“He takes my face in his hands and kisses me by force”: a woman testifies after filing a complaint against the former owner of the Ritz

While the French investigation into suspicions of the existence of a vast network of trafficking in women for the benefit of businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed, former owner of the Ritz and Harrods, has seen new developments in recent weeks, with several operations carried out in mid-October by the Paris prosecutor's office, France Inter has collected the testimony of Pelham Spong. She filed a complaint against the businessman for sexual assault. She denounces facts which allegedly took place in 2017 in Great Britain, then in July 2025 in Paris. His complaint is not time-barred.

When she was hired in 2008 as the businessman's personal assistant, this 23-year-old young woman was convinced she had landed the ideal job. His salary is 70,000 euros per year, and he is also offered a wardrobe. She is quickly sent to London to meet her future boss. “He is in his office. He takes my face in his hands and kisses me by force,” she tells France Inter. “I can’t move. I don’t know what to do and I realize that I am in danger,” she remembers.

Pelham Spong is then forced to undergo a gynecological examination, at the request of Mohamed Al-Fayed, who wants to ensure that she is not carrying a sexually transmitted infection. “He makes me believe that I’m dirty, that I’m a whore,” she says. “This is where the prison of shame begins to be built,” she continues. A preliminary investigation was opened in France in the summer of 2025 for organized gang human trafficking, pimping and rape, after complaints from former “personal assistants”.

The responsibility of the Ritz pointed out

Shocked, she returns to Paris and tells the recruiter, whose agency is linked to the Ritz, about the attack. The latter advises him not to talk about it. “There is a real question about what we knew at that time about what these women were going through, about the knowledge of human trafficking,” her lawyer, Anne-Claire Le Jeune, explains to France Inter. It thus raises a central question: “Were the employees of the Ritz, the director, aware of these facts?”

According to information from France Inter, French investigators have already heard from at least five complainants. In the United Kingdom, around a hundred complaints have been filed. All of these testimonies reveal a generalized system of sexual predation.

Recent searches

Died in 2023, at the age of 94, Mohamed Al-Fayed was never prosecuted during his lifetime, despite numerous complaints. His death, however, does not prevent the French justice system, in conjunction with its British counterpart, from investigating the possible complicity from which he may have benefited to operate an international network.

Almost twenty years after some of the facts denounced, searches were carried out in mid-October at the palace on Place Vendôme, at the famous Windsor villa, in the Bois de Boulogne, the Al-Fayed's vacation spot, as well as at Castel Sainte-Thérèse, in Saint-Tropez, one of the most chic and secret villas on the Côte d'Azur. Police custody also took place, confirmed the Paris prosecutor's office. The exploitation of computers, telephones and other digital media continues.