Met Police apologises for email exposing identities of Mohamed Al Fayed victims

The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) has apologised after accidentally exposing the email addresses of 143 victims of the late Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed. The personal data breach occurred during a monthly email update regarding the investigation into individuals who may have facilitated Fayed's alleged offending, which was sent to victims alongside approximately 12 other recipients.

MPS attributed the breach to human error and confirmed that it had contacted all affected individuals directly on the day of the incident and referred the matter to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). 

The update informed victims that seven suspects have now been interviewed under caution, including three recent interviewees aged in their 70s and 80s. Fayed, who died in 2023 without facing charges, faces more than 400 allegations of sexual misconduct and abuse. The data breach follows existing scrutiny over the force's handling of the case, with the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) currently investigating one serving and four former MPS officers, and a previous data disclosure in June involving a survivor's handwritten account that was mistakenly sent to another victim in Australia.

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