Family pay tribute to the bravery of teenager who tried to blow the whistle on Mohamed Al Fayed decades ago

The family of Samantha-Jane Ramsay has spoken out for the first time about her efforts to try to hold Mohamed Al Fayed accountable for his predatory behaviour.

After being harassed and sexually assaulted by Al Fayed when she worked at Harrods aged just 17, Sam reported the abuse to the Metropolitan Police in the summer of 1995. However, they told her it would be her word against his and that they would add her story to the pile of others they had. 

Frustrated at the lack of action, in 1998 Samantha, known as Sam to her family, told her story to the News of the World in the hope that it would prompt some action to be taken against Al Fayed, but nothing happened. She died in 2007, aged 28.

Sam’s family have contacted law firm Leigh Day to look into possible legal options and to support calls for a public inquiry. Leigh Day has been contacted by more than 100 women. The team of legal specialists are looking into compensation claims and calls for a statutory public inquiry. This team includes partner and joint head of the firm’s international and group claims department, Richard Meeran, and partner Emma Jones, who specialises in public inquiries and actions against the police.

Sam started working at Harrods when she was just 17. She worked in the toy department and told the News of the World that after only five days she was spotted by Al Fayed on the store’s security cameras she was summonsed to his office. He offered her an assistant manager job in the store’s designer clothes section, with a £2000 a year pay rise. However, she told the newspaper that the other people in that department quickly turned against her and she was sent back to the toy department.

Two weeks later she was summonsed to Al Fayed’s office with the offer of a job in his Park Lane offices and a much bigger pay rise. She told the News of the World that the Al Fayed told her she would need to have a medical and said “I like you to be clean. I hope you use Dettol, it’s the best”. He then gripped her face, kissed her and touched her inappropriately. He handed her £200 and she fled from his office, bursting into tears shortly after.

Sam decided to report the incident to her supervisor in the hope he would help her but, she told the newspaper, “he just sighed and said ‘Another one’”. She was then taken to a conference room by one of Al Fayed’s personal assistants who berated her for making a complaint, Al Fayed then also came into the room and shouted at her before firing her and telling her not to come back to the store.

Sam returned home to Hampshire but family say that she seemed different when she returned and her behaviour was erratic.

After the Met Police refused to help Sam her mum, Wendy Ramsay, went to their local police force in Gosport but they passed it onto the Met and nothing further came of it. She then tried to instruct a solicitor but was told it wouldn’t get anywhere because Al Fayed was too powerful.

Twelve years after returning from London Sam, who was then known as Chelsea Eales,  was killed after he car lost control and crashed. Her death in May 2007, aged 28, was ruled an accident but her family have always had their doubts as to whether it was intentional as she had made attempts to end her life previously.

Until now the Met have revelaed that they have received 21 reports regarding Al Fayed dating from 2005. In reponse to Sam's story they told the BBC there is no history of Samantha’s report on current computer systems, but that in 1995 some reports were paper-based and might not have been transferred.

Wendy and Sam’s sister, Emma Wills, are now speaking out to tell Sam’s story after the scandal around Al Fayed came to light.

Emma Wills said:

“We know 100% my sister would’ve been speaking out if she was here. No one believed her or did anything about it and that’s enough to make anyone go crazy. She reported what happened to her 30 years ago and he was allowed to continue for another 20 years. That must have played on her mind.

"In the 18 years since her death there has been always been a niggling feeling that it wasn’t an accident because she had made attempt on her life before.

"I do hold Al Fayed responsible. I really believe if it hadn’t happened to her then her life would have been different. This happened just as she was turning into an adult, this isn’t what she should have been dealing with going into adulthood.

"She did all the right things to try and blow the whistle and had the bravey and courage to try to hold Al Fayed accountable but no one was interested, no one would help her. I don’t think Sam would have had the skills to process what happened her at that age.

"It really infuriates me that if the police had dealt with it properly back then her life would have been different. Back then she was one of the only people to have been brave enough to go to the police and if they had dealt with it properly how many women could have been saved from his abuse?”

Emma Jones, partner at Leigh Day who specialises in public inquiries, said:

“For Sam to raise a complaint with her supervisor and then the police against someone as powerful as Al Fayed, when she was only a teenager, shows immense courage. To then be told that no one was willing to help must have been utterly devastating. The fact that her report to the police does not appear to be included in the 21 reports against Al Fayed that they have confirmed to the media, and indeed pre-dates those by a decade, raises even more questions about the actions of the police in this matter and further strengthens the calls for a statutory public inquiry.

“As Sam’s family have said, it also raises questions about how many women could have been saved from abuse if Sam’s complaints had been taken seriously and handled properly 30 years ago.”

About the legal team:

Emma Jones

Emma is a partner and specialises in human rights claims against treatment and care individuals receive in hospitals, schools and in social care settings, false imprisonment and assault claims, actions against the police and public law challenges. She worked on the group claim against Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust arguing breaches of patients’ human rights and negligence in respect of their treatment and care. She represents over 260 core participants in the Infected Blood Inquiry and is also representing people in the ongoing COVID Inquiry and the Lampard Inquiry into mental health services in Essex. 

Richard Meeran

Richard Meeran is joint head of the firm’s international and group litigation department which regularly brings cases against UK-based multinationals and has past and present cases against Shell, Dyson, Tesco, Anglo American, British American Tobacco and Unilever. Richard has been a partner at the firm since 1991. His work over the past 30 years, which has included human trafficking, has been instrumental in developing English law on the liability of multinational corporations for human rights abuses, particularly for the exploitation of workers.