Al Fayed abuse should be investigated as human trafficking, says former senior Met officer

"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."

"The former head of the Met's anti-trafficking unit, Phil Brewer, told the BBC 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."

"Anne, not her real name, told the BBC she was trafficked by Al Fayed to his "sadist" brother Salah Fayed in France. She claims her passport was taken from her and she was flown by private jet from the UK to a job that did not exist for the purposes of abuse. She described the network which enabled the abuse as a "trafficking factory"."

The Metropolitan Police's Operation Cornpoppy, investigating Mohamed Al Fayed's rape and sexual abuse allegations, should be widened to include human trafficking charges, according to former senior police officers and legal representatives. Law firm Leigh Day, representing at least 15 women, has written to the Met arguing the investigation's current scope is too narrow and fails to utilize all available investigatory powers. A former head of the Met's anti-trafficking unit stated he cannot understand why trafficking charges are not already being pursued. Under the Modern Slavery Act, human trafficking involves arranging or facilitating someone's travel for exploitation purposes. Victims describe experiencing systematic conditioning, passport confiscation, and forced transportation, characterizing the network enabling abuse as a "trafficking factory."

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