The Deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales, and Dodi Al Fayed on August 31, 1997, has gone into an inquest, to finally put the questions to rest along with the Princess.
The highlights of the inquest to Diana's Death has gone into week one, and had taken the jury from the initial inquest day of determining if Diana was pregnant.
If she feared for her life.
Was Dodi going to give her an engagement ring (on the night they died)?
Was Diana's driver drunk when he got behind the wheel?
And what was the Brittish Secret Services doing in Paris on the night Diana was killed?
Was Diana Pregnant? October 02/07
A photo of Diana in a leopard skin bikini was shown to the court, to prove she looked pregnant. It was apparently taken in 1997 and said to be when she met Dodi, and therefore was dismissed, as the time frame prevailed that from proving that if she was pregnant, it was impossible for Dodi to be the father. (They didn't have enough time to get pregnant, in other words.)
There was attention drawn to Brittish Secret Service, where they had been told members of the M16 from Brittan were in Paris during the night Diana and Dodi were killed. Diana and Dodi were not of interest to the M16 members, as they were there for business concerning other matters.
Diana and Dodi cuddling by exit on video at Ritz. October 03/07
In the days to follow the jury was shown video footage from the Ritz Hotel, the hours prior to Diana and Dodi's death. Footage of them in the elevator lift, on route to the exit. Footage of them waiting by the exit for their car, trying to leave the Ritz without the pap rats knowledge and unwanted attention.
7 min video, of pap rats outside Ritz Hotel. October 04/07
They saw footage from a tourist, from Australia, who had a seven minute video catching the decoy plan on video, to throw off the pap rats, from Diana and Dodi's trail.
As the Ritz provided footage from 20 security cameras, the jury had seen the events from all angles. The Driver, Henry Paul had visited the bar, two hours prior to driving Diana and Dodi's car.
In week two, the jury will be flown to Paris, to walk Diana's final footsteps prior to her death.
Recap? I have been a huge, huge, fan of Princess Diana, and have collected noveltys about the Royals, and have been fascinated with the beautiful Princess, following her life since I can remember. It is with a heavy heart that I do these follow-ups, but I believe we all need to let the Princess Sleep in Peace, and this Inquest will hopefully do that.
Here's some historical facts for you, summing it up into the years that lead to this inquest.
1995 Princess Diana, was stripped of her title as Her Royal Highness, and given a new title of Diana, Princess of Wales, due to her affair with her riding coach which she admitted on tv. Prince Charles also admitted to an affair. Diana also at that time had fear of being committed to a home for her bulimic, and depression problems, that supposedly embarrassed the Royals. Diana had gone public with her private life, unbenounced to the Royals, and she was accused of sicking the public on her personal life, a snow ball affect that she was blamed for bringing onto herself. And its a historical fact, that we all have come to understand, it was a cry for help!
1996
Princess Diana and Prince Charles Divorced. (Married in 1981)
1997
Dianas boys, along with the world mourn the funeral of Princess Diana. The Britts have been watching the foundation for the inquest of their beloved Princess of Wales, since the tragic car accident that took Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayeds lives in Paris.
1998
Memorials for Diana were set in place, and tickets were sold to visit her gravesite.
1999
Diana's body guard, Trevor Rees-Jones was cleared in the inquiry of the crash killing Diana and Dodi. Charities and the causes she believed in, continue in her memory. The world still in mourning.
2000
Trevor Rees-Jones, Diana's body guard, speaks openly, saying the pap rats set the events that created the accident for Diana's death.
2001
Diana's Butler was caught stealing and selling the Princess of Wales gowns, and other items belonging to her and her children.
The memorial garden for the Princess opened in Paris.
2002
Paul Burrell and Harold Brown, Diana's butlers on trial for stealing the Princess of Wales gowns. The charges were dropped by Prince Charles and the Queen, during an internal inquest into the thefts. Burrell, then sold his story about being a Royal Butler, being unkind to Diana's family the Spensors, and telling so-called Royal Secrets, and referring to himself as one Diana called her confident, 'her rock'.
And in 2002 Diana was voted, Greatest Briton.
Also in 2002, Charges were dropped against nine pap rats in total, for manslaughter, and failing to assist at the scene of an accident. (They were too busy taking photos of Diana and Dodi's bodies, to offer help, and those photos were confiscated by the police and have never gone to print.)
2003
Also a letter written by the hand of Diana was taken into consideration by the coronor of her death, but did not end the allegations and uncertainty surrounding her death. She had suspected 10 months prior to her death, that Prince Charles would want to remarry. She had foretold she feared a car accident would be her demise, talking about the brakes in her car could be tampered with. The letter wasn't officially released, but her butler claimed that the Royals had accused him of theft. The Butler had actually taken Diana's personal letters entrusted to him by Diana, that had spelled out the name of the person she feared would want her dead.
The struggles of a grieving father, Mohamed Al Fayed, has turned into a pursuit of justice, that has closed many doors in his face, through these difficult years.
Mohamed Al Fayed lost in his war waged against the pap rats in France. He rallied to have the pap rats tried for manslaughter, after the high courts of France dropped the charges of Manslaughter, and was overruled as France determined the pap rats were too far away to cause the accident.
Also in 2003 The Inquest into Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayeds death was announced to occur in Brittan. It is customary for the Britts to hold an inquest to a death when it occurs outside their country. The police investigations going on in France weren't complete and have been why the inquest has been held up.
2004
The pap rats in the high speed chase, which led to the death of Diana faced charges of invasion of privacy. The pap rats were cleared of charges of invasion of privacy, as its illegal in France to take photos of celebrities in cars, as thats considered as sacred as your own home. The photos taken of Diana and Dodis bodies, and wrecked Mercedes, were confiscated so therefore the French deemed no harm done. And also reportedly, the judge had considered that no intimate or private secrets that werent already public knowledge was revealed by their photos.
Also in 2004 A video tape was released in America on NBC News, featuring Princess Diana's voice recorded in 1992. She had expressed fear that the death of her body guard Barry Mannakee, in a car accident back in 1987, wasn't an accident. (Which later was revealed he and Diana had an affair.)That was around the time of separation with Prince Charles, and before her divorce. On the voice tapes, Diana hadn't mentioned the man's name for whom she spoke of, but she did reveal she would have been happy to run away with him, and leave her royal duties behind. The Brittish police then reopened the case involving the death of Barry Mannakee, and seized the tapes of Diana's Voice coach from her Butler in 2004 and returned it to Peter Settelen, who was teaching Diana to openly speak about her private life in public.
2004 again.
The private pictures in Paris somehow leaked out. A controversy over whether the American Press should have released photos of the Princess and Dodi, as they lay dying in a crash to the public, drew up quite a stir.
2005
French Court determined Drinking and Driving. England was finally able to begin their own inquest. As the French Courts concluding the inquest into Princess Diana's Death, determining it was a drinking and driving (mixed with prescription drugs) accident caused by her chauffeur. The Mercedes in question, was flown to Brittan for a forensic analysis, for collecting information for the English inquest, where new information was reported to have been found. It's become a historical conclusion that the first car Diana and Dodi were to drive away in had broken down, (wouldn't start), and that's why Diana was in the car that crashed, it was the second decoy car. It was also concluded that the chauffeur was three times over the legal limit for drinking and driving.
The pap rats who took photos of Diana and Dodi, as they lay dying in the Mercedes, have been brought back to court, Jacques Langevin, Christian Martinez and Eric Chasser. After the charges being dropped in 2003, and an appeal was denied in 2004, because a public accident, in a public tunnel wasn't considered to be private. An appeal is being brought before fresh new panel of judges, only concerning the photos taken of the bodies. The charges of manslaughter was dropped in 2002, and hasn't been revisited.
2006
Dodi's father never gave up, and finally the pap rats were fined the price of a cheap cup of coffee. The pap rats, Jacques Langevin, Fabrice Chassery and Christian Martinez were fined 1 euro ($1.40 US) payable to Dodi's dad, for breaching the privacy act in France, regarding the photos they took of Princess Diana and Dodi, during the crash in their Mercedes that claimed their lives. The pictures later had finally reached the public, as described above.
The Brittish Authorities collected the data for the Inquest into Dianas death, and have a lot of ground work to cover. They can't leave any stone unturned, and the more digging they did, the more they found they had to do.
2007
Princes William and Harry held a concert at Wembly Stadium to honor the life of their mother, Princess Diana. Elton John opened with a beautiful performance that would bring tears to your eyes, and William and Harry gallantly welcomed the huge crowd with heartfelt thanks. The concert was on July 1st, 007, (Diana's birthday) and the sweetest pictures of their mother was shown as a slideshow above the stage. It was a very moving and emotional time at Wimbly, worth looking at. The DvD will be released on November 05, 007 by Universal Music.
I found a link that has clips from the performers, such as Diana's favorite band, Duran Duran, and Fergie also performed, and it's a Royal Official Link, which also has the charities listed, plus an interview with the Princes, Harry and William.
You can type in the search Princess Diana special concert, and you'll see the rest. Be prepared to go through a box of kleenex, as it brings back a lot of memories of when Diana lived, and was taken from her little boys too soon. Prince William would have been 15, and Harry was 12, when they lost their mother. Below is a link of the concert, where this site claims to have rights of the net vidoes.
The Inquest into Diana's death became official, and the Inquest began in October which is expected to last six months.
Peace and Love
Mwah,
With deepest Sympathy, and respect for the late Princess Diana, 'The People's Princess' and her boys.
Written by: Sacreeta
