A former Harrods employee has claimed Mohamed al Fayed and his brother, Salah, both assaulted her while she worked for the department store in the 1990s.

Speaking on camera about her story for the first time, Rachael Louw told Sky News she was subjected to invasive sexual health tests, surveillance and inappropriate touching while working for the al Fayeds.

During her three years at Harrods Rachael was propositioned by Salah al Fayed, who one night climbed into bed with her while she was working as his personal assistant on his yacht in Monaco. Upon her return to the Harrods store in London, the chairman, Mohamed, also preyed on her.

“There were things that happened there that I didn’t realise were a part of trafficking: Isolation, phone bugging, no time on your own, exposure to these sexually charged situations – almost like to acclimatise you, to groom you into thinking that this is normal,” she said.

Ms Louw was in her early 20s when she moved from university to London in 1993 to work on the shop floor at Harrods. In what has now become a familiar tale among victims who have come forward, she was spotted by the chairman and soon promoted to be his brother’s personal assistant.

At the time, she was excited. “You’re entering this whole new lifestyle that is shiny and new and exciting, and I was like, okay, I’m ready for this. This is the next stage for me,” she said.

However, there were early signs that something was not right.

Before taking the job Rachael was subjected to a compulsory sexual health check, conducted by Dr Ann Coxon on Harley Street. In a letter to the chairman’s office, the doctor went into detail about Rachael’s sexual history, her use of contraception, and her body shape, as well as her levels of personal hygiene.

Rachael had no idea her results had been sent to her employer, Mohamed al Fayed. She believes she was trafficked to Monaco for sexual exploitation, and this was the first stage of the process.

She was not alone. Over the past four months, hundreds of women have come forward to detail their experiences of sexual assault and rape at the hands of Mohamed al Fayed.

More recently it has come to light that his brother, Salah, may have also been an abuser.

Lawyers representing the victims have described the abuse, which took place in the 1990s and 2000s, as a gross example of corporate sexual exploitation.

A police investigation is also under way. The Metropolitan Police, which is being investigated by the police watchdog over its handling of past allegations, is now investigating associates of al Fayed who may have facilitated or assisted the abuse.

Both Salah and Mohamed have died, so cannot be held to account in the criminal courts.

‘I was disgusted and didn’t want to be there’

After the results of her health check were sent through, Rachael was asked to accompany Salah al Fayed on his yacht in Monaco. During that time, her employer became more and more suggestive.

One night, he invited her to another boat where they dined with an older man and two young women.

“He said: did I notice how friendly the girls had been with me? And I said: ‘Yeah, they were really nice’. He said: ‘Well, did you realise they wanted to sleep with you?'”

Rachael added: “Salah said there was an expectation that this evening would become something that involved all of us,” and that “the idea had been to have group sex”.

“I was shocked and disgusted and didn’t want to be there.”

It didn’t end there. One night she was invited to sleep in one of the more comfortable cabins on the boat, which had double beds.

“I had been asleep for a few hours and I felt a movement on the bed… I woke up with a panic of, first, where was I? And then who was this? And I remember saying something like, ‘What are you doing?’ And Salah said, ‘I’m lonely’… I just went ramrod still and he just carried on sleeping there.

“He went to sleep and I lay there the whole night and I didn’t sleep, thinking if I moved, if I turned over, if I did any body movement whatsoever, he would misinterpret that as me giving him an indication that it was okay to touch me.”

“It was probably one of the longest nights of my life,” she added. “And I remember in the morning, aching because I’d been so tense the whole night.”

‘The more I resisted, the more upset he became’

Rachael said she eventually left Monaco after a month of repeated sexual advances. She booked a ticket to London and went back to the shop floor at Harrods. She thought she was safer away from Salah al Fayed but it was during this time that Mohamed assaulted her.

Rachael was asked to visit the chairman at his flat in Park Lane to secure some paperwork she needed to take a sabbatical to Australia.

“I went after my shift. We had dinner. I was not expecting there to be dinner. We had a drink.

“Then Mohamed was showing me around his apartment… then we get to his bedroom. And he’s motioning to the view and I’ve got my back turned to him and he said to me: ‘Let’s talk about your future’.

“I was half expecting him to pull out this paperwork. I turned around and he said: ‘Come sit next to me. Let’s discuss your future’.”

Rachael said Mohamed al Fayed tried to persuade her to stay that day, and not go to Australia. “I will look after you. I will get you an apartment in London. It’s very expensive. I understand these things. If you treat me right, if you’re nice to me, I can make things happen for you’.”

She added: “I was sitting down next to him, and he put his arm around me and his hand started going further up my skirt, higher and higher. And all I could think was that I somehow have to extricate myself from this situation because I needed my paperwork.

“My tickets were booked. It was really expensive… and how do I get out of this situation without offending him?

“All I can remember saying is: ‘My mum didn’t teach me to mix business with pleasure. This isn’t right’.”

“He kept with the verbal coercion, over and over and over, and his arms [were] still around me. This must have gone on for at least 20 minutes.

“The more I resisted, the more upset he became. I ended up pulling away from him. I have no memory of leaving his apartment.”

After the encounter, Rachael left to take her sabbatical in Australia. When she returned, she quit her role at Harrods.

Still a chance of criminal charges

Victim-survivors like Rachael are asking why serious action wasn’t taken by the police to arrest Mohamed, Salah and their alleged enablers over the decades as complaints were made.

The Met has now widened its investigation to look at associates who may have assisted and facilitated the abuse – meaning criminal charges could still be on the cards even though the direct perpetrators have died.

Harrods, which is now owned by the Qatari sovereign wealth fund, has established an internal review and set up a compensation fund, which it says is in the process of settling with around 250 women.

In a statement to Sky News, the company said: “Harrods supports the bravery of all women in coming forward. Their claims point to the breadth of abuse by Mohamed Fayed and again raise serious allegations against his brother, Salah Fayed. The picture that has emerged suggests that this pattern of abusive behaviour took place wherever they operated.

“We continue to encourage all survivors to make their claims to the Harrods scheme, where they can apply for compensation… We also hope that they are looking at every avenue open to them in their pursuit of justice, whether that be the police or the Fayed family and estate.”

The company added: “Any claims in relation to the behaviour of current staff involved in any of the allegations either directly or indirectly during the time of Fayed’s ownership, will be investigated.”

Barclays has advised customers to contact food banks after a major IT glitch left some locked out of their accounts – with the disruption likely to continue today.

The bank has warned that some customers may see an outdated balance, and payments made or received may not show following the initial outage on online and mobile banking.

Customers using the app on Sunday morning were greeted with a message headed: “Thank you for bearing with us”.

The message said Barclays was working to correct the user’s balance to ensure it shows all payments and the issue was “taking longer than we’d like to fix”.

The company’s status check website listed the Barclays and Barclaycard apps, online banking and services, cards, payments and transfers, branches and telephone banking as areas affected by the IT glitch.

The disruption started on Friday – on what was payday for many British workers and the deadline for self-assessment tax returns.

The bank has apologised to those affected and promised no one would be left out of pocket. The outage is not believed to be related to a cyber attack.

But Barclays’ handling of complaints has provoked an angry reaction online.

Customers have posted on X that they were unable to buy shopping for themselves and their young children, pay their bills or withdraw cash.

But the bank insists its ATMs are unaffected.

In a statement after the complaints online, Barclays said: “We are proactively contacting vulnerable customers to offer dedicated help and support. Their calls are being prioritised on our telephone lines meaning their calls get answered first.

“Our ATMs are unaffected by this technical issue so customers can withdraw cash and use their cards to make payments.”

Barclays later added: “Some may continue to see an outdated balance, and payments made or received may not show. Customers should not try to make the payment again.

“We will ensure that no impacted customer is left out of pocket.

“We are keeping our call centres open for longer this weekend and we will be proactively contacting customers who may be vulnerable.”

Bank’s response criticised as ‘triggering’

On social media site X, in response to one user who said her household “has no access to money”, the Barclays UK Help account asked: “Are there any friends or family who can offer support?”

When she said she didn’t and criticised the reply as “so triggering”, the bank’s X account posted links to the Trussell Trust, a charity that runs food banks, and Citizens Advice, which offers help for a range of problems.

Further afield, David Marsh and his new wife, from Cumbria, told Sky News they had been locked out of their account while on their honeymoon in Australia.

And Karen Bannister, 52, from Wakefield, West Yorkshire, said she had transferred all her money into her Barclays account to pay her bills but the funds never arrived.

“My card got declined at the supermarket which was completely embarrassing and by 9pm I was without heating because my gas had run out,” she said.

‘My four-month-old is out of milk powder’

One mother said she was unable to buy milk for her baby due to the glitch.

“My four-month-old is out of milk powder and screaming for a feed and I still haven’t been paid,” she said in a post on X.

“I’ve been in tears for hours.”

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Another customer said: “Due to you Barclays I’m left without money had a food shop due for delivery this morning which now will get cancelled, leave my four kids with no food it’s a joke as [it is] my money.”

One asked: “How can I eat and keep warm if I can’t get to my funds?”

And another said: “Well I’ve just had to put all my shopping back in Tesco – never been so embarrassed in my life… as can’t access my own money.”

HMRC ‘working closely’ with bank

In a statement, HMRC said it is “working closely” with Barclays to minimise any impact on those submitting their self-assessments.

An HMRC spokesperson said: “Our services are working as normal, so customers will still have been able to file their returns on time.

“Also, the issues will not result in late payment penalties as they don’t apply until 1 March.”

AI tools designed to generate child sex abuse material (CSAM) will be made illegal under “world leading” legislation, the government has announced.

The crackdown will also target anyone who possess AI “paedophile manuals” which teach people how to use AI to sexually abuse children.

It comes after warnings AI-generated child abuse imagery is being produced at a “chiling rate” and is “disturbingly realistic”.

It is already illegal to possess AI-generated CSAM but the new laws will target the means of production.

This includes:

• Making it illegal to possess, create or distribute AI tools designed to generate CSAM, punishable by up to five years in prison.
• Making it illegal for anyone to possess AI “paedophile manuals” which teach people how to use AI to sexually abuse children, punishable by up to three years in prison.

Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister, said Britain is the “first country in the world” to legislate for AI abuse imagery.

She said: “This is a global problem and is going to need global solutions. This government is leading the way on trying to clamp down on this horrendous crime.”

The Home Office said AI tools are being used to generate abuse images in a number of ways, including by “nudeifying” real-life images of children or by stitching the faces of other children onto existing child sexual abuse images.

The NSPCC said its childline service has been hearing from distressed children who have found AI-generated images of them.

In one call, a 15-year-old girl told them: “A stranger online has made fake nudes of me. It looks so real, it’s my face and my room in the background. They must have taken the pictures from my Instagram and edited them. I’m so scared they will send them to my parents. The pictures are really convincing, and I don’t think they’d believe me that they’re fake.”

Perpetrators are also using the fake images to blackmail children and force victims into further abuse, including streaming live images.

The perpetrators can use AI tools to disguise their initial identity and more effectively groom and abuse children online, the Home Office said.

Ms Phillips said: “It is a massive battle. This is where it starts. This is not where it ends.”

The government has also announced that it will introduce a specific offence for predators who run websites designed for other paedophiles to share child sexual abuse content or advice on how to groom children, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

This is already illegal under possession and distribution laws, but the new offence will allow for longer sentences and prevent moderators from trying to claim they don’t know what is on the site.

The UK Border Force will also be given new powers to force an individual who they suspect poses a sexual risk to children to unlock their digital devices for inspection.

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All four measures will be introduced as part of the Crime and Policing Bill when it comes to parliament.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “We know that sick predators’ activities online often lead to them carrying out the most horrific abuse in person. This government will not hesitate to act to ensure the safety of children online by ensuring our laws keep pace with the latest threats.”

This comes after The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) warned of an increase in AI-generated sex abuse images.

Over a 30-day period in 2024, IWF analysts identified 3,512 AI CSAM images on a single dark web site.

Compared with their 2023 analysis, the prevalence of category A images (the most severe category) had risen by 10%.

The IWF also warned that some AI images were so realistic it was hard to distinguish them from real abuse.

Derek Ray-Hill, the charity’s interim chief executive, said: “We have long been calling for the law to be tightened up, and are pleased the government has adopted our recommendations. These steps will have a concrete impact on online safety.”