Everything
Royal
Inquest into the death of Diana,
Princess of Wales, August 31, 1997
Diana's letter's to Dodi Fayed
It must be noted that 99%
of Diana's letters to "anyone" were "Darling"
or Dearest" and signed "Fondest Love." ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Diana and Dodi unlawfully
killed
ITN The jury at the Princess Diana
inquest has ruled that she and her lover Dodi Al Fayed were unlawfully
killed by grossly negligent driving.
The six women and five men singled out Henri Paul's drink-driving
and the pursuing paparazzi as a contributory factor to the fatal
crash in the Alma Tunnel on August 31, 2007 in Paris. The panel
also said the fact the couple were not wearing seatbelts contributed
to their deaths.
The jury had previously heard
evidence that Mr Paul, who also died in the accident, was going
at twice the speed limit for the road when he crashed. But the
Mercedes was also pursued by photographers when it left the Paris
Ritz hotel minutes earlier. The jury concluded that the photographers
were recklessly "racing" the Mercedes and drove so close
that Mr Paul had no freedom to move.
Lord Justice Scott Baker earlier
said he would accept a majority verdict after receiving a note
from the six women and five men indicating that they could not
reach a unanimous verdict. Dodi's father, Mohamed Al Fayed, accused
MI6 and the Duke of Edinburgh of plotting to murder the couple.
The coroner ruled there was
no evidence to back up the claims and disallowed any verdict which
could point to a murder plot. There was laughter in court as the
Lord Justice Scott Baker rose to leave, before turning around
to tell the jury they would be excused jury service for the rest
of their lives.
He thanked them for their
"considerable devotion" to duty over the past six months,
saying it was "almost astonishing" they had been present
every day without any absences. Mr Al Fayed emerged from the consultation
room at the High Court flanked by bodyguards. Asked for his personal
response to the verdict, he shrugged his shoulders and said: "The
most important thing is it is murder."
The Harrods tycoon later said
in a statement the investigations into the crash carried out by
Scotland Yard and by the French police were wrong, as they missed
the "unidentified" vehicles that the jury noted were
following Diana's car. He added: "It has been a long fight
to uncover the truth about the deaths of my son Dodi and Diana,
Princess of Wales. I am not the only person who says they were
murdered."
Paul Stephens, Deputy Commissioner
of the Met Police, said: "I think we now have to soberly
reflect upon a clear verdict, and wish and hope that this now
brings some sort of closure to the subject."
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Coroner Rules Diana
Unlawfully Killed
2008-04-07
Filed Under: World News
LONDON (April 7) - A coroner's jury has ruled that Princess Diana
and boyfriend Dodi Fayed were unlawfully killed through the reckless
actions of their driver and the paparazzi in 1997.
On Diana's Death1 of 9
A British inquest into the death of Princess Diana and her boyfriend,
Dodi Al Fayed, finds the two were unlawfully killed by the reckless
behavior of their driver and the paparazzi on Aug. 31, 1997. It
was the most serious option available to the coroner's jury.
The jury had been told that
a verdict of unlawful killing would mean that they believed the
reckless behavior of their driver and paparazzi amounted to manslaughter.
It was the most serious verdict available to them Monday. The
couple died when their speeding car slammed into a concrete pillar
while it was being chased by photographers in cars and on motorbikes.
The jury added that the fact that Diana and Dodi were not wearing
seatbelts was a contributing factor.
The coroner, Lord Justice
Scott Baker, had instructed the jury that there was no evidence
to support claims by Fayed's father, Mohamed Al Fayed, that the
couple were victims of a murder plot directed by Prince Philip
and carried out by British secret agents. The jury was not at
liberty to disagree. The six women and five men on the jury began
deliberating April 2 after hearing six months of testimony from
more than 240 witness. They also went to Paris to see the scene
of the Aug. 31, 1997 crash.
The cost of the inquest itself,
including lawyers and staff assisting the coroner, has passed
3 million pounds (US$6 million euro3.8 million). This doesn't
count the cost of lawyers representing the Metropolitan Police
and the Secret Intelligence Service, nor the millions believed
to have been spent by the Metropolitan Police on their two-year
investigation which produced a report of 813 pages published in
December 2006, which concluded that there was nothing to substantiate
Al Fayed's claims. Nor does it include Al Fayed's expenditure
for lawyers, investigators and other costs.
Baker had expressed hope that
the inquest would lay to rest, once and for all, any false theories
about the princess' death. Dodi Fayed died instantly when the
couple's Mercedes, moving in excess of 60 mph (95 kph) slammed
into a concrete pillar in the Alma underpass in Paris at 12:22
a.m.; medics initially thought Diana would survive her severe
injuries, but she died at the Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital around
4 a.m.
Beliefs about the accident,
expressed in the hours and days that followed, have persisted.
The paparazzi who pursued the couple were vilified. As grieving
Britons piled up flowers outside Diana's Kensington Palace home,
some British newspapers declared they would never use another
paparazzi shot — a vow that proved time-limited. French police
announced, a day after the crash, that tests on Henri Paul's blood
showed he was three times over the national drink-driving standard.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Diana conspiracy
theories rejected
ITN -The combined manslaughter verdict
in the Princess Diana inquest represents an emphatic rejection
of conspiracy theories promoted by Mohamed Al Fayed.
After sitting through evidence
from 278 witnesses from across the world, the jury of six women
and five men took four days to reach the majority decisions. Mr
Al Fayed has long believed that the Duke of Edinburgh and MI6
murdered the couple through a staged crash but even his own legal
team abandoned that position.
The "cast list"
included the Royal Family, a prime minister, politicians, diplomats
and international spies, right down to a man in a battered Fiat
Uno. Among the theories were that driver Henri Paul was in the
pay of the security services and claims that the MI6 were involved
were fuelled by the evidence of renegade spy Richard Tomlinson.
He cited an early 1990s memo
about a plan to kill a Balkan leader - in a method he initially
said bore an "eerie similarity" to the Paris crash -
as evidence that MI6 did practise assassination. But Lord Justice
Scott Baker said Fayed's conspiracy theory was "without substance".
But he did leave the jurors the option of an open verdict, something
which might have been taken as an indication they believed there
was some merit to the conspiracy claims.
The verdicts raise questions
over the conclusions of earlier proceedings in France in which
the paparazzi were cleared of any wrongdoing. Other than motorcyclist
Stephane Darmon, all of the paparazzi and their drivers who were
present that night refused to give evidence to the High Court
inquest. As they remained in France, the coroner had no power
to compel them to testify even by video link and the French government
actively refused to force them.
In the end, the coroner had
a series of statements which were taken from the paparazzi during
the earlier French investigation read to the jury. But he issued
a warning that their evidence had not been tested in court.
The jury saw receipts from
the Ritz Hotel showing that Mr Paul ordered two double shots of
Ricard spirit shortly before taking to the wheel. There was also
first-hand evidence that he was seen in a nearby bar earlier that
night and medical evidence that he was on Prozac and had a drink
problem unknown to friends and family. The jury was not swayed
by question marks over blood samples showing that Mr Paul was
three times the French drink-drive limit when he crashed.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Jury considers verdict
in Diana inquest
By Robin Millard AFP - April 2, 2008
LONDON (AFP) - Jurors examining the death of Princess Diana retired
to consider their verdict Wednesday, after the coroner said no
evidence of an alleged assassination plot was presented during
the six-month inquest.
Lord Justice Scott Baker,
the coroner, sent out the jury of six women and five men at the
High Court in London following an inquest looking at the Paris
crash which killed Diana, her boyfriend Dodi Fayed and chauffeur
Henri Paul. Fayed's father, the Egyptian tycoon Mohamed Al Fayed,
has consistently claimed the August 31, 1997 crash was a British
establishment conspiracy to stop the princess from marrying a
Muslim.
But on Monday, Baker told
the jury there was "not a shred of evidence" to support
Al Fayed's theory. "We come to the point where you have to
retire and consider your verdicts," Baker told the jury,
six months to the day since the inquest opened on October 2 last
year.
It is unclear how long the
jury will take to come to a verdict, but it could be a number
of days. Baker told the jurors to first examine the possibility
of unlawful killing through the negligence of either Paul or the
paparazzi before considering an accidental death verdict. They
were asked to consider whether the photographers chasing the princess's
car had sacrificed the lives of the crash victims in the "pursuit
of a picture".
Some photographers took pictures
of the Mercedes occupants before the emergency services arrived.
Only one paparazzo gave live evidence to the inquest. The others
could not be compelled to attend as they live in France, but their
statements to the French authorities were heard by the jurors.
Baker told the jury: "You
may wish to consider whether the conduct of any individual after
the crash demonstrates a deliberate disregard for the lives of
the others in pursuit of a picture and if so whether that helps
you in determining what was the nature of the pursuit before the
crash." The jury can return five possible verdicts:
-- Unlawful killing through
grossly negligent driving by some or all of the pursuing paparazzi
photographers;
-- Unlawful killing through
grossly negligent driving by Paul;
-- Unlawful killing as a combination
of the driving of both the paparazzi and Paul;
-- Accidental death;
-- An open verdict.
Baker reminded the jurors
Wednesday that they could not return an unlawful killing verdict
in support of a conspiracy to murder. "The conspiracy theory
advanced by Mohamed Al Fayed has been minutely examined and shown
to be without any substance," he said. The coroner reiterated
that the burden of proof required to find unlawful killing through
negligence -- a form of manslaughter -- was higher than the "balance
of probabilities" required to conclude that the crash was
an accident.
Baker also told the jury it
must be unanimous in its verdict, and with any so-called riders
dealing with possible contributory factors, such as drink-driving
or the passengers' failure to wear seatbelts.
The inquest has heard some
250 witnesses, while the jurors also travelled to Paris to see
the scene of the accident for themselves.
Diana's former butler Paul
Burrell was among the most high-profile witnesses to take the
stand, while others whose testimony gripped the court include
Pakistani surgeon Hasnat Khan, who had a two-year romance with
the princess.
Two previous police investigations
-- one French and one British -- have concluded that the deaths
were a tragic accident fuelled by Paul who was over the drink-drive
limit speeding to get away from chasing paparazzi.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Diana Inquest: Jury Retires
By Sky News SkyNews - Wednesday,
April 2, 2008 pmThe jury at the Diana inquest has retired to consider
its verdict.
The coroner, Lord Justice Scott Baker, has spent the last two
days summing up the evidence and conclude this morning, before
sending the jury out. The six women and five men have sat through
almost six months of evidence in Court 73 at the Royal Courts
of Justice. He told them: "You have listened to a vast amount
of evidence with, if I may say so, obvious care and great commitment."
The jury heard from more than 250 witnesses in eight different
countries. The evidence they have heard has been peppered with
contradictions. It is the job of the jurors to decide on whose
word they can rely and whose should be taken "with a pinch
of salt".
It is an intimidating prospect
but the coroner told the jurors: "Of course you must consider
the details, but there comes a time when it's necessary to stand
back and see whether or not it is clear and what the overall picture
establishes." Ultimately, they need to reach a decision on
how Diana and Dodi died in the Alma tunnel in Paris more than
a decade ago. Their verdict is likely to be a defining moment
in history. There are five verdicts for the jury to consider:
:: Unlawful killing due to
the grossly negligent driving of the paparazzi pursuing the Mercedes.
:: Unlawful killing due to
the grossly negligent driving of Henri Paul in the Mercedes.
::Unlawful killing due to
the grossly negligent driving of the paparazzi and Henri Paul.
This equates to the serious crime of manslaughter and the jury
were told they must be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt.
:: Accidental death. This
could come into play if the jury concludes that the driving was
bad but not bad enough to be grossly negligent.
:: Open verdict. It can be
reached only if the jury are unanimous that there is insufficient
evidence to support any of the other verdicts. But the coroner
said they should not return an open verdict simply because they
could not agree or as a mark of disapproval.
The jurors have been handed
an "inquisition form" - an official document on which
to record their verdict. They will also be expected to add "narrative
conclusions", factors they believe contributed to the tragedy
such as excessive speed, alcohol and passengers not wearing seatbelts.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
'New Evidence' Email
Halts Diana Inquest
By Sky News SkyNews - Tuesday, April 1, 2008 Princess Diana's
inquest has resumed after it was dramatically halted because of
the discovery of potential new evidence.
The court received an email from France shortly before the inquest
was due to conclude. Coroner Lord Justice Scott Baker sent the
jury away for an early lunch so an accurate translation of the
email could be made. When the inquest resumed, the coroner said:
"Members of the jury, I'm happy to say the problem has been
resolved and there's nothing to be worried about and we can proceed."
The email referred to a sample
taken from the body of Henri Paul, who was driving the Mercedes
car carrying Diana and her lover Dodi Fayed when it crashed in
Paris.
Tests on blood and other samples
from Mr Paul, the Paris Ritz Hotel's acting head of security,
showed he was three times over the French drink-drive limit. But
Dodi's father, Mohamed al Fayed, has always believed the samples
were faked or switched, pointing to question marks over the labelling
of vials of blood. Lord Justice Baker had been summing up evidence
heard from more than 250 witnesses during the six-month inquest
when the email was received.
Earlier, the coroner criticised
Diana's former butler Paul Burrell, saying it was "blindingly
obvious" he had not told "the whole truth" while
giving evidence. Mr Burrell, 49, in a secret recording by The
Sun, was quoted as saying he was aware he had broken the law and
adding: "I've been very naughty." Lord Justice Baker
said: "You have heard him in the witness box and even without
what he said subsequently in the hotel room in New York, it was
blindingly obvious wasn't it that the evidence that he gave in
this court was not the truth, the whole truth and nothing but
the truth."
The coroner also
accused Mr Burrell of profiting from the Princess' death.
"All in all,
you may think that Mr Burrell's behaviour has been pretty shabby,"
he said.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
'New Evidence' Halts
Diana Inquest
By Sky News SkyNews - Tuesday, April
1, 2008 Princess Diana's inquest has been halted at the last minute
after an email from France containing potential new evidence was
received by the coroner.
The mail is believed to refer
to a sample from the body of Henri Paul, who was driving the Mercedes
car carrying Diana and her lover Dodi Fayed which crashed in Paris.
Tests on blood and other samples from Mr Paul, the Paris Ritz
Hotel's acting head of security, showed he was three times the
French drink-drive limit. But Dodi's father, Mohamed al Fayed,
has always believed that the samples were faked or switched, pointing
to question marks over the labelling of vials of blood.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Diana coroner slams
'liar' Burrell
ITN - Tuesday, April 1, 2008 The coroner at the Princess Diana
inquest has said it is "blindingly obvious" that her
former butler Paul Burrell lied.
On the second day of summing
up after six months of evidence, Lord Justice Scott Baker said
Mr Burrell's evidence was not the "whole truth". He
told the jury: "You have heard him in the witness box and
even without what he said subsequently in the hotel room in New
York, it was blindingly obvious wasn't it that the evidence that
he gave in this court was not the truth, the whole truth and nothing
but the truth."
Mr Burrell was filmed in a
hotel room in New York boasting that he had misled the jury when
he gave evidence in January and that he had laid "a couple
of red herrings". The 49-year-old refused to reappear at
the inquest when the coroner asked him to return and explain himself.
Mr Burrell's reputation is already in tatters after he cashed
in on Diana's death even though he once claimed he was her "rock".
He now lives in Florida and trades off his notoriety as a former
employee of the Royal household.
Members of the jury have been
told to make up their own minds about how Diana died, but have
been told to rule out murder after the coroner said that there
is "no evidence" that Diana was murdered by MI6 at the
Duke of Edinburgh's request. He said: "I have determined
that it is not open to you to find that this was unlawful killing
by the Duke of Edinburgh or anyone else in a staged accident."
He added that so many of Mohamed Al Fayed's conspiracy theories
about the August 1997 crash were "so demonstrably without
foundation" that even his lawyer was no longer pursuing them.
The five possible verdicts
the jury has been given are: Unlawful killing by grossly negligent
driving by the paparazzi; Unlawful killing through the gross negligence
of Henri Paul; Unlawful killing through grossly negligent driving
of both the paparazzi and Mr Paul; Accidental death.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Diana's butler "did
not tell the truth"
By Paul Majendie Reuters - Tuesday, April 1, 2008 LONDON (Reuters)
- Princess Diana's trusted butler Paul Burrell did not tell the
truth at the inquest into her death, the presiding judge told
the jury on Tuesday.
"All in all, you may
think Burrell's behaviour has been pretty shabby," Lord Justice
Scott Baker told the jury as he concluded the official inquiry
into the death of Diana and her lover Dodi al-Fayed in a Paris
car crash in 1997. Burrell, who called himself "Diana's Rock",
faced a three-day grilling from lawyers when he appeared at the
inquest in January to be repeatedly asked how much he really knew
about secrets he was supposed to have held for the princess. In
February, Scott Baker asked Burrell to return to court to explain
discrepancies between his evidence and comments attributed to
him in a tabloid newspaper but he refused. "It was blindingly
obvious wasn't it, that the evidence that he gave in this courtroom
was not the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth,"
Scott Baker said on Tuesday. In a scathing reference to Burrell's
emotionally charged testimony, he told the jury: "I advise
you to proceed with caution especially when and if you are left
with the impression that he only told you what he wanted you to
hear." The coroner was summing up to the jury after they
had heard more than 250 witnesses over the past six months in
an inquest that has attracted worldwide media attention. On the
opening day of his presentation to the jury, the judge on Monday
dismissed conspiracy theories of Mohamed al-Fayed, father of Dodi.
Harrods owner Fayed had claimed they were killed by British security
services on the orders of Prince Philip, because the royal family
did not want the mother of the future king having a child with
his son.
The inquest was delayed for
10 years because Britain had to wait for the French legal process
and then a British police investigation to run their course before
it could begin. Both police inquiries decided it was a tragic
accident because chauffeur Henri Paul was drunk and driving too
fast when their Mercedes limousine crashed in a Paris road tunnel
while being pursued by paparazzi.
The jury, due to be sent out
on Wednesday morning to consider their decision, have five verdicts
to choose from. They can opt for unlawful killing through gross
negligence by the chauffeur, by "following vehicles"
or by both. The other two alternatives are accidental death or
an open verdict if the 11-member jury felt there was not enough
evidence to support any substantive verdict. The judge is initially
seeking unanimity from the jury but, failing that, will accept
a majority verdict
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Diana Coroner Slams
Burrell Evidence
By Sky News SkyNews - Tuesday, April 1, 2008 A coroner overseeing
the inquest into Princess Diana's death said it was "blindingly
obvious" evidence from her former butler Paul Burrell was
not "the whole truth".
Lord Justice Scott Baker is
summing-up after hearing six months' worth of evidence from more
than 250 witnesses.
He has already dismissed allegations
that the Princess and her boyfriend Dodi Fayed - also killed in
the crash - were murdered by M16 on the orders of Prince Philip.
Mr Burrell was one of Diana's closest aides and says she called
him her "rock". But he was ordered to return to the
inquest to explain whether he lied in court while giving evidence.
A secret recording by The Sun newspaper showed him claiming that
he had not told the whole truth. The paper quoted him saying he
was aware he had broken the law and saying: "I've been very
naughty." Lord Justice Baker called for the former butler
to return to the court from his home in Florida to explain his
alleged comments. But Mr Burrell refused and because he was in
the US, the coroner could not force him to attend.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Butler 'took ring
off Diana's body'
Press Assoc. - Monday, March 17, 2008 Paul Burrell took an engagement
ring off the body of Diana, Princess of Wales and kept it, his
former has bodyguard claimed.
Michael Faux told the inquest
into Diana's death that the former royal butler also kept documents,
including papers note-headed with the Buckingham Palace crest,
and burnt them. Mr Burrell had also considered throwing some of
the property off the side of a ship in order to get rid of them,
according to Mr Faux, who worked for him for a year until 2003.
He claims he saw Mr Burrell take "one or two" bin bags
with property he had "hidden" at a neighbour's home
in Farndon, Cheshire, and "frantically" burn them in
his back garden in November or December 2002.
He told the jury in central
London that an anxious Mr Burrell was "upset and virtually
crying" when Mr Faux at first refused to sign a confidentiality
agreement. Mr Burrell stressed he "needed him" to sign.
No sooner had he agreed than Mr Burrell told him that he had an
engagement ring. Mr Faux said he was "led to believe"
it was Diana's. Under questioning from Nicholas Hilliard, for
the coroner, Mr Faux told the court: "He said that he took
it from the body in Paris." Mr Faux said that he thought
it "was not right that he had taken it off her finger",
probably in the hospital, and that he felt "disgusted"
with him.
The jury has heard that Diana
had received a gold Bulgari friendship ring from lover Dodi Fayed
which she wore on her right hand.
There was also a £11,500
Repossi ring, which some claim was an engagement ring, bought
in the weeks before the couple died. But, since the crash, this
could be placed either at Dodi's Paris flat or under the control
of his father, Harrods tycoon Mohamed al Fayed, the jury heard.
The now US-based Mr Burrell, who refuses to return to the witness
box, rejects Mr Faux's claims.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Rock
or "RAT"
Diana's butler took
ring off her body
By Paul Majendie Reuters - Monday, March 17, 2008 LONDON (Reuters)
- Princess Diana's butler Paul Burrell took an engagement ring
off her dead body, Burrell's former bodyguard told the inquest
into her death on Monday.
Michael Faux also said that
the former royal butler kept documents with a Buckingham Palace
letterhead and then burnt them in his back garden. "I was
disgusted with him," Faux told the inquest investigating
the deaths of Diana and her lover Dodi al-Fayed in a high-speed
Paris car crash in August 1997.
Faux, who worked for Burrell
for a year in 2003, said the butler told him that he had removed
the ring: "He took it off the body in Paris." Asked
in court if Burrell had any way of demonstrating this was Diana's
ring, Faux replied: "Yes, there was still blood on the ring
and he could prove it was her by the DNA." Faux said he thought
it was not right that Burrell had taken it off her finger.
The former bodyguard also
said of Burrell: "I saw him going to and from his house with
bin bags full of paperwork that he was taking into his garden
to burn and he was making sure that it was thoroughly burned."
Faux said he noticed some of the documents carried a Buckingham
Palace letterhead. In a statement to the court, Burrell has denied
ever having any conversation about a ring. Burrell has admitted
burning papers such as old bank statements but insisted he did
not destroy anything significant.
Dodi's father Mohamed, owner
of Harrods department store, alleges his son and Diana were killed
by British security forces on the orders of Prince Philip. French
and British police investigations have both concluded that Diana
and Dodi died in an accident caused by their driver who was drunk
and speeding. Both inquiries rejected al-Fayed's conspiracy theories.
Under British law, an inquest
is needed to determine the cause of death when someone dies unnaturally.
The hearing is expected to end early next month.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paparazzi 'obstructed
Diana police'
Press Assoc. - Wednesday, March 12, 2008 Paparazzi who took photographs
of Diana, Princess of Wales, dying in a car wreck stopped police
from getting to the scene, her inquest was told.
Eyewitness Clifford Goorovadoo
said: "It is true that when the first police officers arrived
the journalists would not let them through. They were pushing."
Mr Goorovadoo, a chauffeur, was parked down the road from the
1997 Alma Tunnel crash in Paris. Alerted by the "roar of
a car engine" Mr Goorovadoo looked up and spotted a motorcycle
in hot pursuit of a Mercedes which was carrying Diana, the hearing
heard.
The pillion passenger on the
motorbike was taking photographs just before the Mercedes crashed,
according to Mr Goorovadoo. He was not certain if a flash gun
was being used. There was "a tremendous noise" moments
later and Mr Goorovadoo rushed to help the victims.
It is believed that Mr Goorovadoo
has refused to appear at the central London inquest, but the hearing
heard evidence from his police statements made at the time. Mr
Goorovadoo told police he saw photographers taking pictures of
the car. But he added: "At no stage did they come to the
aide of the injured. They just took photographs of the scene.
I think that the emergency services might have arrived sooner
if they had just called them." He also told the French detectives:
"When I was holding the head of one of the injured people
I heard the photographers arguing about the best shots. I turned
around and shouted at them that they had better things to do."
All of the paparazzi who were on the scene that night have refused
to appear at the inquest. Their police statements are being read
to the jury.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Eyewitness criticizes
Diana paparazzi
ITN - Wednesday, March 12, 2008 Snapping paparazzi stopped police
getting to the crash scene where Princess Diana lay dying, her
inquest has heard.
Clifford Goorovadoo, a witness
at the scene of the Paris crash in which Diana's lover Dodi Fayed
and driver Henri Paul also died, said: "It is true that when
the first police officers arrived the journalists would not let
them through. They were pushing."
In the lead up to the fatalities,
Mr Goorovadoo said he was alerted by the "roar of a car engine"
and saw a motorcycle in hot pursuit of a Mercedes which was carrying
Diana. He said the pillion passenger on the motorbike was taking
photographs just before the Mercedes crashed, but he was not certain
if a flash gun was being used. There was "a tremendous noise"
moments later and Mr Goorovadoo rushed to help the victims. He
was quickly identified as a key witness by the press, the inquest
heard.
It is believed that Mr Goorovadoo
has refused to appear at the central London inquest. Instead,
the hearing heard evidence from his police statements made at
the time. Tom de la Mare, for the Ritz Hotel, raised the possibility
that Mr Goorovadoo may have been "got at" by the paparazzi
to change his account so as not to paint them in such a bad light.
Mr Goorovadoo made six police statements, the first at 2.30am
on August 31, 1997, just two hours after Paris crash which killed
Diana, her lover Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul. His statements,
including variations on the possible distance of the motorbike
to the Mercedes, were read out to the jury. Mr de la Mare said:
"There is at least a suspicion that he has been got at.
"We know that the press
were trailing him and now his account has changed in a fundamental
way to exculpate the people on the motorbike. Maybe it is a bit
fishy?" The coroner Lord Justice Scott Baker said: "One
possible explanation is that the memory close to the time is the
better memory." Inspector Paul Carpenter, who has reviewed
all the witness statements being read into court, said: "He
(Mr Goorovadoo) was angry on August 31. He may have calmed down
and reflected by the time of his (later) statements." Mr
de la Mare added: "You might also consider asking has he
been put under any pressure to change his statement?" Mr
Carpenter replied: "You could argue that."
Mr Goorovadoo, a chauffeur
who has driven Mercedes similar to the car which crashed, said
the person at the wheel must have been a "mad man" to
have driven like that.
Mr Goorovadoo was "outraged"
and could not understand the attitude of the photographers who
argued and jostled for position without giving any help. Apart
from the two photographers he saw arrested he could not recognize
the other four who approached and started taking shots of the
car, he told police. "I was too busy helping the injured,"
Mr Goorovadoo said.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Diana photographers
'spun lies'
ITN - Tuesday, March 11, 2008 The paparazzi first on the scene
of the car crash which killed Princess Diana in Paris have been
accused of lying to protect themselves.
At the inquest into her death,
police statements taken from photographers ten years ago were
read out. Mohammed al Fayed's lawyer described their version of
events as a "concoction of lies". The jury heard that
images of the crash were being marketed internationally within
hours of the collision but were immediately pulled when the deaths
were confirmed.
Fifteen photographers were
arrested, including seven at the scene of the crash in the Alma
Tunnel in Paris in August 1997. Some of them took shots from less
than two meters away with the dead and seriously injured clearly
visible inside the mangled Mercedes, the inquest heard. They took
photographs as members of the public tried to help, when the rescue
services were on the scene and as the bodies were removed but
the photographers did not call for help, the jury heard. Asked
if he or any other photographer had tried to help, paparazzo Christian
Martinez told police: "No, nor did any other photographer
do so either. "How could we have done so, it would have been
the height of arrogance to go and render first aid to people we
had been following a few minutes earlier. "I was dumbstruck
by the relationship between myself and the people in that car."
Diana, her lover Dodi Fayed
and driver Henri Paul died while bodyguard Trevor Rees, the only
survivor, suffered near-fatal injuries. In their statements some
of the photographers said they had been told a member of the public
had called the emergency services. Others claimed they had been
told never to move a crash victim in case of doing more damage,
while others said they thought that a member of the public had
called the emergency services, the court heard.
Describing the atmosphere
that night photographer Serge Benhamou said: "The photographers
were more persistent and more aggressive than usual. The fact
that it was Diana made people more tense than usual." Photographers
had staked out the couple from the al Fayed Paris apartment to
the Ritz Hotel and from there to the final fatal journey.
The paparazzi had swarmed
around the Mercedes as it left the back of the Ritz Hotel in part
of a decoy plan to try and trick the press. The decoy Mercedes
and Range Rover left the rear of the hotel between five and six
minutes after the Mercedes which crashed. Mr Benhamou recalled
the only raised voices he heard in the underpass were from members
of the public who were criticizing the paparazzi, "but some
of them were also taking photos" he noted. He said he did
not see any photographer "giving assistance of any kind"
to the people in the crashed Mercedes.
Mr Martinez, who was traveling
with colleague Serge Arnal, plus paparazzi Romuald Rat and Stephane
Darmon appear to be among the first identified press at the crash
site.
They claim the Mercedes sped
away along the journey and they caught up with it in the tunnel.
But other photographers soon arrived, the court heard. After being
shown some of his images, Mr Martinez told police: "It is
blatantly obvious that I was try to take photographs of Diana
in those pictures. I think I zoomed in. "They were taken
in rapid succession. I was possibly 1.5 meters to two meters away.
I remember taking a rapid sequence of photographs when Mr Fayed's
body was removed." Mr Martinez said Mr Rat was "in a
state of shock" and telling people to only take pictures
of the car. Mr Benhamou said: "Rat was panic-stricken. He
realized that it was serious. I think he actually spoke to the
police about it." He also recalled that photographer Jacques
Langevin did not understand anything, he "seemed very shocked"
and at first did not seem to realize that Diana was involved.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Diana driver took
'too many risks'
Press Assoc. - Tuesday, March 11,
2008 Driver Henri Paul took "too many risks" while driving
Diana, Princess of Wales, on the fatal journey in which she was
killed, her inquest has heard.
Paparazzo Romuald Rat claimed
the Mercedes carrying Diana, "took off, like shot off",
once it hit the Champs Elysee in a bid to lose the chasing pack
of paparazzi. Minutes later in the early hours of 31 August 1997,
the car crashed in the Alma Tunnel in Paris, killing Diana, her
lover Dodi Fayed and Mr Paul, the head of security at the Paris
Ritz Hotel.
In a police statement Mr Rat,
who had been following Diana all day and taking shots, said: "I
did not understand why the Mercedes suddenly drove so quickly
since every had gone so well during the day and a normal chauffeur
knows that is not the way that you shake someone off. He took
too many risks."
Police statements from several
paparazzi who were on the scene that night are being read to the
jury as they refuse to appear, either by video link from Paris
or in person at the London inquest. Mr Paul had repeatedly came
out of the back of the Ritz, before the couple departed, to talk
to the photographers and "broadly speaking he was mocking
us", Mr Rat claimed.
At one point Mr Rat recalls
that one of the photographers had claimed that Mr Paul, who was
later found to be over the drink-drive limit, said: "I think
he has been drinking." Robert Weekes, for Henri Paul's parents,
noted: "There is no suggestion that Mr Paul's voice was slurred,
that he was unsteady on his feet or that his eyes were glazed.
On the basis of Mr Rat's statement you would not be able to conclude
that Henri Paul was drunk." Mr Rat was among seven photographers
arrested at the scene of the crash. He admits to being a "leading
pursuer" as the couple left the Ritz Hotel and probably one
of the first on the scene.
But several inconsistencies,
including a "down right lie" are obvious from his statements,
according to Tom de la Mare, for the Ritz Hotel.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Diana's driver 'appeared
drunk'
ITN - Monday, March 10, 2008 Driver Henri Paul appeared to be
"drunk" before the crash that killed Princess Diana,
the inquest into her death has heard.
In written evidence, Serge
Benhamou, the first paparazzi photographer to be heard at the
inquest, also admitted taking pictures of the bodies to the disgust
of horrified members of the public. He is among a number of paparazzi
who have refused to appear, either by video link from Paris or
in person at the London inquest, and whose police statements are
being read out.
In his first statement, made
on September 4, 1997, Mr Benhamou said he recalled seeing Mr Paul,
the Ritz security man, at the back of the Paris hotel. It was
late on August 20 1997, just a few hours before the crash which
killed Diana, her lover Dodi Fayed and Mr Paul, the inquest into
their deaths heard. Mr Benhamou told police: "He (Mr Paul)
must have been drinking. I believe that he was drinking."
He added that Mr Paul "was not his usual self".
In his police statement, Mr
Benhamou said: "I am positive that the man described as being
from the security department at the Ritz appeared to be drinking
and is indeed the same one that took the wheel of the Mercedes
at the rear of the hotel." He was among photographers who
had swarmed around the hotel and then set off, shadowing the Mercedes
in which Diana was traveling.
Mr Benhamou, who was on his
scooter, said he did not take any pictures along the journey from
the Ritz to the Alma Tunnel, scene of the crash. He claims he
lost touch with the car as it moved through Paris.
By the time he arrived there
were lots of people there and some photographers were already
in action. Some people had told him the emergency services had
been called, he said. He began taking the shots of the mangled
wreckage, with the bodies inside. He claimed he was acting on
instinct and immediately felt bad and has had sleepless nights
over his actions.
"I took the rear seat
passenger ... I took some whilst the police and the fire brigade
were at the scene and removing Dodi from the car," he said
in his September 5, 1997 statement. Mr Benhamou said: "People
told us to move as they did not like us taking photographs ...
They found it horrible for people to take photographs when other
people had been involved in a accident." Seven photographers
were arrested at the scene.
Mr Benhamou, who was not among
the original seven, was one of five photographers who were later
held in connection with the crash. Some other paparazzi were arrested
but not questioned, the jury was told. The French authorities
mounted an investigation against all but two of the photographers
on potential charges of failing to render assistance and involuntary
manslaughter. The investigation focused on the driving of the
paparazzi and whether they sought to help the injured. The case
against the paparazzi was dismissed in December 1999 when the
judge was satisfied the driving of the photographers had not caused
the crash.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Royals won't be
called to Diana inquest
ITN - Friday, March 7 , 2008 Neither the Queen or the Duke of
Edinburgh will be called to give evidence at the Princess Diana
inquest.
Mohamed al Fayed had sought
to call the Duke of Edinburgh as a witness, and it is also believed
that lawyers would have wanted a series of questions put to the
Queen. The Harrods tycoon insists that Diana, his son Dodi and
driver Henri Paul were killed in a Paris car crash in August 1997
in a murder plot ordered by Prince Philip. Mr al Fayed has claimed
it was carried out by MI6 on the Duke of Edinburgh's orders because
Diana was pregnant by Dodi, a Muslim, and the couple were set
to get engaged.
The Coroner, Lord Justice
Scott Baker, said: "In my judgment it is not expedient to
call the Duke of Edinburgh to give evidence, nor do I think the
Queen should be asked to answer the questions posed by Mr (Michael)
Mansfield. "Neither step will, in my judgement, further the
inquest process."
Meanwhile, Scotland Yard has
said former royal butler Paul Burrell will not be investigated
for perjury during the Princess Diana inquest. The servant-turned-reality-television-star
has refused to return to the UK to face allegations that he lied
to the jury in his evidence earlier this year despite calls from
coroner Lord Justice Scott Baker.
It followed an admission in
a secretly recorded conversation in a New York hotel last month
that the 49-year-old had not told the "whole truth".
Mr Burrell denies perjury and claims he was drunk and showing
off when he was filmed speaking to a television producer. A Scotland
Yard spokesman said: "Any action the Metropolitan Police
Service would take around allegations of perjury would not be
dealt with until conclusion of the inquests. "Any decision
taken would be in consultation with the Coroner after the jury
have reached their verdict." Lord Justice Scott Baker said
he had no power to compel Mr Burrell, who lives in Florida, to
return from abroad.
In January, Mr Burrell, who
was Diana's butler up until her death in August 1997, faced three
days of intense questioning at the High Court. Confusion focused
on a mysterious "secret" Diana referred to in a letter
she left for him shortly before her death in 1997. Although he
initially refused to disclose what the secret was, in a note to
the coroner he claimed it had simply been about a move abroad
to the US or South Africa. Both suggestions had already been aired
in court and were widely reported. But in a conversation with
TV producer Paul Khullar - a transcript of which was read in court
- Mr Burrell admitted planting "red herrings" in his
evidence. He said: "When you swear an oath you swear to tell
the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I told the
truth as far as I could but I didn't tell the whole truth."
He went on: "I was very naughty, and I laid a couple of red
herrings. I couldn't help but do it, I know you shouldn't play
with justice, I know it's illegal, I do know and realize how serious
it is."
Mr Burrell admits he made
the comments but says he was simply "showing off" after
drinking several cocktails, his share of three bottles of wine,
a glass of whisky and half a bottle of champagne.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Diana inquest: Burrell
refuses to return
ITN - Thursday, March 6 ,2008 Princess Diana's former butler Paul
Burrell has refused to make a second appearance at the inquest
into her death.
The call for him to return
from the US came after a transcript from a video-taped conversation
revealed that he might not have told the whole truth. Coroner
Lord Justice Scott Baker told the hearing: "Mr Burrell is
abroad and I have no power to compel a witness to attend to give
evidence and he says that he is not going to be in the United
Kingdom in the near future."
Mr Burrell's reported comments
appeared in a tabloid newspaper on February 18. In a statement,
inquest officials said: "The coroner asked him to give further
evidence, either in person, or via video-link, from abroad. "Mr
Burrell has refused to do this and as he is currently outside
the court's jurisdiction, the coroner has no power to compel him
to give evidence."
The officials added: "In
these circumstances, the coroner has decided that further information
from Mr Burrell should be read to the jury to ensure they have
as complete a picture as possible. "The coroner's purpose,
in seeking to recall Mr Burrell, was for him to explain the alleged
inconsistencies between what he said in evidence and what he said
on the occasion referred to in The Sun. "Due to the ongoing
nature of the inquests, it is inappropriate for the inquest team
to make any further comments
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Dr Hasnat Khan insisted in
a long-awaited statement read to the jury at the High Court inquest
into the August 31, 1997 death of Diana that it was she and not
he who broke off their two-year affair. In earlier evidence, the
jury heard that Dr Khan was believed to have broken off the affair
because he could not tolerate the publicity attached to her celebrity
status.
In the statement, Dr Khan
said he told the princess on her return to London from a holiday
with Harrods boss Mohamed al Fayed and his family that he thought
she had "met someone else from the Mohamed al Fayed contingent".
He said this because "Diana was not her normal self",
he said. "I did not know who it was. It could have been a
bodyguard or anyone. I was surprised when she said there was no-one
else. At a second meeting, she said it was all over between us,
but she denied there was anyone else."
Dr Khan said he told Diana
he thought "her reputation was dead". It was only when
he heard news broadcasts that he learned about her relationship
with Mr al Fayed's son, Dodi.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Al Fayed appears
to be a buffoon,
but he's a dangerous monster
ruining reputations
19th February 2008
Allison
Pearson
It's not funny. Yes, I know
Mohamed Al Fayed comes across as a harmless comedy buffoon. The
Harrods' owner is as boorish and hilariously insensitive as Borat.
It's not only Al Fayed's windowpanecheck jacket with clashing
shirt which are in bad taste. In his broken English, he calls
Prince Philip a Nazi and a racist whose name ends with Frankenstein.
The royals are "a Dracula family" who paid gangsters
to slaughter Diana because she was pregnant with a Muslim's baby.
Al Fayed rolls his eyes and lifts his beseeching hands to the
heavens like a Cairo carpet-seller offering gullible tourists
"very good price".
And that's the problem. Al
Fayed appears to think everyone and everything can be bought.
Bodyguards, lawyers, friends, women, reputations - all of them
should be for sale as far as the Egyptian tycoon is concerned.
Truth is a commodity to be sold to the highest bidder. Danger:
Al Fayed is a crazed lunatic propelled on by his huge wealth Anyone
else is "talking baloney things". Al Fayed has the deepest
pockets so the truth belongs to him. Even love has a price tag,
and grief for a dead son can be assuaged if only you throw enough
money at the problem.
Fayed's rants against the
royals are the most entertaining show in town. What a character,
eh? You can't help smiling when he berates a BBC royal reporter
outside court, calling him a "bloody idiot" and accusing
him of being in MI6, can you? But take another look and feel the
smile freeze. This clown is the same man who destroyed the Princess
of Wales. The day she met Mohamed Al Fayed was the worst day of
Diana's life.
She swapped one dysfunctional
family which paraded her as a prize ornament for another, only
the Al Fayeds had much weaker security. In Paris, bodyguard Trevor
Rees-Jones said he warned the Boss they needed more help to protect
Diana from the paparazzi but Al Fayed didn't listen. More than
ten years later, he's still not listening.
The blame has to belong to
someone else - anyone except Mohamed Al Fayed. On Monday, a barrister
at the Diana inquest accused Al Fayed of "not caring what
he said about other human beings". It's one thing to defame
the Duke of Edinburgh. He is experienced enough to shrug off crazy
allegations. But what about implicating Lady Sarah McCorquodale
in a conspiracy to kill her own sister? Or calling Trevor Rees-Jones
a "crook" because the decent, ordinary security guy
from Wales, the sole survivor of the Paris crash, stubbornly refused
to make up any memories which might support his Boss's remarkable
claims?
When I met Trevor's lovely
parents, Jill and Ernie, they told me they had to go into a Park
Lane flat and abduct their badly injured boy from Al Fayed's sinister
clutches in a scene straight out of a Len Deighton novel. No,
it's not Prince Philip who runs some manipulative secretive organisation,
it's Al Fayed. Al Fayed who deals in crude racist stereotypes.
Al Fayed who tries to use
his power and wealth like a cosh to silence the people who dare
to challenge him. Al Fayed who is so snobbish and emotionally
stunted he dismisses Diana's love affair with surgeon Hasnat Khan
because the man "lived in a council flat" and didn't
have any money to take care of her.
A permanent memorial to Diana
and Dodi al-Fayed is pictured in the Harrods store in London
Al Fayed who casts himself
as Diana's tearful protector, but then besmirches her memory by
saying she was pregnant and causing her most intimate biological
details to be paraded through a courtroom a decade after she should
have been left to rest in peace. See, not that funny, is he?
I reckon it's high time for
us to stop chuckling indulgently at Mohamed, the comedy buffoon.
The one who somehow persuaded our justice system to hold an embarrassing
£10million inquest purely to satisfy his desire for his
day in court. But he will never be satisfied. He will always think
Diana and Dodi were murdered. He will always think Prince Philip's
surname is Frankenstein.
After this week, I trust we
know who the real monster is.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Diana conspiracy
theory unravels
as Fayed's investigator tells
of lies and lack of evidence· Former detective makes admissions
to inquest
· Stevens demands apology for criticisms of report -Stephen
Bates The Guardian, Friday February 15 2008 Article history ·
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our content About this articleClose This article appeared in the
Guardian on Friday February 15 2008 on p3 of the Top stories section.
It was last updated at 01:26 on February 15 2008. After 69 days
of evidence into events surrounding the death of Princess Diana,
Mohamed Al Fayed's allegations of high-level conspiracies and
cover-ups began to crumble in an extraordinary hour of cross examination
yesterday as his former director of security at Harrods admitted
he could not substantiate any of them.
John Macnamara, a former Scotland
Yard detective chief superintendent who was in charge of Fayed's
own investigation team for five years after the Paris crash in
August 1997, grew increasingly uncomfortable at the inquest as
he was repeatedly forced to acknowledge that he had no evidence,
apart from what Fayed told him, that the princess had been engaged
to Dodi Fayed, or had been pregnant at the time of their deaths.
The acknowledgments ran counter to the constant claims for more
than a decade.
He went on to admit that,
despite having made sworn police statements, he had no evidence
of a criminal conspiracy on the part of the British and French
security services, or the then British ambassador to Paris, or
the Duke of Edinburgh to kill the couple, or that the princess's
bodyguards had been paid by British intelligence to lie about
the crash - again all allegations made by his former employer.
Macnamara conceded US intelligence had told him they had no material
relating to the princess's death and had never kept her under
surveillance, as the Fayed side have alleged. He also acknowledged
that a police statement he had signed stating that he had identified
Dodi's body on its return to England was false. And he admitted
he had lied when he told a television interviewer 10 days after
the crash that there was no evidence that Henri Paul, the couple's
chauffeur, had been drinking when he already knew there was a
bar receipt showing that Paul had drunk two Ricard pastis spirits
shortly before the fatal journey.
The devastating admissions
came under cross-examination from Richard Horwell QC, representing
the Metropolitan police, while Fayed, who will himself be called
to give evidence to the inquest on Monday, sat watching grimly
a few feet away. They followed tense exchanges earlier in the
day when Lord Stevens, the former Metropolitan police commissioner
who conducted a three-year, £3.7m investigation into the
crash, which resulted in an 832-page report in December 2006,
repeatedly demanded an apology for "scurrilous" allegations
by Fayed that the inquiry had been negligent.
Asked whether he had been
got at by the establishment to doctor the report, Stevens - who
previously conducted the shoot-to-kill investigations in Northern
Ireland - said angrily: "That is not the case. The reason
I wanted to do this investigation was because of my investigations
in Northern Ireland, where my integrity was everything to me.
"To think that I would even contemplate taking 14 or 15 officers,
the whole French investigation along with that is absolutely absurd
and crazy. "Allegations trip off people's tongues, it's just
not right. The whole team, that's what I find so hurtful. That
I could manipulate them into saying things and going down a criminal
course of action, it's absolutely absurd and we want an apology."
When Macnamara was called
to give evidence he agreed he had initially believed the crash
was an accident, though he said that when he met his employer
at Fulham mortuary on the afternoon after the crash Fayed was
already saying the couple had been murdered and had told him:
"They have done it at last. They have killed her." Asked
by the coroner, Lord Scott Baker, whether Fayed had said who "they"
were, Macnamara replied: "No, he did not and I was quite
surprised because I had never heard any suggestion of that myself."
Later the coroner intervened
again to ask why Macnamara had not apologised to Trevor Rees-Jones,
the bodyguard who survived the crash, for making allegations that
he had been paid by the security services to say the crash was
an accident. When he said he had not apologised, the coroner asked:
"Why not?" Macnamara replied: "That was my belief
at the time."
After lunch they clashed again
when Macnamara admitted telling a US television interviewer that
Paul had drunk only pineapple juice before the crash and had added
"nothing else" even though he had seen the bar receipt.
Scott Baker intervened to ask: "Was it the whole truth?"
Macnamara: "No." Scott Baker: "As a former chief
superintendent surely you above anybody are aware of telling the
truth in public ... a half truth is not good enough ... One of
the problems for the jury is if you tell lies on some occasions,
when can they tell you are telling the truth on other occasions?"
Macnamara answered: "I have come here to tell the truth."
The conspiracies
· Car crash was no
accident
Mohamed Al Fayed claims the crash in the Alma tunnel was engineered
by security services. No evidence of flashing lights in driver's
eyes
· Paparazzi caused
the crash
Car was being pursued but cameramen do not appear to have got
ahead of it, though they took photographs immediately afterwards
· Ancient white Fiat
Uno
Seems to have brushed the Mercedes just before crash but never
located. Seems unlikely vehicle for assassin
· Diana pregnant
No sign detected at hospital. Friends say she was on the pill
· Diana about to be
engaged
Dodi bought a ring hours before the crash. Friends say she liked
Dodi but had said she had no intention of marrying him. She told
them she needed another marriage "like a rash on the face".
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Burrell: I lied
to Di inquest
By EMILY SMITH US Editor Published:
18 Feb 2008
SHAMEFUL Paul Burrell has
sensationally confessed he LIED to the Princess Diana inquest
– and could now face arrest. To
see and hear the Burrell video- http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article813688.ece
The Sun has uncovered a bombshell
video tape on which Di’s former butler Burrell brags of committing
perjury. Slippery Burrell freely admitted he KNEW he broke the
law by lying to the Princess Diana inquest — and added: “I
was very naughty.” The former royal butler was taped revealing
that he threw in “red herrings” and held back facts
during his evidence at the High Court in London. Burrell’s
disgraceful lies mean he faces arrest on suspicion of perjury
— with ten years’ jail if convicted. It could also derail
the £10million inquiry that is gripping the world.
All smiles ... Burrell opens
up
The dynamite video, exclusively obtained by The Sun, shows Burrell,
49, bragging about how he deliberately misled the coroner, High
Court judge Lord Justice Scott Baker. In his lengthy rant, the
two-faced flunky tells how he: WITHHELD details of a crucial conversation
with the Queen months after Diana’s death in a Paris car
crash in 1997. RAKED in millions by cashing in on his royal connections,
despite his claims he was Diana’s “Rock”. THINKS
Mohammed Fayed, father of Diana’s lover Dodi who was killed
with her, is DYING. PLANS to become a US citizen when Camilla
becomes Queen — adding: “Britain can f*** off.”
Shameless Burrell can be seen
laughing as he tells a pal: “When you swear an oath, you
have to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
“I told the truth as far as I could — but I didn’t
tell the whole truth. Perjury is not a nice thing to have to contemplate.
“I was very naughty and I made a couple of red herrings,
and I couldn’t help doing it. “I know you shouldn’t
play with justice and I know it’s illegal and I realise how
serious it is.”
Burrell tries to justify his
lies — even claiming Diana’s SPIRIT was with him at
the inquest. When asked if it was wrong to commit perjury, Burrell
reveals: “Maybe I didn’t tell the whole truth. Who was
it to protect? My own integrity. “Do you honestly think I’ve
told everything I know? Of course I haven’t. “Do you
honestly think I am actually going to sit there in a court of
law and tip out my guts and tell them? That’s what he wanted
me to do — the judge — to actually tell them what I
know, all the secrets. No! You know me better than that.”
Burrell had previously claimed the Queen told him about “dark
forces” and “powers at work” in Britain in their
now-famous meeting a few months after the fatal crash in a Paris
underpass. But at the Diana inquest in January, Burrell failed
to give details, revealing only that the Queen told him of her
concerns about Diana’s romance with Dodi. When his pal suggests
on the tape that Burrell “did a deal” with the Queen
to hold back the real facts of Diana’s death, he arrogantly
adds: “Well, it’s the Queen. “I sacrificed my own
integrity for the bigger picture. No I didn’t tell the whole
truth. But he put me in the most unenviable position, that coroner.
Because he said I had to report the conversation I had with the
Queen.
Bragging butler ... Burrell
on video
“The conversation with the Queen was three hours long. And
I wasn’t about to sit there and divulge everything she said
to me. I wasn’t going do that. I said, ‘Do I have to
answer that question?’ He said, ‘Yes, you do’.
I said, ‘Well, she showed great concern’. That was all
I was prepared to say.” Then, mocking the coroner, he sneers:
“And he still let me get away with it.” Burrell —
who had previously pushed for an inquest into the deaths of Diana,
36, and Dodi, 42 — even reveals on the tape he planned not
to turn up at the hearing. But aides persuaded him to go because
bad publicity about his glaring absence could affect sales of
his range of royal merchandise in America. He explains: “I
contemplated very seriously not going. I really didn’t want
to go, right up to the last minute.
Shameful boasts ... Burrell
shakes pal's hand
and relaxes in chair during video
“People who do my merchandising
brands in America said, ‘If you didn’t go, its not going
to look good for you’.” The three-hour tape was shot
in New York while money-grabbing Burrell was making deals to further
line his pockets with a royal-inspired range of jewellery and
table linens. Sipping champagne in a hotel room, Burrell says
he felt Diana’s spirit guiding him in court and that lying
was “what she wanted.” He says: “I do feel her
at times, I felt it in that courtroom, I felt the indignity and
I felt her indignity too. “She knew what I was doing, and
why I was doing it. It was what she wanted — and that’s
between me and her. “The trouble is, you can’t say that
in a courtroom. The coroner will keep you in contempt of court
and then you’re in prison. There was no way I was going there.”
After admitting he knew how serious it is to lie in the highest
court in the UK, Burrell explains: “In my first book I didn’t
really say what I wanted to say. "And in my second book I
didn’t really say what I wanted to say because I measured
it and said it carefully.” Now he says he will carry the
real truth about Diana to his grave. He tells the pal: “I
made a promise to myself and to her, I will never write another
book. “I have written everything I want to write in those
two books. “I think she is saying to me, ‘You’ve
done what you have to do and now you’ve said enough’.”
Bizarrely, Burrell also claims
on the tape that Harrods boss Mr Fayed, 75 — who believes
his son Dodi and Diana were murdered by the security services
on the orders of Prince Philip — is dying. Burrell said:
“The sadness of all this is, I think he’s dying and
this is his last shot and I think this will kill him. He’s
not going to get anything from this, its all PR.” The former
servant was left emotionally battered after three days of devastating
interrogation in the High Court — describing the experience
as “horrid”. Burrell was savaged by the coroner as a
Princess Diana “secret” he was forced to reveal to the
inquest was exposed as OLD information. He said it was her intention
to spend most of her time in the US or South Africa. Now Burrell
says on the tape that he is prepared to turn his back on his country.
In a shocking outburst he rants: “They don’t get it
in Britain. They think I’m living off the death of the Princess
and off her name.
"I don’t have a
Princess Diana doll that I am selling throughout America. I would
make a fortune. But I don’t do that. "So I get tarred
and feathered for things I haven’t done. "My brand isn’t
in Britain, I will never be forgotten in Britain.
"Quite frankly, Britain
can f*** off. I don’t want to go back to Britain. The crunch
will be when the Queen dies and Charles becomes King and ‘She’
becomes Queen. “At that time I will be very happy to give
back my British passport. It’s either that or to chain myself
to the railings of Buckingham Palace.” Greedy Burrell goes
on: “That’s why I am here (in the US) indefinitely.
I was here today to close a deal with my jewellery — royal
jewellery I designed myself, just diamonds. I keep adding to my
licensing programme. “I don’t have to think about Britain
any more. Britain’s a tiny little place.” Burrell —
estimated to be worth £20MILLION — brags about the
fortune he has made in the States. He gloats: “My furniture
turned over two million dollars this year.”
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
News'Tony Blair
gave order to kill Diana',
Al Fayed tells crash inquest
Last updated on 18th February 2008
• Al Fayed: Royals conspired to slaughter Diana and Dodi
• Cover-up 'involved every member of the establishment'
• Prince Philip is a 'Nazi' and 'racist'
Tony Blair personally sanctioned
the murder of Diana, the inquest heard today.
Mohamed al-Fayed said the
man who called Diana the "Peoples Princess" had instigated
the "horrendous and horrific action". Mr Fayed said
the crash had been orchestrated by MI6 and French intelligence.
Mr Fayed's claim came today as he denounced the Royal Family and
virtually the entire Establishment over the deaths of Diana and
his son Dodi. Giving evidence on oath in the High Court, he stuck
to his claim that they were murdered in a 1997 Paris car crash
to prevent her marrying a Muslim. He claimed the Mercedes carrying
his son and the Princess was deliberately struck by French paparazzo
James Andanson, who he believed was a MI6 agent.
Mohamed Al Fayed walks into
the High Court today to claim his son Dodi and Diana were murdered
in Paris in 1997. 'This is my moment' he told waiting reporters
Mr Fayed told the court he believed that Mr Andanson — who
was later found dead in a burntout car — had been murdered
by the secret services to ensure his silence. He said those involved
in the death plot or subsequent cover-up were Prince Charles and
Prince Philip, Tony Blair, judges, Paul Burrell, police chiefs,
senior politicians, the secret services of Britain and France,
the CIA, newspaper editors and even Diana's sister.
The coroner, Lord Justice
Scott Baker, said: "There seems to be an awful lot of people
involved in this conspiracy." The Harrods tycoon said Charles
and Philip could not accept that "my son as a person who
is different religion, naturally tanned, curly hair" could
be the stepfather of Prince William, a future king. He called
the royals the "Dracula family", said Prince Philip
was "Frankenstein", and described the Duchess of Cornwall
as Charles's "crocodile wife".
Mr Fayed said "this is
my moment" as he entered the High Court in London.
In an emotionally charged
testimony, he claimed that Diana told him a month before her death
that the royals wanted "rid of her". He listed those
included in the cover-up as every member of the Royal Family including
Diana's sister, butler Paul Burrell, two Scotland Yard Commissioners,
secret service agents on both sides of the Channel and leading
medical experts in Paris and London. Mr Fayed claimed the plot
involved scores of others including newspaper editors and reporters,
politicians such as the then home secretary Jack Straw as well
as "stooge judges".
Mr Al Fayed claimed Tony Blair,
the prime minister at the time, the Royals and the security services
all colluded in the cover-up
The coroner, Lord Justice Scott Baker, said: "There seems
to be an awful lot of people involved in this conspiracy."
Mr Fayed said the leader of the death plot was Prince Philip,
who he called a "racist, Nazi, and Frankenstein" who
should be sent back to Germany where he came from.
Mr Fayed repeated his claims
that Diana was pregnant and was about to tell her two sons and
announce her engagement to Dodi. He is due to spend at least two
days giving evidence to the inquest into the deaths of Diana and
Dodi. He said: "Princess Diana told me personally before
and during the holiday we shared in July 1997 of her fears. "She
told me that she knew Prince Philip and Prince Charles were trying
to get rid of her." Then in the days before the crash, the
Princess called Mr Fayed again. He said Diana rang him to reveal
that she was pregnant, that his son Dodi had proposed and she
had accepted. "Diana told me on the telephone that she was
pregnant. I'm the only person they told," he said. "They
told me they were engaged and would announce their engagement
on Monday morning. She would speak to her sons when she returned
from Paris."
Mr Fayed then claimed Diana
"suffered for 20 years from this Dracula family" and
the moment she had found love and happiness, a plot was hatched
to kill her and his son. Mr Fayed said that Diana told him she
had entrusted her fears for her life, contained in a mystery box,
to Mr Burrell should anything happen to her. Mohamed Al Fayed
claims Dodi and Diana were planning to marry but said the Establishment
could not accept a Muslim as step-father to Princes William and
Harry
Mr Fayed outlined the case
that the crash had been orchestrated by MI6 and French intelligence.
He claimed the Mercedes carrying his son and the Princess was
deliberately struck by French paparazzo James Andanson, whom he
believed was an MI6 agent. Mr Fayed told the court he believed
that Mr Andanson, who was later found dead in a burnt-out car,
had been murdered by the secret services to ensure his silence.
The crash plot, he claimed, mirrored an identical MI6 plan to
kill Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic by using a blinding
flash light to disable the driver, which he claimed happened in
Paris in August 1997.
Mr Fayed broke down in the
witness box as he was asked about the moment he was told of his
son's death. Asked by Ian Burnett, QC, for the coroner: "Can
you remember who telephoned you with this dreadful news?"
Mr Fayed replied: "I think one of security, I think maybe
Kes Wingfield, to the best of my recollection." Mr Burnett
asked the Harrods owner if he remembered a call from the Paris
Ritz hotel president Frank Klein. Mr Fayed replied: "It's
difficult. I'd like to know why you are asking me things like
that." Mr Klein has previously told the inquest that he phoned
Mr Fayed to break the news as soon as he was informed and recounted
how his boss told him: "This is not an accident."
Mr Fayed told the jury today:
"Security called me; he called me after that. I told him
exactly what collected in my mind, all what Diana told me, exactly
what happened." He said driver Henri Paul, who also died
in the crash, had been "duped" into working for MI6
and had 20,000 francs in his pocket from them when he died.
Mr Al Fayed called the Duke
of Edinburgh a 'Nazi' and a 'racist' during his evidence Mr Fayed
claimed the death was covered up by a vast conspiracy which went
from the top of the Royal Family and the Establishment and involved
"dark forces" on both sides of the Channel. It started
almost as soon as the crash took place. The French police and
medical services, including two eminent professors Dominique Lecomte
and Gilbert Pepin, united in the conspiracy. This involved faking
medical evidence including switching the blood of Mr Paul for
another corpse in the Paris mortuary to show he had been drinking.
He claimed Diana's sister Lady Sarah McCorquodale admitted to
him after the crash that she believed her sister's death was suspicious.
But within days, he said,
she joined the conspiracy. He accused Mr Burrell and Lady Sarah
of lying to the inquest because they failed to secure the contents
of Diana's secret box. Inside, he said, Diana kept the so-called
mystery "proof", a copy of the note, that contained
her specific fears that she would be murdered in a car crash to
enable Charles to remarry. The box was also said to contain threatening
correspondence from Prince Philip. He said: "Sarah told me
she thought the crash was suspicious and she would find the box
and keep the contents safe. She has not done so. Paul Burrell
promised me he would keep the contents of the box safe, he didn't
keep his promise."
Mr Fayed also also claimed
that Mr Burrell, Diana's ex-butler who was arrested for allegedly
stealing royal treasures, joined the cover-up when he was "freed
by the Queen so he would keep quiet". Mr Burrell was cleared
at the Old Bailey of stealing from Princess Diana, Prince Charles
and William and Harry after a last-minute intervention from the
Queen. After the case, he famously declared: "She came through
for me, the lady came through for me." Mr Fayed said: "The
next thing I heard was that he was arrested (for) stealing possessions
and he was set free by the Queen so he would keep quiet."
He named three peers, Lord Mishcon, Diana's personal counsel,
and former Scotland Yard Chiefs Lord Condon and Lord Steven, as
being involved in the cover-up.
Reading from a statement,
Mr Fayed said: "My belief that my son and Princess Diana
were murdered was confirmed when I learned that the two leading
Commissioners, Lord Condon and Lord Stevens, did not show the
coroner the note made by a leading lawyer, Lord Mishcon, detailing
the Princess's fears for her life." He added: "I cannot
believe that they sat upon such an important note and did not
pass it on to the (examining French magistrate) Judge Stephan
in Paris and (the then coroner) Michael Burgess.
"I believe that they
acted unprofessionally and they must have no conscience."
The Harrods boss described the note as "devastating"
and said it explained Diana's fears in "black and white".
The Princess, Dodi and driver Henri Paul all died when their car
crashed in the Pont D'Alma tunnel in Paris. Mr Al Fayed argues
that it was not a tragic accident but murder.
Mr Fayed claimed the conspiracy
was was masterminded by Prince Philip, a "racist" and
a "Nazi" who wanted Diana out of the way. He claimed
the Duke of Edinburgh hatched the plot with Prince Charles to
assassinate Diana, "to clear the decks" so he could
marry Camilla Parker Bowles, now the Duchess of Cornwall. Mr Burnett
asked Mr Fayed: "All this stems from your belief that Prince
Philip is not only a racist but a Nazi as well?" To which
Mr Fayed replied: "That's right." Growing increasingly
agitated, Mr Fayed went on: "It is time to send him back
to Germany or from where he came from." He added: "You
want to know his original name, it ends with Frankenstein."
When Mr Burnett questioned his statement, Mr Fayed added: "Well,
it sounds like Frankenstein." He added: "He is a person
who grew up with the Nazis, brought up by his auntie who married
Hitler's general. This is the man who is in charge (of the country),
who can do anything, who manipulates. They are still living in
the 18th and 19th century." Asked if he believed the Queen
was involved in the conspiracy, Mr Fayed added: "I don't
think the Queen is as important as that."
When he was asked if Prince
Charles was involved too, he said: "Yes, definitely."
"He participated definitely and I am sure he knows what is
going to happen because he would like to get on and marry his
Camilla. "And this is what happened. They cleared the decks,
they finished her, they murdered her and now he is happy. "He
married his crocodile wife and he is happy with that. Those are
the two main people, Prince Philip and Prince Charles. "He
will not accept my son as a person who is a different religion,
naturally tanned, curly hair. "They will not accept that
he will have anything to do with the future king."
Mr Fayed said: "You ask
me where is the proof? How can you get the proof when I am facing
a steel wall of the security services. "I have been fighting
for the past ten years to reach where we are now, to have a formal
inquest with a jury of ordinary people. "I hope they have
realised during the last four months what has happened and all
the obstacles," he said.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Mohamed al Fayed
brands Royals as "that Dracula family" and Duke of Edinburgh
a "Nazi"
at Diana inquest
By Mirror.co.uk 18/02/2008
Mohamen Fayed video http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=1095451&ch=5127641&cl=6494496&src=ukyvideo
http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=1095451&ch=5127641&cl=6445221&src=ukyvideo
Mohamen Fayed video News picturesMohamed al Fayed angrily hit
out in the High Court today, describing the Royals as "that
Dracula family” and declaring that his son Dodi and Princess
Diana were both "murdered".
In a series of explosive outbursts
at the High Court in central London this morning, the Harrods
owner branded the Duke of Edinburgh a "Nazi" and a "racist",
declaring it was "time to send him back to Germany from where
he comes". "You want to know his original name - it
ends with Frankenstein”, he added. After stating he would
"make no allegations” while taking the stand, al Fayed
subsequently went on to claim that Diana had personally told him
that she feared there was a conspiracy to kill her and that she
was pregnant with his son’s child.
"Princess Diana told
me personally before and during the holiday we shared in July
1997 of her fears,” he told the court. "She told me
that she knew Prince Philip and Prince Charles were trying to
get rid of her." He said French intelligence had cooperated
with MI6 to carry out "the murder" in order to "clear
the decks" so that Prince Charles could marry Camilla Parker
Bowles.
He then claimed that the Princess
had told him she was pregnant in a phone call. "Diana told
me on the telephone that she was pregnant. I'm the only person
they told. "They told me they were engaged and would announce
their engagement on Monday morning. She would speak to her sons
when she returned from Paris."
He also disputed evidence
that driver Henri Paul, who also died in the crash, was drunk,
and alleged that he had been part of the plot. "When he was
killed, they find 20,000 francs in his pocket, because he disappeared
three hours before the murder being briefed on what to do,"
Al Fayed said. The Egyptian billionaire also raised concerns about
a message - dubbed the Mishcon note - outlining her fears in 1995
that there was a plot to kill her in a car crash. "My belief
that my son and Princess Diana were murdered was confirmed when
I learned that the two leading (Metropolitan Police) Commissioners
- Lord Condon and Lord Stevens - did not show the coroner the
note."
Mr Al Fayed's allegations
regarding the car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997 had already
been outlined to jurors by Coroner Lord Justice Scott Baker.
He told them: "It's his
belief that a decision was taken to kill both Diana and Dodi.
He places Prince Philip at the heart of the conspiracy.
He has maintained that Diana
was killed because the establishment could not accept an Egyptian
Muslim as stepfather to the future King of England. Before beginning
to give evidence at their inquest, Mr al Fayed told waiting reporters
outside the court: "I have been fighting for 10 years and
this is the moment for me to say exactly what I feel." "What
happened to my son and Princess Diana and with God's help I hope
the truth will come out."
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Diana Inquest: As
Al Fayed finally gets his day in court,
can he control his anger -
and lust for revenge?
Last updated on 17th February 2008
This is the moment for which he has been waiting ten long, bitter
years. He has prepared carefully, with consummate coaching. He
has assured his advisers he will not lose control, however provocative
the questions put to him. But the stage is set for a barn-storming
performance today when Mohamed Al Fayed steps into the witness
box at the inquest of Princess Diana and his son, Dodi. "He's
very calm, very collected," says one of his team. "He's
looking forward to saying in evidence what he's been saying all
these years."
Scathing allegations: Al Fayed wants to reveal the 'truth' about
Diana's death This is the first time a battery of QCs representing
those who have been assailed by Al Fayed's hotly repeated accusations
of murder and Establishment conspiracy have been on hand to cross-examine
him.
Al Fayed, 75, is said not to be nervous. Many will be surprised
at this. After all, some of his most scathing and significant
accusations have already been shot down due to lack of evidence,
and Michael Mansfield, his own QC, has had some awkward - not
to say embarrassing - moments in front of the coroner, Lord Justice
Scott Baker.
Al Fayed steps up to say his
piece, having himself painfully heard, sitting in his daily position
at the side of Court 73 facing the jury, from witnesses including
doctors and Diana's friends, that the Princess was not pregnant,
that she was not engaged to Dodi, that she was not in love with
Dodi, that she still loved surgeon Hasnat Khan. He has also heard
extracts of letters to Diana from Prince Philip - whom he claims
led an Establishment plot to murder the Princess to stop her marrying
his Muslim son - that display a caring fondness and to which the
Princess replied with personal letters beginning "Dear Pa".
And he must still be feeling the sting of Lord Justice Scott Baker's
words to Mansfield after the jury heard a letter written by Al
Fayed to Lord Stevens, the former Metropolitan Police Commissioner
who led the inquiry into the episode and concluded the crash was
a traffic accident.
Written on Harrods writing
paper, from the chairman's office on February 9, 2006, Al Fayed
said of his former bodyguards Trevor Rees-Jones, Kez Wingfield
and Ben Murrell: "It is a fact that these men were turned
against me by the security services. .. The fact is Trevor Rees-Jones
did not lose his memory. He knows exactly what happened between
Rue Cambon and the Alma Tunnel. "He knows the detail which
the security services are so anxious to suppress . . ." The
fact is? When Mansfield admitted to the coroner that he was "not
in a position to produce any material to support" these assertions
- in other words, he hadn't a shred of evidence - he could only
take the blows as Lord Justice Scott Baker asked: "Why haven't
they been withdrawn by Mr Al Fayed since February 9, 2006? "They
are very grave allegations, and one would have thought that a
man with any decency who was not going to pursue them would have
withdrawn them." Similarly, with the Queen's former
Private Secretary Lord Fellowes,
who is married to Diana's elder sister Lady Jane and who, according
to Al Fayed, was at the British Embassy in Paris in charge of
the deadly proceedings as Diana and Dodi were eliminated by MI6.
Last week Lord Fellowes told the jury where he was on the fateful
Paris night - he and his wife had visitors in Norfolk and he spent
the evening at "an entertainment" in a church hall listening
to the writer Sir John Mortimer. Michael Mansfield was looking
at his notes. He did not challenge this. Mr Al Fayed's theory
suffered a further blow yesterday when it emerged that the European
Court of Human Rights rejected all his claims about Dodi and Diana.
Judges sitting in Strasbourg found no evidence of foul play, instead
agreeing that the deaths were caused by a simple road traffic
accident. They said Mr Al Fayed's case, in which he complained
the crash victims had been denied the right to life enshrined
in the European Convention on Human Rights, was "manifestly
ill-founded" and ruled it "inadmissible".
His standing as "a man
of decency" already shot through by the coroner, Al Fayed
knows that in the witness box he will be asked to explain what
lies behind his claims and if he has proof. He knows his performance,
and the impression he makes on the jury, could be crucial to the
result. It's unlikely he will repeat his more elaborate accusations,
such as his description of Prince Philip as a "racist Nazi".
But anyone anticipating his humiliation under a barrage of facts
is likely to be disappointed. In legal circles they still talk
of his performance in the witness box at Neil Hamilton's 1999
libel action over claims that the former Tory MP took cash and
gifts in exchange for asking questions in the House of Commons.
It is remembered as "brilliant".
When Hamilton's counsel Desmond
Browne asked him why he was taking so much cash out of his bank
account Al Fayed retorted: "It's my money. What's it got
to do with you?" This time, of course, there will be no jokes.
As one of his team says: "This isn't politics, this is personal.
His son has died." That is the key factor that ensures there
are likely to be deeply emotional exchanges. For this is a man
who is desperate to prove, at the very least, that there was a
motive to kill Diana. Afterall, no motive, no murder. If the jury
decide Dodi and Diana had accidental deaths, then the focus swings
on to Mohamed Al Fayed himself as the man whose own carelessness
is why his son and the People's Princess lost their lives.
As Martin Gregory, author
of Diana: The Last Days, puts it: "On the night she died
Diana was travelling from a Fayed hotel to a Fayed apartment in
a Fayed car with a Fayed driver, sitting next to Fayed's son and
behind a Fayed bodyguard. Despite this, Fayed has hired enough
lawyers to take his family name out of the equation."
Tom Bower, Mohamed's biographer,
notes that no one anticipated them coming to The Ritz hotel that
night, no one knew about the idea to leave the hotel by the back
door, which was hatched by Dodi and approved by his father, and
no one knew which route Henri Paul was taking - "so how could
any potential killers have the time to make a plan?" This
has never impressed Al Fayed, whose grieving for his eldest child,
the only one by his first marriage, is understandable, and whose
obsession with the case has drained his personal fortune of at
least £10 million. Al Fayed's life has barely changed on
the outside since Dodi's death. Weekdays in London, weekends at
his house in Surrey, alternate Saturdays to Craven Cottage for
games of struggling Premier League club Fulham, which he owns,
occasional visits to his 65,000-acre estate in Scotland, no obvious
days off.
"But Dodi's death is always churning inside him," says
the family friend. "He can't rid himself of it. It can never
die until he does."
It was Al Fayed who fought
for an inquest, and for a jury. He and his advisers proclaim this
a victory. But after four months of evidence in which every last
intimate detail of poor Diana's life has been prised out for public
scrutiny - much of it irrelevant - one is entitled to ask if Mohamed
Al Fayed and his legal team, led by "Moneybags" Mansfield,
still feel any real satisfaction or justification for this sorry
triumph. Al Fayed is unmoved. "He believes he is doing the
right thing," says his friend. So, would a verdict of accidental
death end the matter? Al Fayed's spokesman says: "If all
the witnesses are called and all of them tell what they really
know, Mr Al Fayed will accept the jury's verdict," he says.
This sounds like Al Fayed-speak for No. For all the witnesses
are not being called. They would have to include Prince Philip
and the Queen, not to mention Prince Charles, the man put in the
frame by Diana's handwritten letter expressing fears that "my
husband" was planning an "accident" in her car
so he could marry Tiggy.
And former butler Paul Burrell
has told the inquest that the Queen warned Burrell about 'powers
at work' that could harm him. What powers, he didn't know. Shouldn't
the inquest be told? But neither the Queen nor Prince Philip nor
Charles has been summoned to give evidence and the coroner is
unlikely to call them. He is expected to explain his reasons before
the jury retires to bring in its verdict. Then there is the absent
pathologist Professor Dominique Lecomte, who conducted driver
Henri Paul's post-mortem, and Dr Gilbert Pepin, who tested his
blood. Al Fayed still claims that Paul's blood, which showed he
was more than three times over the French alcohol limit of 0.5g
per litre, was switched in the laboratory and that he was not
drunk. "These doctors are a major factor, but they are refusing
to take part," protests one figure close to Al Fayed. "They
should be cross-examined."
The doctors' findings will
be read out by a French police officer. So why don't they come?
They blame Al Fayed because they are both being sued by him in
France alleging "false evidence". (He is also sueing
the French police for not treating Diana's and Dodi's deaths as
"murder".) A legal source close to Ms Lecomte and Dr
Pepin in Paris says: "They are highly experienced professionals
who deal in hard facts and have given all the help they can to
those investigating these tragic deaths. They are fed up with
being drawn into these eccentric conspiracy theories." Al
Fayed is likely to be in the witness box for two days, but there
are five more weeks before Lord Justice Scott Baker sends out
the jury to consider its verdict. After that, the man responsible
for this tasteless examination of Diana's existence, currently
costing the taxpayer £6 million and rising, will have to
ask himself: Was it really worth it?
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Ex-Met chief facing Diana
inquest
Press Assoc. - Thursday, February 14, 2008 Former Metropolitan
Police Commissioner Lord Stevens is giving evidence at the Diana,
Princess of Wales inquest.
Britain's former top policeman
produced the Paget report into the Paris crash which killed Diana,
her lover Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul in August 1997. It
is reported that the investigation cost £3.6 million. Lord
Stevens launched Operation Paget in 2004 at the request of Michael
Burgess, the Royal Coroner who was overseeing the future Diana
inquest at the time.
His brief was specifically
to investigate allegations that Diana and Dodi were murdered,
the theory most commonly associated with Dodi's father, Mohamed
al Fayed. The former Scotland Yard chief rejected the murder claims
when the Paget report was published in December 2006. The inquest
jury, sitting in central London, will return a separate verdict
later this year on the evidence they have heard.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Apology over Diana
probe demanded
By Paul Majendie Reuters - Thursday, February 14, 2008 LONDON
(Reuters) -
The former police chief who
conducted an inquiry into Princess Diana's death angrily denied
on Thursday "scurrilous allegations" that he had not
done his job properly. "Allegations trip off people's tongues
-- it's just not right," John Stevens told the London inquest
into the deaths of Diana and her lover Dodi al-Fayed, killed in
a high-speed Paris car crash in August 1997.
"I am looking for an
apology in relation to that," he told the court. "There
were scurrilous allegations made." His police probe concluded
in December 2006 that Diana's death was a tragic accident and
that she was not the victim of a murder plot, as has been alleged
by Dodi's father, luxury storeowner Mohamed al-Fayed. Fayed alleges
that his son and Diana were killed by security services on the
orders of Prince Philip. The Harrods storeowner believes Philip
ordered her killing because the royal family did not want the
mother of the future king to have a child with his son. He alleges
that Diana's body was embalmed to cover up evidence she was expecting
a baby. Fayed, who will appear before the inquest next Monday,
has rejected the findings of the Stevens report as "garbage"
and said: "There is a plan and plot against me."
The former police chief, clearly
angered as he gave evidence to the inquest, referred to the "extraordinary
accusation that I had been got at in terms of what the evidence
was, in terms of how the report was going to be put forward".
"It's quite outrageous," Stevens said, after heated
exchanges with lawyers. "That is what I find so hurtful,
that I could manipulate them (the detectives on his inquiry team)
into saying things and going down a criminal course of action."
Under British law, an inquest is needed to determine the cause
of death when someone dies unnaturally. The Diana inquest had
to be delayed until French and British police probes into the
crash were completed.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Calls for apologies
at Diana inquest
ITN - Thursday, February 14, 2008
The coroner in the Princess Diana inquest has demanded to know
why a security chief has not apologised.
John Macnamara, Mohamed al
Fayed's director of security in August 1997, wrongly branded former
bodyguard Trevor Rees, formerly known as Rees Jones, as a "mouthpiece"
of the security services, the court heard. The claim appears in
Mr Macnamara's sworn statement to Operation Paget, the investigation
into allegations that Diana and Dodi were murdered. Coroner Lord
Justice Scott Baker questioned Mr Macnamara about whether he had
said sorry to Mr Rees - who was the only survivor of the Paris
car crash.
The coroner said: "Have
you apologised to Mr Rees Jones, having made the very serious
statement 'in my opinion Rees Jones has willingly and in return
for payment been used as a mouthpiece by or on behalf of the security
services to discredit the mounting evidence that the crash was
not an accident'?" Mr Macnamara replied: "I have not
seen Mr Rees Jones." The coroner asked Mr Macnamara if he
had "taken any steps" to apologise. Mr Macnamara answered:
"No." When the coroner asked "why not", Mr
Macnamara responded by saying "that was my belief at the
time."
Mr Rees was Dodi Fayed's bodyguard
and the front seat passenger in the Mercedes which crashed in
Paris August 1997 killing Diana, her lover Dodi Fayed and driver
Henri Paul. He broke every bone in his face and suffered serious
chest injuries. Mr Rees was told while giving his evidence last
month of Mr al Fayed's claims that he was part of a murder cover-up
involving MI6. Mr Rees stated he was was "not part of a conspiracy
to suppress the truth" in direct contrast to Mr al Fayed's
controversial claims.
Meanwhile, Britain's former
top police officer has refuted "scurrilous allegations"
about his investigation into the Princess's death. Lord Stevens,
who headed the Metropolitan Police, launched Operation Paget in
2004 at the request of Michael Burgess, the Royal Coroner who
was overseeing the future Diana inquest at the time. The ex-Met
Police boss was specifically asked to investigate allegations
that Diana and her lover Dodi Fayed were murdered. Lord Stevens
produced the Paget report into the August 1997 crash, rejecting
the murder claims when it was published in December 2006.
On Thursday, Ian Burnett,
counsel to the inquest, told the jury that there had previously
been observations of discrepancies between what driver Mr Paul's
parents had been told and what had been in the final Paget report.
Lord Stevens replied: "I would say these are scurrilous allegations...I'm
looking for an apology for this in due course." Lord Stevens
said the allegations had included the notion that he had not done
his job properly and the "extraordinary allegation that I
had been got at in terms of how the evidence and the report was
going to be put forward".
He said: "It's quite
outrageous. I will take that on my behalf, but I will not have
it said about people who worked for me for four years who sometimes
can't defend themselves about these issues." The jury later
heard that Lord Stevens was "happy to state at this point,
in my view, based on all the evidence available to us, that Henri
Paul was not 'drunk as a pig' as referred to in some publications,
but more correctly described as under the influence of alcohol."
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Lord Fellowes has
given evidence at the Princess Diana inquest
Inquest told Palace swept for bugs
February 11, 2008
Lord Robert Fellows-Brother-In-Law to Princess
Diana
Buckingham Palace had to be
regularly swept for bugs by the security services, the Queen's
former private secretary Lord Fellowes revealed. Rooms used by
the monarch to conduct official business were checked for devices
at regular intervals, he told the Diana, Princess of Wales inquest.
In his evidence to the marathon High Court hearing Lord Fellowes
- who was Diana's brother-in-law - also dismissed Mohamed al Fayed's
claim that he had been in Paris on the night of the tragedy and
played a part in her "murder".
He told the court he was in
Norfolk listening to a talk by Sir John Mortimer, creator of Rumpole
of the Bailey, on the evening of August 30, 1997. Diana and her
lover Dodi Fayed died as a result of a car crash in Paris shortly
after midnight (French time) on August 31 1997. The jury were
also told that a call between the Princess and her friend James
Gilbey - in which he calls her "Squidgy" - was intercepted
and recorded while she was at Sandringham at Christmas 1989.
The conversation caused a
sensation when it was revealed in lurid detail in the press in
1992. A further call between the Prince of Wales and Camilla Parker
Bowles (now the Duchess of Cornwall) was also later taped and
publicised, later dubbed "Camilla-gate". The security
services denied any involvement in the interceptions but suspicions
that amateur radio enthusiasts were responsible were never proved.
The jury heard that Home Secretary Kenneth Clarke took the decision
in January 1993 not to have an investigation, fearing the news
would leak out. The inquest was adjourned until Wednesday when
former spy Richard Tomlinson will give evidence from the south
of France by video link.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Ex-Ambassador Denies
Diana Conspiracy
By Sky News SkyNews - Monday, February 11, 2008 Britain's ambassador
in Paris at the time of Diana's death has denied that he ordered
the embalming of her body on the instructions of MI5 to "conceal
the fact she was pregnant with Dodi Fayed's child".
Lord Jay, who was Sir Michael
Jay at the time of the car crash, told the inquest into their
deaths: "There is no truth in this allegation whatsoever."
He confirmed that a Secret Intelligence Service - better known
as MI6 - team was operating at the embassy at the time, as was
a representative of the Security Service MI5, but said he has
no reason to believe it had anything to do with the crash. Their
purpose was "to liaise with the French authorities on issues
such as counter-terrorism, anti-drugs work, security issues and
to share intelligence on matters of foreign policy".
He said the first he was even
aware of Diana's presence in Paris was when he was awoken with
news of the crash just over an hour afterwards.
Dodi's father, Harrods boss
Mohamed al Fayed, says the fatal crash in the Alma Tunnel was
staged as part of an MI6 murder plot to eliminate the couple to
prevent them marrying.
Meanwhile, the sole survivor
of the crash apparently feared he would be murdered if he ever
regained his memory. Mr al Fayed's housekeeper wept in court as
she recounted a conversation she said she had with bodyguard Trevor
Rees weeks after the August 1997 accident in Paris. Karen McKenzie
claimed she spoke to Mr Rees inside the Fayed family's Park Lane
residence in London while he was recuperating from his injuries.
She said that during a conversation as Mr Rees was waiting for
a lift from the seventh floor of the building he had remarked:
"If I remember, they'll kill me." She said she did not
have a chance to ask him what he meant as the doors of the lift
closed and he disappeared.
Although she said she could
not remember the context of the remarks, she insisted she was
"100%" certain of what she claimed he had said: "It
is still in my mind now." Mr Hough put it to Ms McKenzie
that Mr Rees, who has already given evidence, denied ever having
made the remarks to her. She replied: "I wish I could do
what Trevor has done and just say 'I do not remember', but unfortunately
I do remember. I might regret him having told me, but I do remember."
Later in the day Mr al Fayed's
press director was publicly reprimanded for "inappropriate
behaviour" at the inquest. Jurors at the High Court hearing
complained that Katharine Witty, the Harrods boss's director of
press and publicity, acted in a "disrespectful and distracting"
way during a police officer's evidence last week.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
'MI6 team in Paris
at time of Diana crash'
ITN - Monday, February 11, 2008
An MI6 team was operating at the British Embassy in Paris at the
time of Princess Diana's death, her inquest has heard.
But former ambassador Lord
Jay told the High Court hearing he had no reason to believe their
presence had anything to do with Diana's death in a car crash
in the French capital.
Lord Jay - then known as Sir
Michael Jay - said that the first he was even aware of her presence
in Paris was when he was awoken with news of the crash just over
an hour after the smash in the early hours of August 31, 1997.
Mohamed al Fayed, whose son Dodi Fayed was also killed in the
Alma Tunnel, is convinced the crash was staged as part of an MI6
murder plot to eliminate the couple to prevent them marrying.
Mr al Fayed believes spies based at the Embassy were operating
at the behest of the Duke of Edinburgh.
Asked by counsel to the inquest
Ian Burnett whether the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) - better
known as MI6 - had a presence at the Embassy in 1997 he confirmed
that it had. He added that there had also been a representative
of the Security Service MI5 working there at the time.
He agreed with a passage from
his earlier police statement which said: "There was such
a team at the British Embassy in Paris staffed by members of the
Secret Intelligence Service and one member of the Security Service."
He explained: "It's to liaise with the French authorities
on issues such as counter terrorism, anti-drugs work, security
issues and to share intelligence on matters of foreign policy."
Asked if he had to be kept
informed about MI6 operations in Paris he said: "Yes, if
it had been a major operation which was likely to raise particular
sensitivities then I would expect to have been told." Mr
Burnett continued: "You have indicated that you would have
been aware of anything significant going on, was there anything
significant going on of which you were aware?" He replied:
"No".
Mr Burnett said: "You
are aware that it has been suggested that you personally ordered
the embalming of the body of the Princess of Wales on the instructions
of MI5 to conceal the fact that she was pregnant with Dodi's child."
Lord Jay replied: "There
is no truth in this allegation whatsoever." Mr Burnett: "It
has also been suggested that Lord Fellowes, who was at the time
the Queen's private secretary and also a brother-in-law of the
Princess of Wales, was in Paris on the night of August 30 and
had commandeered the operations room in the Embassy essentially
to oversee and organise the murder of his sister-in-law. Was he
in Paris?" Lord Jay: "No. He was not."
Earlier, the inquest heard
that Mr Fayed had hinted that he and Diana were engaged. Just
days before the fatal crash, the 42-year-old rang his father's
legal adviser, Stuart Benson, to tell him he had "very exciting
news", which the lawyer interpreted to mean that the couple
had decided to get married. No other details were given during
the brief call made as Mr Fayed and the Princess cruised around
the Mediterranean on a luxury yacht.
But Mr Benson was asked if
he was free the following Monday to discuss issues arising from
the news. The inquest has already heard that a ring was bought
for the royal by Mr Fayed at the Repossi jewellers hours before
their deaths on August 31, 1997
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Dodi's all night
sex sessions
Press Assoc. - Wednesday,
February 6, 2008 Dodi Fayed had all-night sex sessions with his
previous lover while wooing Diana, Princess of Wales, in the Mediterranean,
a court has heard.
In a foul-mouthed final phone
call, underwear model Kelly Fisher raged: "You even flew
me down to St Tropez to sit on a boat while you seduced Diana
all day and f***** me all night." Miss Fisher said she taped
the conversation in August 1997 around two weeks before Dodi and
Diana were killed in a car crash in Paris.
A transcript of the 20-minute
call was read to the jury at the couple's inquest in central London.
In it Miss Fisher, who believed she and Dodi were engaged, accuses
the son of Harrods tycoon Mohamed al Fayed of abandoning her for
the Princess. In an angry tirade she claims that Dodi even spoke
to her of marriage during one of his holidays with Diana. At one
point she says: "You told me you didn't even like her...
why do you suddenly like her?" Claim and counter-claim are
thrown about who cheated on the other first, she brands Dodi a
"liar" and he calls her "crazy" and "hysterical".
Throughout, Dodi refuses to discuss the question of engagement
on the telephone.
Having heard second-hand through
the press that Dodi was seeing Diana, a livid Miss Fisher phoned
Mohamed al Fayed in the middle of the morning only to have him
"threaten" and call her a string of names, the jury
heard. Miss Fisher, who lives in Los Angeles, also confronts Dodi
over the now-famous pictures of the couple together holidaying
on Mr al Fayed's yacht that August. As Dodi insists he and Miss
Fisher had already broken up, she hits back: "You are f******
crazy. We were together the whole time and you knew it. You knew
it." The inquest continues.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paparazzo 'at Diana
crash scene'
Press Assoc. - Wednesday, February 6, 2008 A photographer at the
centre of claims that Diana, Princess of Wales, was murdered,
bragged to a famous crime novelist that he was at the scene of
her fatal car crash undetected, her inquest has heard.
James Andanson, who owned
a battered white Fiat Uno, claimed he was in the Alma Tunnel in
Paris in the early hours of August 31 1997, the jury was told.
Mr Andanson - who was himself found dead in controversial circumstances
two and a half years later - told writer Frederic Dard and his
wife Francoise that he had taken "explosive" unpublished
photographs of the smash but kept them locked in a secret safe.
He said he had hidden himself
away from the rest of the pack of photographers to catch Diana
and Dodi Fayed leaving the Ritz Hotel, and chased them through
Paris, Mrs Dard told the London inquest by video link. Mr Andanson
claimed he then took pictures of the crash but cleverly escaped
before the police rounded up other photographers, initially suspecting
them of causing the smash, the court heard. But Mrs Dard, who
has herself since been widowed, told the jury that she later had
doubts about what he said, telling the court: "I realised
it was too simple to be true."
She said Mr Andanson also
claimed to have taken the famous picture of Sarah, Duchess of
York, sucking the toes of Texan businessman John Bryan, recounting
in detail how he said he said he had hidden to take it. "(He
told us) he had many others of the specific event and that the
other photographs were in his safe," she added. But the court
heard that she later learnt the pictures of the Duchess had been
taken by another photographer.
The jury has heard that Mohamed
al Fayed believes Mr Andanson's car was the mystery white Fiat
which collided with Diana and Dodi's Mercedes moments before the
tragedy. Police established from paint scratches and debris that
the vehicle had indeed collided with a white Fiat Uno around the
entrance of the Alma tunnel but the other car was never traced.
Mr Andanson owned a white
Fiat which he sold shortly after the Paris crash. But police discounted
the possibility of his involvement after he produced documentary
evidence suggesting he was at his home 177 miles away. His death
in May 2000, when he was found dead in his burnt-out car in the
south of France, deepened the mystery.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Jury hears Diana
conspiracy theory
Press Assoc. - February 5, 2008 A jealous paparazzo may have inadvertently
started the longest-running conspiracy theory about the death
of Diana, Princess of Wales, her inquest has heard.
Photographer James Andanson,
who owned a white Fiat Uno, was summoned by French police in February
1998 to account for his movements in the early hours of August
31 1997 following an anonymous tip-off to officers in Britain,
the court heard. But Mr Andanson, who died two years later, initially
thought that the summons was a joke and responded accordingly,
the jury sitting at the High Court was told.
Jean Claude Mules, a retired
major in the French Brigade Criminelle, told the inquest jury
that Mr Andanson quickly provided documentary evidence of his
movements around the time of the crash and satisfied them that
he was not the driver of the mystery white Fiat. But 10 years
on, the subject of James Andanson remains a live issue at the
high-profile inquest into the deaths of Diana and her lover Dodi
Fayed.
Mohamed al Fayed, Dodi's father,
is convinced that the crash in the Alma Tunnel in Paris was not
an accident but the result of a murder plot orchestrated by MI6
at the behest of the Duke of Edinburgh. The jury has been told
that Mr al Fayed believes Mr Andanson was an agent of the security
services and is convinced that he was in the tunnel that night.
But Mr Andanson told police that he was at his home at Lignieres,
177 miles south of the French capital, at the time of the crash.
The jury has been told that
Mr Andanson did indeed own a white Fiat Uno with a dent in it
from an accident he said happened at least two years before the
Alma Tunnel tragedy when he suffered a prang on a roundabout.
Mr Andanson sold his Fiat Uno in October 1997, shortly after the
crash. The jurors have been told of evidence that the Mercedes
in which the Princess was travelling collided with a white Fiat
Uno seconds before it crashed into the 13th pillar of the tunnel.
As well as being told of paint
scratches backing up this assertion, they have also held small
fragments of shattered plastic from a broken light believed to
have come from a Fiat Uno. But the court has heard that the car
in question has never been traced despite efforts by the French
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________police.
Driver Not Drunk
LONDON (Reuters) - February 4, 2008 The parents of French chauffeur
Henri Paul said on Monday they were certain their son was not
drunk at the wheel of the car in which he drove Princess Diana
on her fatal final journey.
Speaking by video link to
a London inquest into the deaths of Diana and her lover Dodi al-Fayed,
the elderly couple also said French authorities had refused to
grant their request for independent tests on blood samples taken
after the crash. Diana and Dodi were killed along with Henri Paul
in August 1997, when the Mercedes limousine he was driving crashed
at high speed in a Paris road tunnel while it was being pursued
by paparazzi.
French and British police
investigations concluded that Paul was drunk but experts at the
London inquest into the deaths of Diana and Dodi have questioned
the origin of blood samples said to have been taken from him.
Questioned about reports that their son had been drunk at the
time of the crash and was an alcoholic, Jean and Giselle Paul
answered in unison: "It was certainly wrong."
"The driver was not drunk,"
Jean Paul told the court. The couple said they had never seen
their son drunk.
Asked if they were still waiting
for the French authorities to allow an independent analysis of
the blood samples, they answered: "Yes." The couple,
speaking through an interpreter, said French police had, without
telling them, conducted a search of their son's Paris apartment
10 days after the crash. "We were not notified," they
said. Dodi's father, Mohamed al-Fayed, alleges that his son and
Diana were killed by British security services on the orders of
Prince Philip.
Fayed believes her killing
was ordered because the royal family did not want the mother of
the future king having a child with his son. He alleges that Diana's
body was embalmed to cover up evidence that she was pregnant.
Jean and Giselle Paul denied any suggestions that their son worked
for British security services.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Diana inquest: 'Police may have planted alcohol'
ITN -February 4, 2008 Police may have planted a large cache of
alcohol in Henri Paul's flat to back up claims that he was a drink
driver, Princess Diana's inquest has been told.
Officers from the French Brigade
Criminelle searched the central Paris pad three days after the
car smash in which Diana was killed, and only found a bottle of
champagne and a near-empty bottle of Martini - as well as 200
cans of Coca Cola. But less than a week later another police team
searched the small flat - this time in the absence of Mr Paul's
parents - and reported finding drinks in cupboards and furniture
all over the flat. Lieutenant Marc Monot, who took part in the
first search, admitted that it was "possible" the drinks
found on September 9 1997 had not been there when he had examined
the flat on September 3.
The jury were told that police
disclosed as early as September 1 that Mr Paul was three times
over the French drink-drive limit when he was at the wheel of
the Mercedes which crashed in the Alma Tunnel killing himself,
Diana and Dodi, on August 31 1997. Richard Keen QC, representing
Mr Paul's parents, put it to Mr Monot that the search had been
conducted to "bolster" the "allegation" that
the driver was over the limit. He put to him that he had failed
to notice bottles of red wine, creme-de-cassis, ricard, suze,
port, beer, vodka, pinot and bourbon.
Mr Monot, giving evidence
by video link from Paris, replied: "It is something I have
to acknowledge, once again the first search was done in a tense
atmosphere in the presence of Henri Paul's parents and it is a
matter of fact that we were not looking specifically for bottles
of alcohol." Mr Keen persisted: "Mr Monot, weren't you
just a little surprised to discover how much alcohol you were
supposed to have missed during your search on the 3rd of September?"
He answered: "It might be surprising that we had missed such
a quantity of alcohol that was supposed to have been present in
different pieces of furniture but maybe it was due to the fact
that it was not the first aim that we were looking for."
Mr Keen then asked: "Maybe it is due to the fact that it
wasn't there on the 3rd of September, is that not possible as
well?"
He replied: "It's possible."
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Will Diana's sister
Lady Jane's inquest evidence be the most explosive yet?
By GEOFFREY LEVY and RICHARD KAY - More by this author »
Last updated February 2, 2008
So many times they have asked themselves: "How did it come
to this?" Endlessly, they have to put up with the loud and
prattling opinions of so- called Diana "experts", frequently
people who hadn't even met her. For Diana's two elder sisters,
Sarah and Jane, it hasn't been easy. And after ten long and distracted
years, it certainly isn't over. They were the well-meaning big
sisters who, on the eve of her wedding to Prince Charles when
Diana had cold feet, famously steadied her with the words: "Too
late, Duch (the family name for Diana), your face is already on
the tea towels."
This week, midway through the inquest into the Princess's
death, Lady Sarah (the eldest sister) spent three hours in the
witness box, a composed figure deftly batting away as ridiculous
the constant theme that her sister was in love with Dodi Fayed
and might have married him. Soon it is likely to be the turn of
Lady Jane, and for her it will be an even more testing trial of
sisterly love and divided loyalties.
Jane's husband is Lord Fellowes who, throughout
the crisis of the royal marriage, was the Queen's private secretary,
a central figure whose disapproval of Diana's behaviour could
hardly be contradicted by his wife. Meanwhile, for Sarah, six
years older than Diana and still pretty at 52, life has been inextricably
bound up in Diana's, through the charity fund set up in her sister's
memory, of which she is president. She has borne the brunt of
public criticism over the fund's misguided decision to take on
the U.S-based souvenir producers the Franklin Mint over image
rights - only to lose, at a cost of millions - and over Diana's
will, when she failed to see that Diana's godchildren received
the share she had requested in a letter of wishes.
Sarah was courted by Prince Charles long before
his fancy finally fell on the teenage Diana. Sarah had fallen
by the wayside after unguardedly telling a magazine: "I wouldn't
marry anyone I didn't love, whether he was the dustman or the
King of England." At the age of 25, she settled for old Harrovian
Lincolnshire farmer and former Guards officer Neil McCorquodale.
As for Jane, the quietest and most inoffensive of
the three, the one who always avoided the limelight and at 21
married a dependable man 16 years her senior, the past ten years
have been blighted by one thing - the fact that she and the Princess
had barely spoken during the last 18 months of her sister's life.
And yet she is said to be curiously buoyed up by her impending
appearance at the High Court in front of the world's media and
the battery of highpowered lawyers, especially Michael Mansfield,
QC, representing the unrelenting Mohamed al Fayed.
Naturally, she is apprehensive because, with the
exception of her brief but necessary appearance as a prosecution
witness at the bungled and then abandoned Old Bailey trial of
butler Paul Burrell on charges of stealing Diana's possessions,
this rather shy woman has publicly uttered barely a syllable about
her late sister. But here at last, within the strict formality
of the High Court, she has an opportunity to purge herself of
any guilt she may - quite wrongly, incidentally - still feel about
the friction with Diana. The pain of the family split has never
entirely left Jane Fellowes even though she is now 50, with a
son and two daughters, all in their 20s. Husband Robert has long
moved smoothly on from the Queen's side, back into his original
City world as chairman of Barclays Private Bank. They live comfortably
in Kensington where she is an anonymous face shopping in Marks
& Spencer and Waitrose, and also have a house in Norfolk,
where Robert's father was the Sandringham royal estate's land
agent.
Jane's friends know her thoughts frequently stray
to her dead sister - especially now, as the inquest grinds interminably
on and the Princess's most intimate secrets are exposed with all
the excitement of finds in a high-profile archaeological dig.
"Poor Diana," Jane has been heard to mutter. "If
only Diana could know how wounded Jane is on her behalf, she'd
cuddle her just as they did when they were children," says
one of the family's oldest friends. "It's been terrible for
Jane that Diana died before they could properly make it up."
When the crisis was at its peak, Jane was in the crossfire - trapped
between family ties and marital loyalty. Inevitably, while time
has eased her pain, it has made her wonder if she could have behaved
differently. It wasn't she who virtually shut down sisterly communications
with Diana, but Diana with her.
The Princess resented the fact that Jane appeared
not to support her in the bitter dispute that became known as
the "War of the Waleses". At the heart of this distressing
family row, the Princess identified her brother-in-law as a leading
figure in the Establishment of "men in grey suits" who
ran the royal machine and who, she believed, were largely responsible
for the excoriating disapproval of the Royal Family. Diana even
accused Sir Robert of conniving in palace plans to monitor her
private telephone calls. "Diana felt let down by Jane because
she thought Jane might have spoken up for her, but never did,"
says one of Diana's old circle. "But we all knew that Jane
was in an impossible position, and no one knows what she said
to her husband in private - only she and Robert know that."
At the time, the Fellowes lived within the grounds of Kensington
Palace, not in the main building but in the Old Barracks. They
were next door to butler Paul Burrell, though their home was considerably
larger.
At the peak of the froideur, even though they lived
within the same palace complex, the only words spoken between
the two sisters was when the children were dropped off for holidays
or birthday parties - the Fellowes children, Alexander, Laura
and Eleanor are 24, 26 and 22, similar ages to Princes William
and Harry - or to deliver Christmas presents.
Their children, it must be said - including Sarah's
son, George, and daughters, Emily and Celia, who are also of similar
age to the Princes - have never been affected by the rancour and,
as cousins, remain close. Sarah was always Diana's champion, but
it wasn't until her children were going to school that she agreed
to be the Princess's lady-in-waiting. She was the one on whom
Diana relied to watch over her life - just as Sarah continues
to do now, in death. "When Diana needed someone to talk to,
she always thought of Sarah first," says a family friend.
"Sarah had the knack of making Diana feel a lot better about
her life and even make her laugh. She was able to keep everyone
cheered up even when the crisis was at its worst." Lady Sarah
got six O-levels and, academically was the brightest of the three
sisters and the most personable.
Many were surprised when she decided to marry a
farmer and live in Lincolnshire, 'two hours north of London' as
she told the inquest. Now 52, she is astonishingly unaffected
by the spotlight which shifted to her when Diana was killed. She
hunts, she follows the fortunes of her local rugby union team
Leicester Tigers and she still has the memorial fund to oversee.
Sarah could quite easily have become the mouthpiece on which her
sister's memory depended. Perhaps she could have been more outspoken
in explaining Diana's fears and defending her reputation. But
she and Jane have always considered their best course was a dignified
silence. "They still feel the vibrations of the family row
that overtook them all when their parents were divorced,' says
one of their longeststanding family friends.
"They were only children when it happened,
but the backwash seemed to be chasing them all their lives and
that is what convinces them that the least said about Diana and
Charles, the better." The three sisters, together with little
brother Charles, now the 9th Earl Spencer, were brought up at
Park House on the Sandringham estate. The trauma of their parents'
marriage break-up was the seismic event that was to mould all
their lives. Sarah and Jane were away at school when their mother,
Frances, took off with suave businessman Peter Shand Kydd. She
took Diana and Charles with her. Only when they went home to their
father for Christmas did a tug o' war begin, ending in the courts.
Frances lost. So that left three young girls talking romantically,
even when young, of marrying only "for love". Diana
is on record as saying so when she was nine. But that's all in
the past.
Since the beginning of October, Sarah has been making
the two-hour drive to London once a week, sitting in the High
Court to listen to the evidence that Mohamed al Fayed, if no one
else, believes will unearth a plot to kill Diana. Sometimes she
and Jane have lunch, talking nostalgically of the times when they
were not two sisters, but three. Friends say that Jane "admired
and adored" Robert from the moment they met. He is now 66.
Sarah felt "at home" with the handsome, landowning Neil,
now 56. Both are happily married. In that respect, Diana was the
unlucky one, marrying a future king.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Dispute over Diana
driver's blood sample
ITN - Thursday, January 31, 2008 Blood test results that showed
Henri Paul had been drinking before the crash which killed Princess
Diana may have been "cooked", an expert has said.
Clinical pharmacologist Professor
Atholl Johnston told the princess's inquest that almost identical
results from samples taken from different parts of Mr Paul's body
raised suspicions. He also said a blood sample which appeared
to show Mr Paul had been drinking was probably "someone else's".
The jury has heard that tests on two samples said to be of Mr
Paul's blood, gave alcohol concentration readings of 1.74 and
1.75 grammes per litre. Meanwhile, a sample of vitreous humour
(eyeball fluid) which was tested by independent expert Dr Gilbert
Pepin gave a reading of 1.73g/l. Such levels would have made Mr
Paul three times the French drink drive limit. But Mohamed al
Fayed is convinced they may have been switched to cover up a conspiracy
to murder the Princess. Prof Johnston, who examined the findings
for Mr al Fayed as well as consulting the Metropolitan Police's
Operation Paget team, told the court: "The one (thing) that
disturbed me the most in terms of the alcohol is this close agreement
of 173, 174 or 175. "Any analyst I've suggested that that
is probable to just went 'What?'." He said he calculated
that the probability of getting three results so closely correlated
in three different samples was one in 10,000. Coroner Lord Justice
Scott Baker interjected: "What are you suggesting, that that
suggests to you that the results had been cooked?" Prof Johnston
replied: "That would be my interpretation. "We have
already seen that ... Dr Pepin has used the facilities to alter
the results on at least one sample we know, where he has recalculated
it to get closer to what he got originally." The jury has
also heard evidence that the blood samples contained high levels
of carboxyhaemoglobin (20.7 per cent and 12.8 per cent), which
indicates Carbon Monoxide exposure. Experts have told the jury
that the highest level in particular would have left Henri Paul
suffering severe headaches. But no explanation has been found
for the concentrations, the court has heard. Professor Johnston
rejected the possibility that this was just the result of a measuring
glitch. "The most likely explanation is that it isn't Henri
Paul's blood," he said. Pressed on the suggestion that the
French lab had tampered with the results to make them fit, he
said: "I can't say anything of the sort. I just don't know,
this is what the jury have to make up their minds about."
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
'Diana driver had
drink problem'
ITN - Wednesday, January 3, 2008 Scientists hired by Mohamed al
Fayed to investigate levels of alcohol found in Henri Paul's blood
have concluded he had a drink problem, the Diana inquest has heard.
Mr Paul, who was behind the
wheel of the car which crashed in Paris, killing himself, Diana
and Dodi, may not have appeared impaired as his body could have
built up a tolerance to alcohol, the jury heard. CCTV footage
from the Ritz on the night Diana died showed Mr Paul walking around
the hotel and even bending down to tie his shoe lace. But bar
receipts show that Mr Paul had bought two large measures of Ricard,
a strong aniseed spirit. Tests on Mr Paul's dead body showed he
had been around three times the French drink-drive limit - levels
which, the jury heard, would leave an average man looking "markedly
impaired". Forensic scientist Professor Vanezis was sent
to Paris to conduct the tests, and originally raised concerns
about the initial blood samples taken from Mr Paul's body. However,
Prof Vanezis was then given results from the analysis of Mr Paul's
hair and vitreous humour, which appeared to show he had been drinking.
A report detailing the results was then produced by Prof Vanezis'
team. The scientists concluded: "Looking at the overall picture,
it may be fairly clearly observed that Mr Paul had an alcohol
problem and he drank high levels of alcohol regularly." Prof
Vanezis went on to explain: "One of the things obviously
we were considering, and obviously this was very much at the top
of our minds, was whether or not that person that appeared normal
in the CCTV images may well have built up a tolerance to alcohol.
"There is no doubt that the average man's faculties would
have been markedly impaired but a regular drinker like Mr Paul
is likely to have been impaired less." Mr al Fayed disputes
the findings and has claimed samples may have been switched to
cover up a murder plot devised by British intelligent services.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Security problems
marred Diana's last days
By Paul Majendie Reuters - Tuesday, January 29, 2008 LONDON (Reuters)
- A bodyguard protecting Princess Diana and her lover Dodi al-Fayed
said on Tuesday the couple's last days were marred by a string
of security problems.
Bodyguard Trevor Rees Jones
Kieran Wingfield said his requests for more manpower fell on
deaf ears and he complained that Dodi kept security staff in the
dark about what the ill-fated couple planned to do next. Wingfield
and fellow bodyguard Trevor Rees worked up to 18 hours a day trying
to protect the couple on a yachting holiday in the South of France
and then in Paris where they died in a car crash along with chauffeur
Henri Paul in August 1997. "Dodi wouldn't tell us what their
intentions were," Wingfield told the inquest into Diana and
Dodi's deaths. "You need to have the trust of your principal,"
he said. "If you don't get it, your job becomes very, very
difficult." The former Royal Marine said a minimum of eight
bodyguards were needed to give them 24-hour cover but Dodi's father,
luxury store owner Mohamed al-Fayed, said "I want this to
be low-key. It's only going to be two or three days." Wingfield
told the court that he eventually quit the al-Fayed security team
after refusing a request by Mohamed al-Fayed to take part in a
programme being made about the crash. "He started ranting
at me," Wingfield said. "He was incoherent a lot of
the time, he was talking about Prince Philip, he was also talking
about the British Government, he was swearing a lot," he
added. Mohamed al-Fayed alleges that Dodi and Diana were killed
by British security services on the orders of Prince Philip. Fayed
believes her killing was ordered because the royal family did
not want the mother of the future king having a child with his
son. He alleges that Diana's body was embalmed to cover up evidence
she was expecting a baby. Wingfield, explaining why he quit, said:
"I believe if I had stayed in the organization, I would have
been asked to do things which were going to support the conspiracy
theory and so I resigned." "I had no doubt in my mind
that it was a tragic accident so I refused to take part in the
programme," he added.
Mohammed
Fayed
Born in Bakos, a neighborhood in eastern Alexandria,
Egypt, as the eldest son of a primary school teacher, Fayed tried
a number of jobs, from selling soft drinks on the streets of his
home city as a child to working as a sewing machine salesman and
teacher.
He was married two years to Samira Kashoggi, the
sister of the international arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, who employed
him in his import business in Saudi Arabia. After establishing
wide circles of influence in the UAE, Haiti, and London, Fayed
founded his own shipping company in Egypt before becoming a financial
adviser to one of the world's richest men, the Sultan of Brunei,
in 1966.
He arrived in Britain in 1974 and
added the al- to his name, earning the Private Eye nickname
"the Phoney Pharaoh".
He briefly joined the board of the mining conglomerate
Lonrho in 1975. In 1985, he married Wathén, his second
wife.
In 1979, Fayed bought the Hôtel Ritz Paris,
and restored it to its former glory for which he was made a Chevalier
of the Legion of Honour by the then President of France, Francois
Mitterand. In 1985, he and his brother Ali Al-Fayed bought House
of Fraser, a group that included the famous London store Harrods,
for £615m. At that time, acting as an advisor to the Sultan
of Brunei, Fayed filched the best part of $1 billion from the
Sultan's bank accounts and used it to buy House of Fraser, parent
of Harrods department store. The Harrods deal was made under the
nose of Roland 'Tiny' Rowland, the head of Lonrho. Rowland had
been seeking to buy Harrods and took the Fayeds to a Department
of Trade inquiry. The inquiry, involving
one of the most bitter feuds in British business history, issued
a 1990 report stating that the Fayed brothers had lied about their
background and wealth. The bickering with Rowland continued
when he accused them of stealing millions in jewels from his Harrods
safe deposit box. Rowland died and without accepting responsibility
Fayed settled the dispute with a payment to his widow. (Fayed
had been arrested during the dispute and sued the Metropolitan
Police for false arrest in 2002. He lost the case.)
In 1994, the House of Fraser went public, but Fayed
retained private ownership of Harrods.
For years, Fayed has unsuccessfully
sought British citizenship. Both Labour and Conservative Home
Secretaries have repeatedly rejected his applications on the grounds
that he is not of good character. He then took the matter to court,
but failed.
Mohamed Fayed was involved in the cash for questions
scandal, having offered the Conservative MPs Neil Hamilton and
Tim Smith money for asking questions in Parliament. He provided
MP Jonathan Aitken's bill from the Ritz Hotel in Paris to Peter
Preston at The Guardian, thus destroying Aitken's libel case against
the newspaper and resulting in a perjury conviction for Aitken.[
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Al Fayed criticized
over security
Press Assoc. - Tuesday, January 29, 2008 The death of Diana, Princess
of Wales, might have been prevented had Mohamed al Fayed heeded
pleas for more security, a key inquest witness has suggested.
Bodyguard Kieran Wingfield,
who quit his job on the Harrods tycoon's security team rather
than back his boss's "conspiracy theories", said he
had not been "allowed" to do his job properly in the
run-up to the tragedy. He also told the Princess's inquest in
London that Mr al Fayed began "ranting" and "swearing"
when the bodyguard refused to go on television for an appearance
he feared would fuel claims Diana was murdered; that Mr al Fayed's
head of security had asked him to persuade Trevor Rees - the sole
survivor of the crash - not to speak to police about it; and that
the Harrods tycoon's reaction to the news of the Princess's death
was to say: "I hope the British Government and Prince Philip
are happy now." Wingfield added that Dodi had told him the
ill-fated decoy plan to leave the Ritz Hotel from the rear, with
acting head of security Henri Paul at the wheel, had been personally
approved by Mohamed al Fayed. Mr Wingfield - known as Kes - originally
from Hull but now living in Jersey, is the only close witness
to the key events leading up to car smash who was not killed or
injured. He was with Diana and Dodi throughout their holiday on
Mr al Fayed's yacht, the Jonikal, in the last week of August 1997.
With fellow bodyguard Mr Rees, he accompanied them on to Paris
on August 30 and was present in the Ritz throughout the final
hours leading up to the crash in the Alma Tunnel in which Diana,
Dodi and Mr Paul were killed. Mr Rees was horrifically injured
and lost much of his memory of the incident itself but Mr Wingfield
was in another car at the time, as a "decoy" for the
pursuing paparazzi. Giving evidence, he told of a catalogue of
alleged security failings in the lead-up to the tragedy. He insisted
he had told Mr al Fayed in person that two security guards were
not enough to protect the couple on the yacht but had been refused
more. Mr Wingfield was adamant that Dodi continually kept the
two bodyguards in the dark about future movements - both on the
cruise and later in Paris - preventing them planning the Princess's
security. The former bodyguard described this as a "breach
of trust" between Dodi and his security team.
Mohamed
Fayed
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Sister says Diana
thought al-Fayed was bugging yacht
Mon Jan 28, 2008
LONDON (Reuters) - Princess Diana thought luxury store owner Mohamed
al-Fayed was spying on her during her last voyage on his yacht
before she died in a Paris car crash, her sister told the inquest
into Diana's death on Monday. Diana and Mohamed al-Fayed's son
Dodi were killed in a high-speed crash in a Paris road tunnel
in August 1997 while being chased by paparazzi desperate to capture
a shot of the world's most photographed woman. Just days before
she was killed, Diana rang her sister Sarah from the yacht Jonikal
while on holiday in the Mediterranean. When asked by lawyer Ian
Burnett if Diana had talked about being bugged, Sarah Mc Corquodale
said "She thought the boat was being bugged by Mr al-Fayed
Senior." Mohamed al-Fayed alleges that Dodi and Diana were
killed by security services on the orders of Prince Philip. Fayed
believes her killing was ordered because the royal family did
not want the mother of the future king having a child with his
son. He alleges that Diana's body was embalmed to cover up evidence
she was expecting a baby. But Mc Corquodale said she got the impression
that Diana's summer romance with Dodi al-Fayed was on its last
legs. "I just did not think the relationship had much longer
to go," she told the court. No mention was ever made of Diana
being pregnant or getting engaged to Dodi. Instead, she thought
her sister might have wed heart surgeon Hasnat Khan. "I believe
there was a strong possibility that they might have married,"
she said. "I don't think she believed the relationship was
ended or she hoped it wasn't," Mc Corquodale added. After
Diana's death, Mc Corquodale and her mother Frances Shand Kydd
spent several days shredding confidential documents at her Kensington
Palace home in London. "Nothing historical was ever shredded,"
according to Mc Corquodale who said she never saw any letters
from Prince Philip to Diana. She said she agreed with her mother
to destroy anything that might in future distress Diana's sons,
Princess William and Harry.
VIDEO http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=1095451&ch=5127641&cl=6131903&src=ukyvideo
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Diana paparazzi
defend inquest no-show
ITN - Thursday, January 24, 2008 Two French paparazzi who pursued
Princess Diana are defending their decision not to testify at
her inquest.
Six people were detained on
the night of the 1997 crash after taking more than 100 pictures
of the crash scene. Coroner Lord Justice Scott Baker wants Jacques
Langevin and Nikola Arsov to give evidence but so far they have
declined to co-operate. And with the French authorities refusing
to force them to comply with Lord Baker's request, it seems unlikely
that lawyers will get to question the pair on their memory of
events. The pair appear not to trust the UK proceedings and said
the release of pictures of their arrest had turned them against
the idea of attending the hearing at the High Court. Asked if
he owed it to history to give a final account of the incident,
Mr Langevin said: "It's not a question of honour or courage
because at the very beginning I accepted to go or to talk via
video link. And I talked to a representative of Judge Baker. "But
when I saw how it started I think for me the confidence is broken.
That's it. I have no confidence in the judge. "I'm not scared,
I'm not scared at all. But for me it's no use to go, that's it."
Nikola Arsov told ITV News at Ten: "When I received the summons
to a video link I thought well, why not give evidence? "But
then the British media published those arrest photographs. With
a picture of me like that, well it frightened me. Somehow it implies
we're still guilty."
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Police chief accused
of murder conspiracy
ITN - Thursday, January 17, 2008 Mohamed al Fayed's QC has accused
the most senior policeman at the time of the Princess of Wales'
death of being part of a conspiracy to murder her.
In an extraordinary clash Michael Mansfield QC suggested
that Lord Condon, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner at the
time of Diana's death, deliberately withheld evidence because
he knew Diana had been killed because of the activities of "British
state agencies".Lord Condon denied the allegation outright,
saying it was "abhorrent"" and "disgusting"
and amounted to calling him a murderer.The allegation stems from
a note made by Diana's lawyer Lord Mischon in 1995 after Diana
had told him she feared being killed in a car crash.The note was
handed by Lord Mishcon to Lord Condon 18 days after the 1997 crash
in Paris in which Diana was killed with Dodi Fayed and driver
Henri Paul.But the note did not come to light until 2003 when
it was passed to the Royal Coroner after a similar letter was
made public by Diana's former butler Paul Burrell, the court heard.Mr
Mansfield suggested that Lord Condon had a legal duty to pass
the note on immediately after the death.He explained that this
was not how he had viewed the matter.Mr Mansfield continued: "I'm
going to make it plain to you, Lord Condon, that the reason why
potentially relevant material was not handed to the coroner immediately,
and in fact not at all, until Paul Burrell put his letter in the
public domain ... was that you were sitting on it knowing that
something had gone wrong in Paris linked to the work of British
state agencies."The coroner interrupted to ask: "You
are suggesting, are you, that Lord Condon was part of a criminal
conspiracy?"Mr Mansfield replied: "Yes."Lord Condon
retaliated by saying: "That is about the most serious allegation
that could ever be made of someone in my position and I totally
refute it as a blatant lie. "I find the suggestion, though
I respect your right to raise it, as totally abhorrent, offensive
and would actually mean that I'm a murderer in essence, part of
a murderous conspiracy. The inquest also heard from a former employee
of Mr al Fayed who said he quit his job after being pressured
to help with a "falsification" about Diana's relationship
with Dodi. Reuben Murrell was head of security at Mr al Fayed's
Paris home, Villa Windsor, which the couple visited for half an
hour shortly before the fatal car crash. Mr Murrell said he was
encouraged to elaborate to American journalists that the couple
had visited the villa for longer than half an hour, and that they
were accompanied by an interior designer, thereby giving the impression
they were considering a permanent move there.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Burrell: 'Dodi relationship
had peaked'
ITN - Wednesday, January 16, 2008 The Princess of Wales' relationship
with Dodi had "peaked" days before the couple's death,
her former butler has claimed.
Mr Burrell told the inquest that Diana had called
him from Mohamed al Fayed's yacht, the Jonikal, and that she seemed
to be feeling "claustrophobic". He contrasted the whirlwind
romance with the long-term relationship Diana had enjoyed with
heart surgeon Hasnat Khan, and said Dodi and Diana were not about
to announce an engagement. He told the inquest that when he spoke
to Diana she appeared to be feeling quite "trapped",
with Dodi controlling her "every movement". He said:
"In one of the last conversations, she said she was feeling
claustrophobic... it was scorching hot on deck and freezing cold
in the air conditioning (below) and she was looking forward to
coming home. "I felt she was telling me, she was inferring,
that this relationship had reached its peak and it was going down
the other side." Mr Burrell had earlier admitted deliberately
keeping quiet about the ring which Dodi gave to Diana shortly
before her death. He wrote in his book, A Royal Duty, that the
only time he and Diana discussed a ring was in the summer of 1997
when he advised her to wear any ring on her right hand to avoid
claims of an engagement. But he was forced to admit to the court
that he had in fact picked up a ring with Diana's possessions
shortly after her death. He defended himself by saying: "The
reason I didn't include it in A Royal Duty was that I didn't feel
I had to at the time." Mr Burrell insists the Princess was
in love with Hasnat Khan, an issue about which Mr Mansfield claimed
Mr Burrell had "strong feelings". Mr Burrell admitted
this was true and the reason why he had downplayed in his first
book the presence of a ring from Dodi to Diana. The former royal
aide also agreed with Mr Mansfield that there were "concerns"
in the "establishment" about Diana's closeness to the
Fayed family. But he denied Mr Mansfield's claim that Prince Philip
had called Dodi an "oily bed hopper". The judge has
also been forced to issue a warning after confidential court papers
belonging to one of the lawyers in the case disappeared and mysteriously
turned up on the first floor of the Royal Courts of Justice. The
documents included a witness statement, a confidential letter
Paul Burrell had written to the coroner and other papers. They
were found on a first-floor landing at the Royal Courts of Justice,
an area which the lawyer, who is representing the president of
the Ritz in Paris, claims not to have visited.
Diana's
Rock or Diana's RAT?
Paul
Burrell biography
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Burrell 'lied' about
Dodi ring
ITN - Wednesday, January 16, 2008 Paul Burrell has admitted deliberately
keeping quiet about the ring which Dodi gave to Diana shortly
before her death, the inquest into her death has heard.
He wrote in his book, A Royal Duty, that the only
time he and Diana discussed a ring was in the summer of 1997 when
he advised her to wear any ring on her right hand to avoid claims
of an engagement. He wrote: "We never had another conversation
about a ring or whether one was actually produced." But he
was forced to admit to the court that he had in fact picked up
a ring with Diana's possessions shortly after her death. Michael
Mansfield, Mohamed al Fayed's QC, proceeded to accuse Mr Burrell
of lying in his book, a claim Mr Burrell said was a "strong"
term. He defended himself by saying: "The reason I didn't
include it in A Royal Duty was that I didn't feel I had to at
the time." But in a subsequent book, The Way We Were, written
a few years later, Mr Burrell gave more detail about the ring.
He explained this by saying: "So much was being said about
the Princess I only had to dispel the ... myth." Mr Burrell
insists the Princess was in love with heart surgeon Hasnat Khan,
an issue about which Mr Mansfield claimed Mr Burrell had "strong
feelings". Mr Burrell admitted this was true and the reason
why he had downplayed in his first book the presence of a ring
from Dodi to Diana. The former royal aide also agreed with Mr
Mansfield that there were "concerns" in the "establishment"
about Diana's closeness to the Fayed family. But he denied Mr
Mansfield's claim that Prince Philip had called Dodi an "oily
bed hopper". "I've never heard that phrase," he
told the jury. The judge has also been forced to issue a warning
after confidential court papers belonging to one of the lawyers
in the case disappeared. The documents included a witness statement,
a confidential letter Paul Burrell had written to the coroner
and other papers. They were found on a first-floor landing at
the Royal Courts of Justice, an area which the lawyer, who is
representing the president of the Ritz in Paris, claims not to
have visited.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Loyalty? This man
wouldn't know how to spell it
By GEOFFREY LEVY and RICHARD KAY
- More by this author »
Last updated 15th January 2008
Even through the most gruelling
moments of his two day examination at the Diana inquest, there
has been something intriguing about Paul Burrell's demeanour.
It's more than confidence. It isn't conceit or even arrogance.
And he certainly isn't afraid. More than anything, there is a
certainty in the way he has faced his inquisitors, which says:
"I am the star of the show." "It isn't an act,"
says one central figure. "He really believes it."
In denial: Paul Burrell after
giving evidence at the High Court yesterday Inquest hears of the
night Tony Blair flirted with Princess Diana
The royal secret that never was: Diana's inquest descends into
farce as Fayed QC grills Burrell Police 'hid evidence of Diana's
murder fears because it was not relevant' 'Charles will abdicate
in favour of William' inquest hears
Because Burrell lives in Florida,
he could not have been compelled to give evidence. But he came.
Why? Because starring in what is turning into the most glamorous
and historic courtroom drama for years was irresistible, an opportunity
to transform himself from being merely famous into "a household
name". He simply had to be there. Let us be clear about one
thing: Burrell has always set out to be the living epilogue of
the Diana story and to make millions out of it.
To this end he has created
a fantasy world in which he has appointed himself the curator
of her secrets - secrets which he couldn't actually find yesterday,
even though he was ordered to do so by the coroner. Having mentioned
papers and a journal, he was instructed to produce them and was
driven almost 200 miles to his Cheshire house, only to return
empty-handed. They weren't there. He then claimed they must be
in the U.S. He does, however, happen to be the man in whose possession
after her death was that note, written in Diana's distinct hand,
in which she said she feared "my husband" was going
to arrange for her to have a car accident.
We may never be sure for whose
eyes that note was originally intended - as we were reminded yesterday,
she expressed the same fears to her then lawyer, the late Lord
Mishcon. But Burrell has suggested that she wrote it to him. He,
of course, lucratively let the entire world in on her fearful
secret, and that piece of paper is the trigger for the whole sorry
High Court affair. Now he spills out responses suggesting he has
further secrets. His appearance as a witness is, above all, Paul
Burrell on a self-marketing excursion, re-establishing himself
(as though we could ever be allowed to forget) as the most central
figure in Diana's life.
Burrell's rather fanciful
dreamworld, in which he continues to see himself as the keeper
of Diana's secrets, has made him richer than he could ever have
thought possible - his private fortune from books, TV shows and,
these days, a range of products from furniture to wine bearing
his "royal butler" imprimatur, is thought to be in the
realm of £7million. Not bad for a lorry driver's son from
the Derbyshire pit village of Grassmoor. These dreams have reached
such bloated proportions that he believes it can, surely, be only
a matter of time before Hollywood comes calling to make his life
story. And who better, he thinks, to play him on screen than Tom
Hanks, whom he has met several times, initially when Diana was
alive. "We even look alike," Burrell has been heard
to proclaim.
Four years after Diana's death,
Burrell - as the world's most famous butler - was invited to address
a convention of butlers and valets in Denver, Colorado. His theme
was "Loyalty", and he told them that the fundamental
quality of their profession was discretion. Inevitably, the convention
wanted to know about his relationship with Diana, and he told
them: "She knew she was safe with me, and she still is."
Some of his audience were moved almost to tears by his inspiring
words. But within a year it became clear that his loyalty was
principally to himself, and that his discretion had been tossed
aside as he delivered bucketful after bucketful of Diana's secrets.
These included unsavoury anecdotes, such as the night she wore
nothing but jewellery beneath her fur coat when she turned up
unexpectedly on Hasnat Khan's doorstep. (He got that wrong: It
was art dealer Oliver Hoare's Chelsea doorstep.) William and Harry,
you may remember, branded his book, A Royal Duty, a "cold
and overt betrayal".
Incredibly, Burrell, now 49,
refuses to accept that he betrayed their mother. With his sanctimonious,
priestly air of tenderness towards her, he continues to insist
- eyes shining with an almost spiritual virtue - that he has done
nothing to harm her memory, and that he remains the only true
keeper of her flame. "Burrell is in complete denial,"
observes one exasperated member of Diana's family. "Watching
him, it's almost as though he's in some kind of trance. But it's
not a trance so deep that he's doesn't know how to make money
out of her."
On Monday, under examination
at the inquest, Burrell - immaculately turned out in a hand-made
suit, his tie knotted with practised impeccability - described
himself as the "hub" of Diana's life, while everyone
else - poor souls - were merely the spokes. His reputation is
largely built on being known as Diana's "rock", but
Patrick Jephson, who was her private secretary for eight years,
long ago made it plain that she used the same word about practically
everyone in her team.
Yesterday Princess Margaret's
old chauffeur, David Griffin, who for years was a neighbour at
Kensington Palace, expressed amazement at the way Burrell continues
to promote himself as the central figure in Diana's life. "I
still remember the day, not long before she died, when she came
out of her house moaning about Burrell going through her private
letters," he said. "She said to me, 'I'm going to have
to get rid of that man'. I said, 'You don't mean it', and she
replied, 'Yes I do'."
So just what was the "loyal"
Burrell doing? Not stealing them - we accept he wasn't doing that,
thanks to the last-minute intervention of the Queen five years
ago when Burrell was on trial at the Old Bailey. He'd been charged
with stealing 300 of Diana's personal possessions but, just before
Burrell was due to go into the witness box, the Queen recalled
how he had told her he was "looking after" some of Diana's
things.
And yet Burrell has certainly
displayed a remarkable knowledge of Diana's intimate affairs,
as though he kept a record of them. And now we know that he kept
a diary, a very odd thing for a man claiming loyalty and discretion
at his core, and other records which - equally puzzlingly - he
has admitted destroying. All this from a man who has said he was
horrified when he came across Diana's mother Mrs Frances Shand
Kydd shredding her daughter's correspondence because he felt she
was destroying history.
Nowadays the former footman
to the Queen - he transferred to Charles and Diana's household
- lives in great style in Florida, not far from Orlando and a
half-hour drive from Walt Disney World, the home of fairytales.
Burrell has settled into American society, happily pointed out
wherever he goes, not only as the man in the Diana story but one
who has taken to American life so completely that he drives a
top-of-the-range Cadillac. He moved to the U.S. after selling
his story to escape the initial hostility in Britain for breaking
his vow of silence. Now, with endless opportunities to make money
out of Diana and fascinate endless audiences with his tales of
palace life, he has stayed there. His detached villa is decorated
in creams and beiges, with matching sofas and rugs that might
have been chosen by Diana herself. He still has the house in Farndon,
near Chester, which the £50,000 special "loyalty"
gift given to him by Diana's family after her death helped him
to buy. His wife, Maria (a former maid to Prince Philip), and
their two sons Alexander, 22, and Nicholas, 19, who used to play
with William and Harry, joined Burrell a year ago.
The Burrells still own their
flower shop near Farndon, but it is very small beer these days,
compared with the millions generated by the Burrell brand name
on his range of goods. There is the Paul Burrell Furniture Collection,
with a range of dressers and sofas made to look like tasteful
pieces from English country homes; the Burrell Rug Collection
made in New York and claimed to be "inspired" by him;
fine china sold as the Royal Butler brand, a specially blended
ten-year-old Scotch whisky and a range of New World wines from
Australia sold as the Royal Butler Wine Collection. All these
products explain why Paul Burrell was so anxious to make himself
the centrepiece of the circus that the inquest has become. He
was encouraged to fly to the old country by his openly gay Florida
neighbour Chuck Webb, the man who has taught Burrell how to make
the most from his celebrity. Webb and his partner, Ron Ruff, have
been friends of his for years and when Burrell - who has a history
of gay liaisons - moved to America, he built his home on land
next door to them. A shrewd former art gallery owner and charity
organiser, Webb helped out Burrell financially when he was broke
and almost suicidal after his arrest in the middle of the night
in Cheshire. On his arrival as a neighbour, he made himself the
pivotal figure behind the income from personal endorsement that
Burrell now makes - some £3million thus far on top of what
he has made from his books. Webb saw the money-making potential
of marketing the living link with Diana, the man who made himself
the curator of her memory. He designed the website, PaulBurrellrvm.com
on which, with unbelievable tackiness, the cursor is a coronet.
The "rvm" stands for the Royal Victorian Medal which
the Queen pinned on Burrell's chest at Buckingham Palace two months
after Diana's death when he reached 21 years in royal service,
telling him: "I can't tell you how happy I am to give you
this. It means an awful lot. Thank you for all you have done."
One doubts whether she would
say the same today.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Diana lover wants
speculation to end
ITN - Tuesday, January 15, 2008 The Princess of Wales's former
lover hopes the inquest into her death answers "all the questions
that have been asked".
Hasnat Khan said the inquest should mark the end
of speculation surrounding the Princess's death. He said: "I
hope it answers all the questions which have been asked. "For
me, I think it's important that this is the end of it, and that
people can move on. "What I would like to see is the inquest
establish an end to it." The 48-year-old heart specialist
broke his silence at the weekend to talk about his relationship
with the woman who described him as "Mr Wonderful".
Dr Khan has received a letter suggesting that the coroner may
want him to appear at the inquest, but he said it is unlikely
he will attend.
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Burrell's "secret"
already known
ITN - Tuesday, January 15, 2008 Paul Burrell returned from a 400-mile
dash across England to retrieve a letter from Princess Diana which
he said revealed a final "secret", only to announce
he had left it in America.
But the much vaunted "secret" - which
he raised at her inquest yesterday and said he would take to his
grave - turned out to be no secret at all, the coroner revealed.
On Monday Mr Burrell was ordered by the judge to "Hotfoot"
it from London to his home in Farndon, Cheshire, to retrieve the
documents including the key letter. But he returned from the trip,
having had just two hours sleep, to reveal that the letter was
not there. In a note to the coroner, Lord Justice Scott Baker,
he disclosed what the "secret" had been. But the coroner
told him in front of a packed audience: "(There is) not in
fact one secret but two secrets and you describe them to me in
the letter. "But having examined the matter it doesn't seem
to me that they are secrets at all. "Both pieces of information
are fairly and squarely in the public domain in one way or another,
one of them indeed appears in your book The Way We Were."
The lack of a final "secret" came as a huge anticlimax
after Mr Burrell's eagerly-anticipated testimony had been expected
to reveal yet more intimate details about the Princess. He has
already told the hearing at the High Court how the relationship
sparked friction with Diana's mother Frances Shand Kydd after
she branded Diana a "whore" for dating Muslim men. Mr
Burrell, 49, who has flown in from the US to give evidence, told
the court how Diana had made inquiries about a marriage to Mr
Khan. He recounted how he had approached his local Carmelite priest
Father Anthony Parsons in Kensington to ask about arranging a
"private" wedding between a Christian and a Muslim.
He said Mr Khan had been introduced to Diana's sons, Princes William
and Harry, and had become part of the "fixtures and fittings"
at the Palace. "She did ask me if it would be possible to
arrange a private marriage between her and Mr Hasnat Khan so I
thought the first person I should really consult would be my parish
priest. "The Princess said that this was her soul mate, this
was the man she loved more than any other and it was a very deep
spiritual relationship."
Burrell
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Burrell: 'Diana
was not engaged'
ITN - Monday, January 14, 2008 Former royal butler Paul Burrell
has told the inquest into Diana's death that he did not believe
the Princess and Dodi Fayed were engaged.
Mr Burrell worked for Diana for ten years and grew
so close to her that she referred to him as "my rock".
The former aide told a packed courtroom that he thought Diana's
relationship with Dodi was an "exciting time" and that
Diana had been given a ring by Dodi but that it was not an engagement
ring. He said: "It was not an engagement ring, it was a friendship
band." Talking about the relationship, he claimed it did
not start during a holiday on Dodi's father's yacht at the end
of July 1997, as is widely believed, but only after their return.
He said the relationship with Dodi was "only a 30-day relationship"
and that she was on the rebound from her two-year relationship
with Dr Hasnat Khan. Speaking about his own relationship with
Diana, Mr Burrell claimed he was at the "hub" of her
world. He said:"I was at the hub of the wheel, everybody
was at the spokes, I connected all the Princess's friends and
all her world. "All the Princess's friends didn't know each
other. The Princess would confide in certain people with certain
issues and not everyone would know everything, people would know
certain amounts. "It became increasingly obvious as the Princess
dispensed with her staff, I took on more and more responsibility."
Mr Burrell worked for Diana up until her death and often worked
16-hour days fulfilling a range of duties including washing her
underwear and assisting her with communications with the Palace.
After her death he was accused of stealing 300 of her personal
items, including private correspondence. The case against him
was dramatically halted after the Queen came forward and said
Mr Burrell had told her he was planning to take the items for
safe keeping.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paul Burrell Testifying
The Associated Press By ROBERT
BARR Associated Press Writer
LONDON Jan 14, 2008 (AP)
Share Princess Diana's former butler has a secret, but
he can't remember what it is. Paul Burrell, testifying Monday
at a coroner's inquest into her death, said the answer might be
in a journal he kept but was unwilling to disclose. He later said
there was no journal, he never kept one. He was also most reluctant
to say which member of the royal family told Diana she should
beware of surveillance, but he did write the name down and pass
it to the coroner, Lord Justice Scott Baker. Baker looked at the
note, and said it had no relevance to the proceeding. Later, in
an increasingly surreal day, Baker said the surveillance warning
did not come from Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip or Sarah,
Duchess of York. Burrell's note was given to a court official
for safekeeping, and not disclosed. The upshot was that Burrell
was urged to go to his home in Cheshire in northwestern England
to retrieve the documents he does have, and lawyers were poised
to seek any copies held by Burrell's ghostwriter or his publishers.
Whatever the secret was, Burrell said it had nothing to do with
Dodi Fayed, whose death with Diana in a Paris car crash on Aug.
31, 1997, is also a subject of the inquest. In his book "A
Royal Duty," published in 2003, Burrell quoted a note that
Diana wrote to him not long before she died. "This coming
weekend is an important one," she wrote, and she was touched
that he shared her excitement. "What a secret!" the
note said. What was it? attorney Michael Mansfield asked Burrell.
He wouldn't say. Pressed by Mansfield, Burrell said he knew, but
that it "had nothing to do with Dodi Al Fayed." Later
he said, "I cannot remember what that particular secret was."
Burrell said notes of his thoughts and feelings while working
with Diana were handed over to ghostwriter Steve Dennis, and then
destroyed. Burrell first told Mansfield, who represents Fayed's
father, Mohamed Al Fayed, that he kept a diary. "As the princess
had taught me and as the queen had taught me to keep a diary and
to keep a journal, I kept a note of those events because it's
part of history and I think that history should be written by
those who witnessed, not those who weren't there," Burrell
said.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Burrell: 'Diana
wanted to marry Hasnat'
ITN - Monday, January 14, 2008 The Princess of Wales was planning
to marry heart surgeon Hasnat Khan, Paul Burrell has told the
inquest into her death.
Diana's former butler said he spoke to his local
catholic priest about arranging a "private wedding"
between a Christian and a Muslim. Mr Burrell worked for Diana
for ten years and grew so close to her that she referred to him
as "my rock". His account of Diana's relationship with
Mr Khan contradicts Mohamed Al Fayed's claim that his son Dodi
was going to marry Diana. Mr Burrell suggested Diana was using
her relationship with Dodi to make Mr Khan jealous and that she
still "held a candle" for him despite the break-up of
the relationship a few weeks before she met Dodi. Talking of Diana's
relationship with Mr Khan, he said Diana had introduced him to
her sons and that he had become part of the "fixtures and
fittings" at the Palace. Asked by Ian Burnett QC, representing
the inquest, whether she "contemplated" marriage with
Mr Khan, the former butler replied: "Yes, she did."
He continued: "She asked me if it was possible to arrange
a private marriage between her and Hasnat Khan." The former
royal butler went on to say he did not believe the Princess and
Dodi Fayed were ever engaged. He told a packed courtroom that
he thought Diana's relationship with Dodi was an "exciting
time" and that Diana had been given a ring by Dodi but that
it was not an engagement ring. He said: "It was not an engagement
ring, it was a friendship band." He claimed Diana and Dodi's
relationship did not start during a holiday on Dodi's father's
yacht at the end of July 1997, as is widely believed, but only
after their return. He said the relationship with Dodi was "only
a 30-day relationship" and that she was on the rebound from
her two-year relationship with Dr Hasnat Khan. Speaking about
his own relationship with Diana, Mr Burrell claimed he was at
the "hub" of her world. He said:"I was at the hub
of the wheel, everybody was at the spokes, I connected all the
Princess's friends and all her world."
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Diana sent "nasty"
notes by Prince Philip
ITN - Thursday, January 10, 2008. Prince Philip wrote "cruel"
and "derogatory" letters to Princess Diana which left
her furious and upset, the inquest into her death has heard.
Simone Simmons, a complementary therapist and confidante
of Diana, said the Duke of Edinburgh sent two "nasty"
notes criticizing her conduct. The inquest has already seen affectionate
letters written by the Duke to Diana in 1992 as he tried to help
save her marriage to Prince Charles. But the therapist claims
that the two letters she saw - one written in 1994 and the other
in 1995 - showed a different side to the relationship. Ms Simmons
and Diana became friends when the royal began attending regular
energy healing sessions in 1993 at the clinic she ran. She told
the inquest that Diana had a book on graphology, the study of
handwriting, which she used to examine the writing styles of other
royals. Ms Simmons said: "She showed me a couple of nasty
letters as we were going through analyzing things according to
this book. Diana drew my attention only to two letters that really
upset her. "Diana read one out to me, she was furious and
she was imitating the voice of the Duke of Edinburgh." When
questioned by Michael Mansfield QC, representing Mohamed al Fayed,
she said that one of the notes was typed while the other was hand-written.
Both were signed by the Duke. Mr Mansfield asked if the notes
were derogatory and Ms Simmons replied: "Yes and very cruel
as well," adding that they left Diana "red in the face".
The court also heard evidence from Dodi Fayed's former personal
bodyguard, John Johnson. He denied Mr al Fayed's claim that Dodi
and the Princess visited Repossi jewelry shop during an hour-long
visit to Monte Carlo during their yachting holiday in August 1997.
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