Hearing transcripts

7 February 2008 - Morning session

1 Thursday, 7th February 2008
2 (9.30 am)
3 (Jury present)
4 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Good morning, Mr Lafaille. Can
5 you hear us in Paris? It is not M Lafaille?
6 MR HOUGH: I think it is M Langlois.
7 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Can you hear us in Paris? No.
8 MR HOUGH: If the line has been muted, could a change be
9 made?
10 I think you can hear us now. Do we have M Langlois
11 there?
12 THE INTERPRETER: Yes.
13 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Good morning.
14 THE WITNESS: Good morning.
15 MR HOUGH: Could you please take the oath?
16 MR JEAN-FRANCOIS LANGLOIS (affirmed)
17 (Evidence via videolink, interpreted)
18 Questions from MR HOUGH
19 MR HOUGH: Is your name Jean-Francois Langlois?
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. My name is Jonathan Hough and I will ask you questions
22 first on behalf of the Coroner.
23 Now I think your family manages BMW and Fiat
24 dealerships in a town near the home of the late
25 James Andanson.

1

1 A. Absolutely.
2 Q. I think you gave a statement to the French police in
3 February of 1998. Do you recall that?
4 A. Absolutely.
5 Q. Do you have a copy of that statement with you there?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. Have you ever given any other interviews to anybody
8 official, unofficial, media, anybody, about these
9 events?
10 A. No, no, none at all. I did not want to.
11 Q. Am I right in saying that you have not received in
12 the past and you are not expecting to receive in
13 the future any payment for your account?
14 A. No.
15 Q. Turning to matters of background, I think you are
16 the manager of a BMW dealership in the town of
17 Saint-Maur, near Chateauroux.
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. I think you are also involved --
20 A. Not anymore.
21 Q. But you certainly were in 1997/1998?
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. And I think you were also, at that time, involved in
24 the management of a Fiat dealership in the town of
25 Chateauroux.

2

1 A. Yes.
2 Q. I think that the distance from Chateauroux to the town
3 of Lignieres, where Mr Andanson lived, is about
4 45 kilometres. Is that right?
5 A. Yes, it is correct, yes.
6 Q. Now I think the French police came to your premises on
7 12th February 1998, looking for a Fiat Uno.
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. They, I think, had been given your address and contact
10 details by Mr Andanson, the former owner of that car.
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. You confirmed that you had the Uno, showed them where
13 it was and they seized it. Is that right?
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. I think you gave the French police three documents,
16 which I hope will be attached to your statement and
17 which we can show on the screen here.
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. Do you have attached to your statement a registration
20 document, which is our [INQ0046685] in English, D4581?
21 Does that show a Fiat Uno registration 7704 RC 18?
22 A. Yes, we cannot see it on the screen, but the document,
23 that is what it says, yes.
24 Q. That is the same document that you are looking at in
25 hard copy, is it?

3

1 A. Yes.
2 Q. Does that show the car with the registration number
3 I just mentioned?
4 A. Exactly.
5 Q. Does that show that the car was registered to
6 James Andanson from March 1998?
7 A. Yes.
8 Q. I think it also shows that it was a diesel car.
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. The significance of the "18" in the registration I think
11 is that the car was registered in the area of Cher.
12 A. Yes.
13 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Where is Cher?
14 MR HOUGH: It is the area where Lignieres is, where
15 Mr Andanson's home was.
16 A. Lignieres is in the south of the county of Cher, about
17 40 kilometres south of Bourges.
18 Q. Thank you for that. Could you look at the next document
19 which is annexed to your statement, which should be
20 a declaration of sale.
21 THE INTERPRETER: It is declaration of purchase.
22 MR HOUGH: There is a certificate of sale at the bottom.
23 Does that document show that Mr Andanson sold
24 the white Fiat Uno to you on 4th November 1997? We see
25 that document at the bottom of the page.

4

1 A. Yes.
2 Q. Is this right: the Fiat was taken from James Andanson in
3 part exchange for a Fiat Punto that you were selling
4 him?
5 A. Exactly.
6 Q. Could you now look at the third document you provided to
7 the police? Is that entitled "Certificate of removal of
8 wreck"?
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. Is that an administrative document providing for
11 the disposal of a car for scrap?
12 A. Of a used car, yes.
13 Q. Had you partly completed that document before the French
14 police seized the Fiat Uno?
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. So is this right, that you were in the process of
17 arranging to sell the car on for scrap?
18 A. Yes, exactly.
19 Q. I think we can have the document off the screen now.
20 I think that the Fiat Uno had been driven to your garage
21 on its on steam, rather than collected by you.
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. Now Mrs Andanson describes not having a lot of
24 confidence in it while it was being driven on that
25 journey.

5

1 A. Yes, it is true, yes.
2 Q. Did you ever, yourself, test-drive it for any
3 significant distance after you bought it?
4 A. No. When you buy this kind of car, it is to sell it to
5 a scrap dealer.
6 Q. We have heard a French police officer confirm a report
7 that the car was in very poor condition and had over
8 325,000 kilometres on the odometer.
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. Had you done any repair works to it before it was seized
11 by the French police?
12 A. No, no. It was just put aside, waiting for it to be
13 collected.
14 Q. But had the state of the vehicle deteriorated in
15 the three months between when you had bought it and when
16 the French police seized it?
17 A. No. Maybe a couple of things were stolen, you know, as
18 it can happen when it is just put aside, but that is it.
19 Q. When you bought the car, would you have had any
20 confidence in driving it a substantial distance?
21 A. No. In all honesty, I would not have wanted to drive
22 that car on the road.
23 Q. One other matter: do you recall telling the police that
24 an inquiry agent called Michel Kerbois had visited your
25 garage in the week before they did?

6

1 A. Yes.
2 Q. Did Michel Kerbois tell you the purpose of his going to
3 your garage?
4 A. Well, he said that he was acting on behalf of
5 the police, doing some kind of supplementary work, and
6 he knew exactly what kind of vehicle I had, that the
7 Fiat Uno was there, and actually he even suggested that
8 he could buy it.
9 Q. Buy it?
10 THE INTERPRETER: Yes.
11 MR HOUGH: Now did you later become aware that he was in
12 fact an inquiry agent employed by Mr Al Fayed?
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. Regarding his offer to buy the wreck, did you say "yes"
15 or "no"?
16 A. I said "no".
17 Q. Why not?
18 A. No, because this type of vehicle, considering the state
19 it was in, you have to sell them to professionals
20 because, you know, people could use it to sell parts,
21 et cetera, and it would be dangerous.
22 Q. Is this right, that your sales manager saw
23 Michel Kerbois taking pictures of the Fiat Uno?
24 A. Yes, that is right.
25 MR HOUGH: Those are my questions. There may just be

7

1 questions from others.
2 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Mr Mansfield?
3 MR MANSFIELD: No thank you, sir.
4 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Mr Weekes?
5 MR WEEKES: No thank you, sir.
6 MR CROXFORD: Just a few things, sir.
7 Good morning. My name is Ian Croxford and
8 I represent the Ritz Hotel in Paris.
9 Questions from MR CROXFORD
10 MR CROXFORD: First of all, in the second half of 1997, do
11 you remember that there was some general interest,
12 particularly in Paris, in trying to trace a white
13 Fiat Uno?
14 A. Yes, I learned that at a later stage, but I did not know
15 then.
16 Q. It is a long time ago, M Langlois, but do you have
17 a memory now of this Fiat coming into your garage?
18 A. Well, nothing in particular. The person came with
19 a Fiat Uno. We just filled out the papers and then
20 the person left with a new Fiat Punto. Nothing in
21 particular.
22 Q. Do you remember a few moments ago that Mr Hough,
23 the other lawyer, asked you questions about the police
24 coming to see you on 12th February 1998?
25 A. Yes.

8

1 Q. He put to you and you agreed that the police had been
2 given your contact details by Mr Andanson. Do you
3 remember that?
4 A. Well, I guess he was the one who must have given them my
5 details because -- anyway, he had them because it was
6 one of our customers.
7 Q. It is just a detail, sir. So it was a guess. If I can
8 just assist you, you were seen at 11 o'clock in morning
9 on that day or thereabouts, weren't you?
10 A. Maybe. I cannot remember precisely.
11 Q. Well, sir, do you have in front of you there a report or
12 record made by a Lieutenant Gisbert of the French
13 police? If you look at the beginning, can we see that
14 he recorded coming to see you at 11.00 am on
15 12th February?
16 A. Yes, exactly, yes.
17 Q. It may not matter, but the jury has heard that
18 Mr Andanson was not in fact interviewed until about 3.15
19 that afternoon. So your guess -- I am not criticising
20 you, sir -- your guess, by the sound of it, may not have
21 been right. Would that be fair?
22 A. All right, if you say so.
23 Q. Now, may I ask you about the declaration of purchase,
24 please? This was filled in, was it, on the day on which
25 the Fiat was delivered to your garage or very shortly

9

1 afterwards?
2 A. No, that very day, as a matter of fact, because it is
3 part of the paperwork that you have to deal with.
4 Q. You then send the paperwork off to a central registry
5 somewhere in France?
6 A. Yes, to the Prefecture, which represents the state in
7 local communities.
8 Q. There is no mystery about this, I am sure. That would
9 mean that once the Prefecture had got the document and
10 processed it, then those entitled to search could find
11 who was holding that vehicle with the particular
12 registration mark, 770, et cetera?
13 A. Yes. Absolutely.
14 Q. I will just ask you one or two more questions about
15 the car. It was driven to you under its own power, as
16 you have said, but when it came in, you did not notice
17 that it had any particular marks on it or damage to it,
18 did you?
19 A. No, because usually, you know, I went round the car to
20 look at it because otherwise maybe I would notice a
21 faulted back and it was not the case.
22 Q. Your reluctance to trust the car to drive very far was
23 principally derived from the fact that it had an
24 unusually high kilometerage. It had driven an unusually
25 large number of kilometres for a car of that age and

10

1 type, hadn't it?
2 A. Absolutely, and its general state.
3 Q. We have heard some evidence that it had certainly
4 travelled more than 300,000 kilometres. Can you recall,
5 did the odometer show closer to 400,000 kilometres?
6 A. I think I remember that the meter read 325,000 and that
7 is what the police also took as information --
8 Q. Very well, sir.
9 A. -- when they looked at the odometer.
10 Q. Lastly this: having taken it in, did you then park it up
11 in a yard or a field somewhere near to your garage?
12 A. Behind the workshop on a parking lot.
13 MR CROXFORD: I am obliged, sir.
14 Thank you, sir.
15 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Thank you. Mr Horwell?
16 Mr Hough?
17 MR HOUGH: Nothing more for me, sir.
18 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Thank you very much, M Langlois.
19 That is all we require and we are grateful to you for
20 coming.
21 A. Thank you.
22 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: The next witness is M Lafaille.
23 MR HOUGH: Christophe Lafaille.
24 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Can we have the sound on again
25 please?

11

1 SECRETARY TO THE INQUEST: Are we connected?
2 MR HOUGH: I think we are connected, Mr Hughes.
3 Could the witness please make the oath or
4 affirmation?
5 MR CHRISTOPHE LAFAILLE (affirmed)
6 (Evidence via videolink)
7 Questions from MR HOUGH
8 MR HOUGH: Now, I understand that M Lafaille is in fact
9 fluent in English; is that right?
10 A. Yes I am, yes.
11 Q. Can we try to conduct this in English, if possible? Is
12 that okay, Mr Lafaille?
13 A. It is okay with me, yes.
14 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Good.
15 MR HOUGH: Good.
16 Now is your full name Christophe Lafaille?
17 A. That is correct, yes.
18 Q. Now I think you are a journalist and you knew
19 James Andanson quite well.
20 A. Yes. I knew James Andanson and his family on
21 a professional basis first of all and then a personal
22 basis later on.
23 Q. I think you gave a statement to the French police in
24 their investigation concerning Mr Andanson's death.
25 A. That is correct, to the gendarmerie, yes.

12

1 Q. That would have been in the year 2000?
2 A. Yes, just a few days after his death.
3 Q. Then, in June 2005, I think you gave a statement to the
4 British police in their investigations into the deaths
5 of Diana, Princess of Wales, and Dodi Al Fayed.
6 A. That is correct, yes.
7 Q. Do you have a copy of that with you?
8 A. Yes, somewhere here. I do have it.
9 Q. Thank you. Now I should make clear that I am asking you
10 questions first on behalf of the Coroner.
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. Now, I know that you wrote a book entitled "Diana,
13 l'enquete jamais publiee".
14 A. Yes, that is true.
15 Q. That was written in the form of a novel, but based on
16 some facts?
17 A. In terms of style, yes, but it is not a novel; it is an
18 essay really.
19 Q. Other than that, have you given interviews to the media
20 over the years?
21 A. Well, in doing promotion of that book -- it came out
22 last August -- I did several things, yes.
23 Q. Had you given interviews before that time?
24 A. About the subject? No. On the record, no, I do not
25 think so.

13

1 Q. Other than royalties for the book, have you received, in
2 the past, any payment for giving your account of
3 the events that you go through in your statement?
4 A. None at all, no. Absolutely not.
5 Q. Are you expecting any payment in the future, other than
6 royalties?
7 A. None at all, no.
8 Q. Can I deal with your background briefly? I think you
9 were a journalist with Paris Match magazine from 1986 or
10 1987 until 1998.
11 A. That is correct, yes, precisely the dates.
12 Q. Then I think you participated in the launch of
13 the French version of the magazine we would think of as
14 Hello!
15 A. That is correct, yes, 1998.
16 Q. Then, after your time with that magazine, I think you
17 worked for the picture agency, Corbis --
18 A. That is correct, yes.
19 Q. -- which in fact bought the agency Sygma which we have
20 heard about.
21 A. Correct.
22 Q. Just to be clear on one other matter at the outset, you
23 were not yourself in Paris on the weekend of 30th and
24 31st August 1997?
25 A. I was not. That is correct.

14

1 Q. Can I ask you a few questions about James Andanson?
2 A. Yes.
3 Q. I think you first met him in the 1980s when you were
4 working in the United States?
5 A. That is correct. Yes, I met him briefly through my
6 travels to Paris and the agency there which I was
7 involved at the time.
8 Q. I think you met him again when he was covering the story
9 of Pierre Beregevoy, a former French Prime Minister who
10 died in 1993.
11 A. That is correct, yes.
12 Q. M Beregevoy's death was found to be suicide, but there
13 were various conspiracy theories.
14 A. It is correct, yes. There were some basically -- I mean
15 it was suicide. He committed suicide in Never, a town
16 close to Paris. Mr Andanson knew him very well and had
17 authored, Mr Andanson, several stories on him when he
18 was Prime Minister. He did.
19 Q. We don't have to investigate those conspiracy theories,
20 thankfully.
21 Now, Mr Andanson worked for the Sygma picture agency
22 until August 1997.
23 A. I do not know the exact dates he was working with Sygma,
24 and then he went to work for Sipa Press, another agency
25 which is basically the same.

15

1 Q. Did Mr Andanson ever talk to you about the photographs
2 he took over the years?
3 A. Precisely, no. I mean we knew he was a very good
4 operator, somebody that was very professional and had
5 a lot of contacts with celebrities and -- celebrities in
6 the political world and in the showbiz world as well.
7 Q. We have heard from somebody else that he told them that
8 he had taken the photographs of the Duchess of York with
9 John Bryan. Do you remember those photographs?
10 A. Yes. I do, but it was not -- I mean he never -- from
11 what I understand, he never said such a thing because he
12 was not the person who did those pictures.
13 Q. Thank you.
14 A. I knew very well.
15 Q. I think you told the British police that the Angeli
16 agency took those pictures.
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. Dealing with Mr Andanson's type of work, as you have
19 said, he had contacts with a number of famous people and
20 would take their photographs by appointment.
21 A. That is correct, yes. He had a lot of -- I mean, a lot
22 of people confided in him because he was a very
23 professional person and had only word. If somebody
24 would, say, done a picture with this other one, he would
25 do it. People trusted him, basically.

16

1 Q. Did he also act as a traditional paparazzo, taking
2 photos without any kind of appointment?
3 A. Yes, of course. But I mean the word "paparazzi" does
4 not really match him. He was just a photographer doing
5 his job and particularly during the summer in St Tropez
6 where all celebrities gather. Of course, these
7 photographers are there every day every month of August
8 and photograph whatever they see really. So, of course,
9 they may follow or follow a boat or something like that
10 but he was not per se a paparazzi photographer.
11 Q. Mr Lafaille, your English is excellent, but can I ask
12 you to speak a little more slowly because your words
13 have to be transcribed here?
14 A. Sorry, yes.
15 Q. You describe in your statement to the British police
16 that Mr Andanson was, as well as being professional,
17 competitive and successful.
18 A. Yes, it is true.
19 Q. You have also said that he tended to show off about
20 the property he had bought on the fruits of his success.
21 A. Yes. He was very proud of this property he bought when
22 he retired for a while, going back to farm, farming
23 really -- to re-act, to start again within the business
24 a few years later. So he had like two or three years in
25 which he stopped working in the press.

17

1 Q. Now you have said in a couple of places in your
2 statement -- I am getting another indication that it is
3 difficult to transcribe your words.
4 I am sorry. It is not your words. It appears to be
5 some distortion on the line. We will do our best.
6 Now, it may be that the distortion can be improved
7 by turning the volume down a little at the French end.
8 Is that possible?
9 THE INTERPRETER: Is it better now?
10 MR HOUGH: That does seem to be better. Thank you very
11 much.
12 You have said in a couple of places in your
13 statement that a lot of his fellow professionals
14 resented or disliked James Andanson. Is that right?
15 A. Yes, some people were -- since he was working very much
16 by himself, I would describe him as a loner in terms of
17 his work. Some people were jealous of him and his
18 success because, like I said, through the years he has
19 built very serious relationships with several
20 celebrities. They knew him by name, they knew him very
21 well. So of course that made some jealousies among his
22 colleagues, but nothing specifically.
23 He was -- like I say, he was always working by
24 himself, never shared any -- unless big events, but
25 never shared what we call in the business "pools", when

18

1 you need three or four photographers to cover an event
2 by itself. He was more like a photographer who worked
3 for himself with his contacts and of course he made
4 jealousies.
5 Q. I think in 1999, while you were at Hola! magazine,
6 James Andanson asked you to sponsor his son's career as
7 a Formula 3 driver.
8 A. That is correct. It was not his career but it was more
9 that season of driving.
10 Q. So it was just one year's season, was it?
11 A. Well, in terms -- when I was involved, yes. It was
12 a year's season. I was not involved in years later or
13 years before. It was that year.
14 Q. Okay. In return for you paying to sponsor that season,
15 what did James Andanson agree to do for you?
16 A. We agreed to have a package of stories throughout
17 the year, pinpointing celebrities that I was interested
18 in, and we said that sometimes during the year he has to
19 do a home story with them. So we pinpointed certain
20 names which I was interested in and which my leaders
21 were interested in.
22 So we did a list of celebrities which he would do
23 his best to cover and do home stories like the Hello!
24 gimmick is known -- it is celebrities at home, as you
25 may know -- so that was the deal. In contra-part of

19

1 that, I would pay him a retainer, and each time a story
2 was done, we would, you know, subtract a sum from that
3 retainer.
4 Q. Although this was a business deal essentially with
5 James Andanson, I think you had dealings with his wife
6 a few times over the course of the year about the deal
7 you had done.
8 A. Absolutely, yes. I was more in contact with his wife
9 and his son than James, who was typically, as you hear,
10 on the road really.
11 Q. So did you understand that James Andanson was content
12 for you to deal with his wife about that kind of thing?
13 A. Obviously there was no problem whatsoever for that. She
14 was following her son. She was like a manager type of
15 person, who was following her son to all the races
16 around Europe, and there was also another gentleman who
17 was his director -- I do not know how you say in
18 English -- race manager really.
19 Q. In terms of Mr Andanson's own cars, did you ever see him
20 driving a white Fiat Uno?
21 A. No, I never have.
22 Q. Did you see him using other cars?
23 A. Well, I can very remember he had like a big German car
24 like a Mercedes or BMW at the time, and literally, as
25 I said in my statement, he lived in his car because he

20

1 was, you know, residing in the centre of France and
2 covering things in Paris and covering things in other
3 departments in France, so he was always in his car. For
4 example, with a story in Nice in the afternoon, he would
5 be in Paris to process his film the next morning. He
6 would have driven all night. That was typical of
7 Andanson.
8 Q. Can I show you some photographs of James Andanson on
9 screen and ask you to identify him? These were taken in
10 1995. They are just coming up on screen in a moment.
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. We have, I think, three pages to show you.
13 A. Okay. (Photographs shown) Yes. Yes.
14 MR HOUGH: Thank you very much, Mr Foley.
15 So those are accurate photographs of James Andanson
16 in around 1995, are they?
17 A. Yes, it is him.
18 Q. From his passport, I understand Mr Andanson's height was
19 about 175 centimetres. Does that accord with how you
20 remember him?
21 A. Yes, I think so. He was shorter than I am, so it should
22 be correct, but I cannot be precise on that. He was
23 shorter than I am.
24 Q. How tall are you?
25 A. 1.80.

21

1 Q. Moving on to the time when James Andanson died, I think
2 shortly before he died he telephoned you to make
3 a business proposition, is that right?
4 A. Not a business proposition. It was -- we had a small
5 problem with a story he had just done, which was some
6 kind of very important story in France and we had
7 a little problem with -- concerning the purchase of that
8 story. We decided to have lunch and discuss all of that
9 the next day. That is how I remember this.
10 Of course we had to have a lunch in
11 the Champs-Elysees neighbourhood the next day to settle
12 this account. I mean settle the buying of that story.
13 Q. Can we take this in stages? I think he originally
14 telephoned you to say that he had covered a particular
15 famous person.
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. He then said, I think, that he was going to come and see
18 you with a salesman to discuss the sale to you of
19 the photos.
20 A. Yes. I am -- I do not recall that exactly, but
21 I remember there was -- he -- he was supposed to bring
22 me a salesman to discuss the price of that particular
23 story and he was supposed to come with him. But
24 I refused because we had to deal -- we had a deal
25 between him and myself, with the authorisation of his

22

1 boss, of course, and I did not need any salesman who was
2 going to try to better or try to get more money than
3 it was supposed to be from the beginning, you see. So
4 I was not very happy about that, having the salesman
5 involved, so I told him and he said, "Okay, let's have
6 lunch tomorrow", and we said all that. Basically that
7 was what was discussed.
8 Q. We don't need to hear who the famous person was in
9 relation to these photographs, but it was not anybody
10 that these inquests are interested in, was it?
11 A. I did not understand. (Question interpreted) No, no,
12 not at all. No, not at all.
13 Q. You made an appointment for lunch, as you said, and that
14 was in fact for the day that he died, wasn't it?
15 A. It is correct, yes.
16 Q. I think he telephoned you to cancel that lunch
17 appointment beforehand, didn't he?
18 A. That is correct.
19 Q. At what time did he telephone you to cancel it? Was it
20 on the day of the appointment or on the day before?
21 A. He canceled -- from my understanding from the gendarmes
22 who came to interview me a few days later, it was in the
23 morning of his death, canceling that lunch appointment,
24 clearly.
25 Q. So he telephoned you on the morning before the lunch?

23

1 A. Exactly, to cancel it.
2 Q. He died on 4th May 2000, and as you have said,
3 the French police told you that that was the day he
4 died.
5 A. Well, I do not know the date exactly, but when the
6 gendarmes came to see me because -- and interview me
7 because they saw somehow his agenda or something that
8 I was supposed to have lunch with him that day. So of
9 course they got in touch with me and came to my office
10 to interview me.
11 Q. You say that they saw in his diary --
12 A. I suppose. I do not know. Apparently they were aware
13 of that appointment somehow.
14 Q. Dealing with Mr Andanson's mentality, you say in your
15 statement that you think James Andanson was the type of
16 man to kill himself if he believed his wife was having
17 an affair. Do you remember telling the British police
18 that?
19 A. Yes, I do, because that is what transpired from what
20 we -- after the discussions we had with his boss,
21 Mr Sipahioglu, and other people that were discussing
22 that. Apparently he said while waiting -- the work of
23 a photographer in St Tropez is a lot of waiting. He
24 would have said that to colleagues, to be very
25 disruptive on that sense, you see. If -- he said that

24

1 if his wife would cheat on him, he would take it very
2 badly. He was a very down to earth person, very
3 impulsive too, so that would not have surprised us at
4 all.
5 Q. Did you take away from what they were saying that
6 James Andanson had indicated that he might kill himself
7 if he discovered that?
8 A. Well, yes, I believe he could have been -- knowing him
9 and his energy and impulsiveness, that would not have
10 surprised me at all.
11 Q. Okay. Was there any talk or gossip among the
12 journalists about the fact that his wife might have been
13 having an affair? I am not for a moment suggesting that
14 that gossip might be accurate.
15 A. Well, it was more than gossip. It was more said in
16 the place where he worked.
17 Q. In SIPA?
18 A. Especially that he had sent a letter to his boss
19 crediting all his account to his wife. So it was really
20 a letter in which he wrote to give all his copyright and
21 all of his sales would have to go to his wife.
22 Q. Did you understand that that was a letter sent shortly
23 before he died?
24 A. I understand it is a letter he sent shortly before he
25 died.

25

1 Q. Thank you.
2 Now I am going to give you a few names from whom
3 the French police obtained statements saying that they
4 were told by James Andanson about thoughts of suicide,
5 to see if these were the people you obtained information
6 from. They are Sophie Deniau, Frank Doveri,
7 Jean-Gabriel Bartelemy and Christian Maillard. Did you
8 obtain your information from any of those?
9 A. It was not information per se, it was more comment. And
10 of course among the four people that you give names, two
11 of them were indeed people that I discussed with this
12 matter, yes.
13 Q. Now, the French police recorded that three of those
14 people referred to James Andanson mentioning the
15 specific suicide method of setting fire to a car. Was
16 that ever mentioned to you?
17 A. In fact the way he killed himself, what the
18 photographers were saying, his colleagues, was that he
19 would burn himself. They did say burning; not
20 committing suicide in general terms, but burn himself.
21 That is what he said to them.
22 Q. You say in your statement that you were aware that
23 Mr Andanson generally carried out containers for extra
24 petrol in his car. Is that right?
25 A. Yes. As, like I said, he was driving from one place to

26

1 another every night. He always had a can in his boot
2 just in case he would need some petrol as, on the
3 secondary roads in France, there are no stations open at
4 night. Now it is more usual, but at the time there were
5 not very many.
6 Q. Were you yourself aware that the French police
7 investigating his death found that, on the day of his
8 death, Mr Andanson had purchased more petrol than his
9 car tank could take?
10 A. Yes, I have heard that. Yes.
11 Q. Moving on to Mr Andanson and the suggestions that have
12 been made that he was in Paris on the night of the
13 crash. You had dealings with James Andanson for many
14 years and you paid him for stories and photos, didn't
15 you?
16 A. Of course, yes.
17 Q. Did he ever suggest to you that he had photos of the
18 crash in the Alma Underpass up for sale?
19 A. Never, no. Never.
20 Q. Do you think you would have been an obvious person for
21 him to have that kind of discussion with --
22 A. Well --
23 Q. -- if he did have them?
24 A. Myself, yes, and also the editor of Paris Match at the
25 time, yes.

27

1 Q. Did you hear from them any suggestion that he might have
2 photos up for sale?
3 A. I never heard of such a thing. No, never.
4 We knew that he was not in Paris that day because
5 we spoke. At the time, when it was suggested by Pierre
6 Ottavelli, which was a former -- we had (indistinct)
7 here who investigated about the cars which photographers
8 who followed Diana that summer, what kind of car they
9 were driving, and it was found that Mr Andanson was
10 driving a white Fiat Uno. So from that moment, of
11 course, in the editing room of Paris Match, we tried to
12 find out if it was true, if he indeed was in the
13 Alma Tunnel that day, but of course, after checking with
14 his editors at Sygma, because at the time he was working
15 at Sygma, there was never, you know, a hint of
16 Mr Andanson being in Paris at the time.
17 From my understanding, he drove all night to get
18 a plane to go to Corsica to make a story on
19 Gilbert Becaud, which was a famous singer who was living
20 in a really nice house in Corsica. So he went to do
21 that.
22 Q. Can we take that stage by stage?
23 A. Yes, sure.
24 Q. You knew that the French police were looking for a white
25 Fiat Uno?

28

1 A. That is correct.
2 Q. You were aware that somebody called Pierre Ottavioli had
3 been appointed, as it turned out by Mr Al Fayed, to look
4 for a white Fiat Uno?
5 A. Basically to investigate in general terms, yes.
6 Q. You were aware that the investigators had received
7 a tip-off that Mr Andanson owned a white Fiat Uno?
8 A. That is correct. I do not know if it was in terms of
9 a tip-off or a regular, you know, registration --
10 Q. Some form of inquiry.
11 A. Yes, yes. Absolutely.
12 Q. You were aware, I think, that the French police were
13 called upon to investigate that.
14 A. That is correct, yes.
15 Q. You yourself, as a journalist, also did some
16 investigations, including talking to other journalists?
17 A. That is correct.
18 Q. But you never discovered anything in your inquiries to
19 suggest that Mr Andanson was in Paris on that night and
20 everything you heard suggested to the contrary?
21 A. That is correct, yes.
22 Q. Did you discuss with Mrs Andanson her view of the
23 investigations concerning her husband's Fiat?
24 A. Yes. It is true that in the days after -- in the days
25 later, when I was working with James and having contact

29

1 with his family, on one or two occasions the Fiat Uno
2 matter came about in the discussion, but it was brushed
3 aside very quickly. Except there was, particularly at
4 the time, there was a newspaper in England that was
5 printing, you know, things that -- you know, pinpointed
6 Andanson as being in the tunnel with that Fiat Uno and
7 all that. And of course his wife was making comments on
8 this.
9 Q. Again, could I ask you to go a little more slowly and
10 break up your answer if you can?
11 A. Sorry. Mr Andanson's wife commented to me a couple of
12 times, including in front of my wife, this story about
13 the Fiat Uno.
14 Q. What did she say about the idea that the Fiat Uno might
15 have been in Paris that night?
16 A. Well, she did not say that. She just explained that
17 forensic experts came to her home to make some test on
18 that car, which were done, and she did not understand
19 why the British papers or one British paper at least was
20 doing stories one after the other saying that he was
21 a Secret Service person, that he was in the tunnel that
22 night, et cetera.
23 Q. Did she tell you that the fact that the car had been
24 taken for forensic examination was ridiculous?
25 A. No, she did not tell me that. I have read that though,

30

1 somewhere else, but no, she did not tell me that at all.
2 She just said that the police came, made some tests and
3 that car was not involved in that crash that night for
4 sure. I mean, that is what she said.
5 Everything had been done to confirm or to deny that,
6 and she did not understand why newspapers were following
7 up that lead and writing things that were already
8 obsolete, shall we say.
9 Q. Can I turn to another topic, which is other photographs
10 taken on the night of the crash by paparazzi who were
11 there. You, I think, have considerable experience of
12 the methods of paparazzi.
13 A. Well, yes, yes.
14 Q. In your statement -- and this is page 5 if you want to
15 look at it. It is a paragraph beginning "Whenever there
16 is a royal or celebrity visit ...", and about halfway
17 down that paragraph, you say:
18 "A professional photographer would never overtake
19 a car to take pictures through the windows. It is not
20 worth it, you have the glass and its reflection and they
21 don't take risks like that."
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. Does that mean, from your experience, you would not
24 expect photos to be taken of a fast-moving car by
25 paparazzi who were following it?

31

1 A. That is correct. That is not the way that photographers
2 behave. In general terms, when a celebrity or other
3 person is in Paris or even a head of state, because this
4 is done with -- each time a head of state comes to
5 Paris, there is a cavalcade of cars, of course, but also
6 there are journalists and team people that follow in the
7 back, in the cortege in fact.
8 Q. Is this right, if a car stopped, for example at some
9 traffic lights, would the paparazzi then be interested
10 in taking photos through the windows?
11 A. No, I do not think they would do that. Absolutely not.
12 Q. On the previous page of your statement -- this is page 4
13 towards the bottom, in the last paragraph -- you refer
14 to some photographs taken by paparazzi in a 4x4 vehicle
15 who got away from the tunnel. Do you see that?
16 A. Yes, of course, yes.
17 Q. You say that you have seen photographs taken by these
18 men and that they were called Chassery, Odekerken and
19 Laurent Sola. Is that right?
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. Now in fact I think that Laurent Sola was the head of
22 a picture agency rather than a paparazzo; is that right?
23 A. He is certainly a photographer, but at the time he was
24 managing a small agency in Paris, yes.
25 Q. It has not yet been suggested in evidence that

32

1 Laurent Sola was following the Mercedes. Is that
2 something you heard?
3 A. Well, I know that he was not working that night. He was
4 not -- he was spending his weekend normally and had
5 these two photographers working for him. He had
6 previous contact with Paris Match because he found out
7 very early that the Princess of Wales was making a stop
8 in Paris so we need -- Paris Match needed coverage. So
9 we assigned his agency to cover it for us.
10 Q. His agency, which I think was called Laurent Sola
11 Diffusion, LSD, was represented by both Chassery and
12 Odekerken. Is that right?
13 A. I do not know exactly. There were photographers working
14 regularly with his outlet. I think, from my
15 understanding, these photographers worked a couple of
16 times with him and he had good contacts in England. So
17 he had the tip that the Princess of Wales was stopping
18 in Paris, so he just called the picture desk at
19 Paris Match and said "Do you want us to cover this?" and
20 we said "Okay". So we gave him a retainer to cover his
21 expenses and work. So that is the way it was done.
22 Q. As have you said, Chassery and Odekerken were
23 photographers who worked for LSD on that night?
24 A. For that particular matter, yes, but I do not think they
25 were working per se every day for him.

33

1 Q. Now we know that Odekerken certainly was in a 4x4,
2 a Pajero vehicle.
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. We also know that those two photographers did get
5 photographs out of the tunnel. Were you aware that they
6 gave hard copies of at least some photographs to
7 the police?
8 A. Yes, afterwards, yes. I think -- yes.
9 Q. You say that the photographs that they got out of the
10 tunnel were distributed to the News of the World
11 newspaper.
12 A. Well, from what I understand, yes, but first of all the
13 pictures were brought to Paris Match during the night.
14 Q. Were you there --
15 A. No, I was not there.
16 Q. Did you discover the arrangements by which
17 the photographs were distributed to the wider world?
18 A. Well, because I knew that, of course, as the accident
19 happened, the pictures were taken out of the tunnel,
20 which were the only ones, I think. Then they were
21 processed and then brought to Paris Match and then
22 distributed to the newspapers, who at the time were
23 closing their editions, in England and the US.
24 Q. Did you just say that you understood these to be
25 the only pictures which were brought out of the tunnel,

34

1 those of Chassery and Odekerken?
2 A. To my knowledge, yes.
3 Q. These inquests have heard evidence from the picture
4 editor at the News of the World's sister paper and heard
5 associated evidence from a police officer to show that
6 that paper did receive photographs taken by Chassery and
7 Odekerken and that most of those -- certainly the
8 photographs seen by the picture editor -- were taken in
9 the tunnel after the crash. Did you see any of the
10 photos that came out of the tunnel?
11 A. Yes, I did.
12 Q. The photos that you saw, were they taken after the crash
13 or before the crash?
14 A. Well, obviously I saw before the crash and after the
15 crash, but I saw the pictures -- the famous pictures of
16 the Princess of Wales in the car, plus -- yes, the two
17 pictures were there. There were two pictures.
18 Q. Can I show up on screen two photographs taken by
19 Mr Chassery which you may have in a binder there in
20 Paris? Could you look at pages 37 and 38 of that
21 binder?
22 A. Now, this one I cannot remember.
23 Q. Could you now look, please, at page 45?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. That was the one you saw afterwards, was it?

35

1 A. I think that is the picture I saw, yes.
2 Q. Then at page 47, please.
3 A. Yes, well that series obviously is what I saw, but I do
4 not know exactly which one.
5 Q. Then could you look at page 53?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. Did you see that one?
8 A. I think so. Yes, yes, that was the general scene, yes.
9 Q. Could you turn on to page 110 please?
10 A. Yes, that is also -- it rings a bell but, you know --
11 yes. Basically what I must say is that of course I saw
12 those pictures the next day, yes, when I came to
13 Paris Match. There were -- I said two pictures, but
14 there were two or three pictures because I remember this
15 one, the scene in the tunnel.
16 We were just, you know -- the reason I saw those
17 pictures and they were shown to me, because Paris Match
18 had decided not to publish them, was in order to have
19 some information on what really happened that night, and
20 particularly Paris Match was assailed by all kinds of
21 people that were saying they were witnesses to
22 the crash. The first question we always asked them was,
23 "How was Diana in the car? Describe me the way she
24 was", and that is the way we could pinpoint if this
25 person was indeed in the tunnel or not.

36

1 Believe me, there were at least three or four
2 persons saying they were witnesses and they were not.
3 Q. Thank you.
4 A. So that is basically the reason I saw those pictures.
5 Q. Okay. Now the reason I showed you those photographs is
6 that those were the ones that were seen by the English
7 picture editor. Now, in your statement you have said
8 that you saw photographs showing the car when the
9 Princess of Wales was still alive. Is that right?
10 A. I cannot remember that. Well, coming out of the wreck.
11 I cannot remember exactly which pictures we saw at the
12 time, but -- and, you know, after seeing all these
13 pictures through the years. But if you are mentioning
14 the fact -- there were rumours among the photographers
15 that a picture was shot in the Place de la Concorde.
16 We never verified that because we never saw that
17 picture.
18 If you are mentioning that, of course during the day
19 we had pictures of all the -- you know, the sequences of
20 the day, the arrival at the airport. All these pictures
21 were available, so there were indeed pictures of the
22 couple before the crash, of course. But in terms of
23 pinpointing if they were from Chassery or Odekerken,
24 except the pictures of Le Bourget, I cannot tell.
25 Q. So is this right: you are saying that as far as you were

37

1 concerned, the only photographs that you saw on the
2 final journey were either at the back of the Ritz or in
3 the tunnel after the crash?
4 A. Yes, that is the pictures I saw the next day, yes.
5 Q. I think you understand from Laurent Sola that he stopped
6 distributing the photos after it was discovered that
7 the Princess of Wales and Dodi Al Fayed had died.
8 A. That is correct.
9 Q. Now one other matter of discussion among
10 the paparazzi -- this is page 6 of your statement
11 towards the bottom. You say that according to people
12 who knew Henri Paul well, he was not acting rationally
13 when he was outside the Ritz and at the Place de
14 la Concorde.
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. His attitude was not --
17 A. Yes. I mean, we had some, including Chassery --
18 particularly Chassery was in front of the Ritz at the
19 time -- and other photographers were describing
20 a strange behaviour with Henri Paul, somehow provoking
21 the photographers. Whereas they knew him from before
22 and he was not the type to speak with photographers,
23 photographers waiting outside the Ritz for other
24 matters.
25 Chassery noticed that he was doing a little bit too

38

1 much. That is what he told me and others said the same
2 thing.
3 Q. Was there anything other odd about him than the fact
4 that he was just talking to the paparazzi a bit more
5 than normal?
6 A. That is one of the points, but he was coming in and out
7 of the hotel all the time to speak to them and to tell
8 them that they were going to come out very soon and
9 things like that, and normally he would not do that.
10 Q. Another few short topics: first of all, Jacques Morel.
11 We heard from this witness on 24th and 25th October and
12 I am sure he is remembered by everybody here. You,
13 I think, were introduced to him by a photographer called
14 M Bartelemy, another acquaintance of Mr Andanson; is
15 that right?
16 A. I do not know who Mr Morel is. Who is he?
17 Q. I think you told the British police that you had been
18 introduced by M Barthelemy to a Mr Morel, who claimed to
19 have seen the aftermath of the crash. Is that right?
20 A. Ah. I do not know. It does not ring a bell. If you
21 mention people that claimed to be at the scene of the
22 crash, we saw many. We saw at least -- there was
23 a couple I remember and there was another young guy on
24 a motorbike who claimed to have been arrested when he
25 wanted to give his testimony a few hours later. He was

39

1 arrested in a police station in the 16th arrondissement,
2 and of course he was a person that was just inventing
3 their story. I remember a couple, but I cannot remember
4 their names. They were also saying that they were at
5 the scene of the crash, that they saw this and that, and
6 of course their witness account did not match from what
7 we knew from the photographers in which we trust,
8 including Mr David Odekerken and Chassery, you know,
9 because they talked to us and explained the scene --
10 I mean explained the whole day to us, what really had
11 happened and stuff.
12 Q. This might ring a bell. There is a record from
13 the British police that you spoke to them in November of
14 2004. You found some notes and you recalled from
15 the notes somebody called Jacques Morel, who you
16 described as a "mythomaniac", who you said was "ranting
17 that the French juges were lying and hiding the truth".
18 Does that ring a bell?
19 A. Yes, of course. That is what I was explaining earlier,
20 that Paris Match came across a lot of, you know, false
21 witnesses. And it is possible -- I cannot remember his
22 name but it is possible that that was the one, one of
23 them.
24 Q. A couple of things about articles that have appeared
25 over the years. I think you are aware of a Vanity Fair

40

1 article published at the end of 2004, written by
2 a Mr Sancton.
3 A. That is correct.
4 Q. He wrote that you told him that you had a lunch
5 appointment with James Andanson on the day that
6 the Princess of Wales died, obviously you being in
7 Paris, and that James Andanson canceled that. Did you
8 ever tell him that?
9 A. Yes, absolutely. That was a bit of confusion about this
10 story which I explained on my own -- I spoke to
11 Scotland Yard. I called him because I was misquoted in
12 a way that I cannot understand because I never said that
13 to Mr Sancton, except I know that Mr Sancton was very
14 close to Mr Al Fayed, who always thought that I was
15 supposed to have lunch with Mr Andanson on the day of
16 the Princess of Wales' death and not on his death.
17 I came across that Vanity Fair article by chance
18 and, you know, I immediately called Scotland Yard and
19 said -- you know, I explained to them that I was
20 misquoted. There was something really strange about
21 this because I never said that, neither to the
22 gendarmes, neither to Sancton, nor to anybody, that.
23 I was supposed to have lunch with Mr Andanson the
24 day he committed suicide, period. That is what I always
25 said and I still maintain that, but somehow there was

41

1 defamation about this, and I could not understand and
2 I told Scotland Yard about it, yes.
3 Q. Well, one of the things we are here to do is to correct
4 inaccurate accounts. Just to be clear, you never had
5 any appointment for lunch with James Andanson on
6 30th August and you never told anybody that you did?
7 A. Absolutely. I never told anybody and that is not
8 the truth. I have never said such a thing.
9 Q. You also told the British police that somebody called
10 Chester Stern was trying to twist your words. Who is
11 Chester Stern?
12 A. Mr Chester Stern, I understand, was a public relations
13 person in Mr Al Fayed's organisation at Harrods.
14 Q. What made you think that he was trying to twist your
15 words.
16 A. You know, because like I said, I always said to them,
17 including to Chester Stern, that I had lunch -- I was
18 supposed to have lunch with Andanson the day of his
19 death, and he kept on asking me that and I said, "No,
20 I was not supposed to have lunch on the day of the
21 Princess of Wales' death". I do not know why he would
22 say such a thing, but I know -- because the contact
23 I had with Mr Al Fayed was through Mr Stern, because in
24 2005 or I think it was 2004, I was writing a script for
25 a TV -- for a fiction, in fact, in France and I came to

42

1 see Mr Al Fayed to ask him if he would his own role in
2 the film and would allow us to film in certain parts of
3 the Ritz and stuff.
4 I went to see him, and that is when they insisted
5 very much asking me if I was supposed to have lunch with
6 Andanson on the night -- on the day of the
7 Princess of Wales' death. They insisted too much. So
8 that is why I said to the British police that
9 Mr Chester Stern was trying to twist my arm about this.
10 Q. Okay. One other matter under this topic. Can we have
11 on screen [INQ0041229] [INQ0041230] [INQ0041231] [INQ0041232] [INQ0041233]?
12 Is this an article that you remember, originally
13 published in Paris Match and then syndicated to
14 Elle Magazine?
15 A. Yes, I do.
16 Q. Is it presented as the transcript of an interview with
17 the Princess of Wales and Dodi Al Fayed by a journalist
18 from Paris Match?
19 A. Yes, that is correct. This is an interview that
20 a journalist who is not from Paris Match, who is
21 somebody that had done some stories with us, went to my
22 boss and claimed to have the last interview of the
23 Princess of Wales and Dodi. That is correct, yes.
24 Q. The preamble to the interview indicates that
25 Roger Therond, who was the editor of Paris Match "stood

43

1 stoutly behind the veracity of the interview".
2 A. That is correct, yes.
3 Q. So Roger Therond was presenting this as an accurate
4 interview by one of his journalists, was he?
5 A. No, because he was not a journalist per se at
6 Paris Match. He was an external person from the paper,
7 however, somebody that my boss trusted a lot, yes.
8 Q. This interview includes the Princess of Wales and
9 Dodi Al Fayed supposedly speaking about their commitment
10 to each other, and I think you were asked by Mr Therond
11 to resell the article to networks.
12 A. Yes. Apparently there was sound -- in order to
13 authenticate this interview, I understand there was
14 sound. So in terms of purchasing that last interview,
15 it was -- from what I understand from my boss, it was
16 a very expensive matter, so he asked me to try to sell
17 it overseas, which sometimes we did when we came across
18 a very big story that was very costly.
19 So I asked the author if I could get the tapes
20 because, of course, there was pretty much interest in
21 the US. From ABC News, I remember -- or NBC News, they
22 wanted to hear that interview, except they were asking
23 for the tapes themselves, which I was never able to
24 obtain. So the deal did not go through, obviously.
25 Q. So is this right: the person who claimed to have taken

44

1 the interview was not able or prepared to give you
2 the tapes?
3 A. Exactly. He refused to give me the tapes.
4 Q. Did you believe the interview was genuine?
5 A. No, I did not.
6 Q. Can you give us the name of the person who took this
7 interview?
8 A. It is a bit difficult for me. I do not know if -- you
9 know, it is a source, really, you know ...
10 Q. This purports to be an interview conducted on
11 the Jonikal, I think, shortly before the Princess and
12 Dodi died. If it is accurate, it is obviously of
13 importance.
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. Are you able to give us the name of the person who
16 supposedly performed this interview?
17 A. I can give -- I would like to give -- the article is not
18 signed? There is not a signature in the article?
19 Q. The identity is not given on this interview, and I am
20 not aware of it having been published anywhere else.
21 A. (French spoken) (Interpreted) I agree -- I have some
22 doubts, but I agree that I could give the name to
23 the Coroner, but I will not do it publicly. I do not
24 know if you understand, but ...
25 Q. Okay. Could you --

45

1 SECRETARY TO THE INQUEST: Would it be possible --
2 MR HOUGH: Could you write it down and pass it to Mr Hughes,
3 who is the secretary to the inquest, and who will keep
4 it safe for the Coroner?
5 A. Okay.
6 Q. If you have any contact details for the person whose
7 name you have written down, those would be appreciated
8 as well.
9 A. No, I do not have any contact, I am afraid.
10 Q. Okay. There is another document I would like to show
11 you and perhaps it can be shown on screen.
12 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: How much longer are you going to
13 be?
14 MR HOUGH: Only a couple of minutes.
15 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: We will have the break after
16 that.
17 MR HOUGH: This is the last topic.
18 I do not think it has arrived yet. It should be
19 with you very shortly. There we are.
20 Now, do you recognise this as a document which
21 appears in your book?
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. We have heard evidence about this. It appears on its
24 face to be a letter from a Professor Coriat [INQCORIAT], one of the
25 surgeons involved at La Pitie-Salpetriere on the night

46

1 of the crash.
2 A. That is right.
3 Q. This inquest has heard agreed evidence from
4 Professor Coriat that this is a forgery, that it is on
5 the wrong notepaper, that it has errors and the wrong
6 medical terminology. I think you received this document
7 from a source who had told you it was from the examining
8 judge's office. Is that right?
9 A. Well, at the beginning he was not that specific. We --
10 my intermediary was telling me that he had a source
11 inside. When he meant "inside", I do not know if it was
12 from judicial sources or from the court or from
13 the police. I never knew that.
14 Q. Could you either tell us or write down the name of the
15 person who provided you with this document?
16 A. No, I did not know his name. He was an intermediary.
17 Q. An intermediary?
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. Do you know for whom the person was an intermediary?
20 A. From somebody close to the investigation, as he said.
21 Q. Did he give the name of the person?
22 A. No.
23 Q. How did you come to meet this mysterious and unnamed
24 intermediary for a mysterious and unnamed person?
25 A. He came to Paris Match and dealt with my editor.

47

1 MR HOUGH: Thank you very much. Those are my questions.
2 There will be a short break before others ask you
3 questions.
4 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: We have to have a short break
5 now, M Lafaille. Thank you very much. We will resume
6 again when the shorthandwriter has had a chance to rest
7 her fingers.
8 (11.03 am)
9 (A short break)
10 (11.23 am)
11 (Jury present)
12 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Mr Hough, have you completed your
13 questions?
14 MR HOUGH: Yes, sir. Thank you.
15 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Mr Mansfield?
16 Questions from MR MANSFIELD
17 MR MANSFIELD: Good morning. My name is Michael Mansfield.
18 I represent Mohamed Al Fayed. Just a few questions
19 please.
20 One question dealing with the document that you were
21 told came from the dossier. Is it not right that at the
22 time you were advised by a number of people including
23 the head of security at Harrods, John Macnamara, that
24 it was forged, were you not?
25 A. I never -- well, I met Mr Macnamara afterwards, but at

48

1 the time I did not have any contact with him.
2 Q. Well, you indicated to the British police -- I can show
3 you the reference if you want. I want to do it quickly.
4 Page 5 of your statement, on this topic:
5 "John Macnamara, the director of Harrods security,
6 and a lot of other people at the time believed it was
7 forged."
8 Is that right? They told you that or you knew that
9 they did?
10 A. Well, I only met Mr Macnamara later on when I came to
11 Harrods for my script, so at the time we did some
12 checking obviously. It is possible that my reporters
13 had a contact with him, but I did not have a contact
14 with him on that matter.
15 Obviously this document was very important indeed.
16 We had -- at Paris Match we were very suspecting that it
17 may have been a fake, that we may have come across
18 a fake document, except the timing of obtaining the
19 document was so short from the accident that we could
20 not understand how somebody would doctor such a document
21 in such a fast time.
22 Q. Well, I am going to move from that to another of
23 the documents that you have been asked about. That is
24 the interview that was published in Paris Match which
25 we have -- could I have it back up, please? It is

49

1 [INQ0041229]
2 There are just some features I want to ask you
3 about. First of all, the jury don't have it, but this
4 interview covers five pages in Paris Match, does it not?
5 A. Well, this is not a Paris Match article. This is in
6 English, first of all, so I believe this document is
7 from a British or American or English-speaking Elle, the
8 magazine Elle. It is not Paris Match.
9 Q. In any event, as reported, it is quite a long interview,
10 isn't it?
11 A. From what I remember, yes.
12 Q. Now we see in this version of it on [INQ0041229] there
13 is a passage:
14 "Even after their tragic deaths in Paris on
15 August 31st, the debate raged. But now someone (whose
16 identity is known only to Roger Therond, editor of
17 Paris Match ..."
18 Now, first of all, that obviously is not right
19 because you claim to know who the person is. Is that
20 right?
21 A. Yes, well, I -- Roger Therond is not the only one who
22 knew about this person. The editor at the time -- he
23 was the director -- the editor new knew, the news editor
24 knew and eventually the picture editor knew, so we all
25 knew about basically -- the head of Paris Match knew

50

1 about the existence of this person and the existence of
2 this interview.
3 Q. Now, Roger Therond is no longer alive; is that right?
4 A. That is correct, yes.
5 Q. So I am only asking you about who else knew about --
6 I am not asking for the name of the person you have
7 written on the piece of paper, but who else knew this
8 person who is still alive?
9 A. Well, obviously the editors at the time.
10 Q. Who were they?
11 A. There were several. Michel Sola, for example.
12 Q. Who else?
13 A. Mr Didier Rapeau(?) is the picture editor and that is
14 it. And me who intervened only for the -- first tried
15 to sell this interview somewhere else and to give my
16 advice on it.
17 Q. Now, if we just go over the page to [INQ0041230], there
18 is on this page, "How did the story come Therond's way?"
19 It is reported here that he received a call "from
20 a person whom I know well", quoting Therond, "and who
21 I always respected, who told me in a traumatised voice:
22 'An extraordinary thing has happened to me. Only a few
23 weeks ago I had a long interview with Diana and Dodi.
24 It was on the Cote d'Azur. Our conversation must have
25 helped them clarify things ...'", and so forth.

51

1 Now, did you ever seek to this person who was known
2 to M Therond and to you -- did you speak to him about
3 how he conducted this interview?
4 A. No, I did not.
5 Q. Did you speak to him at all about this interview?
6 A. Not at all.
7 Q. So when you were asked to get the tapes of the
8 conversation or interview, as it is described, who did
9 you ask?
10 A. My boss.
11 Q. Who did he ask?
12 A. Well, I did ask him how this interview -- in
13 the beginning it was not very clear how this interview
14 came about. He just asked me to verify it and to verify
15 the words of the Princess, what was said, and to try to
16 eventually sell it overseas.
17 Q. As we can see -- I am not going to go through it --
18 the way it is structured in this article, was it
19 published in Paris Match in the same way?
20 A. Well, I don't -- the interview was published in
21 Paris Match. Paris Match published the first interview,
22 and then, like you see in that copy there, it was resold
23 or passed to sister publications of our group that were
24 Elle, Elle Magazine, in several countries. I cannot
25 remember which. But I think it was published widely in

52

1 Asia and in British Elle. I think that is where this
2 interview comes from or the American Elle. But that is
3 basically -- I do not recall the form in which it was
4 given -- put in Paris Match, nor in this article you
5 showed me. I have not seen that article since I gave it
6 to the British police in fact.
7 Q. We can see that it is structured in the way of
8 "Question" and then "Diana", "Question", "Question", all
9 the way through. That is how it is structured, isn't
10 it?
11 A. Yes, it is, yes.
12 Q. If the person who you have written down the name of, who
13 was well known to you and to Mr Therond, said he had
14 conducted an interview, did you believe that?
15 A. Well, obviously I asked my boss how this was possible
16 because it came after the death of the
17 Princess of Wales, where was the connection between that
18 person and the Princess of Wales, and because I do
19 not -- he never -- this person, who in fact was
20 a journalist, never covered in that sense the
21 Princess of Wales. So the story I got was that this
22 person was a frequent user of the Ritz facilities for
23 sports for, you know, the swimming pool and all that,
24 and he met Dodi there in the past.
25 Q. Right. Did he work for Paris Match or was he freelance?

53

1 A. He is a freelance, yes. He is outside of Paris Match,
2 as I explained to the gentleman before. He was not on
3 the staff of Paris Match. He was an occasional
4 collaborator.
5 Q. Well I am not going to ask any more until, if it is
6 possible, we may confidentially see the name. I have no
7 more questions for the moment on that topic.
8 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: I have the name now. It seems to
9 me that it is appropriate that counsel should be able to
10 see the name.
11 MR MANSFIELD: Yes. I will certainly indicate straightaway
12 that I do not intend to make it public until it is
13 agreed. If I may see the name.
14 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: The name is in the middle of the
15 paper. There is a note attached to it, giving it to me.
16 (Handed)
17 MR MANSFIELD: May I show it to other counsel?
18 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Certainly. (Pause).
19 Counsel to the inquest have not seen it yet.
20 It had better go on the court file now. (Handed)
21 MR MANSFIELD: Sir, may I reserve any further matters
22 until ... because it is not a name with which I am
23 familiar.
24 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Reserve for how long? That is
25 the only question. We have the witness here at the

54

1 moment.
2 MR MANSFIELD: I think Mr Croxford behind me, my learned
3 friend, has a few questions, which may give me enough
4 time --
5 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: That is fine. I thought you were
6 meaning longer.
7 MR MANSFIELD: No, no. I just need a little time to see
8 whether that can be progressed at all.
9 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Indeed.
10 MR MANSFIELD: I am sorry, sir. May I turn to another topic
11 please? It may be easier for you if I ask you to look
12 at your statement, page 4; your statement in English to
13 the British police. For everyone else who has it, it is
14 [INQ00009043 - read out in court], the fourth page. There are two
15 paragraphs there that I want to ask you about, but I am
16 going to deal with it carefully. I make it clear that
17 I am dealing with James Andanson's death.
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. Now, first of all -- and please understand that I am not
20 making any suggestions about Mrs Andanson whatsoever,
21 but I have to ask you this, as you have already been
22 asked: while James Andanson was alive and you had
23 contact with him, first of all did he ever tell you that
24 he would commit suicide if he discovered that his wife
25 was having an affair?

55

1 A. No, he did not.
2 Q. During his life, did he ever tell you that he did think
3 that his wife was having an affair?
4 A. Not at all, no.
5 Q. During his life, did you learn from anyone else that
6 they thought that his wife was having an affair?
7 A. Well, that is how I got the information, yes, from his
8 colleagues.
9 Q. I want to be careful about this. I have prefaced
10 the question: during his life, did you discover that
11 someone else --
12 A. No, no. Not at all.
13 Q. Quite. Not during his life?
14 A. No. I discovered that afterwards.
15 Q. Quite. That is why I suggest you have put, at the
16 beginning of your paragraph dealing with this aspect
17 "Since his death ..." Do you see, you have put "Since
18 his death ...", the paragraph at the top. "Since his
19 death, I have heard ..." Do you see?
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. Top of page 4. I am just making it clear. After his
22 death, did any of the people you spoke to say to you
23 that he, James Andanson, thought that his wife was
24 having an affair?
25 A. No, not at all.

56

1 Q. I want to pass to the next paragraph where you deal with
2 the Prime Minister's death, the Beregevoy story. You
3 worked on that story -- is that right?
4 A. Yes, I did.
5 Q. -- which you describe as "very strange". Do you see
6 that in the paragraph?
7 A. Yes, indeed, yes.
8 Q. May I just ask you why was it strange?
9 A. There were two particular events. First of all,
10 the fact that he took his bodyguard's gun to commit
11 suicide. That was something that we could not
12 understand.
13 Secondly -- obviously, it was a major story in
14 France and, of course, Paris Match sent teams in the
15 places where -- in Nevers, I think he was. And we had
16 extensive coverage on it and we managed to get some
17 pictures of the scene just about five minutes after it
18 happened, and you could see a woman who was involved in
19 evacuating the body of Mr Beregevoy was, at that moment,
20 agonising that he was not dead yet. We tried to find
21 that woman extensively and we found her after a few
22 months. She seemed very afraid, so we thought that
23 maybe she saw something that she was not supposed to
24 see. We started speculating about it, but we never went
25 very far with it.

57

1 Q. Right. Now as you mentioned, it happened in Nevers and
2 the photographs were taken by James Andanson, weren't
3 they?
4 A. No. Mr Andanson was Mr Beregevoy's photographer.
5 Obviously, when Mr Beregevoy became a prime minister of
6 France, Mr Andanson did stories on him, including,
7 I remember, a cover story of him and his family at
8 the beach in which he appeared during the summer as
9 a prime minister having his holidays, and it was the
10 cover of Paris Match and Andanson did those pictures.
11 But the pictures of the day when that happened, Andanson
12 was not there. There were no pictures of him at all at
13 that moment.
14 Q. Was James Andanson in Nevers on May 1st 1993?
15 A. Was he there? No, as far as I recollect, no.
16 Q. So he did not have any conversations that day with
17 the Prime Minister?
18 A. I cannot remember that. I know that when we did
19 the necrology -- the aftermath of his death,
20 James Andanson came to our magazine and spent the night
21 there with the writers and all the people to explain
22 each chapter of the life of the Prime Minister basically
23 and some indications of the bodyguards. He was very
24 close to them, so of course we had an inside source that
25 would help us fill in copy about his life, whatever, you

58

1 know.
2 Q. The reason I am asking you these questions is that in
3 the paragraph of your statement on page 4, where you are
4 contemplating the opposite, in other words, that he has
5 not committed suicide and you are wondering if someone
6 wanted to kill him, why that might happen and you put
7 there:
8 "Sometimes I wonder whether Andanson had managed to
9 prove that Beregevoy had been murdered. If Andanson was
10 himself killed, that would be the only reason I could
11 think of."
12 Do you see that?
13 A. Yes, I do. In fact, you know, this suicide of the Prime
14 Minister here in France, as well as one of a few months
15 later -- yes, a few months later -- of a high official
16 at the Elysees Palace during the Mitterrand years
17 committed suicide, and among the public opinion in
18 France, beside all the conspiracy theories, there is
19 a doubt about those deaths. Obviously it was difficult
20 to understand why Mr Beregevoy committed suicide as
21 violently as that, as well as the other official.
22 Nobody understands -- public opinion does not
23 understand why these suicides were committed. So there
24 has been always rumours of conspiracy and murder and
25 things like that. So at the time we addressed that as

59

1 a another possibility because there was something
2 strange. Like I said, this woman who we could not find,
3 who was somehow hidden by whatever, that we could not
4 get hold of. So there were, of course, questions about
5 what really happened that day and you could not
6 understand, as I say in the beginning, how a policeman
7 could leave his gun in the glove compartment of the car
8 because that is what happened; the gun was in the glove
9 compartment of the car and Mr Beregevoy took it and shot
10 himself.
11 Q. In the head?
12 A. I think so.
13 Q. Was he a very close associate of President Mitterrand?
14 A. Yes, he was. He was one his fellows throughout
15 the years when he was in the opposition. He was a very
16 simple man. He was very down to earth. A little bit
17 like Andanson, the same popular -- coming from low
18 classes, you know, working classes.
19 Q. The last question on this: in the years that followed,
20 did James Andanson himself become the subject of
21 a police investigation of any kind?
22 A. As far as I know -- I mean, I do not know about this.
23 Q. A related topic. It was put to you that he purchased --
24 on the day he died, his credit card was used to purchase
25 a large quantity of fuel. All right?

60

1 A. Yes.
2 Q. Now I am going to take it in stages. The canister or
3 can that he carried normally because there is difficulty
4 on the secondary roads at night-time in France, was that
5 a single container? I mean, did you see it?
6 A. No, I did not see it.
7 Q. So, you don't know whether it was metal or plastic or
8 what it was?
9 A. No, I do not. I do not.
10 Q. That means that you did not know whether it was
11 a 5-litre a 10-litre or whatever?
12 A. I have no idea.
13 Q. Because the reason I ask you is that in fact the
14 position seems to be that he may have bought up to
15 100 litres of fuel. If he bought that and it was not
16 all for the car -- and it plainly was not -- he would
17 have needed a large number of containers to take
18 the fuel to where he was. Did you ever see him in a car
19 in which he had a large number of petrol containers?
20 A. No, no, I have not.
21 MR MANSFIELD: Thank you. Subject to the other matter, sir,
22 may I --
23 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Yes. Mr Weekes?
24 MR WEEKES: No thank you, sir.
25 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Mr Croxford?

61

1 MR CROXFORD: Just a few things, if I may, sir.
2 MR MANSFIELD: Oh sorry, may I -- obviously it is implied in
3 my request that I will obviously have to ask somebody
4 else about the name. I will only do it through my
5 instructing solicitor.
6 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: I cannot see any objection. Do
7 you?
8 MR HOUGH: None at all. Perhaps I can make clear that
9 the name means nothing to us immediately, and immediate
10 searches on the internet do not help us to clear up --
11 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: It means nothing to me. Yes?
12 MR HOUGH: And apparently nothing to Operation Paget.
13 MR CROXFORD: I am happy to say that I share in
14 the ignorance.
15 Questions from MR CROXFORD
16 MR CROXFORD: Mr Lafaille, my name is Ian Croxford. I act
17 for the Ritz Hotel. Just a few things please.
18 May we go back, please, to the summer of 1997? At
19 that time, it is right, is it not, that the relationship
20 between the Princess of Wales and Dodi Al Fayed was
21 a matter which was receiving considerable press
22 attention?
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. Can you remember, towards the end of August, was there
25 a rumour or word on the street that might have suggested

62

1 that an engagement was in prospect?
2 A. Not at all. In terms of engagement, there were some
3 woman magazines that suggested at one point -- I am
4 talking about July -- that the Princess of Wales may
5 have been pregnant. That is the only thing I can
6 remember. But there was no -- as far as I am concerned,
7 at Paris Match at least, no news of a wedding or
8 anything of that sort.
9 Q. Very well. Now, on any view -- let's take it in
10 stages -- photographs of the Princess of Wales were of
11 interest to the press, and if the photograph was in some
12 way unusual, then of more than normal interest?
13 A. It all depends on what you mean by "unusual".
14 Q. Well, if there was a speculation that the Princess was
15 pregnant, then photographs of her at that time, for
16 example with the man with whom she appeared to be in
17 a relationship, might have been of particular interest
18 to the press. Is that fair?
19 A. Yes, of course, yes.
20 Q. I want to see, please, if you agree with a description
21 given by a paparazzo to the British police. He says
22 that whilst he was not in the South of France, he was
23 aware that there was a kind of euphoria which had
24 developed among the paparazzi covering the Princess and
25 Mr Al Fayed. Would you agree or were you aware that

63

1 there was a kind of euphoria?
2 A. I do not understand what it means by "euphoria". I mean
3 there was obviously press interest. It was
4 pressworthiness really, but "euphoria" is a bit strong.
5 I mean I do not understand a word compared to that.
6 Everybody was trying to get pictures, of course, of
7 the Princess of Wales.
8 Q. Well, "euphoria" -- well, perhaps I will substitute
9 a word, "excitement", and try to explain it. Was there
10 a kind of excitement because the paparazzi covering
11 the couple had never had the opportunity to command such
12 high fees for photographs before? Does that ring
13 a bell?
14 A. I do not know. Can you repeat that?
15 Q. Of course. Paparazzi covering the couple had never had
16 the opportunity to command such high fees for
17 photographs before and perhaps that caused a degree of
18 excitement?
19 A. No, not at all. I mean there has been all the stories
20 that were more -- at least, I mean in terms of money and
21 in terms of exchange of monies that were as important,
22 including the Duchess of York, for example. You
23 mentioned that before. That was also the premier in
24 terms of Royal Family; I am talking British Royal
25 Family. There was also the accident of Prince Charles

64

1 in Switzerland where he lost one of his friends. That
2 was also very big news and there was a lot of interest
3 in England and France and everywhere.
4 Q. So news associated with the British Royal Family
5 naturally commanded high fees for decent photographs?
6 A. Not particularly, except when you have an exclusive set
7 of photographs, yes, and there is speculation and demand
8 and, you know, an obvious noise on the market.
9 Q. Would this be fair also -- again someone else's
10 description -- that this was a new phase for
11 the Princess and people were waiting to see what
12 happened?
13 A. Yes, of course. It was a new chapter in the Princess's
14 life, which of course us at Paris Match followed since
15 her wedding, since when she was presented to the Royal
16 press. So of course it was a new chapter in her life,
17 knowing that she was divorced and, as we called her here
18 in France, as a free woman. Yes.
19 Q. Have you heard of a French agency called Eliot Press?
20 A. If I know them?
21 Q. Have you heard of them?
22 A. Oh yes, of course, of course. I know.
23 Q. Did you know that at that time in the summer there was
24 a private jet on standby for use of that agency in
25 connection with the affair between the Princess and

65

1 Dodi Al Fayed? Have you heard that story?
2 A. I do not. I have never heard of that.
3 Q. Well now, can I ask you this? When the couple came to
4 Paris at the end of August of 1997, if photographs could
5 have been taken of them together, particularly if they
6 were close together, would it be fair that such
7 photographs might have been expected to have high value?
8 A. Not really, no, because the high -- you know, what
9 really had value were the first photographs of
10 the Princess of Wales related to Mr Dodi Al Fayed that
11 were shot in July, sometime in July, that were published
12 in Paris Match and all over the world.
13 That is also a way, to understand the behaviour of
14 some photographers at the time that has been
15 misrepresented, is that the real photographs that would
16 have value had already been done and shot during
17 the summer.
18 So the only thing they wanted from my understanding,
19 and what we wanted as Paris Match, was a picture of the
20 couple showing Paris, identifying that they were in
21 Paris, basically.
22 Q. That would explain, would it, why a dozen or more
23 photographers were staking out the Ritz Hotel, trying to
24 get such a photograph?
25 A. Correct, yes.

66

1 Q. If they could have got the photograph of the couple
2 against the background of Paris, city of love, that no
3 doubt would have been of some interest to your magazine
4 and others around the world?
5 A. That is correct, yes.
6 Q. Now, let me ask you about this: James Andanson, he was
7 a highly successful photographer, is that correct?
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. He was also -- and perhaps this accounts for his
10 success -- highly competitive; is that correct?
11 A. Yes, he was.
12 Q. And he enjoyed, as far as you could see, getting
13 photographs ahead of or better than other paparazzi with
14 whom he was in competition?
15 A. Yes. That is a bit about the market. There were three
16 or four agencies that were covering the same story, so
17 obviously it was either by quality that things would
18 differentiate them or maybe scenes that the others don't
19 have. But, basically, Mr Andanson was doing a lot of
20 work with his colleagues in St Tropez every year and, as
21 you know, when the Princess of Wales and
22 Mr Dodi Al Fayed were in St Tropez, there were
23 journalists from all over the world including British --
24 I mean, the normal Royal Family snappers and journalists
25 from The Sun and The Mirror, for example, that were

67

1 close to Andanson in one particular scene, I know.
2 Q. Leave aside those snappers for the moment, it is also
3 right that you knew in the summer of 1997 that
4 Mr Andanson was providing financial support to his son's
5 motor-racing exploits; is that right?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. Can you try to put your mind back to the position as
8 it was in August of 1997, not coloured by events since
9 then? You knew that Andanson had spent the season in
10 the South of France; correct?
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. You knew that he had spent all or a very large part of
13 the season pursuing the Princess of Wales, trying to get
14 photographs in order to sell them on?
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. Those photographs, as we have agreed already, if unusual
17 or different, might have been expected to have had
18 a decent value?
19 A. A decent normal value, I would say. Decent, you know,
20 whatever that means, but a normal syndicated value that
21 we manage in France, you know. So -- don't forget there
22 were lot of photographers there, so there was not only
23 one. So obviously we took the best ones, and
24 the Princess of Wales, as you may recall, was not --
25 I mean was -- how can I say -- was coming out every day

68

1 and she knew the photographers were there. So there
2 were a lot of photos, different swimsuits, different
3 situations that the photographers record all around this
4 stay.
5 Q. In amongst those competing for the photograph during
6 the season was James Andanson?
7 A. Yes, absolutely.
8 Q. Now, when the couple went to Paris on Saturday
9 30th August, if Mr Andanson had been in the vicinity of
10 Paris, given what he had spent the rest of the summer
11 trying to do and given the possible value of that
12 photograph of the couple in the city of love, you, at
13 the time, would not have been surprised, would you, if
14 Andanson had turned up in Paris trying to get such
15 a photograph?
16 A. No, no, I would not have been surprised, you know,
17 except I knew the night -- I mean the next morning
18 I knew that his agency was represented by two other
19 photographers, so obviously Mr Andanson was not there.
20 The couple coming from -- travelling from Sardinia to
21 Paris, he was not involved in -- he was still in
22 St Tropez, finishing the season really.
23 Q. But as you have told this jury already, Andanson was
24 a loner, wasn't he?
25 A. Yes, he was. He was an operator working most of the

69

1 time by himself.
2 Q. There would have been, during the season in the South of
3 France, other snappers from his agency present.
4 A. Yes, there was, one. There were, yes.
5 Q. So just looking at this -- don't bring the benefit of
6 hindsight -- would this be fair, sir: you would not have
7 been surprised if Andanson had been found in Paris on
8 the weekend of 30th August?
9 A. No, I would not have been surprised because he covered
10 this story during the summer and he is, you know -- of
11 course.
12 Q. Thank you very much. I would like to ask you a little
13 bit about the way Mr Andanson worked.
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. I think it comes to this, doesn't it? He had some
16 regular clients in respect of whom he would go and take
17 photographs from time to time, like the former Prime
18 Minister? (Question interpreted)
19 A. Yes. Mr Andanson had a lot of contacts, personal
20 contacts that he has been having through the years
21 because he has been doing this profession for a long
22 time, and obviously part of his work, and I would say
23 70 per cent of his work, was doing people from
24 the political, business and the celebrity side at home,
25 in their home environment, yes.

70

1 Q. The rest, 30 per cent, would be him waiting as a loner,
2 presumably mostly on his own, trying to get a photograph
3 that others could not get of a person or subject of
4 interest?
5 A. Well, he was not known for that. You know, let's
6 understand that when these people -- these three/four
7 agencies were in the South of France, in St Tropez
8 during the month of July and August -- I mean,
9 Mr Andanson was working with the others together. There
10 were three or four of them together. They were doing
11 exactly the same things every day, except the difference
12 would be who would send his films the fastest to Paris
13 and that was one of his abilities. He would go and get
14 a flight to send his film back or drive all night to get
15 his films processed first thing in the morning and come
16 back, things like that. That is how he would
17 differentiate from the others. But it was not -- when
18 I say that he was a loner, it is more in the sense of
19 having his own contacts, having his own "people" that
20 would know him and he would do his appointments and he
21 would make sure that he would not be replaced by
22 somebody else, you see.
23 Q. Part of the way in which he got his competitive edge,
24 you have described that he would get a plane or drive
25 all night. He regularly used a motorbike whilst at

71

1 work. Did you know that?
2 A. I knew he was driving a motorbike in Paris, but I cannot
3 recall the year when -- there is pictures of him as well
4 on the back of it. Maybe the confusion comes through
5 that. I saw him basically -- the times I saw him
6 driving a vehicle in Paris was a big BMW, something like
7 that, a big car in which he was travelling in and out of
8 Paris. But I am sure, knowing him and so on, he must
9 have had a small moped or bike here in Paris to do his
10 job.
11 Q. The jury will hear about that presently from his wife
12 and son.
13 Now, is this right: you bought photographs from
14 Mr Andanson fairly frequently?
15 A. When I was at the French version of Hello!, yes.
16 Q. And you found him to be a man who was reliable in his
17 dealings, is that fair?
18 A. Oh yes.
19 Q. If he said he could get you a photograph or he had got
20 a photograph, did he manage to do what he said he could
21 do?
22 A. Well, I mean, if he decided that I wanted to have a home
23 story with Michel Maguire(?) -- you remember, that was
24 one of the persons that he photographed for me -- he
25 would say, "I will do it, I will do it next week"; he

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1 would do it, yes.
2 Q. You provided, I think, or referred the British police to
3 a documentary film which had been made about
4 Mr Andanson; is that right?
5 A. What? A document of? (Question interpreted) Oh yes,
6 yes.
7 Q. Made by your boss, Mr Tony Comiti?
8 A. That is correct, yes.
9 Q. The film was about, in part, what Andanson was doing
10 during the season in the South of France. Is that
11 right?
12 A. Yes, it is.
13 Q. It showed Andanson and another photographer called
14 Angeli --
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. -- working together in the South of France.
17 A. Correct, being competitors but still being together.
18 MR CROXFORD: Sir, with your leave, what I would like to do
19 is show the witness and the jury just two short sections
20 from what I think is that film. Mr Foley has it in
21 the machine and I would like to pick it up, if I may, at
22 what the notation calls 1 minute 48 and run it through
23 until we see a plane departing.
24 I am going to ask you to look at a film and then
25 I am going to ask you one or two questions about it.

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1 Thank you, Mr Foley. (Film shown - Part of OD/64 - Section 1)
2 Thank you, Mr Foley.
3 Just a few questions, Mr Lafaille. That was
4 James Andanson, was it, who played the most prominent
5 part there?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. It illustrated, I think, what you have said about him
8 racing to get his photographs away.
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. The gentleman with the curly grey hair -- and from my
11 point of view quite a lot of it -- was that Mr Angeli?
12 A. Yes, it is.
13 Q. Apart from staking out, if I can use that expression,
14 people such as the man who was in the rubber dinghy,
15 we saw some photographs of trying to take long shots
16 through some bushes. That would be true -- if that is
17 the right expression -- true paparazzi work, wouldn't
18 it?
19 A. Yes, but do you notice that they did not shoot? It was
20 too far away, not good quality. So they stopped
21 shooting except -- when Elton John came out with his
22 car, they photographed him there.
23 Q. And Mr Andanson raised some laughter when he chased
24 the car down the street.
25 A. I think the cameraman did laugh.

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1 MR CROXFORD: Sir, with your leave, I would like to look at
2 one other short sequence.
3 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Yes.
4 MR CROXFORD: Mr Foley I would like to look at 11 minutes.
5 It is just a little further on.
6 It is 11.45, and it should be an aerial view of
7 a house in the country. Now, just before you run it,
8 Mr Foley, on this occasion -- I am going to show you
9 another short piece of film, please, Mr Lafaille. First
10 of all, you are going to see some film of Mr Andanson
11 and what I am going to suggest to you is his home or was
12 his home at Lignieres. Then he is going to be driving
13 a motor car, and when he is driving the car, could you
14 try to listen to what he is saying in particular please?
15 Is that okay?
16 A. Yes, except the sound is not very good. Okay, but we
17 will try. (Film shown - Part of OD/64 - Section 2)
18 MR CROXFORD: Thank you very much, Mr Foley.
19 We have heard a good deal about a white Fiat Uno
20 here in London. Can I ask you, did you manage to catch
21 the number of kilometres that Mr Andanson had said his
22 car had travelled?
23 A. 325,000.
24 Q. Thank you very much. Was that film taken, do you know,
25 in 1995 or 1996?

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1 A. I do not know. I do not know when was this film shot.
2 I do not know. It should be a date around it.
3 Q. You don't know when it was taken?
4 A. No, I do not know.
5 Q. Very well. Moving on, may I ask you one or two other
6 things, please?
7 One other thing: had you visited Mr Andanson's home?
8 Can you confirm that the rather handsome house we saw
9 from the skies was his home?
10 A. Yes, this is his home, yes.
11 Q. Thank you very much. Now next, please, I would like to
12 ask you about something which you have told the British
13 police. It is right, is it, that you understand that
14 there was an editor from the Angeli agency who was seen
15 outside the Alma Tunnel on the morning of Sunday
16 31st August 1997?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. I think again you would prefer not to name him, is that
19 right?
20 A. I did, yes, but since then he has been identified by
21 police, I know.
22 Q. Who was it?
23 A. What was his name?
24 Q. Yes.
25 A. I cannot remember his name.

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1 Q. Was it Guizard?
2 A. If you show me -- I cannot remember his name.
3 Q. Was it M Guizard?
4 A. I cannot remember his name. I have not dealt with him
5 for years.
6 Q. Does the name "Guizard" ring a bell?
7 A. Yes, exactly. That is it.
8 Q. Is this right, that in your experience of press
9 photographers or paparazzi, it would be unusual for them
10 to try to take photographs of the occupants of a vehicle
11 whilst the vehicle was on the move?
12 A. Yes, yes. I think -- it would not be the normal
13 behaviour of a photographer.
14 Q. That would be, would it, because of a combination of it
15 being potentially hazardous to the photographer, first
16 of all, to try to keep up?
17 A. Yes, yes.
18 Q. Because if it is necessary to use flash, then the flash
19 itself will tend to produce dazzle on the windows of the
20 vehicle?
21 A. That is one of the reasons, yes, except sometimes you
22 can orient your camera in a sense that you don't have
23 that dazzle, but you have to be standing next to the car
24 instead of travelling, you know, at high speed next to
25 the car.

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1 Q. Is this also right, that it would be difficult to ensure
2 that you got a crisp image if the car and/or the
3 photographer were moving at speed?
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. Now, I think you told the British police that you know
6 that piece of road running through the Alexandre III
7 tunnel and then into the Alma Tunnel; you know that
8 piece of road pretty well.
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. You have driven it many times?
11 A. That is correct, yes.
12 Q. I do not want to embarrass you over this, but you may
13 have noticed that other people commonly drive somewhat
14 faster than the formal speed limit.
15 A. Oh yes.
16 Q. Have you ever done it?
17 A. Well, today the markings on that road are 50 kilometres
18 per hour. At the time there were no other signs. Of
19 course, I travel faster than 50 kilometres per hour,
20 yes.
21 Q. First of all, have you ever yourself, when travelling
22 out of Central Paris towards the Boulogne district,
23 found the piece of road going down into the Alma Tunnel
24 difficult to negotiate?
25 A. It all depends on the speed that you are coming. It is

78

1 not a difficult thing to negotiate if you go to
2 the kerb, but it could be tricky at high speed, yes.
3 Q. Can you imagine photographers trying to take
4 a photograph as the road enters the Alma Tunnel whilst
5 they and a vehicle were moving?
6 A. No, I do not see that at all.
7 Q. So if -- if -- there was a flash or flashes as the
8 vehicle approached the entrance to the Alma Tunnel, you,
9 from your experience, would not associate that with
10 photographers; is that right?
11 A. A flash? I do not understand the question. (Question
12 interpreted) No, I do not know. If there was a flash,
13 I would not associate it with photography -- is that
14 what you said? Well, it could have been a photographer,
15 yes, or -- I do not know.
16 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Well, the witness was not
17 there so this is really pretty unhelpful, I think,
18 Mr Croxford.
19 MR CROXFORD: I was following the lead from Mr Hough, but
20 I am quite happy to move on from asking the witness his
21 opinion.
22 A. I am confused about the flash thing.
23 MR CROXFORD: I have been told to move on so I am obediently
24 going to do so. I think that is all I want to ask you,
25 Mr Lafaille. Thank you very much.

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1 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: I do not know if Mr Mansfield
2 wants to come in at this point?
3 MR MANSFIELD: There is a slight problem since we have kept
4 it to ourselves, as it were, just the legal team. We
5 have made some researches that are rather obvious and we
6 have had one or two answers, but I cannot do the obvious
7 thing, which is to ask those I represent whether this is
8 a name which has ever cropped up, which is what I would
9 like to do. I haven't done that. I can leave that
10 matter.
11 MR HOUGH: It seems to me that there cannot be any objection
12 to my learned friend discussing it with his clients and
13 those who are bound by the terms of the general
14 declarations of confidentiality which have been signed.
15 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Yes, I think that is perfectly
16 appropriate.
17 MR MANSFIELD: I did not do it without first asking. I hope
18 to do it before it ends --
19 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Well, we will see how long
20 Mr Horwell is going to be.
21 Questions from MR HORWELL
22 MR HORWELL: Mr Lafaille, my name is Richard Horwell and
23 I appear on behalf of the Chief of London Police.
24 We heard yesterday from Mrs Dard and her daughter, who
25 told us of a conversation they had had or overheard in

80

1 which James Andanson had said that he was in Paris on
2 the night of the crash. Do you understand?
3 A. Yes, I understand.
4 Q. Now, I think it is your view that that conversation
5 could not have taken place.
6 A. Well, I do not know about -- if you mention Mr Dard as
7 being a writer?
8 Q. Yes.
9 A. Yes, I know Andanson knew the family very well. I do
10 not know what they say. I do not know their witness
11 account.
12 Q. No, of course.
13 A. The only thing I can say is that I know that Mr Andanson
14 knew the Dard family pretty well and he was one of their
15 clients, if I may say that. He used to photograph them
16 in Geneva, I think, pretty often. I mean, to our
17 recollection, to our checking throughout our Paris Match
18 investigation, Andanson was not in Paris. He was not.
19 Q. Exactly. No one here has suggested that the Dards were
20 lying, but obviously --
21 A. No, no. Of course.
22 Q. But if James Andanson said it, it does not have to be
23 true, and what he said to the Dards is something I want
24 to investigate with you now. He told the Dards that he
25 had been waiting at Le Bourget Airport for the arrival

81

1 of the Princess and Dodi and he told the Dards that he
2 had followed them throughout the day. Now, Mr Lafaille,
3 the journeys that were undertaken that day were from
4 Le Bourget to Villa Windsor, Villa Windsor to the Ritz
5 Hotel, the Ritz Hotel to the apartment at Rue Arsene
6 Houssaye --
7 A. Yes.
8 Q. -- and then, from that apartment, to the Ritz and then
9 finally from the Ritz, the last journey shortly after
10 midnight.
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. Now his account to the Dards was that he had followed
13 them throughout the day. Now James Andanson was an
14 extremely well-known photographer, wasn't he?
15 A. Yes, he was.
16 Q. And in particular and obviously extremely well known to
17 other photographers?
18 A. Yes, that is correct, yes.
19 Q. Now there were obviously many photographers in
20 attendance throughout that day. What, in your view,
21 Mr Lafaille, is the chance of James Andanson having
22 followed the Princess and Dodi throughout all of those
23 journeys over a period of about nine hours? What are
24 the chances of his having done that and not having been
25 recognised by any of the other photographers who were

82

1 present?
2 A. I cannot see how this would happen. I mean, we never
3 had any sighting of Andanson, neither from
4 the photographers, nor from his boss at Sygma, you know.
5 I am sure the photographers that came out of the
6 tunnel and the others -- because we saw them pretty
7 early, they never mentioned Andanson being at the
8 tunnel. In the beginning, somebody -- the first
9 gentleman that interviewed me told me -- speaking of my
10 professional past, mentioned that I had worked for
11 Corbis, which of course is the agency -- it is the new
12 name for the Sygma agency, so I worked there. There is
13 nobody there while I was working as an editor there that
14 told me that Andanson was in Paris that day, and there
15 is no photograph to confirm it nor any witness account
16 to confirm it, so I think it is absurd.
17 Q. The interview that you have been asked about,
18 the interview of Diana and Dodi on the Jonikal, simp