A former footballer has alleged that she was groped on two occasions by her football club’s late owner, Mohamed Al Fayed.
The former Harrods chief has been under fire in recent months after more than one hundred women have come forwards to speak out about the abuse they were subjected to.
Now, former Fulham Ladies captain Ronnie Gibbon’s has revealed that disgraced Al Fayed tried to “forcefully” kiss her at the Harrod’s store in 2000, when she was 20, and again then tried to grope her at a later date.
Speaking to The Athletic, she said:
“Speaking my truth and finally telling my story will hopefully help me heal and be rid of the shame, embarrassment and pain I have carried for years.”
She explained the first incident occurred in 2000 when she was captain, and the team had just become first female football team in Europe to turn professional. She had been driven to Harrods by staff at the club, and was left alone with Al Fayed, who was in his 70s at the time.
“He pulled me in close and tried to kiss me on the mouth,” she said of their first meeting.
“He had his arms holding my arms, like at my side, so I couldn’t push him away or anything like that. It was a real kind of control stance, like ‘I’m dominating you’.
“I was just like, ‘What do I do here?’ I just felt like a huge responsibility on my shoulders at that point because we’d just turned professional.”
Gibbons explained that Al Fayed tried to forcefully kiss her again: “He even may have stuck his tongue on me or something. I just remember feeling sick, just really physically feeling sick, when I left there.”
But that wasn’t the last of it, as later that summer, Gibbons told staff she had again been summoned to Harrods by Al Fayed.
In the interview with The Athletic, she recalled:
“This time he groped me. As he was saying goodbye, he was sort of grabbing me, trying to sort of hold on to me and kiss me. He was like, ‘You’re not scared are you? You don’t need to be scared, I’m not going to do anything like that, you’re very precious, you’re a very special girl’.”
‘Young, blonde girls’
According to the BBC, it was revealed last week that former manager of Fulham’s women’s team Gaute Haugenes put extra precautions in place to protect female players from Al Fayed.
Haugenes managed the team from 2001 to 2003 and said members of staff became aware that the late billionaire “liked young, blonde girls” – and Gibbons was reportedly angered at these comments.
Speaking to the BBC on Friday, Haugenes, who is Norwegian, said he could completely understand her frustration.
“All I can say is I am really sorry for saying something that could have put more wood on the fire. I honestly thought we protected the players,” he said.
“I knew that he liked Ronnie because all the girls, they joked about it. But I thought he was an old man, she was a young woman. I was 30 at the time, I didn’t think people his age were thinking about sex.
“I might have been naive, it might have been some of the language barriers that I didn’t pick up details in their joking.”
He added that he had not been aware she had been told to go to Harrods.
Al Fayed owned Fulham between 1997 and 2013.
Molly Frost, Abuse Claims Solicitor said:
“As time goes by we are seeing an increasing number of women coming forward who have suffered some form of sexual harassment by Al Fayed in a whole number or situations. It seems not only did he use his position but he was also an opportunistic predator.”
Further reading
Sexual abuse – abuseclaims.co.uk
Civil abuse claims – Oakwood Solicitors
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