Hearing transcripts

11 March 2008 - Afternoon session

9 (1.45 pm)
10 (Jury present)
11 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Mr Burnett, I heard over
12 the midday adjournment that Mr Gigou has indicated that
13 he is no longer available to come to give evidence on
14 Thursday afternoon, nor will he be available at all next
15 week. This is unfortunate, because he had previously
16 confirmed he would be available on Thursday afternoon.
17 I think we can assume that he will not be coming back at
18 all, although he has not specifically said that he is
19 not available at any time, full stop. He has gone as
20 near to saying that as we know.
21 I thought the parties ought to know that as soon as
22 possible. I am afraid that Mr de la Mare's carefully
23 prepared cross-examination will have to wait for another
24 day or another witness.
25 MR BURNETT: Sir, I think maybe as we have seen,

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1 the identity of the witness in the witness box to whom
2 the questions are put is perhaps not of critical
3 importance and I am sure that between us we can adjust
4 what was planned to ensure that all appropriate points
5 are covered with Mr Carpenter or whoever may be coming.
6 MR HILLIARD: Next, Mr Suu, please, Mr Carpenter.
7 Evidence relating to MR PIERRE SUU
8 We have a photograph of him in the photographs of
9 photographers, section 7. It explains a passenger on
10 a maroon BMW motorcycle being driven by Jerko Tomic?
11 A. That is right.
12 Questions from MR HILLIARD
13 MR HILLIARD: The first document we have from him is an
14 interview that took place with him on 31st August of
15 1997. On the first page, he gives some personal details
16 and then over the page, page 2 of 3, there is a section
17 as to the facts, which reads as follows:
18 "I understand that I am being interviewed as
19 a witness in the investigation following the accident in
20 which, in particular, Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed
21 were killed.
22 "Around 7 in the evening, a friend whose name I am
23 not willing to tell you, phoned me and told me that
24 there were a lot of people around the Ritz. I suspected
25 it might be Diana as she had already spent a night at

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1 the hotel in July.
2 "I went there on my own on the underground. I got
3 to the Ritz about 7.45.
4 "It was confirmed to me that Diana was there, but
5 she had left the Ritz from the back of the hotel.
6 "A photographer had had a call from a colleague
7 telling him that the Princess was at Al Fayed's home
8 near the Etoile.
9 "I had requested a motorbike courier from the agency
10 and he drove me to the Etoile. We were on a red BMW.
11 The courier is called Jerko Tomic" and then there is
12 the registration number of the bike.
13 "We got to Etoile about 8.30 and waited until about
14 10.30/10.45.
15 "They came out one after the other and got into
16 a Mercedes.
17 "There was a Range Rover behind the Mercedes and
18 again behind that, about 15 journalists, three
19 motorbikes, two scooters and about two or three cars.
20 "The motorbikes included our BMW, the BMW belonging
21 to our colleague Arsov and a green motorbike.
22 "The Mercedes drove to the Ritz quite normally. In
23 fact, we had within told by an English bodyguard not to
24 come too close to the cars. We complied with that. We
25 were all quite relaxed.

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1 "They went to the Ritz by the main door and we were
2 able to take photos.
3 "A man who was apparently the head of security at
4 the Ritz told us the couple would be coming out again.
5 I waited outside with Jerko. There must have been at
6 least 200 people.
7 "The Mercedes and the Range Rover were parked
8 outside the main entrance.
9 "Around midnight, these two vehicles drove off
10 empty, went round the Vendome column, causing a stir
11 amongst the journalists. Then they came back and parked
12 outside the hotel again with the chauffeurs inside.
13 "These two vehicles drove off a second time, again
14 with no one in them, at about ten minutes past midnight.
15 They went behind the Ritz, Rue Cambon, then drove
16 towards Al Fayed's home at the Etoile.
17 "We followed them with two other vehicles, two cars.
18 "I realised I had been fooled but I decided to wait,
19 until a photographer was told about the accident.
20 "I went to see the regular drivers to check
21 the information, which they did not know about. They
22 told us that they were waiting for the couple who were
23 to meet them at home.
24 "We then found out from a photographer where the
25 accident had happened. I went there, with the drivers

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1 close behind me.
2 "When we arrived, there was a security cordon
3 stopping people from going into the underpass.
4 "I did not see my colleague Nikola Arsov but I did
5 see his BMW parked outside the tunnel on the Bir-Hakeim
6 side.
7 "I took a few pictures of the surroundings and
8 I didn't take photos of the car until it had been
9 brought out of the tunnel. No-one gave me any films.
10 "I have not heard about any photos of the bodies in
11 the Mercedes being in circulation, except in the press.
12 "I cannot think of anything further to add.
13 Then, Mr Carpenter, next from him is a statement
14 dated 28th February 2006, which he made to
15 Operation Paget officers; is that right?
16 A. That is right, yes.
17 Q. And it contains a declaration at the top about
18 the contents of the statement being true to the best of
19 his knowledge and belief; is that right?
20 A. That is right, yes.
21 Q. And it begins, doesn't it, with him saying:
22 "I have come to England of my own free will at
23 the request of officers from Operation Paget."
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. Third paragraph, he is shown the statement he made to

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1 French police and he says that he has nothing to add or
2 amend to that. Then there is a long paragraph in which
3 he gives his career details; is that right?
4 A. Yes, that is right.
5 Q. He explains a little bit about how paparazzi
6 photographers work, yes?
7 A. Yes.
8 Q. How they are given tip-offs and so on. All that goes on
9 to the next page. And just below the first hole-punch,
10 he sums it up, doesn't he, do you see:
11 "In short, the job of the paparazzi is to take
12 pictures without being seen with a big lens. There are
13 no rules and there is no official work. The French
14 paparazzi are a group of about 20 people and there are
15 about 100 in the world. I know just about all of them."
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. And then four lines or so down, he says:
18 "We are a special breed, a small club and it is
19 difficult to get into this job and survive."
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. And then three lines up from the end of the paragraph,
22 end of the line:
23 "The doors to this club are not opened often. Any
24 new man is thoroughly checked before anyone even says
25 hi."

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1 A. Yes.
2 Q. "Although I was not in the South of France in the summer
3 of 1997 to cover the relationship between Diana and
4 Dodi, I was aware that a kind of euphoria had developed
5 amongst the paparazzi covering them because they never
6 had such an opportunity to command such high fees for
7 photographs before. This was a new phase for
8 the Princess and people were waiting to see what
9 happened.
10 "The English press were paying large fees for
11 photographs of the couple; it was a unique situation,
12 with the most photographed woman in the world openly
13 courting the press. Such was the interest that there
14 was even a private jet on standby for the use of
15 a French agency called Eliot Press who are owned by
16 Frank Doveri and whose English partner at the time was
17 Jason Fraser. In the paparazzi, we were aware that
18 Jason Fraser had a long history when it came to getting
19 photographs of Princess Diana and that he always seemed
20 to be in the right place at the right time. We believed
21 that he was being tipped off by the Princess or members
22 of her entourage."
23 Then, we will take this in summary form but he
24 explains that Stefan Lenhof, last two lines, whom he
25 thought worked for Gamma at the time, was covering

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1 the Princess and Dodi in the South of France and
2 Sardinia and he had alerted him to the fact that
3 the couple were coming to Paris, do you see that?
4 A. It is the same man who told Romuald Rat.
5 Q. Absolutely and then he explains, third paragraph, middle
6 of it, that a decision was made that he would have
7 a motorcyclist, Mr Tomic. Next paragraph, he says:
8 "I met Tomic ... at around 6 pm and he drove me to
9 the Ritz on his BMW motorcycle."
10 He then explains that they went to the Rue Arsene
11 Houssaye, do you see that, beginning of the next
12 paragraph. Minor altercation, do you see that, we have
13 heard about that, between Rat and one of the security
14 people?
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. And then over the page, he begins by saying:
17 "I remember counting 17 of us at the apartment."
18 We will not go through this, but he explains who was
19 involved, other photographers who he knew and so on.
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. If you turn over to the next page, I am going to
22 summarise this page. He explains about leaving Rue
23 Arsene Houssaye and then going to the Ritz and Diana and
24 Dodi getting out of the car at the Ritz, doesn't he?
25 A. Yes.

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1 Q. And then last paragraph on that page, we will pick it up
2 there, so, we are now back at the Ritz, the couple are
3 inside and he says this:
4 "All the while, the Range Rover remained outside
5 the front of the hotel while the Mercedes was removed to
6 the public car park in the Place Vendome. At one point,
7 Henri Paul came out to the front of the hotel and
8 chatted with Serge Benhamou who knew him from previous
9 photographic assignments in the Ritz. Paul was
10 providing snippets of information about the couple's
11 movements, saying that they would be out in five or ten
12 minutes. I had not met Henri Paul before but
13 nevertheless, it did not seem right to me. He was very
14 cheerful and chatty and his behaviour seemed out of
15 character to Benhamou, who thought that his behaviour
16 was strange because he was being friendly and he is
17 usually a cold man. I felt it was strange that he
18 should be giving out this information and therefore
19 I and my colleagues checked out the back a few times."
20 Forgive me, if we turn over the page, what he
21 describes, if you go to about the middle of the page, is
22 there coming a time, it begins:
23 "When it became apparent that the couple had
24 gone ..."
25 So as he was to stay in the other statement, this

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1 was when he realised he had been fooled:
2 "... my only option was to follow the Range Rover.
3 After I became aware that the couple had left, outside
4 the Ritz there was myself, Cardinale, Hounsfield and
5 Arsov."
6 And then, in the remainder of that paragraph, he
7 explains that he continued to follow the Range Rover as
8 far as Arsene Houssaye; yes?
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. And then, at the apartment, if you turn over to page 7
11 of 11, he says that he learned, whilst he was waiting at
12 Arsene Houssaye, that there had been an accident in
13 the tunnel; yes?
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. And then he says, towards the bottom of this paragraph,
16 top paragraph on page 7, he says that he went to
17 the tunnel and took some pictures before he was thrown
18 out by a uniformed police officer. Do you see that?
19 A. I do not think he says he took any pictures in
20 the tunnel.
21 Q. You are quite right. He says:
22 "I was thrown out of the tunnel by a uniformed
23 police officer. I think he may have been from the CRS.
24 I still managed to take some photographs after that."
25 There are then references to PVS, so his initials,

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1 and then numbers 1 through to 6; is that right?
2 A. Yes.
3 Q. We will have a look at those pictures but I think it
4 will become plain, is this right, when we go on that
5 they were all not all taken on this first occasion?
6 A. No. He takes some photographs at the scene and then he
7 follows the ambulance to the Pitie-Salpetriere and then
8 he comes back and photographs the removal of
9 the vehicle.
10 Q. He takes some more. Mr Foley has those pictures.
11 Is that PVS/1?
12 A. I believe so.
13 Q. The order in which they were taken, can you help us
14 about that?
15 A. No.
16 Q. We could waste hours trying to understand it, for no
17 benefit at all. Right, there we are. That is PVS/1?
18 A. I think that one is outside the Jardin des Plantes or
19 outside the hospital, one of the two. So this is
20 a later photograph.
21 Q. And we can see this is outside the tunnel looking in
22 from the exit.
23 A. These will be the last photographs he took.
24 Q. Is that moving the car away, is that it?
25 A. Yes.

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1 Q. And that, the same?
2 A. Yes, and same again.
3 Q. That was all six. Thank you very much.
4 He has explained that he has been thrown out of the
5 tunnel, manages to take some photographs and then,
6 picking up that last paragraph on page 7 of 11:
7 "After being ejected from the tunnel, I returned to
8 the bike in order to change my camera lens and to get
9 a longer one. I got a picture of the crashed car from
10 a distance, from the Concorde end. I do not have a copy
11 of it. I believe that a copy of this picture appeared
12 in Newsweek. I also took some photographs of the
13 ambulances that were in the tunnel, again from
14 the Concorde end. Once I had done that, I went back
15 alongside the tunnel to the parapet, alongside the other
16 onlookers ..."
17 That is his exhibit PVS/5:
18 "When I got there, I bumped into Frederic Herve, one
19 of the owners of Eliot Press. I spoke to him and we
20 both realised that something really important and nasty
21 had just happened and I realised that it was huge. At
22 one stage we saw a police van driving some of the
23 paparazzi away and Herve said to me, 'You don't realise
24 what has just happened, these guys [meaning the other
25 photographers] are going to be in trouble'."

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1 If we turn over the page to 8 of 11, it deals with
2 the conversation that he had with Mr Hounsfield, second
3 paragraph:
4 "I found out from Hounsfield the following morning
5 when I saw him again at the agency that he had witnessed
6 police removing a portable radar camera from the
7 Cours Albert 1er about 300 yards from the entrance of
8 the tunnel. It is a camera the location of which many
9 of us were familiar with, that was deployed mainly on
10 weekends and which points towards the Place de
11 la Concorde to catch vehicles approaching the Alma
12 tunnel from the direction of Concorde. I have
13 subsequently seen a photograph that I believe was taken
14 by this radar on British TV. It is a night shot taken
15 with a flash, and you can clearly see Henri Paul,
16 Trevor Rees-Jones and Diana and Dodi. I have seen radar
17 shots before and it was exactly like that. I saw the
18 programme last winter in a special ITV programme about
19 the accident. I believe that Patrick Chauval, a former
20 photographer who now does documentaries, featured in
21 this programme."
22 He goes on:
23 "I have now been shown an excerpt from this
24 documentary in which Patrick Chauval refers to the speed
25 camera photograph shown to him by French traffic police.

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1 The photographic that is shown on this documentary is
2 the one I believe to have been taken by a speed camera
3 just before they entered the Alma Tunnel that night.
4 The other possibility is that it is a photograph of
5 the car taken by one of the photographers as it left
6 the rear of the Ritz that night. Neither I nor anyone
7 else I know saw the camera that night but I believe it
8 to have been there from what Hounsfield told me."
9 Is the position in fact that the picture,
10 Mr Carpenter, is identical to the one that we have seen
11 many times that was taken of the front of the Mercedes
12 at the back of the Ritz?
13 A. It is a colour photograph taken from the front and it is
14 one that we have seen before.
15 Q. Right. He goes on:
16 "Whilst I was still in conversation with Frederic
17 Herve ..."
18 So we are back to the night, not on a conversation
19 about a TV programme years later:
20 "Whilst I was still in conversation with Frederic
21 Herve, I noticed one of the ambulances leaving
22 the underpass against the usual flow of traffic towards
23 Place de la Concorde and I decided it was my job to find
24 out who was in the ambulance and to which hospital they
25 were going. In addition to myself, there was

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1 Thierry Orban, who was on a scooter and who was working
2 for Sygma at the time, and a woman journalist in a small
3 car who I think was with Europe 1.
4 "The road had been blocked and so was empty and
5 no-one prevented us from following the ambulance, which
6 was being driven at walking pace. I deduced that
7 whoever was in the ambulance must be in very, very bad
8 shape because the expressway is really flat. Had they
9 driven fast, they could have reached the hospital in
10 five to seven minutes but they ended up taking about 20
11 minutes. At one point, after it had left the embankment
12 and had crossed the Pont d'Austerlitz, the ambulance
13 stopped by the Jardin des Plantes. See my exhibit
14 PVS/2."
15 That is the photograph we have seen of the stopped
16 ambulance.
17 "Orban and I looked at one another thinking that
18 whoever was in the ambulance must be dying because
19 the hospital was only 300 to 400 yards away.
20 The Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital was the obvious
21 destination because of its reputation and because it has
22 some of the best specialists. As soon as the ambulance
23 stopped outside the Jardin des Plantes, a doctor jumped
24 out of the passenger side of the vehicle and rushed
25 round the back of the ambulance and got inside. He was

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1 wearing a white doctor's jacket.
2 "It was only later that I found out that it was
3 Diana, Princess of Wales who had been inside. One
4 police car arrived while the ambulance was stationary
5 but we were not stopped or questioned. The ambulance
6 stopped for what seemed like half an hour before
7 eventually continuing on its way to the hospital.
8 100 yards from the entrance, my way was blocked and
9 I could not continue and the ambulance went into
10 the hospital. I then returned to the tunnel.
11 "When I got back to the tunnel, the atmosphere had
12 changed. It had become very crowded. I took some more
13 pictures including my exhibits PVS/3, 4, 5 and 6."
14 And then about three paragraphs further down,
15 talking about film, he says:
16 "With regard to other films, I know some were taken
17 away from the tunnel and did not get into police
18 possession. One of these films belonged to Chassery.
19 Another film taken by Martinez was handed to Guizard who
20 apparently freaked out and threw it into the river.
21 "I have been asked about a motorcycle that carried
22 on through the tunnel immediately after the crash and
23 whether I can identify the motorcycle and rider. I do
24 not know the identity of that motorcycle and rider, but
25 it could have been Darmon, as I know he parked his bike

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1 somewhere beyond the tunnel."
2 He then gives information about various photographic
3 agencies based in Paris. We don't need all of that.
4 If we turn over the page, he says, third paragraph
5 down:
6 "I have been asked about the burglary at the Sipa
7 offices in June 2000. I have no first-hand knowledge of
8 the incident but I was told that a Polish member of
9 staff working at the office at the time was in
10 the middle of a video-conference with his wife when
11 the burglary occurred. His wife saw some of the events
12 taking place and saw the police.
13 "I have been asked if I know James Andanson also
14 working for Sipa and whether he was in the South of
15 France at the time. [Someone called] Pierre Aslan would
16 be the most likely to know about Andanson's whereabouts
17 that summer. To my knowledge, none of the photographers
18 in Paris on the night of the crash were in the South of
19 France that day or in the days prior to the crash. Most
20 of the time James Andanson worked on his own.
21 Generally, Andanson was not a very likeable man. He
22 used a name which was not his own, he had the Union Jack
23 flying outside his house which he called the Manoir and
24 he took every opportunity to get on TV. He said that
25 the more he was on TV, the more the local villagers

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1 looked up to him, like the Lord of the Manner.
2 Pierre Aslan and other people told me about him.
3 "If Andanson had been working in Paris that night,
4 I would have known. He is not the kind of person to go
5 unnoticed. Thinking about it, I think that Andanson was
6 in the South of France and Portofino that summer and
7 I think that Aslan and Hounsfield would have been with
8 him, as they were both with Sipa. I know he sometimes
9 spoke about his son. The son was sponsored by Sipa in
10 his motor racing but this was the only time I heard
11 about his son. I do not know if they worked together.
12 I really know very little about James Andanson, only
13 what I have heard from others. Andanson, although he
14 was working for Sipa, was largely self-contained and
15 made his own appointments. I know he worked for Sygma
16 before Sipa ... I do not know where he was on
17 the weekend of the crash.
18 "I know that Andanson said to Pierre Aslan and
19 others, 'if I ever catch my wife cheating on me I will
20 kill myself' and on one occasion he mentioned that he
21 would set himself on fire. I know that he drove an old
22 BMW motorcycle and an old BMW car. He was not afraid of
23 driving long distances just to get one photograph.
24 I have not heard of him being connected to the security
25 and intelligence services."

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1 Then he was shown and large number of photographs
2 taken from the Ritz CCTV film and he identified lots of
3 people, didn't he?
4 A. He did.
5 MR HILLIARD: Good, thank you very much.
6 MR MANSFIELD: No questions, sir.
7 MR WEEKES: No, thank you, sir.
8 Questions from MR DE LA MARE
9 MR DE LA MARE: Just a couple of very brief questions that
10 I want to ask you, Inspector Carpenter.
11 The first thing I want to ask you about is the
12 evidence Pierre Suu gives as to the interaction between
13 Martinez and Guizard?
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. He gives evidence to the effect that he heard that
16 Martinez passed a film to Guizard in the tunnel which
17 Guizard then apparently threw in the river?
18 A. So he says.
19 Q. So he says. The first question is really this. That is
20 entirely consistent with what we know of Martinez's
21 photographs, isn't it?
22 A. That is pushing me. I cannot really say that. It is
23 what is alleged. I cannot really make it any stronger
24 than that.
25 Q. Well, Martinez we know arrived on the scene at the same

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1 time as Arnal because he was in Arnal's car?
2 A. Yes.
3 Q. We can see the first photograph taken by Serge Arnal at
4 page 1. It is the one we have looked at many times of
5 the Mercedes at some distance from the rear of the
6 tunnel. By contrast, the first photograph we have from
7 Martinez is at page 77 of the tunnel. It is that
8 photograph we all remember of Romuald Rat crouching at
9 the open door at the back of the Mercedes?
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. What there appears to be therefore is a complete absence
12 of any photographs of the tunnel in that earlier period
13 where we know that both he and Arnal were there?
14 A. That is right, yes.
15 Q. Therefore, we also know that Guizard was in the tunnel?
16 A. We do.
17 Q. And he left?
18 A. If it helps you, it is a possibility.
19 Q. It is a distinct possibility? Putting your cynical head
20 on, Inspector Carpenter, it looks most likely that this
21 story as relayed by Pierre Suu, is true?
22 A. It is something he has heard.
23 Q. He has heard?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. But I think we can both agree that the notion that

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1 Mr Guizard took the film and simply threw it in
2 the River Seine is not particularly credible?
3 A. It is one way of getting rid of it, I suppose.
4 Q. Indeed. The second thing I wanted to ask you about was
5 the story again relayed to Mr Suu by Mr Hounsfield about
6 the radar camera. You have made the point that
7 the photograph that he has identified as taken from that
8 radar camera was a colour photograph, the point being
9 that radar cameras take black and white photographs?
10 A. I do not know if they still do but in 1997 they
11 certainly did.
12 Q. But the point remains that Pierre Hounsfield -- and we
13 will see his evidence when he comes to it -- was quite
14 categoric. He remembered seeing an old-fashioned
15 tripod --
16 A. He was at first, and then he began to wonder whether his
17 mind was playing tricks on him because when it was
18 pointed out where he was and where he said the camera
19 was, he realised he could not have seen it from that
20 direction.
21 Q. The significance of Mr Suu is that he relates this as
22 something Mr Hounsfield told him at the time?
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. So that tends to corroborate the fact that Mr Hounsfield
25 did think he had seen it at the time?

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1 A. It corroborates the fact that Mr Hounsfield told him
2 that that is what he had seen.
3 Q. We will remember that heady day of going through films
4 of the run-throughs of the tunnel in which precisely
5 such a tripod was identified at the exit to
6 the Alexandre III tunnel?
7 A. That is right.
8 Q. So that does tend to confirm that there is some periodic
9 erection of that tripod structure, whatever it may be,
10 at that very point that Mr Hounsfield said he saw it?
11 A. Obviously there is, from time to time, a camera at
12 the location at which you saw that one in the film.
13 Q. Indeed, so the suggestions that we have heard from other
14 witnesses that there were never any radar cameras in
15 that sort of place, and why would you put it, is
16 somewhat gainsaid by that evidence.
17 A. Yes. Mr Suu says that neither he nor anybody else saw
18 a camera there. So you have to take it both ways,
19 I suppose.
20 Q. One could reasonably expect, though, if you were
21 pursuing either the Mercedes or the decoy vehicle that
22 perhaps your attentions are more likely to be focused on
23 those vehicles?
24 A. Yes. I mean, Patrick Chauvel's argument for where
25 the camera was differs slightly from Mr Suu's because he

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1 says it was fixed to the entrance of the tunnel which
2 quite clearly it was not.
3 Q. The last point, which I think we covered earlier but
4 it is worth repeating: we know from the timeline that
5 you have prepared that neither Pierre Suu nor Mr Tomic
6 were anywhere near the Mercedes at that time?
7 A. No.
8 MR DE LA MARE: Thank you very much.
9 MR HORWELL: No questions, sir.
10 Evidence regarding MR DOMINIQUE DIEPPOIS
11 Questions from MR HILLIARD
12 MR HILLIARD: There is one more that is only one page long.
13 It is Mr Dieppois so let's deal with that.
14 A. Can I say before we start the only reason I know this is
15 Mr Dieppois is because Suu told me. I have no
16 independent confirmation that.
17 Q. Assuming it is, driver of a white Renault Super 5?
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. He was the man that was never actually interviewed by
20 the French police, was he?
21 A. No.
22 Q. But questioned by Detective Sergeant Easton; is that
23 right?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. And this conversation was on 24th March 2006 and it is

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1 just a couple of paragraphs long. It says this: he
2 explained that in 1997, he worked as an independent
3 photographer specialising in sports and movie
4 personalities. He was not interested in members of
5 royal families or indeed the Princess of Wales or
6 Dodi Al Fayed. Asked whether he recalled being outside
7 the Ritz Hotel in Paris on 30th August 1997, he explains
8 that he believes he went there late afternoon. He does
9 not recall at what time or how long he stayed, other
10 than a short while and says that he was by himself.
11 The Princess of Wales and Dodi Al Fayed were not
12 a subject that interested him.
13 Furthermore, there were so many people there that as
14 an independent working alone, would he not have made any
15 money from the photographs. Denied being at the Ritz
16 around midnight and said he was only there when everyone
17 was waiting outside. He said that he did not see
18 the couple leave the venue. Did not take any
19 photographs at the Ritz or anywhere else on the evening
20 and he did not go to the Alma Underpass.
21 In a question about the telephone call at 0026, that
22 is a call between him and Mr Benhamou.
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. He explained that he not remember it, did not remember
25 the subject of the call or where he was at the time. He

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1 said he did not remember how he learned about the crash
2 or the deaths or where he was when he found out and he
3 explained that after eight years, it was difficult for
4 him to remember.
5 A. Yes.
6 MR HILLIARD: He said that in 1997 he owned the white
7 Renault Super 5. He sold it in 1994. He said that in
8 1997 he worked as an independent photographer and he
9 used to go from hotel to hotel but he was not very
10 successful. I think that is all we need read of that,
11 thank you.
12 MR WEEKES: No questions from me, thank you sir.
13 MR DE LA MARE: Briefly, Inspector Carpenter.
14 Questions from MR DE LA MARE
15 MR DE LA MARE: You have done a review of the CCTV of people
16 leaving the Place Vendome and the Rue Cambon and there
17 is nothing to suggest that Mr Dieppois was in that
18 chasing pack?
19 A. No, I do not think he is telling the truth but I don't
20 think he followed. The last time you see him is just
21 before midnight.
22 Q. He had to be ejected from the Ritz at one stage.
23 A. Yes, the photographs you see of Dodi angry is because he
24 has got in the way and he was the one standing by the
25 door running around in the foyer.

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1 Q. But there is nothing to show him in the chasing pack and
2 I believe none of the other --
3 A. Nobody else mentions him being there.
4 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Thank you.
5 MR HILLIARD: That is it. Thank you.
6 Mr Hough is going to deal with the ones that could
7 not be done yesterday. Thank you very much.
8 MR HOUGH: Perhaps if the members of the jury could hand
9 back the bundle they have and be issued with a new one?
10 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Good.
11 MR HOUGH: There should be one for you too, sir.
12 Evidence relating to MR PIERRE HOUNSFIELD
13 Questions from MR HOUGH
14 MR HOUGH: Mr Carpenter, may we begin with Mr Hounsfield?
15 For everybody's benefit, in tab 7 of the jury bundle in
16 the photographs of photographers gallery, he is at
17 page 9. Pierre Hounsfield, driver of black Volkswagen
18 Golf. Two photographs of him.
19 The first statement from him is at tab 9A. This is
20 a statement dated 18th September 1997.
21 Just before we begin to read, I think it is right
22 that Hounsfield is one of those who can be eliminated
23 from the pursuing group; the group pursuing the Mercedes
24 on the journey?
25 A. Yes, he is.

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1 Q. And it is true that he was never arrested or pursued by
2 the French police, although he was questioned?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. And the statement begins:
5 "I did not come to your department on my own
6 initiative, as some police officers had noted my
7 identity at Place de l'Alma under the circumstances that
8 I will explain to you. In addition, you came to
9 the agency and interviewed Pierre Suu on two occasions.
10 So, I said to myself if you wanted to contact me, you
11 must have all my details.
12 "However, three or four days ago, I was called on my
13 mobile telephone by a journalist from 'le Parisien' who
14 did not give me his name and told me that he had a
15 friend in the police force who had given my name to him.
16 According to him, I was apparently in the tunnel at
17 the scene of the accident and the police were allegedly
18 very closely interested in me."
19 And then there is a section redacted and then
20 I think he explains that since he had been at Sipa, he
21 worked in a pool with Pierre Suu and sometimes with
22 Nikola Arsov?
23 A. That is right.
24 Q. He identified his own vehicle as a black Volkswagen
25 Golf?

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1 A. Yes.
2 Q. And mentioned that Pierre Suu and Nikola Arsov used
3 their own motorcycles and then did he give his account?
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. Then moving down the page:
6 "At around 16.30 or 1.700 hours, I received a call
7 from the agency on my mobile. My senior editor, Michel
8 Chicheporchiche, thus informed me that Diana was in
9 Paris, that photographs had already been taken and that
10 I had to follow this up. He had obtained
11 the information from English newspapers."
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. And we heard, did not we, from Mr Sipa about the agency
14 receiving information?
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. "I called Pierre Suu, who informed that his motorcycle
17 had broken down and that he could not go. I called
18 Arsov who had come across the photographers in front of
19 the Ritz by chance. I called back the agency who told
20 me that Suu was going to get a motorcyclist to drive
21 him, I you will called back Suu and told him this,
22 telling him that I would call him as soon as I arrived
23 in Paris.
24 "On arriving in Paris, I called Suu on his mobile.
25 He told me to join them at the top of the

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1 Champs-Elysees. He hadn't taken any photographs yet as
2 he had lost the couple. Arsov was with him, but to my
3 knowledge, had not been able to take any photographs
4 either.
5 "I joined Suu and Arsov at around 19.30 or
6 2000 hours at the top of the Champs-Elysees. There were
7 a lot of people there, around a dozen professional
8 photographers, not onlookers. Our equipment was hidden
9 in order to avoid crowd movements which would frighten
10 the celebrities."
11 He listed the colleagues present there on the
12 Champs-Elysees: Suu and his motorcyclist, who I think
13 was Tomic?
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. Arsov, Benhamou, Martinez, Arnal, Chassery, Ker, Rat and
16 his motorcyclist, who we know is Darmon, and Francis
17 Petit:
18 "As we were spread out, with some of us parked on
19 the other side of the Champs-Elysees, perhaps I did not
20 see all of my colleagues."
21 Then did he mention the vehicles of a number of
22 the other colleagues?
23 A. He did.
24 Q. And then I will just read the last sentence of that
25 paragraph:

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1 "Petit was on a motorcycle and left but I do not
2 know whether he took any photographs. Chassery must
3 have had his usual black 205 but he might have been in
4 Ker's 4x4."
5 We know that in fact he was in his own 205?
6 A. That is right, yes.
7 Q. Moving down:
8 "We waited about one hour until the vehicles were
9 positioned in front of the entrance. The bodyguards
10 came out and then the celebrities, one after the other.
11 I was able to take two or three photographs which must
12 have been unsuccessful. I say "must", because my film
13 was subsequently taken by the police officers in the
14 Alma Bridge area."
15 And then did he summarise some of his camera
16 equipment?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. And then he said this, at the very bottom of the page:
19 "There was no problem when the celebrities came out.
20 They did not even run to get into the car.
21 "Then we followed them to the Ritz via a route that
22 I no longer remember. We did not have any difficulty
23 following them and no infringements of the Highway Code
24 were committed by them or us during this journey.
25 "We are used to working. We do not approach them

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1 directly. We stay a little way away in order not to
2 hassle them close up. We can take the same photographs
3 from a distance without there being any incidents.
4 "To reply to your question, I did not hear about any
5 incidents that allegedly occurred between the
6 photographers and their security team during the day.
7 "On arrival at the Ritz, the celebrities got out one
8 after the other. I must have taken five or six
9 photographs. Everything went well.
10 "Five or ten minutes after their arrival,
11 the bodyguard (whose photograph I was later to see in
12 the press and who is called Trevor Rees Jones) came to
13 ask us to stay behind the cars which were parked in
14 front of the Ritz awaiting the departure of
15 the celebrities. We all agreed to move back without
16 incident. Everything went well. Trevor spoke to two or
17 three of us, including me, but everybody agreed to move
18 back without a problem.
19 "Then gradually we positioned ourselves in
20 a horseshoe. This is when onlookers massed around us.
21 "I estimate that the crowd present at that time was
22 at least 100 people including onlookers.
23 "I remember colleagues with whom I was working, Suu
24 and Arsov and those around me -- Benhamou and Rat -- on
25 my left, Veres and Cardinale on my right. Cardinale

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1 arrived late at the Ritz. We were positioned opposite
2 the Ritz entrance.
3 "Suu was behind me and Arsov to the left, further
4 away to the side. There were three of us, so we took
5 three different angles.
6 "As we worked in a 'pool', the person to have taken
7 the best photograph would have shared the profits with
8 the other two."
9 And you were asked questions earlier about
10 cooperation of that kind, I think?
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. "I think that Ker was in front but I am not sure. There
13 were a lot of people and the crowd was dense.
14 I remember that the Ritz closed its grilles and that
15 a security guard with a dog positioned him in front of
16 the entrance."
17 Again, those are things which we have seen on
18 the CCTV footage?
19 A. That is right. Yes.
20 Q. "On examination: this procedure is unusual at the Ritz
21 otherwise it would discourage clients. But perhaps they
22 deployed a dog handler because it was a Saturday
23 evening.
24 "Then at one point, I saw a man (whom we had already
25 seen at the Ritz but whose position I did not know) who

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1 came out to talk to us. He laughingly said, 'Okay,
2 chaps, they are coming out in quarter of an hour.'.
3 "The man came out a second time, still saying 'in
4 ten minutes'.
5 "I think that both the cars -- the Mercedes and
6 Range Rover -- executed a 'simulated departure', leaving
7 with squealing tyres, driving around the Place and
8 coming back to park in front of the Ritz. We did not
9 understand this manoeuvre. In fact, the crowd whistled
10 at them. The crowd mocked them or us, I do not know.
11 There was a big fuss.
12 "The man came back for a third time, tapping a small
13 cigar against his cigar box, saying 'in ten minutes' and
14 still laughing. We began to tell each other that
15 perhaps they were not going to come out of the front
16 exit.
17 "Benhamou, who was close to me then said, 'It is
18 strange, this man never speaks to us and never smiles at
19 us. Something must be happening'. By this he meant
20 that the security department was going to have
21 the celebrities leave by the rear exit. Benhamou added
22 that the man in question was from the Ritz security
23 department.
24 "Finally, ten minutes later, a man in a suit came
25 out of the Ritz and made a cross sign with his forearms

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1 to the two chauffeurs as if to say it is over. Suu,
2 Arsov and I understood that we had been had and they
3 must have left by the rear exit.
4 "We decided that Suu, who was on a motorcycle, would
5 follow the Mercedes and the Range Rover which were
6 leaving at a normal speed. For my part, I slowly made
7 my way back to the car and had lost them and Suu was on
8 a motorcycle. He would have caught me to say he had
9 caught up with them as we were in a pool. Arsov said
10 that he was giving up and that he was returning to
11 the agency on his motorcycle and I did not see him
12 again."
13 Pausing there, I think we know that Arsov did not in
14 fact give up, did he?
15 A. Eventually, he did not. No. If you see what I mean.
16 Q. Yes. Then, going on:
17 "For my part, I set off towards Concorde. I called
18 Suu who told me to come to the apartment at the top of
19 the Champs-Elysees and I met him there at his request."
20 Is this right, the records of the telephone calls
21 show a call made by Hounsfield to Suu just before 29
22 minutes past midnight?
23 A. I believe so, yes.
24 Q. Is this right, just locating things on the timeline,
25 this is page 7 of your timeline, if anybody wants to

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1 follow: Hounsfield is I think seen at 23.55 when
2 the camera outside the Ritz focuses on the paparazzi
3 pack for the last time?
4 A. That 23.55 camera time or adjusted time?
5 Q. I think that is adjusted time.
6 A. I may have an old version because I seem to remember
7 I have added a couple of lines in since I have done my
8 one.
9 Q. In what I hope is the final version, it says "23.55.50",
10 that is corrected time, "camera zooms in on
11 photographers for the last time, Hounsfield, Rat,
12 et cetera"?
13 A. Sorry, I obviously have an old version in mine.
14 Q. Is this right: the reason that he does not appear
15 afterwards on the timeline that the camera does not
16 focus in and it is not easy to identify.
17 A. After midnight, the camera does not focus on the crowd
18 any more, it just goes back to its normal position so it
19 is not as easy to tell who is there, unless they are
20 very distinctive, like Veres.
21 Q. His account that he remained in the Place Vendome for
22 some time after that is perfectly credible?
23 A. Oh yes. Exactly.
24 Q. He goes on:
25 "On arrival there, I saw the chauffeurs of the

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1 Mercedes and the Range Rover as well as Suu and his
2 motorcyclist and Cardinale. Then, all of a sudden,
3 Cardinale took a call on his mobile. He just told us
4 that there had been an accident. The chauffeurs took an
5 interest in what he was saying. Then Cardinale
6 announced to us and to the chauffeurs that they have
7 they had had an accident at l'Alma. The chauffeurs and
8 bodyguards left on their own. Us three, Suu, Cardinale
9 and myself got into our vehicles and headed for l'Alma.
10 I took the Place de l'Etoile and then Avenue Marceau.
11 "Once at l'Alma, I parked in Rue Debrousse. There
12 was already a police vehicle parked at the Alma Tunnel,
13 exit in the Paris Suburbs direction ..."
14 So that is the west end, I think:
15 "... and another one in the same place but in
16 the opposite direction of traffic flow. Police officers
17 prevented us from looking over to see the tunnel
18 entrance.
19 "The SAMU must already have been there, because
20 I did not hear them arriving.
21 "I remember having heard it said that the Prefet de
22 Police was at the scene.
23 "There were a lot of people -- both journalists and
24 onlookers.
25 "A journalist from the AFP came to ask me whether

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1 I had seen anything, and I replied no.
2 "As I was unable to take photographs from where
3 I was, I went to the side of the tunnel entrance (Paris
4 Suburbs side) on the left-hand side when facing
5 the entrance in question. There were already onlookers
6 against the barriers that are situated in this place.
7 "Suu and his motorcyclist were close to me. They
8 had arrived before me. I do not know whether they had
9 had time to go into the tunnel. All I know is that Suu
10 told me that he was unable to take photographs in
11 the tunnel. In fact, I later saw his films and there
12 was only his apartment and the Ritz. Then when
13 the Mercedes was removed by the police crane, as
14 everybody was allowed to take these photographs."
15 And we have just seen those photographs, I think?
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. "So, I told Suu that I was going to try to take
18 a different angle. He waited for me there.
19 "I was unable to take photographs as a police
20 officer from the BAC immediately stopped me. Two other
21 police officers from the BAC and then a uniformed female
22 police officer arrived behind me and demanded my film,
23 which they took out of the container covering it. They
24 left with my film. This is why I do not know whether my
25 shots of the apartment and the Ritz were any good or

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1 not. I will never see them again. I know that I took
2 ten shots.
3 "I left to return to my car and I joined Suu and his
4 motorcyclist. There was an enormous crowd on that side
5 of the tunnel.
6 "While I was waiting in my car, two young plain
7 clothes police officers came to take our identity
8 details from Suu, myself and other journalists present."
9 Moving further down, he says:
10 "I left the scene at around 05.30 to 06.00 on the
11 Sunday morning, at the same time as Suu."
12 He does not remember whether he accompanied Suu or
13 whether he left with his motorcyclist. He goes on to
14 say:
15 "On seeing Arsov's motorcycle at the scene and
16 the faces of colleagues in the police lorry, I realised
17 that those people had been arrested."
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. And then he answered a question saying that he received
20 a call from his senior editor who joined him at
21 the scene, but a long time after his film had been taken
22 by the police?
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. And he could not remember whether or not he called
25 the agency?

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1 A. No.
2 Q. Then, moving on to the next account, which is tab 9C, it
3 may help when reading this to have page 9 of the plans
4 volume, the map and plans volume, on screen and in front
5 of each of the jury members, if you can, with all of the
6 things that you have on your desks.
7 Is this right, this is a message recounting
8 a telephone conversation between Mr Hounsfield and one
9 of your colleagues, Mr Beer?
10 A. Yes, they were contacted to try to get them to come and
11 speak to us about what had happened.
12 Q. We saw that Pierre Suu did but I think Mr Hounsfield did
13 not?
14 A. That is right.
15 Q. This was June 2006, so nine years after the collision.
16 A telephone call from Mr Beer to Mr Hounsfield, asking
17 him whether he would come to London to answer a few
18 questions. He is then asked a couple of questions over
19 the phone:
20 "Firstly, in respect of reports that he may have
21 seen a radar camera near the Alma Tunnel on the night of
22 31st August and Hounsfield confirmed that he had done
23 so. He initially said that it was by the entrance to
24 the underpass. Asked if it was on the roadway, he said
25 no, it had been by the trees separating the sliproad

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1 from the embankment expressway."
2 He said:
3 "It was an old-style tripod type speed camera and he
4 recalled that there was a marked police car by it with
5 a couple of uniformed police officers. They may have
6 been in the process of putting it away, he was not
7 sure."
8 This is where the map or plan may come in handy.
9 "Asked what direction he had been coming from when
10 he saw it, Hounsfield said that he had come from Rue
11 Arsene Houssaye via Avenue Marceau/George V."
12 If we look at the plan right over on the left, going
13 north to south, can we see Avenue Marceau coming down to
14 the Metro station Alma-Marceau?
15 A. That is right.
16 Q. And do we see Avenue George V a little to the right,
17 going clockwise?
18 A. That is right.
19 Q. Then Hounsfield goes on, after he has been reminded of
20 his route, he then suddenly realised that if that was
21 the case, he would not have passed the camera.
22 "He wondered if his memory was playing tricks and
23 said that he would need a little time to think about
24 this issue, and that he might consult Pierre Suu."
25 A. Yes.

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1 Q. Is this right: the route down from Avenue Marceau via
2 the Place de l'Alma to the area where Hounsfield got to
3 the tunnel would not have taken him via the position
4 where he is said to have seen the speed camera?
5 A. No. Exactly.
6 Q. Then secondly, Mr Beer asks about the circumstances of
7 the seizure of his film and Hounsfield said that:
8 "... after he had taken a number of pictures of the
9 scene, in the 15 to 30 minutes after the crash, he
10 encountered the BAC and that they had demanded his film
11 and jostled him a bit. As a result, Hounsfield
12 deliberately exposed his film, thereby rendering all his
13 pictures useless."
14 That is a slightly different account from the one
15 we have just heard, isn't it?
16 A. Yes, it is.
17 Q. Moving on, one final section to read, this is tab 9D,
18 it is only a short passage to read. To put this in
19 context, this is a document obtained from Channel 4,
20 a transcript of an interview for a programme last year.
21 Moving on to I think it is the sixth page, after
22 a lot of crossing out towards the bottom of the page,
23 Hounsfield is asked a question about the behaviour of
24 the police and he says:
25 "I was taking photos of the scene and a little group

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1 of policemen who asked me to stop taking photos. I did,
2 and they then asked me for my film. I did not really
3 want to give them my film because I could not see what
4 was so sensitive about what I was photographing. I had
5 not taken any sensitive photos inside the tunnel, I had
6 not gone down into it. I did not take any photos of the
7 accident or the car, so I was taking photos from
8 the outside and these same pictures were shown
9 afterwards in other information publications in
10 the press."
11 And then he gives another account of being asked to
12 hand over his film and his frustration at that?
13 A. Yes.
14 MR HOUGH: Thank you very much.
15 MR MANSFIELD: No questions, thank you.
16 MR WEEKES: Yes, sir.
17 Questions from MR WEEKES
18 MR WEEKES: Mr Carpenter, it will come as no surprise to you
19 the brief matter which I want to raise. There is some
20 juice left in the lemon.
21 We have heard about the evidence of Mr Hounsfield to
22 the effect that he is standing outside the Ritz and he
23 sees the man who is Henri Paul come back and forth three
24 times.
25 A. Yes.

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1 Q. And of course, Mr Hounsfield says nothing about
2 Henri Paul being anything other than sober?
3 A. Well, he does not say anything about him being drunk.
4 Q. He does not, and one would have expected, as I raised
5 yesterday, that in the course of a police investigation
6 into the causing of a crash in the Alma Tunnel that if
7 you thought the driver of the car had been drunk, you
8 might have said so to the police?
9 A. He does not mention anything about him having consumed
10 alcohol.
11 Q. Indeed, or indeed as appearing to be some who was
12 abnormal?
13 A. I do not think he knew him, so he would not know if he
14 was abnormal.
15 Q. Well, he refers to the comment which we heard
16 Mr Benhamou's evidence about yesterday?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. Which was, if I can paraphrase, to the effect that
19 Mr Benhamou's evidence was, because Henri Paul is
20 cheerful and because Henri Paul is speaking and because
21 in Mr Benhamou's experience Henri Paul did neither of
22 those things, Mr Benhamou concluded, albeit some time
23 after the crash, that Henri Paul had been drinking.
24 A. But Hounsfield never says any of that.
25 Q. Indeed. If I can take you to the passage in

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1 Hounsfield's statement, it is the one at tab 9A in my
2 bundle. It is the 18th September statement and it is
3 page 5 of that statement. It is the third dash down on
4 the page:
5 "Benhamou, who was close to me, then said, 'It is
6 strange, this man never speaks to us and never smiles at
7 us. Something must be happening'."
8 And of course Mr Benhamou's belated evidence was
9 that by that comment, he meant Mr Paul must be drunk or
10 have been drinking. But here, Mr Hounsfield says that
11 the meaning of that comment was: the security department
12 was going to have the celebrities leave by the rear
13 exit. Benhamou added that the man in question was from
14 the Ritz security department?
15 A. That is what he says.
16 MR WEEKES: Thank you, Inspector Carpenter.
17 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Mr de la Mare?
18 Questions from MR DE LA MARE
19 MR DE LA MARE: One set of questions about the speed camera
20 again. I mistakenly thought it was you who was in the
21 witness box when we had that fascinating video played
22 with the --
23 A. No, that was Tony Read, I am afraid.
24 Q. It was actually Mr Pourceau?
25 A. Mr Pourceau as well.

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1 Q. You recall the film in question. They are flashing
2 their lights to warn the on-coming traffic that there is
3 a speed camera?
4 A. At the exit of the Alexander III.
5 Q. Mr Hough asked you some questions about the precise
6 route that Mr Hounsfield could have taken to see this
7 camera?
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. If the camera was located at that place, ie the exit to
10 the Alexander III underpass, that would correspond with
11 what he said to Mr Beer, namely that it was on a grass
12 strip amongst some trees, because that is exactly the
13 same as the camera we saw on that film?
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. And he would have seen that camera in the course of
16 following the decoy vehicles, wouldn't he, to the Rue
17 Arsene Houssaye?
18 A. He would have done, yes.
19 Q. Turned off just before the Place de l'Alma?
20 A. Sorry, you will have to remind me. Did he follow
21 the same route as them?
22 Q. It is not entirely clear, but if that is the route he
23 had taken, he would have seen the camera?
24 A. Yes.
25 MR DE LA MARE: Thank you very much.

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1 MR HOUGH: Nothing further from me about Mr Hounsfield.
2 Evidence regarding MR LASLO VERES
3 Questions from MR HOUGH
4 MR HOUGH: Next tab 7 of the jury bundle, the rogues'
5 gallery again, page 17 of the photographs.
6 The gentleman we have seen before in the distinctive
7 dungarees riding a Piaggio scooter.
8 Now, Mr Veres I think can also be safely eliminated
9 from the pursuing group.
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. And his first statement at 15B was dated
12 31st August 1997. So, the Sunday morning at 10.15 am.
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. A statement taken by Isabelle Deffez.
15 I will start if I may at the third paragraph:
16 "I knew on the afternoon of Saturday 30th August
17 that Princess Diana might be staying at the Ritz.
18 I found that out from some 'gremlins', autograph hunters
19 who hang around the hotel. So I heard the princess was
20 coming when I was going past on my scooter as
21 I regularly do.
22 "I stayed outside the Ritz with other photographers.
23 In the afternoon, I cannot remember the exact time,
24 there was a commotion and Diana and Al Fayed came out of
25 the service door at the back of the Ritz. I knew

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1 the two addresses they were likely to be going to:
2 l'Etoile, Al Fayed's home, and the Bois de Boulogne,
3 where the Windsor's mansion is.
4 "I went to l'Etoile on my scooter and I found other
5 photographers there.
6 "The couple came out without hiding themselves and
7 got into a Mercedes, escorted by an English-registered
8 Range Rover with the bodyguards in it. We took
9 pictures. We went back to the Ritz with them. They
10 were driving they carefully. I followed behind on my
11 scooter.
12 "They came back into the Ritz through the front
13 door. A bodyguard of the prince's came over to us and
14 asked us to move back a bit because the Prince and
15 Princess were going out that evening.
16 "In the evening, there must have been at least 300
17 people outside the Ritz, about 20 of them photographers.
18 "Late in the evening, maybe around midnight, there
19 was another commotion. The Mercedes and the Range Rover
20 came out, drove round the square in front of the Ritz.
21 The journalists had gone to the back of the hotel and
22 this threw them into a panic.
23 "Half an hour later, there was another movement of
24 cars, setting off in the direction of the rue de la
25 Paix.

182

1 "Two or three minutes after they left, someone from
2 hotel security and a chauffeur signalled to us that the
3 couple had left.
4 "I was planning to go home, thinking I would take
5 pictures on the Sunday morning when the Princess was
6 jogging."
7 Pausing there, perhaps we can look at this stage at
8 the final page of your timeline of the paparazzi.
9 The very, very last entry shows the long-view camera
10 at the Place Vendome showing Veres finally leaving at
11 00.24.50. So actually after the crash has taken place?
12 A. That is right, well --
13 Q. In all probability. I know it is hard to marry up these
14 times with times on the telephone records?
15 A. Yes, but if he received the call and he was on his way
16 to his bike, it makes sense.
17 Q. "When I got to Concorde, I had a call on my mobile from
18 another photographer, who did not give his name. He
19 told me, 'Diana has had an accident in the tunnel'."
20 Pausing there, we later hear Mr Benhamou identified
21 as the likely caller and the call records identify
22 a call from Benhamou to Veres at 00.25.29, so 25 minutes
23 past midnight, a minute or so after he has set off from
24 the Place Vendome?
25 A. Yes.

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1 Q. "Not knowing what tunnel he was talking about, I went to
2 Chatelet first of all, before going to
3 the Pont de l'Alma.
4 "When I got there, the police and fire brigade were
5 there and I saw Al Fayed lying on the ground.
6 "The police let me through when they saw my press
7 card. I took a few photos of the car and the body.
8 I could not get near the car.
9 As I told you, I arrived well after the accident,
10 but I know from other reporters that the person on the
11 big motorbike, a Honda 650 if I understood correctly,
12 got to the scene soon after the accident."
13 Honda 650, is that a model that corresponds with
14 Rat's and Darmon's?
15 A. Yes, the Honda NTV650.
16 Q. "I did not hear anyone mention a car in front of the
17 Mercedes."
18 And then the formalities are dealt with.
19 If we move on to the next statement, 15F, it is
20 a statement made on the following day, 1st September,
21 the Monday, at 12.50, just after midday, to Mr Gigou.
22 Mr Veres confirms his previous statement and then says
23 this:
24 "I confirm that yesterday I was riding a motorcycle,
25 it was a black Piaggio scooter."

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1 And he then describes his helmet. He then says
2 that:
3 "I left my scooter in the Alma Tunnel, a few metres
4 away from the crashed car, shortly before I was stopped
5 and questioned.
6 "To answer your question, when I was stopped and
7 questioned I was carrying two films. One of them must
8 have the afternoon's photos on it and general views of
9 the car and the emergency team at work around it.
10 The second film was in my camera but I must have only
11 taken one photo of the crashed car. Both my films were
12 taken away by the police."
13 Then he describes his camera equipment and says he
14 was the only person who took photos on the films which
15 were recovered?
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. Then, if we look at page 136 and following of
18 the paparazzi photograph bundle, these I think show
19 the photographs of Mr Veres and is this right,
20 the photographs start with the emergency services in
21 view, so evidently some time after the crash has taken
22 place?
23 A. That is right.
24 Q. And then, Mr Veres, going back to the statement, notes
25 that the negatives have been developed and printed and

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1 then he says:
2 "I did not at any time hand a film over to anyone
3 who went off with it and got away from the police.
4 Anyway, it is easy to see, because my negatives are
5 a record of the pictures I took that day."
6 Then he says that he knew all the photographers who
7 were in custody at the same time as him, apart from
8 Stephane Darmon who was on the front of the motorbike
9 and was driving Rat. He confirms that he did not get to
10 the scene of the accident until some time after his
11 colleagues and then mentions again getting lost around
12 Chatelet.
13 And then he mentions again the call referring to the
14 accident, which he had received. Then he repeats that
15 the emergency team and the police were in the tunnel
16 when he arrived, could not give a precise time because
17 he did not have a watch and also identified that there
18 were a lot of onlookers coming in the opposite direction
19 when he arrived. And then, as we have already heard, he
20 identifies Serge Benhamou as the colleague and friend
21 who is likely to have been the person who called him,
22 but mentions that it was a very quick conversation.
23 Then he says this:
24 "I did not see any photographers who were in
25 the tunnel and might have left without being stopped and

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1 questioned by the police. When I arrived I stayed there
2 for about two minutes and I was stopped straightaway.
3 When I got there, I did see photographers and others who
4 were above the tunnel, but I do not know if they had
5 been in the tunnel or not. Anyway, I definitely did not
6 see any photographers leaving the scene. When I got
7 there it was impossible to leave."
8 And then he answers a question:
9 "I do not know what vehicles and police were behind
10 the Mercedes when it left the Ritz because I missed them
11 leaving. It is true that there was a Pajero car among
12 the photographers" and that he had seen it near the Ritz
13 but did not see it in or near the tunnel.
14 He identifies the Pajero as we know belonging to
15 David Ker. And then he says this:
16 "I can also tell you I saw a photographer who was
17 outside the Ritz, he is tall with dark hair. I do not
18 know his first name or surname but I did not see him at
19 the tunnel either. I think he works for the Sipa Press.
20 He was with a man who always works with him who looks
21 a bit Chinese but they were not in the tunnel when he
22 was there."
23 Can you confirm who that was?
24 A. It is Hounsfield and the Chinese looking one is Suu.
25 Q. And then:

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1 "The name Fabrice Chassery does not mean anything to
2 me. I might know him by sight but I do not know
3 the name."
4 And then he says:
5 "... it is true there was a photographer in a black
6 Peugeot 205 but I only saw him in front of the Ritz,
7 waiting like we were. I did not see him in the tunnel.
8 I know the person who owns the car but I do not know his
9 name. I do not know what agency he works for. He has
10 brown half, must be about 25, he is thinnish and must be
11 about 1.75 metres tall."
12 That is a description of Chassery and his car?
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. And then, over the page:
15 "I should tell you that I have just remembered that
16 when I was with the other photographers who were in
17 police custody while we were in the tunnel, some of them
18 were saying, 'The guys from the LSD agency managed to
19 get away with some photos'. I do not know what they
20 were talking about. I do not know any photographers who
21 work for LSD. LSD stands for Laurent Sola Diffusions."
22 We know that Mr Odekerken and Mr Chassery were
23 working for LSD that evening?
24 A. That is right.
25 Q. "In answer to question: I think the photographer who

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1 told us the LSD guys had got away with photos is
2 Christian Martinez, who is in your custody.
3 "I remember Christian Martinez also said, 'While we
4 are here, LSD is raking in the money'.
5 "I should mention too that Serge Benhamou who phoned
6 me came to meet me when I was in the tunnel. He came
7 down the access ramp where he was with all
8 the onlookers. He did not have a camera. He just came
9 to tell me that he had had enough and he was leaving.
10 He did not speak to anyone except me as far as I know.
11 I didn't give him anything, he didn't give me anything.
12 Then he left."
13 Just to clarify: although the phrasing is that
14 Serge Benhamou came to meet him, Serge Benhamou had of
15 course been there sooner?
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. Then, moving on to the next document which is in
18 the classic form of a statement to the judge,
19 Judge Stephan, dated 22nd October 1997, going to
20 the second page, "Events prior to the couple leaving
21 the Ritz". Mr Veres I think refers to receiving a call
22 at 16.00 hours from Mr Benhamou telling him that Diana
23 and Dodi were probably going to arrive in Paris and that
24 he was in front of the Ritz at around 17.00 or 17.30,
25 arriving on his scooter?

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1 A. Yes.
2 Q. Then he refers to seeing Rat and his motorcyclist there
3 and two other photographers who left quite quickly, and
4 then Benhamou joining him after about half an hour.
5 Then I think in the next paragraph, he again
6 recounts the couple going to the apartment, we don't
7 need to read that.
8 Then, in the following paragraph, it summarises
9 their return to the Ritz.
10 Then picking it up at the halfway point on the page:
11 "When I was close to the Ritz entrance with Pierre
12 Suu and another photographer who could have been
13 Hounsfield, one of the English bodyguards came out. He
14 spoke to us in English. According to the translation
15 that I was given, he said that Mr Dodi was asking us to
16 move back but that after dinner when they came out,
17 we would be able to take some good photographs. So
18 we moved back to the centre of the Place and Pierre Suu
19 went to get some Big Macs.
20 "At one point, Henri Paul, whom I know by sight,
21 came to speak to us. After three sentences, I realised
22 that he was saying incoherent things and I was no longer
23 listening to him. I think he spoke to Rat for two or
24 three minutes."
25 Pausing there and squeezing a little more juice out,

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1 saving Mr Weekes a little trouble, he has not recounted
2 that in his previous accounts, has he, when he was in
3 custody?
4 A. No.
5 Q. This is much later on, when the press have been covering
6 Mr Paul's condition, rightly or wrongly?
7 A. Yes, and nobody else said he was incoherent either.
8 Q. The accounts of others were not as extreme as him
9 speaking incoherently?
10 A. No.
11 Q. Going on:
12 "I think he spoke to Rat for two or three minutes.
13 He left and went back into the hotel. We went closer to
14 the hotel. We positioned ourselves in a neat row in
15 front of the hotel. There were about 20 photographers
16 at that point and perhaps 200 onlookers. At one point,
17 Henri Paul came to see the two official drivers who were
18 there. He got the Mercedes and the 4x4 to set off and
19 drive around the Place. The photographers then moved,
20 some of them going off in all directions but most of
21 them went to the rear. For my part, I stayed at
22 the front. With me was an Englishman who I did not know
23 at all, Mr Cardinale and the tall ginger-haired
24 Hounsfield. When the cars came back, Mr Paul spoke to
25 the two chauffeurs again and all three of them started

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1 laughing.
2 "Mr Paul came back to see us and made a sign that
3 indicated one-nil to us. He then went back into
4 the hotel again. After about quarter an hour,
5 the drivers left without any passengers but this time
6 they left the Place via Rue de la Paix. When I saw
7 this, I told myself that they were going to leave via
8 the rear entrance. I put my camera away and I was going
9 to go home. As the photographs I had taken at Rue
10 Arsene Houssaye and the Ritz were not of any interest,
11 because of the way in which things happened, I told
12 myself that things would be the same at the rear [of
13 the hotel]. I stayed because I thought, after what
14 the bodyguard had said, that the promise that we could
15 take some good photographs would be upheld, which it
16 seems was not the case.
17 "Whilst I was putting away my camera, somebody came
18 out of the hotel to signal to the people present that
19 everything was finished. At the time I was leaving, my
20 mobile telephone rang. Benhamou called me to tell me
21 that the Princess's car had had an accident in
22 the tunnel."
23 So, pausing there, he gives an account in
24 the paragraph at the top about the decoy vehicles
25 leaving via the north road out of the square and they

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1 then took the route around to the Rue Cambon from there?
2 A. That is right.
3 Q. Under questioning, he said:
4 "For my part, I did not attempt to follow the cars
5 as I was tired. I was planning to come back
6 the following day in order to try and take the couple
7 going for a jog as it appeared that they often did
8 this."
9 Then, in the next paragraph, he expands upon his
10 account of getting the call from Benhamou, going towards
11 Chatelet and then returning via Rue de Rivoli, back to
12 Concorde and then along the embankment road going west?
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. And then he says this:
15 "Before going down into the curve of the tunnel,
16 I think that two firemen stopped me to ask me where
17 I was going."
18 Pausing there, in the first account they had been
19 policemen, I think?
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. Now they are firemen, in this account.
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. "I replied that I was a journalist/photographer, that
24 I was coming to take photographs of the accident and
25 they let me through. On reaching the bottom, I parked.

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1 There were already a lot of people. There were no
2 flashes from photographers when I arrived. With a zoom,
3 I took three or four general shots. I saw the car with
4 the people around it. I took a few steps forward to try
5 to get nearer and I took another three or four
6 photographs. Somebody came and said no more
7 photographs, go away. It was somebody with a police
8 armband. I wanted to go away but I could not turn round
9 because the emergency services were arriving at the same
10 time. So I tried to go through next to the Mercedes in
11 order to leave the tunnel and a second police officer
12 then asked me to park my scooter, saying that I was
13 a photographer and a witness. I was then put with
14 the other photographers who were on the other side in
15 the tunnel."
16 So this is an account of him being detained really
17 quite soon after his arrival in the tunnel?
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. "After about five or ten minutes, as I was not a witness
20 because I had not seen anything, I was asked to leave
21 but I was prevented from doing this."
22 He refers to having seen emergency services
23 personnel when he arrives and then he goes on to say:
24 "I should like to add that when M Paul came to see
25 us the very first time he had wide open eyes. I thought

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1 this was very odd. He was wired up. This is what
2 I felt when I saw him."
3 A further question is asked:
4 "With regard to the vehicles that I saw at the Ritz,
5 there was a black 205, a Pajero, a black Fiat Uno."
6 Again identifying the drivers of those, Chassery,
7 Ker, Arnal:
8 "On the other side of the Place there were some
9 people in a white Renault 21 which had stopped but I do
10 not know who they were.
11 "At no time during these events did I see another
12 Fiat Uno apart from the black one belonging to Arnal.
13 In fact, I only saw it in the Place Vendome. When
14 I arrived in the tunnel, I only saw the Mercedes,
15 the people around it and, a bit further away from
16 the Mercedes, the fire brigade trying to revive Dodi.
17 I did not see any vehicles.
18 "It is true that whilst we were in the tunnel,
19 Martinez said during this time that LSD was making
20 a fortune. I do not know if this was really true
21 because the other photographers left before I arrived."
22 A. That is right.
23 Q. We can move on finally to the last document which begins
24 with a number 10 and "Veres" underlined.
25 This is a section from the confrontation. Do you

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1 recognise that?
2 A. Yes.
3 Q. I am just going to read one passage from this. It is
4 a very short passage. If you don't have it, it does not
5 really matter. After Veres has accepted an account of
6 a summary of his previous accounts, he then says this:
7 "When I arrived in the underpass, two people stopped
8 me. I thought they were firemen, I said that I was
9 a press photographer and they let me past. I should add
10 that M Benhamou never ran off: at one point he came over
11 to me and said that he could not stand it any more and
12 that he was leaving. He was completely white."
13 Dealing with this, very quickly, you may remember
14 that Miss Da Costa gave evidence that she and at least
15 one of the Cathelines were stopping people going into
16 the tunnel and she said that somebody on a scooter
17 barrelled through saying, "I am from the press".
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. She identified at two different stages both Rat and
20 Benhamou.
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. We have the account here of Mr Veres going through and
23 saying that he was press, is that right?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. But of course, Miss Da Costa did not identify Veres.

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1 A. No. I have done some research on this, and I have
2 another one here.
3 Benoit Boura, in his statement, 9.05 hours on
4 31st August 1997, I am afraid I do not have an INQ
5 number at the moment. It is a statement of Benoit Boura
6 and he is being shown the photographs of the paparazzi
7 and he says:
8 "The individual carrying number 3 [which is the 1 to
9 7] resembles a man who was driving a scooter that was
10 travelling from the direction of Concorde a few minutes
11 after the accident. I tried to stop him for safety
12 reasons. He just said 'Press' and drove past me without
13 stopping and I later saw his scooter close to the scene
14 of the accident. I remember that he had a white helmet.
15 I am not certain but I think I recognise him,
16 particularly because of his general appearance."
17 Q. We know that Veres did describe himself as having
18 a white helmet in one of the earlier statements but on
19 any view, Miss Da Costa and the other civilians perhaps
20 would not have looked particularly like firemen or
21 policemen?
22 A. Probably not.
23 MR HOUGH: Thank you very much.
24 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Mr Mansfield?
25 MR MANSFIELD: No questions.

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1 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Mr Weekes?
2 MR WEEKES: Yes, sir, surprisingly I do.
3 Questions from MR WEEKES
4 MR WEEKES: There is a further matter I want to touch on
5 with you, Inspector Carpenter, relating to that comment
6 that Mr Veres has made which is to the effect that:
7 "Henri Paul, whom I know by sight, came out to speak
8 to us. After three sentences I realised that he was
9 saying incoherent things and I was no longer listening
10 to him."
11 The next sentence is:
12 "I think he spoke to Rat for two or three minutes."
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. I do not suppose, to begin with, you are able to assist
15 with how Mr Rat would be able to have a two- to
16 three-minute conversation with Henri Paul if he was
17 incoherent?
18 A. No.
19 Q. The further matter I would like to take up with you is
20 that you may recall this morning that we did hear
21 evidence about a conversation between Mr Rat and
22 Henri Paul, also at a time when Mr Veres was there.
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. And this may well be the same conversation?
25 A. The one about the flash-gun.

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1 Q. Indeed. It may be best if we turn it up. It is tab 13I
2 in my bundle.
3 This is the evidence which Mr Rat gave to
4 Judge Stephan on 30th September. It is at page 5 of 21.
5 In answer to question:
6 "When we were at the Ritz we waited quietly, I was
7 at the main entrance. There were a lot of curious
8 onlookers, perhaps 150 or 200 people. The atmosphere
9 was very relaxed. Mr Paul came to see us several times,
10 it was perhaps between 11 pm and midnight. At one point
11 he came to see me to ask my advice about cameras. He
12 noted flash reference numbers in his notebook.
13 The reference number is 540 EZ. That was the same flash
14 as the one I have, which I gave him the particulars of.
15 He also talked to Laslo Veres."
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. So what we can deduce from this account, if this account
18 is correct, is that there was in fact a detailed
19 conversation between Mr Rat and Henri Paul?
20 A. It would appear so.
21 Q. Moreover, there was a conversation between Laslo Veres
22 and Mr Paul?
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. And given the conversation is about the particulars of
25 flash-guns, we can assume that Henri Paul was not

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1 incoherent at the time?
2 A. No.
3 MR WEEKES: Thank you, Inspector Carpenter.
4 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Mr de la Mare?
5 Questions from MR DE LA MARE
6 MR DE LA MARE: A couple of very short questions: Mr Veres'
7 first inclination, even though he had not been involved
8 in the pursuit as we discussed earlier, was to lie to
9 cover for his colleague Benhamou, wasn't it?
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. In his statement at tab 15B, he refers to
12 the conversation that he had with "another photographer,
13 who did not give his name".
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. "He told me, 'Diana has had an accident in the tunnel'."
16 Now, Mr Benhamou was his partner, wasn't he?
17 A. He probably did not need to give his name.
18 Q. He did not need to give his name, he knew full well that
19 it was Mr Benhamou. He lied because he had been
20 arrested and Mr Benhamou had not?
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. And he did not want to dump his partner, who had got
23 photographs out of the tunnel, in it, did he?
24 A. Yes, but whether he -- yes. You are right.
25 Q. We know that they got photographs out of the tunnel

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1 because some of Mr Benhamou's photographs were later
2 recovered. We also know that he and Mr Veres attempted
3 to sell those photographs to the Bunte magazine.
4 Do you remember that evidence from yesterday?
5 A. Well, we have no evidence that he tried to sell them,
6 but we know that they were at that magazine.
7 Q. Doubtless they were not just passing the time of day at
8 a photojournalistic magazine three days after the crash.
9 A. No, but I have no evidence.
10 Q. I suspect they were about some business, but
11 unfortunately the French police never followed up that
12 line of inquiry, did they?
13 A. Well, Mr Gigou yesterday said that they did not.
14 Q. Just to follow up on the theme so ably developed by
15 Mr Weekes throughout today, it is unsurprising though
16 that when, belatedly, he comes after 1st September to
17 give evidence, once again it is to ramp up Mr Benhamou's
18 case of Henri Paul behaving like some pantomime drunk?
19 A. Yes. He supports what Mr Benhamou said.
20 Q. So yet another instance of the paparazzi lying to the
21 police deliberately to try to impede the inquiries and
22 continuing to tell inflated stories to take the heat off
23 them?
24 A. It can be interpreted that way.
25 MR DE LA MARE: Thank you very much, Inspector Carpenter.

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1 MR HORWELL: No thank you, sir.
2 MR HOUGH: Nothing on that witness.
3 It may be that now is the right time to for a break.
4 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Yes.
5 What do we have left for this afternoon, tomorrow
6 and the next day?
7 MR HOUGH: We have Mr Cardinale today with Mr Carpenter, who
8 will be a very short witness. We will also then I hope
9 be in a position to read two very short statements
10 formally identifying the two deceased; a small but
11 important matter.
12 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Yes.
13 MR HOUGH: And then, as regards tomorrow, we have those
14 witnesses who Mr Gigou was going to do, namely there is
15 an eye witness called Mr Gooroovadoo, and there are also
16 the questions left over in relation to Mr Martinez and
17 Mr Guizard. Then, we may also get started on
18 the witnesses who are going to be adduced through
19 another French officer who will not be coming. That is
20 to say, Langevin, Arnal and Medjahdi.
21 I think that is a reasonably full day for tomorrow.
22 And Mr Stokes might be giving evidence.
23 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: What about Tomic, is he coming?
24 MR HOUGH: I do not think a statement was ever taken from
25 Tomic.

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1 A. None was ever taken.
2 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Well, we will not obviously be
3 going on very late this afternoon, particularly because
4 we started at half past 9 this morning and it looks as
5 if 10 o'clock would be a reasonable start tomorrow,
6 doesn't it?
7 MR HOUGH: Absolutely, yes.
8 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: So it looks as if things are
9 under control, members of the jury, I hope.
10 We will break off now for quarter of an hour now.
11 (3.17 pm)
12 (A short break)
13 (3.33 pm)
14 (Jury present)
15 MR HOUGH: Finally, of the paparazzi for today,
16 Mr Carpenter, Stephane Cardinale.
17 Evidence relating to MR STEPHANE CARDINALE
18 Questions from MR HOUGH
19 MR HOUGH: Just one statement from him at the end of the
20 jury's pack. If we want to identify him, he is in
21 the photographs of photographers under tab 7 of the jury
22 bundle, page 5: Stephane Cardinale, driver of white
23 Citroen AX, and two photographs of him are there.
24 Now, it is right, isn't it, that Mr Cardinale is
25 another of the ones that we can safely eliminate from

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1 the pursuing pack?
2 A. Yes. He follows the decoy vehicles.
3 Q. This is a statement taken from him on 18th September by
4 Major Mules. After the crossed-out section, he begins:
5 "I was not working on Saturday 30th August 1997 and
6 I was at my home. At around [10.00 pm] I received
7 a telephone call from London from the Sygma agency. My
8 caller in the United Kingdom, Mathieu Polka, informed me
9 of the likely presence of the Princess of Wales at the
10 Ritz Hotel. He asked me to verify this information free
11 of charge as I am not answerable to him for my work.
12 A few minutes later, I received a telephone call from
13 the duty editor at the Paris agency who asked me to go
14 there in order to cover this story. I should tell you
15 that there were rumours of marriage between Lady Di and
16 Al Fayed and we legitimately thought that the couple
17 might pose [for pictures] on leaving the hotel.
18 "I should add that live very close to the Ritz Hotel
19 (5 minutes by car or 10 minutes on foot). I had got
20 dressed and arrived there by car (white AX,
21 95 registration number ... ) at about [half past 10].
22 I parked in Place Vendome, in the centre close to
23 the column. The couple had already arrived and I was
24 informed of their presence by my colleagues. At
25 the scene there were many colleagues and onlookers.

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1 With regard to certain shots that you are showing me,
2 I confirm the presence of some of them that I know:
3 Romuald Rat, David Ker, Pierre Hounsfield, Serge
4 Benhamou, Laslo Veres. On one of them, time: 23.46 ...
5 showing a group of photographers, I recognise myself in
6 the second row, in the centre. In front of me, wearing
7 a checked jacket in red tones, is a photographer whom my
8 colleagues described to me as being British and working
9 for The Mirror, although this needs checking."
10 Pausing there, Colm Pierce, is that correct?
11 A. I believe so. He has been identified as Colm Pierce.
12 Q. "5 to 10 minutes later, my colleague Jacques Langevin
13 who worked at the same agency, joined me at the scene.
14 "I should add that there were other colleagues, and
15 on the presentation of a photograph album consisting of
16 15 photographs, I can say that there was also
17 Serge Arnal, Nikola Arsov, Fabrice Chassery, Christian
18 Martinez, Pierre Suu. I do not know the others or I did
19 not see them.
20 "We waited and the crowd of onlookers continued to
21 grow. With my colleague Langevin, we agreed to each
22 cover a possible exit for the couple's departure. For
23 my part, I was responsible for the Vendome exit, whilst
24 Langevin covered Cambon. We were handicapped in our
25 telephone communications as Langevin's battery had run

205

1 out."
2 Pausing there, I think on the records, the last call
3 between Langevin and Cardinale recorded is just after
4 midnight?
5 A. That is right.
6 Q. "On my arrival, the back-up vehicles (Mercedes and
7 Range Rover) were already in position in front of the
8 main exit. I am incapable of telling you who was who
9 and if the drivers were close to the cars. Not being
10 very well up on this, I asked my colleagues which were
11 their cars and how was it going. This was how I was
12 shown Mr Paul and told that he was the security manager
13 at the Ritz. He went in and out of the hotel several
14 times, indicating an imminent departure for our benefit,
15 which he reckoned would be a matter of minutes.
16 "At one point, the drivers drove quickly around
17 Place Vendome without passengers. This seemed stupid to
18 me and I did not understand this exercise.
19 "Still at the scene, in front of the main entrance
20 to the hotel, I heard a rumour in our group saying that
21 the couple had left, without further details. Around
22 the time of the rumour that I have just mentioned, I saw
23 the two vehicles (Mercedes and Range Rover) which were
24 in front of the hotel, leave without passengers.
25 I wondered what they were doing. I did not give much

206

1 credit to this rumour that they had left, and anyway,
2 the couple's departure via the Cambon exit would have
3 been covered by Jacques Langevin, who I remembered, was
4 out of contact because of the failure of his telephone
5 battery."
6 Pausing there, Langevin and Cardinale were both from
7 the same agency, weren't they?
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. "So I went to my vehicle. The two vehicles went towards
10 the Cambon exit. Alone in my vehicle, I went towards
11 this exit where there was no longer anybody. So I went
12 to Al Fayed's apartment, knowing that this could be
13 the reason for their departure. In order to do this,
14 I took Place de la Concorde, Cours Albert 1er and, on
15 arrival level with the sliproad that gives access to
16 the expressway and underpass, I saw an estate-type
17 vehicle with its hazard warning lights on which was
18 blocking this sliproad, preventing access to
19 the underpass. I do not know if it was an unmarked
20 police car. I continued on my way, straight on, at
21 ground level going via the Place de l'Alma as far as
22 Avenue Marceau to reach Rue Arsene Houssaye where
23 security was already present."
24 Just pausing there, can we have a look briefly at
25 your timeline?

207

1 A. Yes.
2 Q. It is page 7. Now, 23.49.12, which is about the fourth
3 entry on the page, do we see there a reference to
4 Cardinale's white Citroen AX moving off? That is
5 immediately after the dummy run starts, so that accords
6 with what we have heard in this statement.
7 A. Yes.
8 Q. Moving over two pages to page 9, at 00.18.47, fourth
9 entry down, it is the corrected time: Place Vendome,
10 close view, Cardinale pushes through the crowd, away
11 from the hotel.
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. So, Cardinale is at the front of the Ritz pushing
14 through the crowd about a minute after the Mercedes
15 carrying the Princess and Dodi has left from the rear?
16 A. That is right, yes.
17 Q. Picking up the statement, I should finish that.
18 A. Can I just go back to that point? Of more relevance is
19 the fact that he is leaving after the decoy vehicles
20 rather than the other one.
21 Q. Yes. We can take that up further down the page, you are
22 absolutely right:
23 "00.22.53, Cardinale arriving at the back of
24 the hotel next to the parked decoy Mercedes."
25 A. Yes, that is right. So it is not quite right when he

208

1 says there that there is nobody there.
2 Q. No, but basically his account of following the decoy
3 vehicles and then going on the expressway road is
4 consistent with the CCTV?
5 A. Absolutely.
6 Q. And then he says:
7 "I should add that during my journey, level with
8 traffic lights giving on to the Champs-Elysees, I saw
9 the Range Rover stop in front of the apartment and then
10 set off again. I arrived there around
11 00.45/00.50 hours. There was heavy traffic in
12 Avenue Marceau. Once there, I parked at the end of the
13 road and I went to get news. There, a bodyguard told me
14 not to come too close. I positioned myself to wait for
15 the planned arrival of the couple.
16 "My two colleagues from Sipa joined me (Pierre Suu
17 and Pierre Hounsfield). We waited. I remember having
18 vainly attempted to reach Langevin by telephone. At
19 around [1 o'clock], I received a call from my boss,
20 Hubert Henrotte, that Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed
21 had had an accident at the Alma Bridge. I immediately
22 made the connection with the vehicle that I mentioned to
23 you and which, because of its position and hazard
24 warning lights, prevented access to the underpass.
25 I therefore notified security and my colleagues at Sipa

209

1 and I went to the scene. On arrival there, the security
2 cordon was already in place. I was unable to gain
3 access to the tunnel. The security cordon was in place,
4 as I was excluded, I did not take any photographs --
5 even from a distance. The only ones that I took on this
6 subject are limited to the vehicle being towed away, an
7 ambulance that left and the general atmosphere. To be
8 honest, I do not know how many films I took,
9 three-quarters, I do not know. These photographs and
10 their films were seized during a search conducted
11 the following day by the investigating department.
12 I did not keep any film at my home and I do not have any
13 photographs relating to it."
14 And then Mr Cardinale agrees the statement.
15 MR HOUGH: Thank you very much.
16 MR MANSFIELD: Questions thank you.
17 MR WEEKES: No thank you, sir.
18 MR DE LA MARE: No thank you, sir.
19 MR HOUGH: That is everything from Mr Carpenter for today.
20 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Thank you very much,
21 Mr Carpenter, you have had a long day. Thank you.
22 MR HOUGH: I fear to say that you will be back tomorrow.
23 There are a couple of statements from Mr Burnett.
24 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Yes.
25 MR BURNETT: Sir, I shall read two very short statements

210

1 which you notified under Rule 37 last Friday. These are
2 formal identification statements. The first is a
3 statement dated 4th September 1997 made by Dr Peter John
4 Wheeler.
5 Statement of DR PETER JOHN WHEELER (read)
6 MR BURNETT: Sir, it has at its beginning the same statement
7 as the jury have heard on many occasions now, that its
8 content is true and so forth, and he said this:
9 "On Sunday 31st August 1997, I attended Fulham
10 Mortuary. At 8.21 pm I formally identified the body of
11 Diana the Princess of Wales to Detective Inspector
12 Dennis Sharp and other persons present."
13 That was then signed by Dr Wheeler.
14 Sir, the second comprises short extracts from
15 a statement of Keith Brown, dated 5th May 2005.
16 Statement of MR KEITH BROWN (read)
17 MR BURNETT: It too has the same statement as to truth at
18 its beginning and the relevant parts are as follows.
19 "I have been a Surrey Coroner's Officer for
20 11 years. On Sunday 31st August 1997, I was
21 the 'on-call' Coroner's Officer for the Guildford and
22 Waverley areas of Surrey. I was at home and due to
23 the news coverage I was aware of the deaths of Diana,
24 Princess of Wales and Mr Dodi Al Fayed in Paris earlier
25 that morning.

211

1 "Mr Burgess then phoned me to say that ... the post
2 mortem would be ... held at Fulham Mortuary...
3 "We arrived at Fulham Mortuary ...
4 "We were ... informed that Mr Mohamed Al Fayed was
5 en route ... Mr Al Fayed subsequently arrived.
6 Mr Burgess introduced himself and offered his
7 condolences. Mr Al Fayed introduced his head of
8 security, John Macnamara. There was a short discussion
9 explaining the identification and post mortem
10 procedures.
11 "Mr Al Fayed asked if the post mortem could be
12 limited and that John Macnamara would conduct
13 the identification. I ... escorted Mr Al Fayed and John
14 Macnamara to the waiting area. I ... briefed
15 Mr Macnamara on what to expect ... I took Mr Macnamara
16 through and he made a positive identification using
17 the name 'Dodi Al Fayed'. I understand that Mr Burgess
18 obtained Mr Al Fayed's full name, Emad El-Din Mohamed
19 Abdel Moneim Fayed, from his passport."
20 Sir, those are the only relevant extracts from that
21 statement, which was signed by its maker in the usual
22 way.
23 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Thank you.
24 So that is the evidence for today?
25 MR BURNETT: That is the evidence for today, sir.

212

1 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: 10 o'clock then tomorrow morning,
2 please, members of the jury.
3 (3.50 pm)
4 (The hearing was adjourned until 10.00 am
5 on Wednesday 12th March 2008)
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25

213

1 INDEX
2
3
4 INSPECTOR PAUL CARPENTER (recalled) .............. 1
5
6 Questions from MR HILLIARD ................ 1
7
8 Evidence relating to MR ROMUALD RAT .............. 10
9
10 Questions from MR HILLIARD ................ 10
11
12 Questions from MR WEEKES .................. 46
13
14 Questions from MR DE LA MARE .............. 52
15
16 Evidence relating to MR NIKOLA ARSOV ............. 76
17
18 Questions from MR HILLIARD ................ 76
19
20 Questions from MR WEEKES .................. 87
21
22 Questions from MR DE LA MARE .............. 87
23
24 Evidence relating to MR DAVID .................... 93
25 ODEKERKEN

214

1
2 Questions from MR HILLIARD ................ 93
3
4 Questions from MR WEEKES .................. 116
5
6 Questions from MR DE LA MARE .............. 117
7
8 Questions from MR HORWELL ................. 134
9
10 Evidence relating to MR PIERRE SUU ............... 137
11
12 Questions from MR HILLIARD ................ 137
13
14 Questions from MR DE LA MARE .............. 154
15
16 Evidence regarding MR DOMINIQUE .................. 158
17 DIEPPOIS
18
19 Questions from MR HILLIARD ................ 158
20
21 Questions from MR DE LA MARE .............. 160
22
23 Evidence relating to MR PIERRE ................... 161
24 HOUNSFIELD
25

215

1 Questions from MR HOUGH .................. 161
2
3 Questions from MR WEEKES .................. 177
4
5 Questions from MR DE LA MARE .............. 179
6
7 Evidence regarding MR LASLO VERES ................ 181
8
9 Questions from MR HOUGH ................... 181
10
11 Questions from MR WEEKES .................. 198
12
13 Questions from MR DE LA MARE .............. 200
14
15 Evidence relating to MR STEPHANE ................. 203
16 CARDINALE
17
18 Questions from MR HOUGH ................... 203
19
20 Statement of DR PETER JOHN WHEELER ............... 211
21 (read)
22
23 Statement of MR KEITH BROWN (read) ............... 211
24
25

216


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