A former member of the Harrods management team has told how Mohamed al Fayed would “cherry pick” women from the shop floor.

Speaking to Sky News anonymously, the woman described the billionaire, who died last year aged 94, as “demonic” and said he “controlled everything with fear”.

Lawyers representing 37 alleged victims of sexual abuse at the hands of Fayed branded him a “monster” who was “enabled by a system that pervaded Harrods” at a news conference on Friday.

The former employee of the luxury department store, which the Egyptian businessman took control of in 1985, worked at Harrods at the height of his power.

“We were all told Harrods is the greatest place on Earth – but he controlled everything with fear,” she said.

“The power dynamic was so strong, in the blink of an eye you would lose your career and they would try and destroy you. It was this dark psychological trap and everybody was caught.”

She said she heard stories Fayed, known to staff as “the chairman”, would grope people although she was never a victim herself.

“The chairman would walk around the store and he would cherry pick people from the shop floor, if you had blond hair and brown eyes you were favoured,” she said.

“He used to say, ‘I want that one up in my office now’. He used to carry Viagra around in his pocket, and people were so scared of his ‘floor walks’ – if you weren’t smiling enough you were in the shit, if you smiled too much you were also in the shit.”

Read more: Egyptian tycoon was never far from controversy

The ex-employee, who worked at Harrods in her first job after leaving university, said when women were called to Fayed’s office they “couldn’t say no”.

“I would sit her down and I would say I need to let you know what you are walking into,” she said.

“It’s suddenly a pay rise, and you’ll be invited to expensive events and lavished with expensive gifts but really you need to be aware of something.

“I said you will get invited to Park Lane, and parties where there will be lots of rich men, and you would be invited to sleep with people.”

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She said she was once asked to see Fayed in his lounge-like office where he was wearing his slippers and said: “When are you going to come up and work for me here?”

The woman said she told him she did not want to work there and went back to her normal job.

“Afterwards he would smile at me and was courteous but then I started getting extra money in my pay packet. I went to the pay office and they said it’s a bonus for what you are doing. It didn’t last long but it happened just after he’d asked to meet him.”

The woman said she now feels “really conflicted” as she was “vulnerable too”.

“It was my first job leaving university. It leaves me feeling angry that we put up with things in that generation, that was our norm,” she added.

Harrods has said in a statement it is “utterly appalled” by the allegations of abuse and apologised to Fayed’s alleged victims.

The department store has also set up a page on its website inviting former employees to come forward if they have allegations.

A body has been found in the search for a missing hospital chaplain who starred in a Channel 4 documentary.

Katherine Watson, 50, was last seen in the Heaton Road area of Newcastle, at about 1pm on Thursday and Northumbria Police had become “increasingly concerned” for her welfare.

But after “extensive searches”, the force said a body had been found in the Jesmond Dene area of the city. Although formal identification has yet to take place, “it is believed to be Katherine”, they added.

“Her next of kin have been made aware and are being supported by specially-trained officers,” it said.

“This is an incredibly sad outcome and our thoughts are with Katherine’s loved ones at this difficult time. We will continue to support them in any way we can and we ask that their privacy is respected.”

Also known as Reverend Captain Katie Watson, she joined the army in her late teens, serving in Bosnia in the 1990s and as part of the Royal Military Police.

“Once you have seen genocide first-hand on the streets of a European country, there is nothing left in the world that can faze you after that,” she told the Church Times in 2022, as the Geordie Hospital documentary was first aired on Channel 4.

“I have seen the worst of humanity and I have seen, and continue to see, the very best of it.”

Ms Watson worked at the Newcastle-Upon-Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust for more than 16 years and was made head of chaplaincy in 2020.

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Channel 4’s documentary Geordie Hospital was a six-part series that filmed hospital staff through a shift, featuring a cast including porters, surgeons, dental nurses and chaplains.

Speaking about her role in the show, Ms Watson said: “We only have two things to offer, the gifts of time and presence, but we give them whole-heartedly.”

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There was an outpouring of support online for Ms Watson following the news she was missing.

“She baptised our baby boy when he passed away at birth and presided over his funeral,” one person wrote on X. “She’s such a wonderful person who gave us unwavering support through our darkest hours.”

Another said: “The compassion and care you gave me and my family when our mum passed last year was a tremendous blessing and support.”

Mohamed al Fayed was a “predator” who “preyed on the most vulnerable”, one of his alleged victims has said.

The billionaire was described as a “monster enabled by a system that pervaded Harrods” by lawyers representing 37 alleged victims of sexual abuse at a press conference in London.

Dean Armstrong KC said the case “combines some of the most horrific elements” of those including Jimmy Savile, Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein.

The Egypt-born businessman, who died last year at the age of 94, took control of the luxury department store in 1985 and later expanded his business interests to include the Paris Ritz and Fulham Football Club.

One of his alleged victims, Natacha, said she was a “young, naive and totally innocent” 19-year-old when she moved to London.

She believed she had been given “the chance of a lifetime” when she got a job at Harrods in central London and thought it seemed “entirely innocent” when she was offered extra money and gifts to take home to her parents.

“Unbeknownst to me, I had walked into a lion’s den, a lair of cover-ups, deceit, lies, manipulation, humiliation and gross sexual misconduct,” Natacha said, describing Fayed as a “predator”, who “preyed on the most vulnerable”.

She said she was summoned to Fayed’s private apartment one night “on the pretext of a job review” before “the door was locked behind me”.

“I saw his bedroom door partially open – there were sex toys on view” she said. “I felt petrified. I perched myself at the very end of the sofa and then… my boss, the person I worked for, pushed himself onto me.”

‘Scared and sick’

Natacha said that after she managed to “kick herself free”, he laughed at her and told her “never to breathe a word of this to anyone”, leaving her feeling “scared and sick”.

More than 20 female former employees have spoken of suffering assaults and physical violence at properties in London and Paris in an investigation published by the BBC.

Read more: Egyptian tycoon was never far from controversy

Five of the women said they had been raped by Fayed, while another has now come forward to claim she was subjected to a “sickening” sexual assault by the billionaire.

Harrods said in a statement on Thursday it was “utterly appalled” by the allegations of abuse and apologised to Fayed’s alleged victims.

The department store has also set up a page on its website inviting former employees to come forward if they have allegations.

The legal team involved in a civil claim against Harrods for allegedly failing to provide a safe system of work for its employees said they aimed to seek justice for the victims of a “vast web of abuse”.

‘Corporate exploitation’

Barrister Bruce Drummond told the press conference it is “one of the worst cases of corporate sexual exploitation” that he and “perhaps the world has ever seen”.

Most of the victims were aged 19 to 24, while some were as young as 15 or 16, and were specially selected for their roles before being told to undergo private invasive medical examinations, lawyers said.

US lawyer Gloria Allred, who has represented accusers of Weinstein, R Kelly and Bill Cosby, said the allegations include serial rape, attempted rape, sexual battery and sexual abuse of minors.

She said there was “something rotten at the core of Harrods”, where “underneath the glitz and glamour was a toxic, unsafe and abusive environment”.

The alleged attacks are said to have taken place at locations including the London department store, as well as the Ritz in Paris and the former Duke of Windsor’s residence in the French capital.

‘Terror was reinforced by threats’

Lawyers said they were aware of allegations made by employees at other businesses owned by Fayed and are representing women who worked at the Ritz.

“He used his wealth and his power to manipulate and control female victims for his sexual pleasure,” Ms Allred said.

Most of his alleged victims were “terrified and felt they had no place to turn,” she said and their “terror was reinforced by threats, surveillance and phone tapping”.

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Mr Armstrong said the claim shows an “abject failure of corporate responsibility” by Harrods and “it is time they took responsibility”.

“This case combines some of the most horrific elements of the cases involving Jimmy Savile, Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein,” he said.

“Savile because in this case, as in that, the institution, we say, knew about the behaviour.

“Epstein because in that case, as in this, there was a procurement system in place to source the women and girls – as you know there are some very young victims.

“And Weinstein because it was a person at the very top of the organisation who was abusing his power.

“We will say plainly, Mohamed al Fayed was a monster.”

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Fayed had previously been accused of sexually assaulting and groping multiple women, but a 2015 police investigation did not lead to any charges.

He fought a long campaign following the death of his son, the film producer Dodi Fayed and Princess Diana in 1997, alleging the Paris car crash was not an accident but had been orchestrated by the British security services.

‘Utterly appalled’

Harrods said in a statement: “We are utterly appalled by the allegations of abuse perpetrated by Mohamed al Fayed.

“These were the actions of an individual who was intent on abusing his power wherever he operated and we condemn them in the strongest terms.

“We also acknowledge that during this time as a business we failed our employees who were his victims and for this we sincerely apologise.

“The Harrods of today is a very different organisation to the one owned and controlled by Fayed between 1985 and 2010, it is one that seeks to put the welfare of our employees at the heart of everything we do.

“This is why, since new information came to light in 2023 about historic allegations of sexual abuse by Fayed, it has been our priority to settle claims in the quickest way possible, avoiding lengthy legal proceedings for the women involved.”

Metropolitan Police Commander Kevin Southworth said: “We are aware of various allegations of sexual offences made over a number of years in relation to the late Mohamed al Fayed which were reported to the Met.

“Each one was investigated and, where appropriate, advice from the Crown Prosecution Service was sought. No charges resulted from these investigations.”