There are many conspiracy theories surrounding the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, on 31 August 1997. Official investigations in both Britain and France found that Diana died in a manner consistent with media reports following the fatal car crash in Paris. In 1999, a French investigation concluded that Diana died as the result of a crash;Paul Webster and Stuart Millar "Diana verdict sparks Fayed appeal", The Guardian, 5 September 1999 French investigating judge Hervé Stéphan concluded that the paparazzi were some distance from the Mercedes S280 when it crashed and were not responsible for manslaughter. After hearing evidence at the British inquest, a jury in 2008 returned a verdict of "unlawful killing" by driver Henri Paul and the paparazzi pursuing the car. The jury's verdict also stated: "In addition, the death of the deceased was caused or contributed to by the fact that the deceased were not wearing a seat belt and by the fact that the Mercedes struck the pillar in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel rather than colliding with something else."Scott Baker's hearing transcripts at the verdict
Active in disputing the official version of events were the British tabloid newspaper the Daily ExpressBrown, Tina The Diana Chronicles, Random House, 2007, p.406Jack, Louise "The Express' and Diana: Cover-ups, spies and conspiracies", The Independent, 18 December 2006 and Egyptian businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed, whose son, Dodi, was Diana's partner at the time and also died in the crash. In 2003, Diana's butler, Paul Burrell, published a note that he claimed had been written by Diana in 1995, in which there were allegations that her husband was "planning 'an accident' in [Diana's] car, brake failure and serious head injury" so that he could marry again. She had allegedly expressed similar concerns to Lord Mishcon, her solicitor, that "reliable sources" had told her "that she and Camilla would be put aside" for Charles to marry Tiggy Legge-Bourke. Until a synod of 2002, the Anglican Church prohibited divorced people remarrying. The allegations were later revealed to have been among the smears spread by journalist Martin Bashir to secure an interview with Diana for the BBC.
A special Metropolitan Police inquiry team was established in 2004, Operation Paget, headed by Commissioner John Stevens to investigate the various conspiracy theories which led to the British inquest. This investigation looked into 175 conspiracy claims that had been made by Fayed.Martyn Gregory "Al-Fayed can't rewrite the death of Diana", The Independent, 7 October 2007 In 2005, Charles, as a witness, told Stevens that he did not know about his former wife's note from 1995 and could not understand why she had these feelings. Fayed persistently propounded what were found to be conspiracy theories at the inquest,Gordon Rayner "Coroner: No evidence Diana was murdered", telegraph.co.uk, 31 March 2008Stephen Bates "No evidence Diana killed by MI6, coroner tells jury", The Guardian, 1 April 2008 and repeatedly claimed that he believed his son was murdered with Diana."Diana murdered, Al Fayed claims", BBC News, 18 February 2008
Henri Paul Security service connections Theorists have alleged that the driver of the Mercedes-Benz W140, Henri Paul, was in the pay of a national security service, though different versions of the allegation name the country of the security service alternately as Britain, France or the United States. Evidence purported to support this arose mainly from money in his possession at the time of his death, and his personal wealth. These allegations are covered in chapter four of the Operation Paget criminal investigation report. Mohamed Al-Fayed claimed that Henri Paul was working for MI6 and that they set him up. The inquiry found no evidence Henri Paul was an agent for any security service.
Blood samples Another allegation concerns the reliability of blood tests carried out, which indicated Paul had been drinking before he took the controls of the car. The French investigators' conclusion that Paul was drunk was made on the basis of an analysis of blood samples, which were said to contain an alcohol level that was more than three times the French legal limit. This initial analysis was challenged by a British pathologist hired by Al-Fayed. In response, French authorities carried out a third test, this time using the more medically conclusive vitreous fluid from inside the eye, which matched the level of alcohol measured by blood and also revealed Paul had been taking antidepressants.
It has been claimed that the level of alcohol reported to have been found in Paul's blood was inconsistent with his sober demeanor, as captured on the CCTV of the Ritz that evening."Q&A: What really happened", BBC News, 8 April 2008 Robert Forrest, a forensic pathologist, said that an alcoholic like Paul, with a higher tolerance for alcohol, would be able to appear more sober than he actually was.Martyn Gregory Diana: The Last Days, p.122Clive Myrie "A tragic end to a day in Paris", BBC News, 7 April 2008 The families of Dodi Fayed and Henri Paul did not accept the findings of the French investigation.
It was disclosed in 2006 that Lord Stevens had met Paul's elderly parents and told them that their son was not drunk.Andrew Alderson "Stevens faces grilling over Diana's driver", telegraph.co.uk, 10 February 2008 Just prior to Stevens's appearance at the inquest, a source close to Stevens stated that this inconsistency could be explained as him being "considerate" and "sensitive" towards the elderly couple, an assessment Scott Baker suggested might be credible in his opening comments to the jury.Paul Cheston and Robert Jobson "Stevens must explain 'drunk'U-turn", Evening Standard, 3 October 2007 Under cross-examination at the British inquest in 2008, Stevens denied "deliberately misleading" Paul's parents and said that the chauffeur's condition at the time of the crash did not match the police's definition of being drunk, which he said relied upon someone's physical responses."Lord Stevens demands apology for Al Fayed allegations 'that he failed to properly investigate Diana's death'", Evening Standard, 15 February 2008 Stevens said that the available evidence suggested Paul had consumed only two alcoholic drinks, but this was not necessarily all that Paul had consumed, and that he was "under the influence" of alcohol at the time of the crash. An expert cited in the report estimated that Paul had drunk the equivalent of five measures of Ricard, his favourite liquorice-flavoured French aperitif, before driving.
Conspiracy theorists have also cited "rumours about the high levels of carbon monoxide found in Henri Paul's blood as indicating that something sinister happened, either to Henri Paul or to his blood samples", and claim that "had Paul really had such high levels of carbon monoxide in his blood, he could not have functioned at all, let alone driven a car." In two French TOXLAB tests which established the level of carbon monoxide in Paul's blood, one showed a level of 12.8% carboxyhaemoglobin saturation, which occurs when blood's iron-carrying pigment (haemoglobin) is bound with carbon monoxide (instead of oxygen). "A nonsmoker has about 1 percent of carbon monoxide in his/her blood, whereas smokers will routinely have a level of 8-10 percent or more if they have recently smoked." Paul had been smoking small cigarillo cigars in the hours before the crash."A tender touch, minutes before death drive", The Scotsman, 5 October 2007 However, the second test, which has been cited by the opponents of the official findings, showed Paul's carboxyhaemoglobin saturation at a level of 20.7% at the time of his death. In the ITV documentary Diana - Secrets Behind the Crash, broadcast on 3 June 1998, "Dr. Alister Hay, introduced as a Carbon Monoxide Expert, told viewers that carbon monoxide disperses at the rate of 'about half every four or five hours.' So, in other words, the level of 20.7 percent found during Paul's autopsy could have been 40 percent several hours earlier when he died. Had Henri Paul really had 40 percent carbon monoxide in his system, it would have been impossible for him to function at all, according to Dr. Hay, let alone drive a car. A level of 20–30 percent produces strong headaches, and a level of 30–40 percent would cause nausea, vertigo and vomiting."
In 1999, investigators claimed that the high carbon monoxide level was likely "due to Paul inhaling gas from the car's air bags" after the crash, although according to Dr. Murray Mackay, "one of the world's leading crash investigators [...] the airbags used in the type of car in which Paul died do not contain any carbon-monoxide", and "it would not have been possible for Paul to have inhaled a sufficient quantity of gas, as the autopsy had established that he had died instantly." However, Dr. Murray nonetheless maintains "that both the levels of carbon monoxide found by the French scientists in Henri Paul's blood were 'perfectly explainable and unremarkable'", and that "mundane factors, such as Paul's intake of tobacco shortly before his death, were the most likely cause of the 20.7 percent reading."
Claims circulated in news media in November 2006 that the blood samples tested did not belong to Paul but were taken from a suicide victim. However, DNA testing ordered by French authorities in response appeared to confirm that the blood samples with high alcohol levels were from Paul. The tests compared the samples with DNA provided by Paul's parents. However, the DNA test results were challenged at Diana's 2008 British inquest. The coroner, Lord Justice Scott Baker, acknowledged that there were issues with the DNA tests and told the jury:
Nevertheless, the jury's verdict identified Paul's drunk driving as contributing to the crash.
Tomlinson's allegation of MI6 involvement Richard Tomlinson, a former MI6 officer who was dismissed from the intelligence services and later served five months in prison for breaching the Official Secrets Act 1989,"Richard Tomlinson and the Big Breach" , MI5 website claimed in a sworn statement to the French inquiry in May 1999 that Britain's MI6 had been involved in the crash, suggesting that the security service had documentation which would assist Judge Stephan in his inquiry."Tomlinson deposition" , Inside News website (Switzerland) The previous August, he had been reported by the BBC to have claimed that Paul was working for the security services and that one of Diana's bodyguards, either Trevor Rees-Jones (now known as Trevor Rees) or Kes Wingfield, was a contact for British intelligence."Ex-spy speaks to Diana inquiry", BBC News, 28 August 1998 Tomlinson alleged that MI6 was monitoring Diana before her death, had told Mohamed Al-Fayed that Paul was an MI6 agent,"MI6 'Diana-style' plot dismissed", BBC News, 13 February 2008 and that her death mirrored plans he saw in 1992 for the assassination of then President of Serbia Slobodan Milošević, using a strobe light to blind his chauffeur.Nick Allen "Diana inquest: MI6 'plotted tunnel murder'", The Telegraph, 12 February 2013