Diana inquest jury to visit Paris

12 April 2012

A jury will retrace the last tragic journey of Diana, Princess of Wales, when her inquest finally gets under way next month.

The panel - made up of members of the public - will travel to Paris and follow Diana's ill-fated route into the Pont de l'Alma underpass where the car crash took place.

Five days after Princes William and Harry marked the 10th anniversary of the Princess's death, lawyers gathered at the High Court in London for the last preliminary hearing to finalise preparations for the case.

It was announced that the site visit to the French capital will take place shortly after the inquest starts on October 2.

Diana, 36, and 42-year-old Emad El-Din Mohamed Abdel Moneim Fayed, nicknamed Dodi, were killed along with driver Henri Paul when their Mercedes crashed on August 31 1997 shortly after leaving the Hotel Ritz as they were pursued by paparazzi.

Ian Burnett QC, counsel for the inquest, said the jury would head to Paris with the coroner Lord Justice Scott Baker and the interested parties.

They may also walk the route to and from Mr Paul's apartment to examine the bars along the way.

Both the Metropolitan Police and French investigations concluded that the chauffeur had been drinking and driving too fast - an issue the inquest will examine.

It was also suggested that the jury will travel from the crash site to the mortuary where Mr Paul was taken.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in