The former captain of Fulham’s girls’s group, Ronnie Gibbons, says she was sexually assaulted on two events by the late Mohamed Al Fayed when he owned the membership.
Chatting with The Athletic, Gibbons stated in a narrative revealed Friday that the previous Harrods proprietor tried to “forcefully” kiss her and groped her at his division retailer in 2000, when she was 20.
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“The membership is profoundly troubled to be taught of the experiences advised immediately by former Ladies’s Staff captain, Ronnie Gibbons,” Fulham stated in a press release. “She has our deepest empathy and assist.”
Earlier this month, police in London stated that 40 girls have made allegations of rape or sexual assault in opposition to Al Fayed for the reason that BBC broadcast claims by a number of former Harrods workers. They’re along with the 21 girls who went to the police between 2005 and 2023 with intercourse crime allegations in opposition to the businessman. He was by no means prosecuted and died final 12 months aged 94.
“We proceed to emphasize our absolute condemnation of abuse in all varieties,” Fulham stated. “We stay within the course of of creating whether or not anybody on the membership is or would have been impacted by Mohamed Al Fayed in any method as described in current experiences.”
Al Fayed owned Fulham between 1997 and 2013.
Gibbons advised The Athletic she was twice summoned to Al Fayed’s workplace above Harrods on the pretext that she would discuss soccer to his youngsters, who weren’t there when she confirmed up.
She stated that Al Fayed made her sit on his lap, stroked her knee and forcefully kissed her on the lips as she tried to go away throughout her first go to.
“I simply keep in mind feeling sick, simply actually bodily feeling sick, after I left there,” she recalled.
When she was requested to return to Harrods, she stated that he kissed after which groped her, working his hand down from her face to her waist.
“Talking my fact and at last telling my story will hopefully assist me heal and be rid of the disgrace, embarrassment and ache I’ve carried for years,” stated Gibbons, who performed for Eire at worldwide stage. “If this may also help one individual open up and realise it isn’t your fault and be freed from the identical burdens, then I will be joyful.”
