The Daily Mail's new podcast series "Al-Fayed: Who Looked Away?" alleges that Mohamed Al-Fayed, former owner of Harrods and friend to celebrities and royals, was as prolific a sex abuser as Jeffrey Epstein. The series features Joanna Brittan recounting her experience in 1990 when she was fired from her job, forced into a limousine by her boss Ahmed Obaidly, and driven to Al-Fayed’s country estate where she suffered sexual abuse alongside Obaidly. Decades later, Brittan connected with Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre, who confirmed the extent of the abuse Joanna endured.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-09-19,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
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Outside the limousine window, Joanna Brittan remembers seeing the English countryside flashing past.
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countryside → look → window
She's in too much shock to take in the view.
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She → take → view
That morning, Joanna had been summarily fired from her job as a translator and PA to a high-flying diplomat from the United Arab Emirates.
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Joanna → fire → Emirates
As the 25-year-old packed her desk, she was warned by her superiors not to breach the confidentiality clauses in her contract – before being evicted onto the street in Knightsbridge.
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she → pack → Knightsbridge
There, she was beckoned over to the waiting limo.
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she → beckon → limo
Inside was the man who had just overseen her sacking: her boss, diplomat Ahmed Obaidly.
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who → oversee → sacking
As she told me: 'I'm crying.
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I → tell → me
I come out of the office.
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I → come → office
Obaidly's waiting with his chauffeur.
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Obaidly → wait → chauffeur
I'm told to get in the limo.
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I → tell → limo
The chauffeur locks the doors.
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chauffeur → lock → doors
I can't open them.
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I → open → them
And we start driving out of London.
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we → start → London
'
Obaidly doesn't speak a word.
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Obaidly → speak → word
Soon Joanna starts to feel not just upset, but frightened.
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Joanna → start → ?
Then the limousine turns onto a long driveway to a country estate.
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limousine → turn → estate
She sees armed men in combat gear, hiding in trees and bushes.
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men → see → trees
At the front door, Joanna sees a man waiting for them, his face tanned and wrinkled.
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face → see → them
She knows who it is because she's met him before: Mohamed Al-Fayed.
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she → know → him
The Daily Mail's gripping new podcast series Al-Fayed: Who Looked Away? says the former Harrods owner was as prolific an abuser as the infamous Jeffrey Epstein
Joanna Brittan, pictured during the 1990s, when she was a victim of sex abuse and trafficking
It's 1990 and Fayed, then 61, was a high-profile figure.
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Fayed → look → abuse
Together with Obaidly, she'd visited Fayed at his offices.
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she → visit → offices
The stark answer is so that one or both of the men could sexually abuse her.
But the full implications of that day were only explained to her decades later, in the late 2010s, by someone now known the world over: Virginia Giuffre.
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implications → abuse → someone
Virginia, who died in 2025, famously helped expose the horrific scale of Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking and exploitation.
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who → die → trafficking
His best-known victim, she helped uncover an international network supplying countless young women and girls to him and his powerful friends.
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she → know → him
By coincidence, Joanna was in touch with Virginia just before the now infamous Prince Andrew Newsnight interview in November 2019 about his ties to the convicted paedophile.
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Joanna → convict → paedophile
Andrew has strenuously denied wrongdoing and has never been convicted of any offences in relation to Epstein or Virginia Giuffre.
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Andrew → deny → Epstein
By now aged 54, Joanna contacted Virginia through social media after hearing her repeatedly speak about being groomed as a vulnerable young woman.
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her → age → woman
As the women exchanged messages online, they shared their stories.
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they → exchange → stories
Virginia praised Joanna as 'a beautiful soul', telling her that she was 'here for you any time'.
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she → praise → you
Joanna was in contact with the late Virginia Roberts Giuffre (pictured) shortly before the infamous 2019 Prince Andrew interview
Virginia helped Joanna see the wider picture of what happened to her that day in Fayed's country mansion.
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what → picture → mansion
There, Joanna believes she was drugged over lunch by Obaidly and Fayed.
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she → believe → Obaidly
A complete void exists in her mind, so blank she believes it can only have been drug-induced.
She believes she was then sexually abused by one or both men.
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she → exist → men
She has no idea how long she was kept on the estate for, or indeed any recollection of the immediate aftermath at all.
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she → have → aftermath
But while Joanna called it 'abuse', Virginia used a different word to describe what happened to her.
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what → call → her
As I reveal in the Daily Mail's new blockbuster podcast Al-Fayed: Who Looked Away?, Virginia helped Joanna understand that, like her, she had been a victim of 'trafficking' – a crime considered more serious than sexual abuse alone – and encouraged her to seek justice.
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she → reveal → justice
In the podcast I document how significant evidence points to Fayed being no less than the British Epstein, in both the scale and systematic nature of his abuse.
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Fayed → document → abuse
Like Epstein, he permitted rich and powerful men to use his businesses, his luxurious homes and even his superyachts as hunting grounds for young women, who were trafficked across international borders to be abused.
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who → permit → borders
It's no secret there were many female victims of Fayed, who died in 2023 aged 94: it's been said there are 500 from Harrods alone, aged 15 and up.
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it → be → Harrods
Earlier this week, a law firm representing more than 275 survivors warned that compensation claims could top £150 million, more than double the amount the department store has set aside.
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store → represent → million
I believe 500 victims is the bare minimum.
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victims → believe → ?
…and 120 more, not listed.
The Aporia
