Peter Rhodes on the Fayed scandal, gut instinct and the bliss of just standing still
It now emerges that two complaints of sexual abuse by Mohamed Al-Fayed were dropped, in 2009 and 2015, because the Crown Prosecution Service believed there was “no realistic prospect of conviction.”
The civil servants and ministers who came to that conclusion doubtless sleep soundly in their beds at night, knowing that they followed the rules to the letter. But supposing someone in authority had decided to bend the rules back then and charge Fayed with sex crimes, even if the evidence was not entirely conclusive. What would have happened next?
We don't need to guess because we already have the proof. Since Fayed, who died last year, was named and shamed in a recent BBC documentary, a handful of complaints has grown into a torrent, with 150 victims and witnesses emboldened to tell their lawyers what Fayed had done to them when they worked for him.
