The investigation into allegations of rape and sexual abuse by the late Harrods owner, Mohamed Al Fayed, should be widened to include trafficking, a former senior Metropolitan Police officer has told.
It comes as the law firm Leigh Day has written to the force on behalf of at least 15 women seeking clarification of whether the current investigation is being considered as trafficking.
Lawyers claim the Met’s Operation Cornpoppy, which is looking into what role individuals may have played in facilitating or enabling Al Fayed’s offending, is not sufficiently wide in scope and that there is a failure to use all investigatory powers as a result.
They argue this means “enablers” and those who facilitated Al Fayed’s behaviour are less likely to be brought to justice.
The former head of the Met’s anti-trafficking unit, Phil Brewer, told that he could not understand why the operation was not already a trafficking investigation.
The Modern Slavery Act – which defines human trafficking as arranging or facilitating the travel of another person, within a country or across borders for the purposes of that person being exploited – came into in force in 2015. But offences of human trafficking have existed in legislation before then and can still be prosecuted as such.
The Metropolitan Police has previously said it is investigating more than five people who may have facilitated Al Fayed in his alleged sexual abuse of hundreds of women and girls. Last August the force said 146 people had come forward to report a crime as part of their investigation.
