Twist on last day of Diana evidence

by greg1usa | March 31, 2008 at 10:17 pm

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As the the inquest into the death of Diana, Princess of Wales draws to a close, Looking back, This one event in England's history will never match anything that england has ever seen before or in the future.

Watch A Video in Memory Of Diana

Diana inquest warned of witness 'lies'

Doubts over pregnancy

Mr Fayed, the Harrods tycoon, was described as the man who shone the spotlight on some of the most private details of Diana's love life because of his claim that she was pregnant.

Lord Baker acknowledged that Mr Fayed was among a group of relatives who had lost loved ones in the car crash which killed his son Dodi, Diana and Mr Paul.

Witnesses, including friends Rosa Monckton, Lucia Flecha De Lima and Lady Annabel Goldsmith, have stated there was no chance that Diana was pregnant. They noticed she had her period within the weeks before she died. Her former lover, Hasnat Khan, said the princess was "assiduous" in taking the contraceptive pill.

No tests to check if she was pregnant were conducted and embalming her body would not have hidden signs of a baby, experts have told the court.

The experts involved in the post-mortem examination did not notice a pregnancy, despite Mr Fayed's claim that the couple had told him of one on the telephone an hour before they died.

Claims of execution

"There is no evidence that the Duke of Edinburgh ordered Princess Diana's execution, and there is no evidence that the Secret Intelligence Service or any other government agency organised it," Lord Justice Scott Baker said yesterday.

In one sentence he demolished the case pursued for more than a decade by Mohamed al-Fayed that the Duke of Edinburgh had orchestrated the murders of Diana, Princess of Wales, and Dodi Fayed.

Mr Fayed has maintained that Diana was pregnant and that the Royal Family wanted to prevent them marrying and stop Dodi, a Muslim, becoming the step-father of the future king.

Jurors had heard evidence that the princess feared dying in a car crash, but also had speculated about death in a helicopter or plane crash. There was testimony that she felt intimidated by Prince Philip, her former father-in-law. Diana inquest: Key events

Princess Diana died after the crash in the Pont de l'Alma Tunnel

A decade after her fatal accident, an inquest into the death of Diana, Princess of Wales is nearing its conclusion at London's High Court.

The inquest, which is being overseen by coroner Lord Justice Scott Baker, began on 2 October 2007.

The following are some of the key points evidence heard during the six-month hearing:

Twist on last day of Diana evidence By Lucy Rodgers
BBC News
Mohamed Al Fayed re-entered the witness box

It seemed the last day of evidence in the inquests into the deaths of Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed was going to be rather mundane.

After the headline-making appearances at the Royal Courts of Justice of Dodi's father, Mohamed, and former royal butler Paul Burrell, it appeared to be a day of tying up loose ends.

The morning was taken up with discussions centering on a vial of blood taken from driver Henri Paul after the fatal Paris car crash on 31 August 1997, which killed Mr Paul, along with Diana, 36, and Dodi, 42.

The blood sample taken from Mr Paul's body - showing his blood-alcohol level was twice the drink-drive limit for UK motorists - has been long disputed.

No evidence of royals plotting to kill Diana: JudgeReuters

Posted online: Tuesday , April 01, 2008 at 08:04:27
Updated: Tuesday , April 01, 2008 at 08:04:27

London, April 1: A coroner said on Monday there was no evidence Queen Elizabeth's husband ordered the 'execution' of Princess Diana in a 1997 car crash, dismissing the conspiracy theories of her late lover's father.

Lord Justice Scott Baker, the coroner at the inquest into her death, described several witnesses as liars and dismissed allegations made by Mohamed Al Fayed, whose son Dodi also died when their car crashed in Paris as paparazzi pursued them.

Fayed, the owner of the luxury Harrods department store in London, had suggested Dodi and Diana were killed by British security services on the orders of Queen Elizabeth's husband, Prince Philip, because the royal family did not want the mother of the future king having a child with his son.

After almost six months listening to more than 250 witnesses, the judge told the jury in his summing up: "There is no evidence that the Duke of Edinburgh ordered Diana's execution and there is no evidence that the security intelligence service or any other government agency organised it."

The judge said he had decided not to call Prince Philip as a witness because the evidence "provided no basis whatsoever in suggesting that he was involved in killing his daughter-in-law."

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. The car crashed in a road tunnel.

POSSIBLE VERDICTS

Scott Baker set out the possible verdicts the jury could reach, but said: "It is not open to you to find that Diana and Dodi were unlawfully killed in a staged accident."

He said possible verdicts included unlawful killing through gross negligence either by Henri Paul, by "following vehicles" or by both.

Other possibilities were accidental death or an open verdict if the 11-member jury felt there was insufficient evidence to support any substantive verdict.

Scott Baker, who said his summing up could take until Wednesday morning, told the jury that certain witnesses at the inquest had not told the truth.

"One of the regrettable features of this case is the number of people who have told lies in the witness box or elsewhere."

Among those he singled out were Diana's butler Paul Burrell, whose three days of testimony were described by lawyers as being "all over the place".

The judge said "You will probably want to take with a pinch of salt many things that he said in evidence because of the inconsistencies and, you may think, lies in what he told you."

Fayed had told the court that Dodi and Diana rang him up just one hour before the fatal crash to say they were engaged and she was pregnant.

"The issue fairly and squarely raises Mohamed al-Fayed's credibility. Is he a man on whose word you can rely?," Scott Baker said. "His beliefs may be genuine... but there is no doubt that many of them have no support in evidence at all."