Fayed accuser criticises Met refusal to look into trafficking allegations

A woman who says she was sexually assaulted by the former Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed has criticised the Metropolitan police for not investigating human trafficking claims against him relating to alleged abuses against her and other women.

- David Batty

Pelham Spong, 40, from South Carolina, hit out at the Met after French police interviewed her this week as part of an investigation into alleged human trafficking and pimping in connection with Fayed, who died two years ago.

Spong told officers on Monday that she had been trafficked in Paris on Fayed's orders in 2008 before being sent to London to be sexually assaulted by him. She told investigators from the Central Office for the Repression of Human Trafficking that Fayed, who owned the Ritz hotel in Paris, had forcibly kissed her and offered her a salary of €65,000 (£57,000) a year if she slept with him.

Spong, who has waived her right to anonymity, reported the alleged sexual assault by Fayed to the Met police in 2017. But the investigation was closed as police said there was insufficient evidence to refer the case to prosecutors.