Al-Fayed family urged to sell Highland castle to compensate billionaire's victims

SUNDAY MAIL EXCLUSIVE: There are also calls for a prestigious tourism award to be remoked posthumously from the late mogul.

The family of shamed Harrods boss Mohamed al-Fayed are being urged to sell his Highland estate to compensate his rape and sexual assault victims.

A councillor is leading the calls for his family to abandon their links with the area amid a wave of accusations against the mogul, who died last year.

Chris Ballance, who leads the Green group at Highland council, said Fayed should also be posthumously stripped of a prestigious Freedom of the Highlands award given to him by the former local tourist board in 2002.

He said: “Apart from some improvements to a local village hall, he did nothing to help the Highlands.

“I have no idea why anyone thought he might deserve an award in the first place.”

Fayed bought Balnagown estate in Invergordon, about 30 miles from Inverness, in 1972.

Its pink castle is still used by his wife Heini Wathen and their four kids Jasmine, Camilla, Karim and Omar.

The castle is owned by a firm called Bocardo Societe Anonyme, whose overall owner is Ocarina Trustee AG, based in Liechtenstein – a country often described as a tax haven.

This month a documentary revealed harrowing accounts of dozens of women who were sexually assaulted or raped by Fayed during their employment at Harrods.

Many said they had to undergo sexual health checks while working as secretaries or interior designers at the luxury London store.

The results were given to Fayed before he attacked them. Two women said they were just 15 and 16 when it happened.

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Ballance said: "Fayed was another absentee landlord of a large estate. He just helicoptered in once a year. I wholeheartedly support calls for him to be stripped of it posthumously.

“If the estate is still owned by the family, they should now sell it to provide some compensation for the numerous victims.”

Tourism body VisitScotland said it had no means to revoke the award. A spokeswoman added: “We understand the Freedom of the Scottish Highlands was issued as a one-off symbolic award by the Highlands of Scotland Tourist Board.”

Police Scotland said they’d finished investigating a complaint of a “non-recent sexual assault’ by Fayed at the estate but said: “Should new information be obtained or reported to police, further inquiries will be carried out.”

The al-Fayed family and Balnagown were asked to comment.

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