was noticed by Al Fayed, who began inviting her to his office.

We can read what happened next in Samantha’s own words, as, dissatisfied with the police response, she told her story to the News of the World in 1998. It reflects many of the stories that have been told since the BBC documentary Al Fayed: Predator at Harrods first announced rape allegations in September.

The article says that Al Fayed gave Samantha £50 notes and offered her better paying jobs. But during their second meeting, he told her she needed medical treatment and urged her to wash herself with Dettol. Al Fayed then sexually assaulted her.

“I was terrified,” Samantha’s quote reads. “And then I ran out of his office. I ran to the toilets and burst into tears.”

When Samantha told her supervisor what happened, she said he just sighed and said, “Just one more.”

She said she was then escorted to a room, where Al Fayed was brought in to face her. He began berating her aggressively and fired her on the spot, she said.

“She came away from that feeling quite threatened,” Emma recalls, adding that Al Fayed told Samantha: “You don’t tell anyone about this because we know where you live. We know your family.’

The next day, Samantha went to Marylebone police station in central London and reported what had happened.

Emma and Wendy both say they received calls at the time from Samantha, who told them the police had taken her details, but said nothing would be done because it was her word against his and he was too powerful.

Emma remembers the police telling Samantha: “We’ve added it to a pile of other female names we have who have filed the same complaint against Mohamed Al Fayed.”

“So we know they had other reports,” she says. Samantha also told News of the World that police said she was “not the first” and that they had “files inches high” on Al Fayed.

After hearing nothing from the Met, the family spoke to a police officer they knew in Hampshire who encouraged them to also report it to their local station in Gosport. The BBC spoke to the retired officer, who independently confirmed this story.

Wendy says the police visited her home and took a statement from her.

“It was apparently sent to the police,” she said. To this day, however, the family has never heard from the force.

“She was completely abandoned,” Wendy adds. “I believe that many women could have been saved while going through what she was going through if the police had listened.”

Since the BBC documentary aired, the Met says it has found reports of 21 women accusing Al Fayed between 2005 and his death in 2023.

Last month the BBC revealed that the Met had sent complete files of evidence relating to just two of these women to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) during Al Fayed’s lifetime.

Following that story, the Met released a statement suggesting it had received early investigative advice from the CPS in relation to ten of the women. This advice is a formal matter where the CPS makes an opinion on the merits of the case after the police have provided them with the evidence.

However, the CPS has now confirmed to the BBC that it has only given such advice in four cases, and the Met has told the BBC it accepts this.

Al Fayed has never been charged. Since September this year, another sixty women have joined the force.

Wendy and Emma believe that not believing at such a young age has had a significant impact on Samantha’s mental health.

“Her spark was almost gone,” says Emma. ‘The ray of light she always had became weaker. The more time passed after the incident, the vaguer it became. Unfortunately.”

After returning to her family home from London, the family say Samantha lost faith in people and jumped from job to job, unable to find stability.

“It really changed her outlook on life, and after that we had 12 years of erratic behavior, attempted suicide and never really found her place,” says Emma.

Samantha died in a car accident in 2007 at the age of 28.

Her death was ruled an accident, but the family suspects she tried to take her own life. They say the inquest did not look into her mental health history and they will never know for sure.

“She was never right after what happened in London,” her mother says.

The family support is calling for a public inquiry into the abuse of Mohamed Al Fayed and is speaking to law firm Leigh Day about possible legal options. Wendy and Emma say they wanted to speak to the BBC because Samantha is no longer around to do it herself.

Their decision echoes that of Samantha 26 years earlier, when she told the News of the World: “I have been violated by this man… Someone has to speak out.”

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