Speaking to the BBC, one of his alleged victims, Sophia, who worked as his personal assistant from 1988 to 1991, said he tried to rape her more than once. She said: “He was vile”.

After Fayed was featured in two recent series of Netflix’s The Crown, she spoke of her anger at his portrayal as a pleasant and gregarious character.

Sophie, who didn’t give her second name, said: “That makes me angry, people shouldn’t remember him like that. It’s not how he was.”

Another alleged victim, Rachel, not her real name, who was 19 at the time, stayed in one of Fayed’s apartments instead of taking a taxi home on his insistence after working late on Harrods business.

He then invited her to his personal apartment, where he asked her to sit on the bed, with his hand on her leg and a firm grip, she said.

“I made it obvious that I didn’t want that to happen. I did not give consent. I just wanted it to be over,” she said.

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“I remember feeling his body on me, the weight of him. Just hearing him make these noises. And just going somewhere else in my head.”

Rachel told the BBC: “He raped me. Afterwards, you blame yourself. You’re there to do a job and this is your boss standing there in front of you in a dressing gown. And so even when you’re trying to get out of the situation, I’m trying not to offend him.”

Rape allegation investigated by police in 2015

Fayed had been accused of groping and sexually assaulting female employees across his lifetime, including a rape allegation which was investigated by police in 2015 but did not lead to any charges.

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Born in Egypt, Fayed was a businessman in the Middle East before moving to the UK in the 1970s.

He took control of Harrods in 1985, and purchased the Ritz hotel in Paris in 1979. He was also the owner of Fulham FC between 1997 and 2013.

His son Dodi Fayed died in a car crash in Paris alongside Diana, Princess of Wales. In the decade after the incident, he repeatedly claimed that Dodi had been murdered in a plot by the British establishment.

But he was forced to reluctantly concede defeat after a six-month inquest in 2007 and 2008. The jury returned unlawful killing verdicts on both Diana and Dodi, but pinned the blame on the drink-driving of chauffeur Henri Paul, who also died in the crash.

After 26 years in charge, in 2010, Fayed sold Harrods to the Qatari royal family for a reported £1.5 billion. At the time, he said problems with pension fund trustees were behind his decision to sell the store.

The Telegraph, London