It is time the law is changed for those who enable abusers like Mohamed Al-Fayed

Over the past few days we have heard an increasing number of women who have disclosed their sexual abuse at the hands of Mohamed Al-Fayed, with abuse also having been inflicted on children and across the globe. 
 
What is becoming increasingly clear as well, however, is that this man was not a “monster”, as some have called him, but instead a prolific sexual abuser who was able to inflict sexual abuse in open sight and apparently with the protection and enablement of those who worked for him and/or in Harrods.  
 
While monsters operate only and under the cloak of secrecy, it appears that Al-Fayed was able to operate in the open and with systemic failings enabling him to abuse women over 25 years from 1985 to 2010.
 
I specialise in representing abuse survivors and have been supporting the campaign for mandatory reporting for many years.  The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) was set up by then Home Secretary Theresa May in 2016 and it published its final report in October 2022 which also listed 20 recommendations, one of which was the introduction of mandatory reporting for those in positions of trust for children. 
 
Despite hearing from thousands of child abuse survivors, the Inquiry costing nearly £200 million and the two-year anniversary of the report approaching in a matter of days, we still do not have mandatory reporting in England and Wales.
 
I have sadly seen far too often the failures of people in positions of trust that have turned a blind eye to abuse and moved on the abuser to another institution, whether that be the Catholic Church, boarding schools or elsewhere.  
 
The allegations of staff at Harrods facilitating women to be abused by Al-Fayed, to include rape, is of a much higher level of failing and one that is deserving of criminal punishment for, in essence, aiding crimes to be committed.  
 
As I said in the Guardian earlier this year it is wrong that abuse survivors are left alone to disclose their abuse when we all should have a responsibility to stop abuse that we are aware of or suspect. 
 
The fact that NDAs (Non Disclosure Agreements or ‘gagging orders’) were used in certain cases, and literally silencing a victim all over again, is despicable and resulted in other women having to carry the burden of their abuse for many unnecessary and painful years.  
 
We still do not know the number of NDAs that Harrods forced Al-Fayed’s victims to sign and they have still not publicly stated that they now waive the force of those NDAs, finally freeing his victims to speak without fear of financial ruin.
 
It is time that the law was changed and that mandatory reporting was finally brought into force, not just for children but also in workplaces.  We can never allow abuse of the scale and depravity by Al-Fayed to ever happen again and I hope the Government will act on this as a matter of urgency. 
 
In the meantime, I fully support the call for an Inquiry into the abuse that Mohamed Al-Fayed committed and the potential systemic and endemic failings that allowed said abuse to take place for decades.
 
His victims and survivors have waited long enough for their voices to be heard, and an Inquiry now needs to expose finally not only what happened but crucially how and why.  It is time to break the true silence of abuse.