1 November 2007 - Afternoon session
1 Thursday, 1st November 2007
2 (2.00 pm)
3 (Jury present)
4 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Mr Hough, just before you begin,
5 there are a couple of matters that I want to raise with
6 Mr Mansfield.
7 Mr Mansfield, as you know, I am most anxious that
8 the paparazzi should give evidence by videolink if this
9 can possibly be achieved. Neither I nor the rest of the
10 inquest team intend to leave any stone unturned in this
11 regard. I cannot give you any further information at
12 the moment, but I can assure you that our efforts are
13 ongoing and I will let you have any information if and
14 when it becomes available and I will defer my decision
15 on yesterday's submissions until after the weekend, as
16 you asked.
17 MR MANSFIELD: Well, I am indeed grateful for that
18 indication.
19 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: One other matter relates to
20 the expression "order publique" in the material that we
21 were working from yesterday, and it appears that there
22 may have been some misunderstanding in the translations
23 that we both had been provided with yesterday.
24 Certainly, on one view, it does not mean "public order",
25 it means "public policy".
1
1 MR MANSFIELD: We would accept that, if I may say so. I do
2 not want to take up unnecessary time, but it is a matter
3 of some urgency, as you are aware, and we are grateful
4 for your indications on this matter.
5 May I just hand up now two documents? One relates
6 to that matter; that is the interpretation and
7 application of article 694. We have present a French
8 lawyer who has given us advice about this matter and
9 there is a short extract. I have the original document,
10 but there is an extract from that. It is, in fact,
11 guidance provided by the Ministry of Justice in France
12 about the ambit and application of this particular
13 article.
14 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: I am not sure it is going to be
15 helpful to go into this in any more detail at this
16 juncture, Mr Mansfield, quite apart from the fact that
17 we have a witness waiting to give evidence by videolink.
18 MR MANSFIELD: Yes, and I do not intend to be more than
19 a minute and we were briefed yesterday about this.
20 You will see in that initial document -- and I will
21 leave if I may the question of the European Convention
22 and also EC law in relation to mutual assistance; I will
23 leave that point for moment -- but if you just look at
24 this extract from the Ministry of Justice in France
25 about this particular article, there is a very pertinent
2
1 sentence which we have had translated from the original
2 guidance given by the Ministry:
3 "Only certain requests [ie by you] which put at
4 stake secrets which, if released, would damage
5 the essential interests of the country, a notion which
6 involves not only the military but also the economic,
7 ecological or social areas seem to enter the scope of
8 this text."
9 So we would say, without question, that the French
10 Government's own interpretation of their obligations
11 under mutual assistance, as provided by 694-4, is
12 extremely narrow, which of course is part of European
13 jurisprudence, that public policy, grounds for exemption
14 or withdrawal of cooperation is, in fact, only ever very
15 narrowly construed.
16 The narrowness of that definition, as set out there,
17 cannot possibly embrace refusing not only to request in
18 some cases, but also to compel witnesses to attend this
19 tribunal. We are deeply concerned that that matter is
20 resolved.
21 The matter which I would wish to address you later
22 on is that of course the French Government are not
23 entitled to withdraw their cooperation in the way that
24 they have, very blandly, without explaining the reasons
25 which normally would then be susceptible to cooperation
3
1 in terms of if it is a problem that the British
2 Government or you, sir, can assist with -- it is only
3 after a non resolution of the problems that they may be
4 entitled, under the very narrow construction, which
5 we say does not apply here, to start withdrawing
6 cooperation. So we say it is a staged process.
7 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: I think the less said, the better
8 at this stage, Mr Mansfield, looking at the result that
9 we both hope to achieve.
10 MR MANSFIELD: Yes. If I may address you on the other
11 matter later?
12 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Yes, certainly.
13 MR MANSFIELD: Thank you.
14 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: I call then Mr Snow.
15 MR HOUGH: Mr Snow is here. He was expected to be by
16 videolink from Scotland, but he is here.
17 MR JUSTIN SNOW (affirmed)
18 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Would you like to sit down,
19 Mr Snow?
20 A. Thanks.
21 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Thank you very much for coming.
22 I hope it has not been too inconvenient to travel from
23 Scotland today or yesterday.
24 A. It is a long journey.
25 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Mr Keen makes it quite regularly
4
1 now.
2 Questions from MR HOUGH
3 MR HOUGH: Mr Snow, I am not going to ask your name because
4 it has been said a few times already. My name is
5 Jonathan Hough and I ask questions on behalf of the
6 Coroner.
7 Now, I think you witnessed events in Paris on
8 the weekend of 30th and the 31st August 1997. Is that
9 right?
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. When you are answering my question and those of others,
12 could you try to keep your voice up both for the benefit
13 of the shorthand writers and for the members of the
14 jury.
15 A. Sure.
16 Q. I think about six weeks after the events in question,
17 you gave an account to the English police, didn't you?
18 A. One English policeman and I think three French people,
19 plus an interpreter.
20 Q. Mr Snow, you were saying your account had been taken by
21 one English policeman with three French policemen at the
22 same time.
23 A. I remember one of the French contingent worked directly
24 for the judge. I am not entirely certain what the other
25 two did, if there were two -- it is a long time ago --
5
1 and there was also a lady, who was a French liaison type
2 person. I think she did some interpreting.
3 Q. Again, can I ask you to keep your voice up? It needs to
4 carry to the other end of the room without the best
5 acoustics.
6 Other than that statement that you gave on that
7 occasion, have you ever been interviewed by anybody
8 else?
9 A. No.
10 Q. Now I am going to ask you a couple of questions. They
11 are not meant to be offensive. They are being asked of
12 all witnesses.
13 First of all, have you received any payment for your
14 account of events?
15 A. Absolutely not.
16 Q. And are you expecting any payment in the future?
17 A. Absolutely not.
18 Q. Now, going back to the weekend of 30th and
19 31st August 1997, I think you were in Paris that weekend
20 with your friend, Miss Gohil, from whom we have already
21 heard?
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. You arrived on the Saturday evening and you returned to
24 this country the following day, is that right?
25 A. Yes.
6
1 Q. You arrived by Eurostar at the Gare du Nord?
2 A. Yes.
3 Q. You got in at about 10 o'clock at night; is that right?
4 A. I could not say for sure, but probably, yes, and I think
5 that is what I said at the time.
6 Q. You checked in to a nearby hotel and then you visited
7 the Eiffel Tower?
8 A. That is correct.
9 Q. Having visited the Eiffel Tower, you decided to
10 go to a restaurant on one of the boats, one of the
11 bateaux mouches?
12 A. That is right.
13 Q. Can we now pick things up with the route you took from
14 the Eiffel Tower which took you to near the
15 Place de l'Alma? I think you have been given
16 a statement which contains a couple of maps which you
17 annotated or produced. The first, so that it could be
18 shown on screen, is [INQ0002446]. If we can zoom in on
19 the lower half of that page, please.
20 Now, towards the bottom left of the page, you will
21 see an "X".
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. Is that where you started walking from?
24 A. I honestly cannot remember.
25 Q. Well, do you remember that you crossed a bridge from
7
1 the Eiffel Tower?
2 A. I do not remember crossing a bridge. I remember being
3 on the other side of the river though.
4 Q. In your statement, you indicated that you crossed the
5 Pont d'Iena, which is the bridge that we can see in
6 the bottom left-hand corner.
7 A. That would be logical.
8 Q. Then you walked along the embankment road going from
9 west to east along the pavement by the river?
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. Going along that road, you eventually came to the
12 underpass at the Place de l'Alma?
13 A. Absolutely.
14 Q. I think you reached that point at about midnight, is
15 that right?
16 A. Again, I honestly cannot remember now, but given that
17 the accident happened at midnight and we were there,
18 I would say so, yes.
19 Q. In your statement, you say -- this is the first page of
20 your statement -- that it was shortly after midnight
21 that you witnessed relevant events.
22 A. I can only work that out on the basis of the accident,
23 rather than us checking our watches because we did not
24 do so, I do not think.
25 Q. So it is something you worked out after the event?
8
1 A. Yes.
2 Q. I am going to try to locate now where you were when you
3 heard the sounds which alerted you to these events.
4 Can you look at the large bundle in front of you
5 with the spiral binding? Turn please to page 14
6 [INQ-JB1-0000014]. If we can focus towards the bottom
7 left-hand quadrant please, Mr Foley. Now, do you see
8 there, marked by various green circles, which are trees,
9 the pavement immediately north of the River Seine?
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. Is it right that that is the pavement that you would
12 have been walking along on that evening?
13 A. It must have been, yes.
14 Q. Now we can see that pavement. It comes up to a bridge,
15 and as you are walking along that pavement, you have the
16 road to your left and then the underpass beyond the
17 road.
18 A. Yes, I see that.
19 Q. Can you indicate how far you had got along that pavement
20 when sounds alerted you to a crash?
21 A. I honestly cannot remember.
22 Q. Do you have any idea whether you had got near the bridge
23 or you were some way back?
24 A. No.
25 Q. In any event, you were on that pavement, I think, when
9
1 your attention was drawn by some sounds?
2 A. Yes.
3 Q. What kind of sounds did you hear?
4 A. A screeching of tyres and, I believe, although I cannot
5 remember it now, I believe a bang; I believe that
6 because that is what I wrote in the notes two weeks
7 later.
8 Q. In your statement, I think you said:
9 "Shortly after midnight, I heard a screeching sound
10 which lasted no more than two seconds, followed by
11 a very loud bang."
12 That is a statement that I think you made and signed
13 about six weeks after the events. Do you think that is
14 likely to be right?
15 A. I actually wrote something two weeks later which I have
16 got and I think I have handed in this afternoon.
17 It was:
18 "I heard an extremely loud bang, proceeded by the
19 noise of a car and a long skid."
20 And that was two weeks later so that would be my
21 belief at the time, but I cannot remember now about
22 the bang.
23 Q. Could you, for everybody's benefit, read to us all the
24 account that you made two weeks later so that we can
25 then ask questions on the basis of that?
10
1 A. Absolutely.
2 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: This is not a document that
3 we have?
4 MR HOUGH: It is not a document that I have yet seen.
5 MR KEEN: It has an INQ number.
6 MR HOUGH: I am sorry. It is the document attached to
7 the witness statement.
8 Mr Snow is this a document beginning "Just after
9 midnight on Sunday 31st August I was walking ..."?
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. That is fine. That is a document that we have and which
12 has been disclosed:
13 A. Okay.
14 Q. So having looked at that and reminded yourself of that,
15 is it right to indicate that you heard a screeching
16 sound followed by a loud bang?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. When you heard that sound, what was your reaction? What
19 did you do?
20 A. As far as I remember, I actually thought the accident
21 was further away and did not do very much at all.
22 I assumed it was actually over near the Arc de Triomphe
23 which in my mind was about half a mile away, maybe
24 quarter of a mile away. It wasn't until -- this is my
25 belief -- it wasn't until we saw people moving towards
11
1 the tunnel that we thought, "Oh, there is something
2 going on over there" and we moved over. I think we ran
3 actually.
4 Q. Looking at the plan again, did you run across a road?
5 A. I honestly cannot remember.
6 Q. In your statement, you indicated that you and Ms Gohil
7 looked towards the entrance of a tunnel from which you
8 could see smoke?
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. Do you remember whether you were looking down at that
11 tunnel?
12 A. Could I point out where I think we were standing?
13 Q. Of course. That would be very helpful.
14 A. I think we were standing there (indicates).
15 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: I cannot see that, but ...
16 MR HOUGH: I think a cursor is being put up. Can perhaps
17 a red circle be put up?
18 A. I would say more or less.
19 Q. So is it right that you recall a road below you running
20 from right to left?
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. And to your right would have been the actual entrance to
23 the tunnel; does that ring any bells?
24 A. Absolutely, yes. I do remember that quite clearly.
25 Q. Can I next explore with you your view into the tunnel?
12
1 As you were looking into the tunnel, were you able to
2 see all the way down to the far end?
3 A. No.
4 Q. Can you give us any idea how far you could see into the
5 tunnel?
6 A. Well, I have actually drawn that on the original diagram
7 of it, which was actually not particularly clear either.
8 Q. I was going to come to that in a few moments to find out
9 where different things were. But it is not immediately
10 obvious from that how far you can actually see into
11 the tunnel.
12 A. I do appreciate that now. Probably just -- can
13 I again -- probably as far into the tunnel as about
14 here, I would have thought (indicates), which probably
15 indicates that we might have been further up.
16 Q. You are indicating that you could perhaps see into
17 the tunnel as far as where the semi-circle is, just to
18 the right of the tunnel entrance?
19 A. Possibly that. Yes, probably.
20 Q. The line obviously immediately to the left of that
21 semi-circle marks where the actual roof of the tunnel
22 begins, so what you are indicating a couple of seconds
23 ago was that you could only see into the tunnel maybe
24 a few cars' length distance; is that what you are --
25 A. Not even. Maybe two car cars' distance, maybe just one
13
1 actually, as far as I remember. Not far at all.
2 Q. I think it is right to say that you could not actually
3 see as far as the crashed car.
4 A. Absolutely not.
5 Q. Could you see, when you were looking into the tunnel,
6 that the tunnel was divided by pillars?
7 A. Yes.
8 Q. Were these pillars in any way obscuring your view of the
9 far carriageway?
10 A. The pillars were, yes.
11 Q. I think you saw some smoke in the tunnel, is that right?
12 A. As far as I remember it, the smoke that I was aware of
13 was actually coming out of the tunnel, rather than being
14 in the tunnel itself.
15 Q. How long did you stand in that position where we see
16 the red circle looking into the tunnel?
17 A. Well, I have said two minutes as an estimate, but to be
18 perfectly honest with you, I cannot say whether it was
19 two minutes, one minute. But it probably would not have
20 been more than two minutes.
21 Q. You only stayed there very briefly?
22 A. Yes, absolutely.
23 Q. Did you change your vantage point in order to look at it
24 from a different viewpoint at any stage?
25 A. No.
14
1 Q. While you were standing there, were you standing next to
2 Miss Gohil at all times or did you separate and move to
3 different points at any stage?
4 A. I do not remember.
5 Q. While you were standing there and indeed while you are
6 walking up along the pavement on the north side of the
7 Seine, did you see any flashes or bright lights come out
8 of the tunnel?
9 A. I do not remember.
10 Q. Can we next look at your diagram and explore some of the
11 accounts you have given by reference to that? This is
12 [INQ0002448].
13 Now, I think copies of this can be provided to the
14 jury for their bundle.
15 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Thank you. It will go in at --
16 MR HOUGH: Tab 5. And I think we are up to item --
17 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Item 8?
18 MR HOUGH: Item 15. I think there is a process of updating
19 these bundles going on.
20 Now we can see a fax header at the top of this page,
21 13th September 1997, so about two weeks after
22 the events.
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. Was that when you drew this diagram?
25 A. Yes.
15
1 Q. I think you added to the diagram in the course of your
2 interview with the English police, is that right?
3 A. I believe so, yes.
4 Q. If we can orientate ourselves on this diagram, is it
5 right that on this diagram you would have been looking
6 into the tunnel and your position would have been at the
7 top of the page or on the left-hand side of the page?
8 A. It is a very poor artist's view. I was trying to draw
9 a diagram of what I saw. So I am standing here
10 (indicates), looking down. So I suppose if you were to
11 extend the diagram out, I would be standing here
12 (indicates).
13 Q. So the pillars are the three sets of lines on the
14 right-hand side of the page as we are looking at it now?
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. And the boxes that we see over on the left are what you
17 could see on the far side of the tunnel looking into it?
18 A. Absolutely.
19 Q. The area which is roughly outlined at the top and over
20 to the right is, I think we will see, a cloud of smoke
21 that you saw drifting out of the tunnel?
22 A. That is right.
23 Q. Now having worked out how the diagram operates, can
24 we look at the various features on it?
25 A. Sure.
16
1 Q. The box with number "1" in it is described in the key as
2 "man outside a small black car on a mobile telephone,
3 car probably Peugeot 205".
4 A. Yes. I could not possibly have identified the car.
5 It was -- I think I have actually said -- probably, yes.
6 It could have been a Renault 5. It was that size of
7 car.
8 Q. You have depicted this in the drawing as being towards
9 your end of the tunnel.
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. On the far side from you, is that right?
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. So on the carriageway furthest from the river?
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. But further into the tunnel than the box with number "2"
16 on it, which is to its left on the page?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. Now I think you were able to give some description of
19 that man in your account to the French and English
20 police, were you not?
21 A. I believe so.
22 Q. Do you have any recollection of him now?
23 A. It is very vague. The only thing I can possibly
24 remember is curly hair and maybe a dark jacket, but that
25 may well be something that someone has suggested to me
17
1 since, so I do not know.
2 Q. Can you quickly turn to your witness statement at
3 page 2? It is about two-thirds of the way down
4 the page:
5 "I remember there was a man standing beside the car
6 holding a car phone. The driver's door was open.
7 I have the definite impression that it was a three-door
8 car. The man was speaking on his phone and looking at
9 the ground. The man might have had a dark jacket and
10 glasses."
11 Is that likely to be right, given that you made the
12 statement six weeks after the events?
13 A. That was, I believe, what I believed at the time.
14 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: He did say, in the next sentence,
15 "It is difficult to remember now".
16 A. I actually said -- I do remember during that interview
17 saying, at quite a few stages, "I cannot really say too
18 much more than I said in the original statement I sent
19 on 13th September". They drew out further details which
20 were impressions and possibilities and a lot of this
21 statement is actually me trying to give them a bit more
22 possible detail.
23 MR HOUGH: Searching your memory?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. Can we turn next to the box marked "2" on your diagram?
18
1 A. Yes.
2 Q. That is marked in the key, "Parked black motorbike with
3 raised rear seat".
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. Did you see anybody around that motorbike?
6 A. I cannot even remember the motorbike anymore, I am
7 afraid.
8 Q. Again, in your statement, you indicated that you could
9 not see anybody immediately near it.
10 A. I would stand by that.
11 Q. Then, going down the key, point 3 is "Queueing traffic,
12 all beeping their horns".
13 Now, I think number 3 is towards the bottom of the
14 page now being circled. Does that relate to traffic in
15 the carriageway nearest to you?
16 A. Yes, the right-hand way, going that way --
17 Q. Going into the tunnel, going east?
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. Now, nearest to that is point 7, which is not on the
20 key. Are you able to recall what that relates to?
21 A. I believe that was added later by me. They were asking
22 me about the queueing traffic and they wanted to know if
23 I had seen a white car, and I seem to have remember that
24 I may have suggested that there might have been a white
25 car, but I do not think I was certain about it at the
19
1 time and I am certainly not now.
2 Q. Again, can I take you back to your statement?
3 A. Sure. What page?
4 Q. It is page 2 where you refer to this for the first time.
5 You refer at the bottom of the page to "a person in
6 a white vehicle at point 7".
7 A. Yes.
8 Q. If you can turn over the page and look towards
9 the bottom of page 3, you say:
10 "I was asked about the white car at point 7. I can
11 say that it was angular in shape and had a long low
12 front window. I cannot remember the make, but have the
13 impression it was like an Uno."
14 A. As far as I can recollect, the Uno was suggested by my
15 interviewers and not by me. My memory is that it was
16 possibly a Citroen BX or something like that. I do not
17 think I would have said it was a Uno, but I cannot
18 remember.
19 Q. Thinking back to your interview, you have said that you
20 recall that the idea of a Uno was suggested to you.
21 A. Do.
22 Q. Can you recall whether you said that this vehicle was
23 a Uno?
24 A. I cannot remember. To be perfectly honest, I cannot
25 remember, but I think it is unlikely.
20
1 Q. Now, moving on to the other parts of the key before
2 we deal with another couple of points with that vehicle,
3 number 4 -- in fact, there were two number 4s, two
4 circles or ellipses. The key refers to these as being
5 "car drivers out of their cars moving about". That
6 diagram suggests, I think, that they were a little
7 further into the tunnel than the other items we have
8 been looking at so far. Is that right?
9 A. That is correct.
10 Q. You say they were car drivers. Did they have their cars
11 near them?
12 A. Well, how can I prove that they were car drivers? How
13 would I know? That is my mistake because I didn't see
14 car keys on them. I wouldn't know. There were people
15 moving around in the tunnel. I cannot actually remember
16 seeing them now, but that was a presumption I should not
17 have made.
18 Q. Now we can see that they seem to be being drawn again in
19 the carriageway nearer to you, the south carriageway.
20 A. That is right.
21 Q. Can you remember now what they were doing?
22 A. No.
23 Q. Can we return to your statement and can I just ask you
24 about something you said there about what they might be
25 doing?
21
1 A. Sure.
2 Q. This is at page 2, towards the bottom of the page, where
3 you say:
4 "Point 4 indicates two vehicles. I remember persons
5 beside each of those vehicles. These persons I believe
6 got out of their vehicles. I have the impression that
7 they were communicating in some way with a person in
8 a white vehicle at point 7. I had not put this vehicle
9 into my original drawing because, at the time of making,
10 it did not seem relevant."
11 A. I am sorry, I do not recollect saying that. I am not
12 being difficult, but I do not recollect saying that.
13 Q. It is very important that you give the evidence that you
14 can remember now.
15 A. Absolutely and I really cannot recollect saying that and
16 I cannot see an indication that I thought that from
17 the statement that I sent on 13th September, so I really
18 cannot help on that.
19 Q. So the impression recorded in your statement that there
20 was some communication going on between the people
21 marked at number 4 and number 4 and whatever person
22 there may have been at number 7, that information is
23 something you just cannot recall having communicated to
24 anybody?
25 A. Yes. That is right.
22
1 Q. Now, while you were at the scene, I think we have been
2 through all the items on the key, but were you aware of
3 anybody else in the tunnel or going out of the tunnel?
4 A. As far as I am aware, no.
5 Q. Again, can I try to refresh your memory in relation to
6 two people and see if you can recall saying this to
7 the police? This is page 3 of your statement and it is
8 about a third of the way down the page. This is where
9 you are remembering some people also watching the scene,
10 where you say:
11 "I remember a few yards from us was a couple with
12 two young children. I believe both adults had a large
13 build and the lady was wearing a red jumper."
14 Then you talk about your impression of them. Do you
15 recall those people now that that --
16 A. I believe there were people to our right, but I cannot
17 remember anything more about them and I cannot remember
18 saying this in the interview. I would not say it is
19 wrong, I would not say it is not what I said, but it is
20 just simply I do not recall.
21 Q. Now, beyond what you drew and what you have told us now,
22 were you aware of any other cars parked in the area of
23 the tunnel?
24 A. No.
25 Q. Did you, while you were looking down into the tunnel,
23
1 see anybody with photographic equipment or taking
2 photographs?
3 A. No. I can say that with certainty. I was not aware of
4 that.
5 Q. Now I think you were asked by the French police to
6 identify people you saw in the vicinity of the tunnel
7 and you were first shown some photographs which we might
8 term "mugshots" and secondly you were asked to look at
9 a photograph of some CCTV stills.
10 Can we begin by looking at the mugshot photograph
11 which you were shown?
12 A. Sure.
13 Q. It is [INQ0002565], which is tab 6 of the jury bundle,
14 at sheet number 3. Now, looking at the person on the
15 screen now, do you have any recollection of this
16 person's face, build or anything about him now?
17 A. My memory is that during that interview, they asked me
18 to go through these photographs and see if I could pick
19 out someone that would be similar to the person that was
20 outside the car and, as far as I am aware, that was
21 the chap that I spotted. But given that I was quite
22 a long distance away from the car and it was dark,
23 I would never have been able to make out his facial
24 features anyway. So it was a bit of a long shot really
25 to be able to say that that was the guy outside the car.
24
1 Q. I think you, if your witness statement is right, you
2 were able to give a slightly more confident
3 identification when you were shown some CCTV stills.
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. Do you remember being shown those as well?
6 A. I do. I remember spotting someone in a crowd of people
7 and identifying the same person -- well, obviously
8 "identifying" is the wrong word, but seeing the same
9 person later in a single still, and it might well have
10 been that one actually, but I seem to remember he had
11 a camera round his neck.
12 Q. Can we look please at [INQ0002458]? Do you recall that
13 this was one of the photographs that you were shown?
14 A. I could not say honestly. It might have been.
15 MR HOUGH: Thank you very much. Those are my questions.
16 Some of the others will also have some questions.
17 A. You are welcome.
18 Questions from MR DE LA MARE
19 MR DE LA MARE: Mr Snow, my name is Mr de la Mare and
20 I will ask you a few questions on behalf of the Ritz.
21 I think you have already quite candidly explained your
22 difficulties in recollecting the events of ten years or
23 so ago, so --
24 A. Well, I can't remember what I was doing six weeks ago.
25 Q. Join the club. If at any point you feel that it is just
25
1 simply unrealistic to try and go over the topic, don't
2 be afraid of saying so and of saying that you have no
3 recollection at all.
4 As I understand the sequence of events, you came to
5 the attention of the French authorities because you
6 wrote a letter of 13th September that Mr Hough has read
7 a bit about.
8 A. I actually phoned the British Embassy, I think, on the
9 Monday following, so it would be 1st September, and
10 said, "Look, I was there, what do you want me to do
11 about it?", and I think -- I might be wrong -- I think
12 they said, "This is the person you need to contact".
13 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Mr Snow, could you talk towards
14 the jury because your voice is getting lost down that
15 way?
16 A. Sure.
17 As far as I remember, I contacted
18 the British Embassy pretty well a couple of days after
19 the accident and I think they suggested that I needed to
20 write down what I had seen and send it to Eric Gigou,
21 I think his name was, who was working for the judge.
22 Q. So your letter of 13th September was your best attempt,
23 a couple of weeks after the events, to gather your
24 thoughts, put them all together in one place, the best
25 recollection you had and send it through?
26
1 A. Absolutely.
2 Q. The statement you gave a month later on 13th October to
3 the two French policemen and the English policeman was
4 effectively as a consequence of them exploring with you
5 what you could remember and seeking to find out whether
6 there were any other details, any other things, you
7 could be categorical about or could not recall?
8 A. Absolutely.
9 Q. So it was exploratory in nature.
10 Given the difficulties that you have had in
11 remembering, do you think it is possible that even at
12 13th September, there were details that you could not
13 quite accurately remember --
14 A. Absolutely.
15 Q. -- or might have got in a bit of a muddle about?
16 A. Absolutely.
17 Q. Bits of the jigsaw not quite in the right sequence
18 perhaps?
19 A. Absolutely.
20 Q. Can I start, then, by looking at where you were at the
21 time of the crash?
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. Could you look at the map at page 14 [INQ-JB1-0000014]
24 of the bundle, if we could have that. I just want to
25 establish as best we can with this drawing where exactly
27
1 you were. I understand from the evidence from
2 Miss Gohil, as she was called at the time, that you were
3 walking along the bank of the River Seine, so along, I
4 think, that pathway indicated with the trees running
5 alongside it. She recollects -- and does this tally
6 with your recollection -- that you had actually walked
7 into the beginning of the Place de l'Alma, so, if you
8 like, past the entrance point of the tunnel, and you
9 were walking into the area of trees beneath the red
10 lines?
11 A. I honestly could not say with any certainty and at the
12 time I could not say. So ten years later, I am sorry.
13 Q. Understood. But you have don't have any particular
14 reason to think she might be wrong in that recollection?
15 A. No. She is probably right because we were, I seem to
16 remember, quite close to the scene very quickly. Now
17 I think we moved quickly, we probably ran or walked
18 quickly, but we were there, as I think I have said,
19 within 30 seconds so we must have been quite close.
20 Q. Now as I understand it, that estimate of 30 seconds,
21 that takes into it your ascertaining where the crash had
22 taken place, and as you said to Mr Hough, your best
23 recollection or your instant reaction at the time was
24 that the noise had come from the Arc de Triomphe,
25 I think --
28
1 A. Or somewhere further over. Can I demonstrate that on
2 the map again?
3 Q. Certainly.
4 A. Could you zoom out a bit?
5 Q. I am not sure that is possible, but what we do have is
6 a map at page 6 [INQ-JB1-0000006] of this same bundle,
7 if you would like to have a look at that, which shows
8 the wider plan, if you like, of the area.
9 Can you see the Pont de l'Alma is in the left-hand
10 mid-sector of that map? I do not know if you can zoom
11 in on that? I think we see the Arc de Triomphe right in
12 the top left-hand corner, where it says "Gaulle Etoile"?
13 A. I have to say my geography was never brilliant. My
14 impression was it was maybe half a mile or less over
15 beyond the tunnel, and I suspect that was because
16 the accident happened in the tunnel so it sounded like
17 it was further away.
18 Q. Now I imagine, when you were walking along the river
19 bank, that you were looking out over the Seine and
20 the lights of Paris while you were walking, and what
21 happened is when you heard this noise, you turned your
22 head, as most people instinctively do, to where you
23 thought the noise was coming from. Is that a fair
24 summary or you could not recall?
25 A. To be honest, as far as I remember, my first reaction
29
1 was, "That is just another accident, the French are
2 always crashing their cars. It was just a bump". No
3 offence to anybody that is French, but ...
4 Q. As I think you said to Mr Hough, what prompted you to
5 realise that the crash had taken place much closer to
6 you was the sight of other pedestrians or passers-by
7 running or hurrying in that direction?
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. In order to get to where you were, if we go back to
10 the plan at 14 [INQ-JB1-0000014], if you were where
11 Ms Gohil recollected you to be, you would have had to
12 have crossed what is a sliproad from the Avenue de
13 New York expressway, a sliproad before the tunnel that
14 allows cars to come up to the Place de l'Alma. You
15 would have had to have crossed over that and then gone
16 and found an appropriate vantage point on the wall
17 looking down into the tunnel. Is that what you
18 recollect --
19 A. Can you show me where the sliproad is?
20 Q. The sliproad is the road between the trees and the first
21 set of narrow black bars indicating a narrow pavement
22 and a wall.
23 A. That makes sense. Can I stand up a bit?
24 Q. Of course you can.
25 A. Would the traffic be coming up here?
30
1 Q. No, it would be coming left to right. So the traffic
2 that you remember as being stationary has come from, if
3 you like, the bottom left-hand corner of the map, gone
4 down there, and there is a sliproad before that that
5 allows traffic to leave and enter into the
6 Place de l'Alma.
7 A. To be honest --
8 Q. You don't recall?
9 A. I really don't. I would need to go back.
10 Q. I think you said in your letter that it took you some
11 seconds, perhaps even 30 seconds, for this whole process
12 to happen, work out where the accident is, get to
13 the wall, look over. Would that seem --
14 A. From what I recall, yes, that seems about right.
15 Q. That is a reasonable approximation, is it?
16 Can we then pull up the plan you drew that we were
17 looking at a moment ago? This was your view from that
18 low wall running along the pavement abutting the
19 sliproad, as I understand it. You don't remember how
20 high the wall was that you were looking over? Was it
21 waist height or so?
22 A. (indicating) I am sure we lent over like that.
23 Q. About chest height?
24 A. I would think so.
25 Q. Can I just see if I am right in analysing precisely what
31
1 this plan is. Is this, as it were, the scene that
2 confronted you when you looked over the wall?
3 A. That is meant to be my view.
4 Q. I see. So by the time that you got to the wall and
5 looked over, what we can see is the traffic going into
6 the tunnel has already begun to back up?
7 A. Yes.
8 Q. And the smoke that you have depicted in the diagram,
9 that has already begun to emerge from the tunnel?
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. So when you get there, the first thing you probably see
12 is the smoke coming out?
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. I am grateful.
15 Now, I understand where the number 4 is depicted on
16 the map, that is the concrete raised area upon which
17 the various pillars are placed, if you like constituting
18 the dividing line between the two carriageways. Is that
19 right?
20 A. That is what I believe I drew, yes.
21 Q. So the people that you saw were effectively standing on
22 the raised bit of concrete in between the pillars?
23 A. It is not clear from my drawing, is it, and I do not
24 know now, to be honest.
25 Q. I must admit, when I looked at your drawing, I rather
32
1 interpreted the three lines running in the middle as
2 being the concrete separation between the lanes.
3 A. Could I, for clarity, point out exactly what I meant?
4 Q. Of course.
5 A. That is three pillars, that there is the central divide
6 between the two carriageways (indicates).
7 MR HOUGH: Perhaps this could be pivoted for the benefit of
8 the jury.
9 MR DE LA MARE: If you just pull the screen towards you, the
10 Coroner and the jury should be able to see what you are
11 pointing to.
12 A. Shall I do it again?
13 MR HOUGH: Yes please.
14 A. I believe that is the central reservation, that is
15 queuing traffic, three pillars, the end of the tunnel,
16 and I would refer to this as being the ramp out of the
17 tunnel or into the tunnel, depending which way you are
18 going. That is the car and that is the motorbike and
19 that is something I put on afterwards (indicates).
20 Q. If you look at page 44 [INQ-JB1-0000044] of this same
21 bundle, I think you can see what I mean by the "raised
22 area". It is a view from within the tunnel. Obviously
23 you did not see this, but we can see in page 44
24 [INQ-JB1-0000044] the pillars resting on the raised bit
25 of concrete. I think we can see in the distance -- if
33
1 we can zoom in on that, you can see that the raised bit
2 of concrete continues on up the ramp.
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. So I think that is what you mean by those three lines?
5 A. So that I get my geography right here, is this where
6 I think I saw that car?
7 Q. Yes.
8 A. Okay. I can probably only have seen this far into
9 the tunnel, I would imagine.
10 Q. That is very helpful. Now, again, to go back to your
11 plan if we can, if I can just ask you a couple of
12 questions about the vehicle and the motorbike that you
13 have depicted on that. Again, as I understand it, this
14 is what you saw when you looked over the wall?
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. So that car and that bike had already been parked?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. You did not see anyone parking them?
19 A. No.
20 Q. In relation to the bike, you did not see anyone around
21 it at the time?
22 A. I actually cannot remember the bike now. I know that at
23 the time that is what I remembered and I know that at
24 the time I did not believe that either of those vehicles
25 had moved whilst I was there, either away or parking.
34
1 Q. I think at the time your best recollection of the colour
2 of the bike -- it is marked on the plan -- was that
3 it was black?
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. There was a man that you described in your letter and in
6 your statement and you did your best at the time to
7 identify him. I think it is fair to say, given your
8 slightly tentative memory now, the best recollection you
9 can have is that he was wearing a black or dark jacket?
10 A. Might have been wearing, from what I can remember now.
11 I have no confidence in my memory ten years later; I can
12 only rely on what I said at the time. But from my
13 memory, the way I see it now, he had a dark jacket on,
14 possibly those type of glasses that were similar to
15 the chap that we were looking at in the photograph and
16 I have an impression of curly hair or at least
17 voluminous hair.
18 Q. Ms Gohil remembers seeing a man coming out of the
19 tunnel. Do you remember whether that was the case,
20 whether he was always near the car or you simply could
21 not say?
22 A. I couldn't say it did happen; I couldn't say it did.
23 I do not remember, I am afraid.
24 Q. She also remembered him wearing a dark jacket and a tie
25 and a blue shirt.
35
1 A. Again, sorry.
2 Q. You have no reason again to think she might be wrong, it
3 is just you could not say?
4 A. No, I cannot say.
5 Q. She described him as being in his early 40s, about five
6 foot nine and with shortish brown hair, slightly
7 receding. Again, fair enough.
8 I think one thing that you probably are in agreement
9 with her that he was of a medium-ish build?
10 A. Are you saying that the person I saw outside that car
11 she saw move to the car?
12 Q. Yes.
13 A. Oh, right. Well, there you go. That might well be the
14 case. My focus might have been elsewhere when he was
15 moving to the car.
16 Q. Of course. Different people tend to take in --
17 A. Yes, absolutely.
18 Q. But vis-a-vis his build, one of the things you said to
19 the policemen, when they produced the same photographs
20 that you have already seen earlier today -- one of the
21 same reasons that you said it was not the man in
22 question was because of his build. I wonder if we could
23 bring up that photograph again.
24 I think what you said in the statement, when you saw
25 this photograph, was that you were drawn to his hair --
36
1 A. We are talking about a distance of probably one and
2 a half times the distance from here to that corner, so
3 I would not know actually whether that was the type of
4 build that the chap had anyway.
5 Q. I do not want to be sizeist, but the gentleman in
6 the photograph is slightly on the chubby side -- I had
7 better be very careful standing next to Mr Croxford when
8 I say that -- but what you said to the policeman on
9 13th October was you were drawn to his hair, his
10 spectacles, his height -- all three of which coincide
11 with what Miss Gohil said -- but not his build; you
12 thought that this chap was too chubby to be the man that
13 you had seen?
14 A. He might well not have been wearing those clothes
15 thought.
16 Q. I believe the gentleman in that photograph was wearing
17 a beige jacket, a sort of khaki desert-style jacket.
18 A. I said a dark leather jacket, but I wonder what would
19 happen under street lighting. Does a beige jacket look
20 dark? I do not know.
21 Q. You said in your letter and in your statement that you
22 did not see any motorbicycles leaving the scene of the
23 crash, even though that was something that was widely
24 reported at the time.
25 A. I was quite definite about that at the time. I remember
37
1 that.
2 Q. Can I just unpick what you meant by that a little bit?
3 What I understand you to be saying is that once you got
4 to the vantage point that you had to look down into
5 the tunnel, then, from that point onwards, you did not
6 see any motorbikes leaving the tunnel?
7 A. Within that period we were there.
8 Q. Exactly.
9 A. But bear in mind we did leave relatively early and there
10 were a lot of people still there so ...
11 Q. Presumably, by dint of the same logic, you did not see
12 any motorbikes leave before you got to the point that
13 you were looking down from?
14 A. Precisely.
15 Q. And as you said earlier, it took you about 30 seconds to
16 get there?
17 A. That is what I said at the time.
18 Q. Presumably, when you were looking over into the tunnel,
19 your first thing that you were concentrating on was what
20 you could see down in the tunnel, not what may be
21 a couple of hundred metres down the road?
22 A. Yes. The reason why I said at the time that we did not
23 see -- or I did not see any motorbikes leaving the scene
24 was because that was widely reported, that there were
25 several motorbikes with press on them who left very soon
38
1 after the crash and I do not recollect seeing that.
2 Q. I understand. You were there very soon after
3 the crash --
4 A. That is what we thought.
5 Q. 30 seconds to two minutes or so, and in the period you
6 were there, you did not see any motorcycles leaving?
7 A. Precisely.
8 Q. Can I ask you a couple more questions? Given
9 the position you were at, which was level with or
10 slightly in advance of the lip of the tunnel, you did
11 not see any flashes from that position?
12 A. I didn't -- well, I do not remember saying that I had
13 seen any.
14 Q. But do you accept that it was most unlikely that you
15 would have been, given your position relative to
16 the wall and relative to the tunnel?
17 A. Absolutely, but it might have reflected on the smoke
18 coming out if there were a lot of flashes. That is very
19 conclusive, isn't it?
20 Q. Yes. The last question I would like to ask you about is
21 the white car marked "7" on your diagram. As
22 I understand it, that white car is in the lane going
23 into the tunnel.
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. So it is not a white car in the lane coming out of the
39
1 tunnel?
2 A. That is right.
3 Q. You think today that your best recollection of that was
4 that it was a Citroen AX?
5 A. Or BX. It would be a medium-sized family car. That is
6 what I remember seeing.
7 Q. It was a saloon?
8 A. Well, that is what I remember saying to people I had
9 seen at the time, not a Uno.
10 Q. One final question, and again I appreciate the vagaries
11 of memory over this period. You have described the car
12 that you saw, the black car in the picture, as possibly
13 a 205.
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. Miss Gohil remembers it as being a car of medium size.
16 Is that possible, that it is larger than you recalled at
17 the time?
18 A. I was quite definite about that and I am a bloke.
19 I kind of know my cars, you know.
20 MR DE LA MARE: Very well. No further questions, sir.
21 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Thank you very much.
22 MR HORWELL: No questions, sir.
23 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Any more questions?
24 MR HOUGH: No further questions from me, sir.
25 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Thank you very much, Mr Snow. We
40
1 are grateful to you for coming and for your time. That
2 will be all.
3 Mr Hough, that is as far as we can go today, is it
4 not?
5 MR HOUGH: Not quite. That is the last witness, but we can,
6 however, read the statements of M Bonin. Sir, as you
7 may recall, Mr Bonin is quite an important witness, but
8 one who has sadly died and, therefore, although had he
9 lived his evidence would undoubtedly have been wanted in
10 live form, we are forced to rely upon reading his
11 evidence.
12 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: So, members of the jury, his
13 evidence does not fall into the same category as
14 evidence that is agreed. You must bear that in mind.
15 MR HOUGH: Now, what I am proposing to read is first of all
16 a letter written by Mr Bonin to the French police which
17 prompted his later interviews.
18 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: What page is this?
19 MR HOUGH: It is at [INQ0000146 - read out in court]. It is not in the bundle.
20 It is a short letter. Then two statements which are in
21 your bundle, sir. The first in time is at page 24,
22 [INQ0000150 - read out in court] and then the second is at page 19 of your
23 bundle, [INQ0000154 - read out in court]. Then I am going to read some
24 extracts from an interview conducted with Mr Bonin by
25 a television company called "Fulcrum Productions", which
41
1 is at [INQ0039475 - read out in court].
2 I have been able to canvas those with the
3 representatives of a number of the interested persons so
4 as to ensure that all the relevant material from that
5 interview is read to the jury.
6 Material from MR JEAN-LOUIS BONIN (read)
7 Letter dated 1st September 2007
8 MR HOUGH: So beginning then with the letter. This is
9 a letter signed by Mr Bonin posted on 1st
10 September 1997, so that would be the Monday after these
11 events, and ceased after administrative procedures by
12 the officer of the criminal investigation police.
13 The letter reads as follows:
14 "Gentlemen, when I awoke this morning, I learned of
15 the death of Princess Diana and the opening of an
16 investigation into it. May I give my evidence to this
17 investigation?
18 "At about 1.00 am, I was present in my car in
19 the Place de la Concorde. Having stopped at the traffic
20 lights giving access to the Voie Georges Pompidou,
21 a large black Mercedes stopped on my right. A scooter
22 with two persons on it quickly came between our two
23 cars. The passenger on the back of the scooter started
24 photographing the occupants of the Mercedes. Intrigued
25 by this behaviour and thinking immediately of the
42
1 actions of a paparazzi with a star, I looked in the back
2 of the Mercedes. I immediately recognised Princess
3 Diana and, on her left, Dodi Al Fayed.
4 "When the lights changed to green, I started off and
5 noticed that the Mercedes was held up by a dark-coloured
6 car which had stopped in front of it. When it was able
7 to get away, the Mercedes sped off on to the
8 Voie Georges Pompidou. The scooter and the dark car
9 followed it at the same speed. As I continued driving
10 along the embankment, a car came up behind me at high
11 speed with its headlights on full. As I pulled over to
12 let it pass, I noticed that this car was
13 a light-coloured Peugeot 206, registered in Paris.
14 The Peugeot was occupied by two persons.
15 "Shortly afterwards, a trials-type motorbike came up
16 with all its lights on and sounding its horn. This
17 motorbike was ridden by two persons and was registered
18 in department 91. Five minutes later, as I arrived in
19 the Alma Bridge underpass, I managed to avoid the
20 Mercedes, which had crashed and was smoking. Not
21 wishing to stop close to the Mercedes, owing to the risk
22 of possible explosion because of the smoke which was
23 coming from the engine, I found it was impossible for me
24 to stop further on as the two cars, light and dark, the
25 motorbike and the scooter were sitting in the middle of
43
1 the right-hand lane of the embankment. What a surprise
2 it was for me to see men who, instead of coming to the
3 assistance of the occupants of the Mercedes, were
4 rushing towards the accident with their cameras.
5 "Sickened and frightened by the state of the barely
6 recognisable Mercedes, I went home. I do not know if my
7 evidence can contribute anything to your investigation,
8 but what it seems to me is that the paparazzi preferred
9 to photograph the tragedy rather than help those injured
10 in the crash. If you wish to have any further
11 information from me, I am at your disposal, but I shall
12 not be in Paris for three weeks from now. I am going
13 abroad tomorrow."
14 That is signed "Jean-Louis Bonin".
15 First statement
16 Following on from that, M Bonin was interviewed and
17 gave a statement to Eric Crosnier on
18 24th September 1997. He gave his address and his
19 occupation, noted that he was being examined in
20 connection with the letter of request in view of the
21 investigation being pursued against Arnal and others,
22 and he said this:
23 "I am appearing at your offices following your call.
24 I had first sent you a letter which is indeed the one
25 you showed me. I only sent this letter to your
44
1 department and I obviously confirm its contents. I was
2 previously on holiday and was therefore unable to be
3 free earlier. I was then witness to certain scenes
4 connected with the events in which Princess Diana,
5 Mr Dodi Al Fayed, the driver whose name I have since
6 learned through the press was Henri Paul and a bodyguard
7 were victims.
8 "I can give you the following more precise
9 information. On Sunday 31st August, when I awoke,
10 I learned of the death of Princess Diana, her friend,
11 Dodi, and the driver, as well as the desperate condition
12 of the bodyguard. I immediately made the connection
13 with what I had seen during the night. In fact, that
14 Sunday, between midnight and 1 am, I left a restaurant
15 in the Marais district in order to go home."
16 Members of the jury, the Marais district is on the
17 east side of Paris.
18 "I was alone in my British racing green Fiat Punto
19 ..."
20 He gave the registration and he gave his route with
21 various road names, and the last few are "... Rue
22 de Rivoli, Place de la Concorde, Cours la Reine,
23 Cours Albert 1er, Avenue New York and the embankments as
24 far as my home.
25 "In answer to question: I made a mistake in
45
1 mentioning the Voie Georges Pompidou in my letter.
2 It was the Cours de la Reine and the Cours Albert 1er.
3 It was certainly dark, visibility was good and it was
4 hot. I was driving with the windows shut. I was
5 driving very easily, but not too fast, depending upon
6 the traffic which was moving very freely. I did not
7 have the radio on. Passing through the Place Vendome,
8 I noticed a crowd in front of the Ritz Hotel and
9 I thought that there was a star there. I did not
10 distinguish the persons and I cannot tell you whether
11 they were photographers or on-lookers.
12 "Then I went to the Place de la Concorde and
13 I stopped at the traffic lights situated at the corner
14 of the Avenue de Champs-Elysees. I was level with
15 a large black Mercedes and on its left. I wanted to go
16 straight on and to the right of the embankment
17 expressways. The Mercedes was behind a dark car and
18 there was no one in front of me. In fact, I positioned
19 myself level with the Mercedes because, at the moment
20 when I was approaching it, my attention was drawn by
21 the presence of a black scooter registered in 75 [that
22 is department 75] ridden by two persons with dark
23 helmets which was stopped level with the left rear door
24 of the car.
25 "The passenger on the scooter had a camera and was
46
1 taking one photograph after another with his flash in
2 the direction of that window. It was not tinted.
3 I immediately thought he was a paparazzo. In fact,
4 I made out Mr Dodi Al Fayed, whose photograph I had
5 already seen in the newspapers, who had his left hand
6 holding the strap and his right hand shielding his face,
7 which one could make out all the same. To his right
8 I noticed Princess Diana, who was sitting back into her
9 seat to conceal herself. I can tell you that these
10 persons were not wearing seat-belts.
11 "At the steering wheel was a man of middle age, 45
12 to 50 years of age, who was wearing glasses and did not
13 make any impression on me. Beside him was a fair-haired
14 young man who I realised was the bodyguard. He seemed
15 very annoyed, turning his head a lot, and I guess he
16 wanted the car to move off.
17 "In answer to question: I did not see these men
18 wearing their seat-belts.
19 "In answer to question: I did not notice any other
20 vehicles.
21 "Then the lights changed to green and I started off
22 normally, thinking that the car stationary in front of
23 the Mercedes was not moving forward as if blocking it.
24 Then, in my interior mirror, I saw the Mercedes which
25 was pulling out and I heard its engine roar loudly and
47
1 its tyres spin. I had done about 10 metres and was
2 preparing to turn on to the embankments in the left lane
3 when Diana's Mercedes overtook me at very high speed on
4 the right. I then saw part of its registration, 8MTV75,
5 I think. I saw this car in good condition and clean.
6 "The dark car and the scooter started off and I did
7 not pay attention to them. I do not remember too well.
8 I must have been doing 50 to 60 kilometres per hour.
9 I was on the Cours de la Reine, still on the left, as
10 cars often enter on the right onto the embankments,
11 concentrating on my driving, and I passed under
12 the bridge at the Place du Canada.
13 "There was very little traffic and at the moment
14 when I was coming out of the underpass, I saw a car
15 arriving with its white headlights full on, travelling
16 very fast. It came up and stuck to my bumper, sounding
17 its horn and I was afraid. I pulled over to the right
18 and this car overtook me on the left. I saw it was
19 a light-coloured, perhaps white, Peugeot 205 with two
20 persons in front. The driver was a man and I did not
21 pay attention to the other one.
22 "In answer to question: it was a 205, I am sure of
23 that, and it was registered in 75.
24 "Then I went back to the left as I know this stretch
25 and know that cars come in from the right, as I have
48
1 said. I was then at the beginning of the Cours
2 Albert 1er and in my interior mirror I saw a motorcycle
3 coming up at high speed. It also had its white
4 headlight full on and was sounding its horn. I moved
5 over again and the motorcycle overtook me on the left.
6 I saw that it was an all-terrain vehicle registered in
7 91 and ridden by two persons, I think, wearing helmets.
8 I can tell you straightaway that I thought they were
9 paparazzi or others who were following the Princess.
10 "In answer to question: I did not see the scooter or
11 the dark car, but you must see that I was disturbed by
12 these events. I moved over to the left for the reasons
13 I mentioned, still travelling at the same speed, 50 to
14 60 kilometres per hour. A few moments later, when I was
15 going into the tunnel at the Alma Bridge, I made out
16 a dark mass which had crashed and I immediately thought
17 of the Princess' Mercedes. In fact, I had seen it
18 travelling very fast in order to escape from its
19 pursuers and I was not surprised. I was not overtaken
20 at the moment when I saw it. There was smoke escaping
21 from the front of the Mercedes which was turned
22 diagonally towards me.
23 "Visibility was reduced. I slowed down and
24 I definitely recognised the Mercedes. I overtook it on
25 the left and I saw some people who were taking
49
1 photographs. Then, after the Mercedes and in the
2 direction of the exit, I saw vehicles in the right-hand
3 lane and I recognised the dark car from the Place de
4 la Concorde, the scooter, the motorcycle and
5 the Peugeot. I am positive.
6 "In answer to your question: I cannot tell you
7 anything about the dark car, which was of medium size.
8 It must have overtaken me like the scooter at a certain
9 point and it had taken me less than five minutes between
10 the Place de la Concorde and the Alma Bridge underpass.
11 I cannot tell you the time.
12 "On the other hand, at the scene of the incident,
13 I was surprised to see two persons taking photographs
14 and two others running towards the crashed car coming
15 from the vehicles parked in front, which I mentioned.
16 I would have liked to stop, but I was afraid and I left,
17 sickened particularly by the fact that people were
18 taking photographs instead of giving help. In fact,
19 during this period of time, I did not see anyone open
20 a door. I could not make out anyone inside
21 the Mercedes. I did not telephone either. I preferred
22 to write to you.
23 "In answer to question: when I came out of the
24 Alma Bridge tunnel still in the left lane, I did not see
25 any other car or vehicle in front of me or behind me.
50
1 I was groggy. You showed me photographs of M Paul and
2 Mr Rees Jones and these were indeed the driver and
3 the bodyguard whom I saw in the Mercedes.
4 "To answer your question: I could perhaps recognise
5 these persons. The photographers were fairly young, of
6 normal appearance. The driver of the 205 was a man of
7 40 to 45 with grey hair and the motorcyclist I saw
8 running was tall and thin. You showed me 17 sheets with
9 34 photographs on them and, among them, on sheet 8,
10 photographs 15 and 16, that is the man who was driving
11 the 205, and that, I think, is Mr Martinez.
12 "You show me 13 photographs showing views in front
13 of the Ritz and I do not recognise anyone. I have
14 nothing else to tell you."
15 "After reading for himself, Mr Jean-Louis Bonin
16 "persists and signs this with me".
17 The INQ reference number for the photographs of
18 Mr Martinez is [INQ0002570].
19 Second statement
20 The second statement was made on 27th April 1998
21 before Herve Stephan, the extinguish magistrate, Paris
22 Regional Court. The witness gave his personal details,
23 made the oath, was reminded of his previous statement
24 and then answered a number of questions:
25 "In answer to question: I confirm the statement that
51
1 I made to police officers which you have just read back
2 to me. As I said, I arrived at the Place de la Concorde
3 lights when I was on my own in my Fiat Punto. I passed
4 the lights at the Crillon Hotel coming from the
5 Rue de Rivoli and I got to the Avenue de Champs-Elysees
6 lights, which were red. When I got there, I saw flashes
7 from photographers which attracted my attention.
8 The flashes came from a black scooter. There were two
9 people on it. It was the pillion passenger who was
10 taking photos. The scooter was to the left of the
11 Mercedes and, when we stopped at the lights, I got on
12 its left too. The scooter was between us. At that
13 point I saw a dark-coloured car smaller than the
14 Mercedes in front of the Mercedes where we stopped, but
15 I cannot give any description of it. I personally
16 stopped on the left of the two cars by the back of
17 the first car and the front of the second. Having seen
18 the flashes, I was curious to know who was in the car.
19 "In the line, I obviously looked behind me and in
20 the back of the car, on the left, I saw Dodi Al Fayed.
21 I had seen photographs of him in the press during
22 the summer, especially on a yacht. He was trying
23 desperately to hide himself. With his left hand he was
24 holding a safety handle above his window and his right
25 hand was in front of his face, but I could still see it.
52
1 I also saw Princess Diana at almost the same time. She
2 was in the back on the right and I recognised her
3 straightaway. She was trying to hide too and to sink
4 into her seat.
5 "In the front I first of all noticed a bodyguard,
6 a young fair-haired man who looked very young to me.
7 I saw that he was nervous, he seemed annoyed and ill at
8 easy. The driver looked relaxed and was waiting to go."
9 Here there is a translator's note in relation to
10 the words "waiting to go", giving alternative meanings
11 as "expecting this to happen" or "waiting for the lights
12 to change".
13 "None of them had their safety-belts on. I should
14 say that this all happened fairly quickly while we were
15 at the lights.
16 "Question: What happened after that?
17 "Answer: The lights turned green, I drove off,
18 there was no one in front of me. I could see clearly
19 that the Mercedes could not go forward because of the
20 car in front of it. I heard the Mercedes' engine and
21 I heard its tyres screech and in my rear-view mirror I
22 saw it pull out to the left to overtake the little
23 dark-coloured car that was in front of it.
24 "Question: Did you get the impression that this car
25 was obstructing the Mercedes deliberately?
53
1 "Answer: Definitely. When you are a driver and you
2 see someone behind you who is obviously in a hurry,
3 the reaction is to give them room, but this car really
4 was not doing that.
5 "In answer to question: after pulling out, the
6 Mercedes overtook me on the right, going very, very
7 fast. I really thought there was going to be an
8 accident because you do not drive at that speed along
9 the embankment on a Saturday night. I went the same way
10 as the Mercedes, but I could no longer see it. It was
11 not my problem anymore and I did not notice what
12 happened to the scooter and the dark-coloured car.
13 "Being on the embankment, I stayed in the left-hand
14 lane because traffic was coming in from the right all
15 the time without slowing down. It was while I was there
16 that I saw a white car drive up very fast with its
17 headlights full on. It was sounding its horn and got
18 right behind me. I was really frightened. I pulled
19 over to the right and it overtook me. It was
20 a Peugeot 205. I am certain about that. The colour was
21 light or white. There were two people in front.
22 I remember the driver, I think.
23 "Then I pulled back to the left to avoid the part
24 right at the entrance to the Alma Tunnel where you have
25 to give way to the traffic from the right, which in my
54
1 opinion is the most dangerous in Paris. As soon as
2 I had gone back over to the left, a motorbike came up
3 behind me, also with its headlights full on, sounding
4 its horn and it had two people on it as well. I pulled
5 over to the right again and as soon as the motorbike
6 overtook me, I went back on the left. I thought the car
7 and the motorbike belonged to paparazzi.
8 "Question: What did you see when you got to
9 the tunnel?
10 "Answer: I was doing 50 or 60 kilometres per hour
11 all the time. It was when I got to go down into
12 the Alma Tunnel that I saw a large dark shape with smoke
13 in the tunnel. I slowed down and at that point I must
14 have been doing 5 kilometres per hour. I did not see
15 any cars between the large shape and myself. As I got
16 nearer, I realised that it was a car that had crashed.
17 I was in the left-hand lane, the front was crushed and
18 turned 45 degrees in my direction towards the wall.
19 "I drove past on the left of the Mercedes in the
20 broken glass that was on the ground. I did not look to
21 see if there were already signs of anyone going through
22 the broken glass. In any case, there was a lot of smoke
23 and you could not see very much. When I was driving
24 past the back of the car, I realised that it was
25 a Mercedes and in particular I recognised the
55
1 registration number of the car which I had seen before
2 in the Place de la Concorde. I did not see people in
3 the car. I do not remember whether or not the Mercedes
4 horn was sounding.
5 "At that moment, I was mainly thinking that there
6 was a danger of an explosion and after passing
7 the Mercedes, I got out of the tunnel as quickly as
8 possible. Even so, I did notice some things as I came
9 out of the tunnel. For instance, I saw a scooter in
10 front of the Mercedes in the normal direction of the
11 traffic. There was also a motorbike in front of the
12 scooter. I saw the 205 which was in front of the
13 motorbike, but still in the tunnel. There was also
14 a dark-coloured car which was at the slope by the exit
15 from the tunnel. I also saw a number of people,
16 I cannot say how many. They were taking photos of
17 the crashed car and it was them in particular that
18 I tried to avoid.
19 "There was a photographer on Diana's side and
20 another on Al Fayed's side. The car doors were shut so
21 when I passed the Mercedes, there was a photographer
22 between the Mercedes and my car. I then saw two
23 photographers with cameras running up from the two cars
24 that had stopped in front of the Mercedes.
25 "In answer to question: I did not stop myself
56
1 because I did not want to risk my life by staying in
2 the tunnel if there was an explosion. To park on the
3 right, because of the vehicles that were already there,
4 I had to come out of the tunnel. You cannot park at
5 the exit from the tunnel and I would have had to drive
6 on another 100 metres. In any case, I thought to myself
7 there were enough people around the car who could help
8 and I did not need to be there.
9 "In answer to question: I thought the attitude of
10 the photographers was disgusting. I do not think your
11 first reaction in a situation like that should be to
12 take photos.
13 "In answer to question: I confirmed the registration
14 numbers I gave to police officers."
15 The witness was then shown some pictures of
16 photographs, and perhaps we could have on screen
17 [INQ0002401].
18 The witness identified the white motorbike with
19 the registration number 448BME91, which appears in this
20 photograph, as being definitely the motorbike that
21 overtook him on the embankment after the 205. He said:
22 "It is also the one that was parked in front of the
23 scooter and the crashed Mercedes. I am certain about
24 that. In fact, I had told the police officers that the
25 motorbike had a 91 registration."
57
1 He was shown some other photographs of a scooter and
2 he could not say whether those were the scooter which he
3 had seen in the Place de la Concorde or the scooter he
4 saw in front of the crashed Mercedes. He was then shown
5 some photographs of individuals. In answer to question:
6 "I have been shown these photos before. In the two
7 photos [and these are the photos of Mr Martinez], there
8 is a grey-haired man who think was the driver of the
9 205. You tell me that is Christian Martinez. I note
10 that and I did not know this man before. I do not
11 recognise any of the other people in the photograph
12 album you are showing me.
13 "In answer to question: I drive through the tunnel
14 at least twice a day and I know it well."
15 The witness confirmed that statement and signed it
16 with the judge and the clerk.
17 The final document from Mr Bonin is an interview
18 script or a transcript of interview provided by
19 Fulcrum Productions and, as I have indicated, the
20 relevant parts have been agreed between us and some of
21 the interested persons.
22 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: How long is this going to take to
23 read? I am just thinking of the shorthand writers'
24 position.
25 MR HOUGH: Between five and ten minutes. I am happy to stop
58
1 if they would ...
2 They are indicating they will keep going.
3 Fulcrum Productions Transcript
4 The interview was conducted by Anthony Scrivener QC
5 some years after the events, and I am going to start
6 with Mr Bonin in describing the scene in Place de
7 la Concorde.
8 "The Mercedes was to my right, to the right of my
9 car, trailing slightly relative to my car."
10 He was then asked whether he had seen any
11 motorbikes:
12 "Not motorbikes as such. I saw a scooter, which
13 interposed itself between the rear of my car and the
14 Mercedes to take photos. There were photographers on
15 board. I mean there was a photographer. I saw only one
16 scooter. I did not see any motorbikes."
17 He then added:
18 "At the back of the scooter, there was
19 a photographer who was taking pictures, who was taking
20 many photos of the people inside the Mercedes."
21 He then carries on the description:
22 "I drove off, but the Mercedes was blocked by a car
23 in front of it, so it was not able to drive off
24 straightaway. It took off soon after and drove away
25 very fast along the embankment."
59
1 He then added:
2 "The Mercedes drove off and the scooter arrived
3 a short while later."
4 He then said:
5 "The only vehicle I saw follow it was the scooter.
6 There was no one else. There was no one else at that
7 point."
8 He was then asked:
9 "Which lane were you driving in, the left or
10 the right?"
11 He said:
12 "The left lane.
13 "Question: So the Mercedes was ahead of you?
14 "Answer: Yes."
15 The scene is then picked up a little later:
16 "A motorcycle pulled up behind me with its
17 headlights on, hooting for me to pull over to the right
18 because it wanted to overtake me. I pulled over to
19 the right and the bike overtook me. When it overtook
20 me, it was going very fast.
21 "Question: Were you overtaken by any other
22 motorbikes?
23 "Answer: I did not see any other motorbikes. I saw
24 no other motorbikes. I saw a Peugeot car but no other
25 motorbikes."
60
1 The interpreter interpreted him as adding:
2 "There was a scooter then a motorcycle, the white
3 motorcycle and then the car."
4 He then added:
5 "I pulled aside three times.
6 "Question: Overtaken by three different motorbikes?
7 "Answer: No, a scooter, a motorcycle and a car.
8 "Question: And this is before you went through
9 the first tunnel?
10 "Answer: The motorbike was before the first tunnel.
11 I had the feeling that the motorbike was after the
12 Mercedes, just like the scooter had been."
13 He then added:
14 "I was convinced that the motorcycle and the scooter
15 were both chasing the Mercedes, which was in front.
16 "Question: From what distance?"
17 The interpreter translated that as:
18 "How much distance was there between the two of
19 them?"
20 The witness asked for clarification:
21 "Between which two?".
22 The interpreter said:
23 "Between the scooter and the motorcycle on one hand
24 and the Mercedes."
25 "Answer: I cannot say what the distance was. In
61
1 terms of time, the scooter and the motorcycle were about
2 a minute apart. No more than that. One or two minutes
3 at the most."
4 The interview then went back to the scene at
5 the Place de la Concorde and the witness said this:
6 "At the traffic lights, there was a car in front of
7 the Mercedes. That car took time to drive off so
8 I drove off, but the Mercedes was hemmed in by the car
9 in front, at the traffic lights, even though the lights
10 had turned green. I drove forward and a short while
11 later, I heard the Mercedes pulling away very fast in
12 order to bypass the car that was at a standstill in
13 front of it and drive towards the embankment."
14 "Question: When you were overtaken by the Mercedes,
15 what sort of speed was the Mercedes going?
16 "Answer: I see. It was moving fast, faster than
17 I was anyway, since I had just pulled away and I never
18 drive very fast anyway. So given that there is quite
19 a dangerous turning to get onto the embankment, I was
20 driving very slowly at that point, but the Mercedes was
21 going very fast. It overtook me at great speed.
22 "Question: When you were overtaken, had you reached
23 the first tunnel?
24 "Answer: The Mercedes overtook me in the tunnel
25 before the embankment, before the road where the tunnel
62
1 is. We were still -- we were still parked beyond
2 the Place de la Concorde. It overtook me on the
3 right-hand side.
4 "Question: Was the Mercedes being followed by
5 anybody?
6 "Answer: At that point, I did not see any vehicles
7 in pursuit. It was only when I reached to the
8 embankment did I see the scooter come up. But at the
9 point when the Mercedes overtook me, there weren't any
10 vehicles in pursuit. The Mercedes was moving faster
11 than the scooter at first.
12 "Question: Did it flash its lights at you or hoot?
13 "Answer: No -- yes.
14 "Question: So you moved to the right?
15 "Answer: I moved to the right.
16 "Question: At what speed was the scooter going,
17 fast?
18 "Answer: Faster than me.
19 "Question: Was that the same scooter you saw back
20 at the Place de la Concorde?
21 "Answer: Yes, it was.
22 "Question: And then did you go back to
23 the left-hand side of the road?
24 "Answer: I pulled back into the left-hand side.
25 "Question: Did someone else come past at speed?
63
1 "Answer: A little further on, indeed, after I had
2 gone through the tunnel, there was a motorcycle.
3 "Question: And what was that? What vehicle was
4 that?
5 "Answer: It was a motorcycle.
6 "Question: What kind?
7 "Answer: A white motorcycle.
8 "Question: How fast was that going?
9 "Answer: Faster than me. I do not know.
10 "Question: Faster than you were? Flashed ...
11 flashed ... flashed his lights ... Hooted?
12 "Answer: That is right. Yes, just like
13 the scooter.
14 "Question: Did you think that he was chasing the
15 Mercedes?
16 "Answer: Yes, I was sure of it.
17 "Question: Did any other vehicle pass you?
18 "Answer: Yes, a third vehicle, a car before ..."
19 The witness trailed off:
20 "A short distance after the first tunnel, a car,
21 a Peugeot 205, pulled up behind me very fast and
22 tailgated me, hooting, with its main beams on, trying to
23 get me to move over to the right so that it could
24 overtake me.
25 "Question: Did all this happen between the two
64
1 tunnels?"
2 After some discussion:
3 "The three vehicles, the three vehicles had already
4 overtaken me. In the case of the scooter, before
5 the first tunnel; the motorcycle, just after the first
6 tunnel; and the car between the first and second
7 tunnels.
8 "Question: Could you see where the Mercedes was
9 when these other vehicles were overtaking you?
10 "Answer: No, to be honest, I think the Mercedes was
11 far ahead.
12 "Question: Apart from the Peugeot, did you see any
13 other car in front of you?
14 "Answer: No, I did not see any other vehicles.
15 The road was empty. Yes, it seemed as though I was
16 the only one there. I did not see any other vehicles."
17 The witness then confirmed that the accident had
18 happened before he arrived on the scene and then he was
19 asked to describe the scene in the tunnel. He said
20 this:
21 "Behind the wreck of the Mercedes, out of which
22 smoke was emanating -- it had been completely smashed
23 against the wall -- the scooter, the motorcycle and
24 the white Peugeot car were parked behind the Mercedes."
25 The interpreter then translated further, as:
65
1 "The car was smoking and making a noise. And just
2 after the Mercedes, there were two scooters and
3 a motorcy ... there were two scooters?"
4 And then the witness added:
5 "No, one scooter, one motorcycle."
6 "Question: Were the motorcycles moving or
7 stationary?
8 "Answer: Parked, yes.
9 "Question: What was the white car doing?
10 "Answer: It too was parked, and a standstill."
11 The question is continued about the scene in
12 the tunnel:
13 "Which side of the road was the white car?
14 "Answer: The right-hand side, behind the Mercedes,
15 which was on the right.
16 "Question: Was this the first time you saw
17 the white car?
18 "Answer: No! That is the car which overtook me
19 when I was travelling along the embankment.
20 "Question: The Peugeot?
21 "Answer: Yes, the Peugeot.
22 "Question: You did not see a Fiat Uno at any time?
23 "Answer: No. No."
24 Further questions relating to the scene in
25 the tunnel:
66
1 "Question: Did you notice any other cars behind
2 you, as you went by?
3 "Answer: I did not look. I did not look because
4 the tunnel, the tunnel was full of smoke. There was
5 a lot of vehicle debris, pieces of vehicles, strewn
6 around on the road. So I was driving slowly and
7 concentrating on the road, not looking around."
8 And then the witness was asked to describe
9 the motorbike driver that he had seen, and he said this:
10 "Not fat, but stocky. Well built. Strong.
11 "Question: What was he wearing?
12 "Answer: I do not remember.
13 "Question: Was he on his own or did he have
14 a pillion?
15 "Answer: Two people.
16 "Question: Were you able to recognise both of them?
17 "Answer: No. I recognised the one who had been
18 driving the motorbike, because I had seen him in my rear
19 view mirror.
20 "Question: What detail --" and the witness
21 interrupted:
22 "-- enabled me to recognise him? His eyes.
23 "Question: Was he wearing goggles or no goggles?
24 "Answer: No. He was wearing a helmet, which was
25 open."
67
1 And then the witness was asked about the motorcross
2 motorbike and he said there were two riders on the
3 motorcross motorbike:
4 "Question: There were two on the scooter and two on
5 the motorbike?
6 "Answer: Two, yes."
7 That is all, and sir, if it helps
8 the shorthandwriters, we can provide a copy with
9 highlighting of everything that was read.
10 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Thank you.
11 Well, now, that is --
12 MR HOUGH: That is all the evidence for today.
13 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: As far as Monday is concerned,
14 I think the position is that we have no evidence.
15 Is that right?
16 MR HOUGH: I think Mr Burnett was going to address this
17 briefly at the end of today, so perhaps I can hand over
18 to him.
19 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Yes.
20 MR BURNETT: Sir, that is correct. Monday was down for
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