Mohamed Al Fayed’s daughter has been cleared of robbing her brother of his £1,900 phone after the criminal prosecution against her was abandoned.
Camilla Fayed, 39, was accused alongside husband Mohamad Esreb, 43, Matthew Littlewood, 34, and Andrew Bott, 52, of targeting her brother at the family’s Grade I listed estate, Barrow Green Court, near Oxted in Surrey, on May 18 2020.
The incident was at the centre of a bitter civil feud when Omar was accused of wrongdoing and he accused his sister of assault.
Criminal proceedings were then launched by the Crown Prosecution Service against Camilla and her co-defendants, who each faced a robbery charge.
A trial had been set for February 3 next year, but at Guildford crown court on Wednesday prosecutor Eloise Marshall KC said a decision had been taken to abandon the criminal charges.
“I advised the CPS on a quite a number of issues, and ultimately the decision was made due to a combination of matters”, she told the hearing.
“Undermining material in our possession, and concerns we had about disclosure – not just material we didn’t have but difficulties the arose during the disclosure process.”
She said prosecutors had been battling with disclosure of material from the family courts, as well as potential evidence provided by Omar Fayed himself.
A hearing is now due to take place early next year on efforts by the defendants to recover their legal costs.
Ms Fayed, of Park Lane, central London, pleaded not guilty to robbery in May, while Mr Esreb, also of Park Lane, Mr Littlewood, of Haydock Road, Colburn, North Yorkshire and Mr Bott, of Coppice Wood, County Durham, also denied the charge.
Camilla Fayed was not in court for today’s hearing.
The announcement is the latest twist in a saga that has plagued the Fayed family for the last four years.
Competing claims about the altercation in the gym were aired at the High Court, before the dispute was ultimately settled without a full trial.
Harrods entrepreneur Mohamed Al Fayed died in August last year, setting the stage for a fight between his children over his fortune.
But that has been overshadowed by a slew of allegations of sexual abuse now levelled against the tycoon.
He is accused of multiple rapes and sexual assaults over the course of several decades, while police and prosecutors are examining potential missed opportunities to bring him to justice before his death.
