Al-Fayed faked dementia to dodge abuse probe, says son

Mohamed Al-Fayed's son has claimed his disgraced father faked having dementia in the later years of his life to avoid police questioning over accusations of sexual abuse.

- BARNEY DAVIS

Scotland Yard is investigating reports the billionaire Harrods and Fulham FC owner, who died last year aged 94, could have raped and abused more than 111 women and girls.

Omar Al-Fayed told The Mail on Sunday his father should have been prosecuted for his accused crimes as if he were “a Nazi general”. He suggested individuals surrounding Fayed helped him avoid further police probing “on the grounds he was mentally incapacitated” and had dementia, but said when he returned to business affairs he was “as sharp as a tack”.

The youngest of the alleged victims to have emerged since the latest publicity around the case is thought to have been 13 when she was abused.

The Harrods’ owner’s son told the newspaper he believed there was a lost opportunity in 2017 when Fayed was 90. Police examined abuse allegations but he was never charged. “If a Nazi general is found to have been hiding in the Algarve for the last 50 years then of course he should be tried,” he said.