Several people were questioned and released after searches linked to the late businessman. The Met says its officers were present, and survivors’ groups are urging British police to carry out searches here.
French police have searched three properties, including the Ritz hotel in Paris, as part of an investigation into alleged sexual abuse and trafficking by the late Mohamed Al Fayed. The Paris public prosecutor’s office said several people were taken into custody for questioning last month and then released. The searches took place in mid-October, and the Metropolitan Police says its officers were present on 13 and 14 October in a coordinated operation with French investigators. Several of Fayed’s alleged victims have also been interviewed.
What the prosecutor says
The prosecutor’s office said the searches were part of a preliminary investigation into “allegations of human trafficking committed by an organised group, aggravated pimping committed by an organised group, and rape”. The organised crime division of the office is leading the inquiry.
In a statement, it said: “Searches and evidence-gathering operations were carried out in mid-October 2026, notably within the Hotel Ritz in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, as well as at the Villa Sainte-Thérèse in Saint-Tropez, a former property of Mohamed Al Fayed, and at the Villa Windsor in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, in the presence of British investigators.”
The investigation is continuing, and digital material seized during the searches is being analysed, the office added. A Met spokesperson confirmed that its officers travelled to France last month and were there during the operation. The force also told survivors about the searches in an email sent today.
The properties
The Saint-Tropez property, referred to as Castel Sainte-Thérèse, is one of the most exclusive villas on the French Riviera. Diana, Princess of Wales, stayed there with her sons in the summer of 1997, at the start of her relationship with Fayed’s son, Dodi.
Villa Windsor in western Paris was a former holiday home of the Fayed family. It was previously the family home of Charles de Gaulle, before he became president of France, and of King Edward VIII and his wife, Wallis Simpson, after his abdication.
The Ritz Paris told Agence France-Presse that it “does not tolerate any form of harassment, abuse or inappropriate behaviour” and was ready “to cooperate fully with the competent judicial authorities”.
Survivors call for action in Britain
Campaign groups representing alleged victims have called on the Met to carry out its own searches of Fayed’s properties. Jen Mills and Lindsay Mason, co-chairs of Justice for Fayed and Harrods Survivors, said: “We want to see the same thoroughness applied to every property where survivors say they were taken or abused, including here in Britain. The searches in Paris and Saint-Tropez must be the beginning, not the end.”
A spokesperson for No One Above, a collective of survivors, said French authorities had put the case in the hands of their specialist trafficking unit and organised crime prosecutors, and were investigating it as trafficking by an organised gang. “The evidence in this case was never confined to Harrods,” the spokesperson said. “For two years, the Met has avoided treating it as what France recognised from the outset: organised trafficking by a network. The National Crime Agency should now take over the investigation.” The source includes no response from the Met to these criticisms.
Pelham Spong, who says she was trafficked in Paris on Fayed’s orders in 2008 before being sent to London to be sexually assaulted by him, said she was overjoyed by the raids. “Survivors deserve actions, not words,” she added. Last November, she told investigators from the Central Office for the Repression of Human Trafficking that Fayed, who owned the Ritz, had forcibly kissed her and offered her a salary of €65,000 a year if she slept with him.
Survivors’ groups say more than 500 women have come forward about alleged abuse at Harrods, Park Lane, Fulham football club, the Ritz in Paris and other places owned by Fayed. The Met is investigating 169 victims who contacted the force directly.
