Hearing transcripts

12 March 2008 - Morning session
1 Wednesday, 12th March 2008
2 (10.00 am)
3 (Jury present)
4 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Mr Hough, at 2 o'clock today
5 I have arranged that I am going to have
6 a video-conference with the French authorities in order
7 to try to ensure an ultimate response to two outstanding
8 letters of request before we conclude the evidence. One
9 relates to Henri Paul's medical records at the Ritz and
10 the other relates to a request for any photographs with
11 regard to the collision and matters leading up to it
12 which we have not been supplied with and which the
13 French may have.
14 That means that we will not sit immediately at
15 2 o'clock. I do not anticipate this will take very long
16 but it will be a matter simply for me to make a personal
17 call to the appropriate French authorities, using this
18 court and that will be obviously a private call, but
19 I hope it will bear fruit.
20 MR HOUGH: Thank you, sir.
21 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: I think you ought to know that,
22 but certainly it will not take longer than half an hour
23 and it might take quarter of an hour.
24 MR HOUGH: In terms of this morning's arrangements, we first
25 of all have Mr Carpenter to answer questions arising out

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1 of the evidence of Mr Guizard and Mr Martinez, which was
2 read with Mr Gigou on Monday.
3 Then Mr Carpenter will deal with two paparazzi
4 witnesses, then with two eye witnesses.
5 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Yes.
6 MR HOUGH: I should say at the outset that Mr Gigou has been
7 in touch with the inquest secretariat to say that he can
8 actually be available tomorrow. He has very kindly made
9 himself available. There will be discussions as to
10 whether he is needed, whether he has to be brought back,
11 and those ought to bear fruit by lunchtime but in
12 the meantime, Mr Carpenter will deal with what I have
13 just said.
14 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Thank you.
15 INSPECTOR PAUL CARPENTER (continued)
16 Evidence regarding MR CHRISTIAN MARTINEZ and MR ALAIN
17 GUIZARD (continued)
18 Questions from MR DE LA MARE
19 MR DE LA MARE: Inspector Carpenter, or shall I call you
20 Gigou?
21 A. Whatever.
22 Q. I want to ask you some questions I did not get a chance
23 to ask M Gigou about the statements of Mr Martinez and
24 Guizard which have been read to the jury already.
25 Now, Mr Martinez worked for the same agency as

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1 Mr Guizard; that is right, isn't it?
2 A. That is right, Angeli.
3 Q. And indeed Mr Guizard was his chief editor?
4 A. That is right.
5 Q. And he was travelling in the same vehicle as
6 Serge Arnal?
7 A. Yes.
8 Q. And it is pretty plain, isn't it, from Arnal's
9 photographs, going back to photographs 1 and 2, that
10 the passengers in that vehicle were amongst the very
11 first on the scene of the crash. We have seen
12 the shards of glass, the steam beginning to emerge,
13 the doors closed and the tyre tracks through those
14 shards of glass.
15 There is no suggestion, is there, that that vehicle,
16 the Arnal/Martinez vehicle, had to go through the cordon
17 set up outside the tunnel?
18 A. No.
19 Q. And it is pretty clear from Mr Martinez's photographs,
20 the 30-odd out of the 86 taken that we have, those
21 starting from 76 onwards, that he is a persistent and
22 intrusive photographer.
23 A. He is.
24 Q. He is firing off shots in close succession, trying to
25 get in close to see what Mr Rat is doing, then what the

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1 firemen are doing, then what Dr Mailliez is doing, with
2 a view also to taking photographs of the occupants of
3 the car?
4 A. Yes. The photographs speak for themselves.
5 Q. He is no wallflower, is he? He is not one of these
6 paparazzi who claims that he is shocked by the sight of
7 blood?
8 A. No.
9 Q. So it is pretty clear that it is a strong inference from
10 that evidence that he was in a car that was very close
11 to the Mercedes at the time of the crash?
12 A. He was.
13 Q. The question we have to decide is quite how close he
14 was.
15 It is equally clear, isn't it, from his statements
16 that at first, just as we have seen from some of the
17 other paparazzi, that he was unwilling to give great
18 cooperation to the French police?
19 A. He was actually obstructive.
20 Q. Indeed, he was actively obstructive, wasn't he?
21 When we go to his statement at 11B, we can see that
22 he is providing some detail on page 3 of the statement
23 about the cars in the Place de la Concorde.
24 So, one can see about a third of the way down, he
25 says that the two following vehicles, following

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1 the Mercedes, were a green 4x4, which is in all
2 probabilities Mr Odekerken's Pajero?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. And that is obviously quite inconsistent with
5 Mr Odekerken's account as we discussed yesterday; and
6 a black Peugeot 205 which is probably Mr Chassery's
7 vehicle?
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. He says he knows those vehicles by sight. They belong
10 to freelance photographers "whose names I do not know".
11 Then he carries on with this account as to how they
12 pulled away from the Crillon and the Mercedes shot off
13 down the right embankment at very high speed and
14 maintains the line that many of the early paparazzi
15 witness statements do, of being effectively blown away
16 by the speed of the Mercedes?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. It is quite plain, isn't it, that that account as to how
19 he came to be in the Place de la Concorde and how he
20 simply stumbled upon Ker and various others and
21 the Mercedes is a pack of lies?
22 A. It would appear he had some warning, obviously.
23 Q. Once again, we know that Mr Guizard told Martinez, who
24 in due course told Arnal, about the departure from
25 the back?

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1 A. Yes.
2 Q. But we see absolutely no mention of that in
3 the statement?
4 A. No. He does not mention Guizard by name at all.
5 Q. In none of the garde a vue statements does he venture
6 anything positive about Guizard's placement in
7 Rue Cambon, his tipoff and his subsequent presence in
8 the tunnel, does he?
9 A. No.
10 Q. The most he ventures in the garde a vue statement is
11 that he called Guizard on his mobile telephone and that
12 was only as a result of the police going through
13 the numbers called on his telephone?
14 A. Exactly.
15 Q. So we can see a pattern here, Inspector Carpenter, that
16 the paparazzi only provide information incriminating
17 themselves or incriminating their colleagues when
18 absolutely compelled to do so, when the evidence emerges
19 and their story slowly trickles in order to catch up
20 with it?
21 A. That is right. As people become aware of who actually
22 was there, the story develops.
23 Q. You will remember yesterday that Mr Horwell asked you
24 some questions about Laurent Salmon and about why there
25 is no appearance of Laurent Salmon in the statements.

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1 There is nothing really surprising about that if
2 Laurent Salmon was there and they have successfully
3 covered up for him and no-one has asked any pertinent
4 questions about it.
5 A. The only thing I would say about that is certain
6 paparazzi, such at Stephane Cardinale and Suu, do
7 actually give a whole list of names and they never
8 mention Salmon at all. I was not there so I do not
9 know, but I think I accept the fact that he was not
10 there.
11 Q. We would hopefully be able to ask Mr Salmon that
12 question. But in any event, we see in this initial
13 statement a series of lies covering up for Mr Guizard as
14 to how they came to be in the Place de la Concorde and
15 then a refusal to identify the freelance photographers?
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. And this story which we know is inconsistent with the
18 acceleration evidence, of being unable to keep up with
19 the Mercedes?
20 A. That relates to the motorcycles. I do not think Arnal's
21 car is particularly powerful, but over that distance,
22 I do not think we are talking about a lot of time
23 anyway.
24 Q. The distance we are talking about is the distance
25 between the turning off into the expressway and the end

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1 of the Alexander III tunnel when supposedly the vehicle
2 is out of sight and the acceleration tests demonstrate
3 that there is not that much between the underpowered 280
4 and the other paparazzi vehicles, let alone
5 the motorbikes?
6 A. No.
7 Q. And we can see in this same statement at page 7,
8 starting at the bottom, this refusal to identify other
9 paparazzi:
10 "I could find them, but it is not up to me to turn
11 them in and in any event, that would not help matters,
12 they decided to leave ... "
13 So he is refusing to identify the paparazzi that
14 were in the tunnel but left.
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. And it is only when one comes to his statement on
17 10th October, by which time the garde a vue has ended
18 and no doubt the paparazzi have had a chance to get
19 their story straight, that he is more cooperative about
20 who was in the tunnel and who has left with photographs?
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. So, once again all we can infer is that he was in a car
23 with Mr Arnal that was very close to the Mercedes?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. And he has not told the truth at the time the French

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1 interviewed him. Indeed, as you said, he has been
2 actively obstructive?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. We have the further difficulty that we touched upon
5 yesterday, that we know that a number of his photographs
6 are missing, in that we know that the French have
7 received two full films and a film with 14 exposures on
8 it, but we have only 30 exposures.
9 A. I am glad you raised that point because I was going to
10 mention it this morning. He says he took two full films
11 and a few others. Obviously we haven't got the few
12 others but we have the negatives for two rolls of films
13 in their entirety. So on one of those films there is 14
14 exposures and on the other one is 17 exposures. So
15 we do have two full rolls of film. What we don't have
16 is the few others.
17 Q. Yes, because we know that the French police definitely
18 seized three films. That appears from the statement at
19 11E where one can see that there were two Fuji
20 36-exposure films?
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. And another film seized in the camera?
23 A. When I was looking at that, if you look at all of the
24 paparazzi, they seem to count the film in the camera
25 twice; in the camera and also separately. Most of the

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1 paparazzi, I noticed -- that was one of the questions
2 I wanted to ask was: when you were counting films, were
3 you including the one in the camera as a film as well?
4 Q. I do not think that can be the case with Mr Martinez
5 because the statement of what was received from him
6 details two Fuji 36-exposure films fully rewound and
7 then it separately details the Canon EOS RT camera, the
8 number on the camera's exposure counter was 14 and there
9 was a film in the camera. So there are definitely three
10 films there.
11 A. If that is the case, then we haven't got a film.
12 Q. Yes and that corresponds with what Mr Martinez himself
13 says because he says he fired two films and some more on
14 another film?
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. So we are definitely looking at three films there.
17 The two films that we do have from the French, you said
18 that there were 14 on one and 16 on the other.
19 A. 14 on one, 17 on the other.
20 Q. What is the balance of exposures on those?
21 A. To be honest, I cannot remember, I should imagine they
22 are 36-exposure films.
23 Q. Indeed, what are the rest of --
24 A. For one of them, there would be 22 and the other one
25 there would be 29, is it -- 19, rather.

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1 Q. Are those negatives we simply don't have?
2 A. No, we have the negatives, but all of the paparazzi
3 photographs we have, except for Benhamou's are rolls of
4 film. So we have the entire roll of film developed, and
5 there is 14 exposures on one and 17 on another. I think
6 we explained before that they waste film. It is
7 obviously the tool of their trade. They take one set of
8 photographs of a series of events, take the film out and
9 put a new one in, because they are using motor drives so
10 they get through them quickly.
11 Q. They are unexposed?
12 A. They are unexposed.
13 Q. But it would certainly appear, Inspector Carpenter, that
14 Mr Martinez has managed to get some shots out of
15 the tunnel?
16 A. We already have Suu's allegation that --
17 Q. We have Suu's allegation that we covered yesterday.
18 A. -- he certainly had the opportunity.
19 Q. We have the fact that inexplicably, his photographs
20 begin quite late on, several minutes, probably three or
21 four minutes after the crash with Mr Rat crouching at
22 the rear of the Mercedes?
23 A. Timings are difficult. I do not know how quickly Rat
24 did that but obviously he has had -- there is an
25 opportunity there, as in the case of Arnal and Rat to

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1 take other photographs beforehand.
2 Q. Absolutely, and we also know from Mr Martinez's -- or
3 Mr Arnal's statement -- which I think we will come and
4 look at later, but it is at 1H of your bundle. He says
5 that he began taking photographs, effectively with
6 Mr Rat and Mr Martinez?
7 A. Yes. And Martinez says the first shots he took were
8 wide angled and the first shots he took are not wide
9 angled.
10 Q. They aren't, so where are they? As we have identified,
11 he is an active, persistent and intrusive photographer.
12 He is hardly likely to wait while his colleagues are
13 getting the scoop on it. He is hardly going to wait
14 while Mr Odekerken gets his films out of the camera and
15 then suddenly, after a period of three or four minutes,
16 decide to start taking photographs. That just does not
17 fit, does it?
18 A. No, it doesn't really.
19 Q. I think as you accepted yesterday, it is certainly fair
20 to infer that he has got a film out precisely as Mr Suu
21 said the rumour was that he had to Mr Guizard?
22 A. Yes, there is some evidence that he did.
23 Q. That would go a long way to explaining why Mr Martinez
24 is so keen to write Mr Guizard out of the story. He is
25 keen to do write him out of the story because Mr Guizard

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1 is also in a pursuing vehicle and because Mr Guizard is
2 in the tunnel, and he hands over the film to him in the
3 tunnel, at which point he makes away.
4 A. Possibly, yes.
5 Q. Indeed, there is a strange story that he advanced in
6 the confrontation and earlier in his October statements
7 to the effect that he simply bumped into Mr Guizard in
8 the tunnel?
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. Which is a slightly unlikely story, isn't it?
11 He also advances a story about having phoned
12 Mr Guizard in a fashion that is effectively intended to
13 suggest that Mr Guizard was not there. If you look at
14 11F, page 2 of that particular statement, you can see he
15 says:
16 "I told you I tried unsuccessfully to phone
17 the emergency services from the tunnel on my mobile."
18 We know that is not the case or we suspect it is
19 not, from the network data that we have available?
20 A. His later evidence was that his phone was in the car, so
21 he could not.
22 Q. Indeed:
23 "Actually, I remembered that night I had left my
24 mobile in Serge's car, the white Fiat Uno we had parked
25 outside the tunnel, so I did not have the phone at any

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1 time while I was taking photos. It was not until a lot
2 of police officers turned up that I asked one of them to
3 come with me to our car so that I could phone the editor
4 at my agency and possibly other people."
5 Now, the editor at his agency would be Mr Guizard?
6 A. That is right.
7 Q. And there is a telephone call from Mr Martinez to
8 Mr Guizard, but that is substantially later. I think
9 it is at 00.50 and 19 seconds?
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. We can see a telephone call between Martinez and
12 Guizard. That is some considerable time after
13 the crash, isn't it?
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. And it is some considerable time after Mr Guizard has
16 left the scene of the crash, whether with or without
17 photographs. One would infer in those circumstances
18 it is probably more by way of a call to update him what
19 has happened, rather than to tell him about it for the
20 first time?
21 A. You could say that, yes.
22 Q. Can we then just turn to Mr Guizard's statement? He of
23 course was not in garde a vue?
24 A. No.
25 Q. He was first interviewed on 3rd September. That is at

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1 8A of the bundle in front of you. And his evidence to
2 the French authorities is, by contrast with that of
3 Mr Martinez's and Mr Arnal's, somewhat more informative.
4 But he also introduces some new elements. He
5 accepts that he was round the back?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. And effectively staking out the Rue Cambon exit for
8 Martinez at the front.
9 A. Yes, that is right.
10 Q. And he says that it was Martinez who actively asked him
11 to stay there when he was inclined to go home. You say
12 that on page 3:
13 "At around 00.00 I called Martinez to tell him I had
14 had enough."
15 Martinez asked him to stay.
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. He then said he stayed and Martinez then called him back
18 to tell him that the subjects were going to leave by
19 the rear. He says he thinks he twigged that because of
20 the pattern in the afternoon?
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. And he then observed the couple leaving by that exit and
23 effectively tipped off Martinez, informing him of the
24 Mercedes' registration?
25 A. Yes, he could not see that until he got to Place de

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1 la Concorde, but that is what he was asked to do.
2 Q. Yes. So effectively he was tailing until such point in
3 time as Martinez and Arnal caught up in Arnal's car.
4 A. That is right.
5 Q. And then he further explains that he went above and
6 beyond in the sense that he backed up and allowed
7 the Martinez and Arnal car to move in behind
8 the Mercedes?
9 A. Yes, they took his place.
10 Q. So again, dishing it in that sense in Martinez's and
11 Arnal's quite inconsistent account.
12 Then he too says he got the impression that the car
13 drove off very quickly. But significantly, he noticed
14 two motorcycles and two cars that were following
15 immediately. Now we know of one motorcycle, that is
16 Mr Rat's?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. But we don't know what the other motorcycle is doing?
19 A. No, they are a bit inconsistent about how many
20 motorcycles are there. Normally one or two, so it could
21 be either/or.
22 Q. There are a number of witnesses that identify two
23 motorcycles and a scooter and they are all quite careful
24 to distinguish between the bikes and scooters.
25 For instance, if you look over the page at page 4,

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1 Mr Guizard does indeed distinguish between bikes and
2 scooters. He says that Mr Benhamou is on a scooter?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. So we have two cars, only one of which we know can be
5 Odekerken's Pajero because we know that Chassery has
6 gone up the Champs-Elysees. We know that from the phone
7 records.
8 A. It depends where of course he was talking about where
9 they were on the Champs-Elysees.
10 Q. Yes, I accept there is some ambiguity there, but I think
11 later on he says that there are two cars. If you turn
12 over the page, page 4, he says:
13 "The two motorcycles thus chased after the Mercedes.
14 Behind them was Arnal and some other photographers'
15 cars. I cannot say how many ... I remember Benhamou on
16 a scooter at the place, he must have been following
17 the convoy."
18 So according to Mr Guizard, there are a number of
19 cars and at least two bikes and a scooter in pursuit in
20 the chasing pack?
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. Now, he is not pressed, is he, to try to identify
23 the motorbikes in terms of what he can recollect of
24 their cc, shape, colour, number of passengers. I think
25 he says three or four but does not attempt to describe

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1 their clothing?
2 A. No.
3 Q. And we know that some of the passengers on some of the
4 motorbikes might have had distinctive clothing.
5 The case in point is Mr Arsov, who is wearing
6 a blindingly yellow jacket. Did he or did he not see
7 the blindingly yellow jacket would have helped eliminate
8 who was on that motorbike. But he is not asked those
9 questions as far as we can see in any of these
10 interviews?
11 A. No.
12 Q. So we are left none the wiser as to whether or not
13 we can eliminate certain paparazzi motorbikes that we
14 know might have been in the frame from the vehicles that
15 he has identified?
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. And then, he obviously gives his own explanation that he
18 did not chase in any way. That does not seem
19 particularly credible. Again we come back to the point
20 that his car was not one that was seen to pass
21 the da Costa/Catheline cordon across the road?
22 A. Bonnin mentions a car similar to his passing him.
23 Q. Yes, so there is some evidence that he was giving chase
24 in some form, but it does not look like he was in
25 the proximity of the very front of the pack?

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1 A. No.
2 Q. We don't have any accounts of chasing cars of a small or
3 medium size of a light colour?
4 A. His car is a light beige, I think.
5 Q. It does not fitted with any of the witness evidence from
6 the Cours la Reine?
7 A. No.
8 Q. Then we know that he went down into the tunnel, as he
9 later admits, and we suspect that he received the film
10 and I will not go over that again.
11 We also know that he almost immediately telephoned
12 Mr Blumire in the United Kingdom at 00.33.06. That is
13 entry number 31 in Mr Stokes' schedule. We know that
14 Mr Blumire is an agent for photographic sales?
15 A. He is the agent for Alpha, which is Angeli's UK agent.
16 Q. And that is further evidence tending to suggest he has
17 some shots and he wants to sell them. He is getting
18 them to the market?
19 A. He says he has phoned him up to tell him about the
20 accident.
21 Q. Yes. Can we ask you to put your cynical head on in
22 relation to that one and do you accept that there is at
23 least a very strong inference that what he is trying to
24 do is sell the photographs that Martinez has passed to
25 him and he has got out of the tunnel.

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1 A. There is obviously a strong inference there, yes.
2 Q. Because we know that according to his latest statement,
3 at 8D, that he had parked up just outside the tunnel by
4 the Chinese restaurant. If you look at 8D, at page 2,
5 about two-thirds of the way down, he says:
6 "So, it was by chance and without meaning to do so
7 that I followed the route of the Mercedes."
8 He ended up at the scene of the accident:
9 "I cannot remember now who the people were around
10 the car. As far as I was concerned, I parked at the top
11 of the exit ramp to the tunnel by a small restaurant.
12 I think it was a Chinese restaurant."
13 We know from plan 14, don't we, if we turn that up,
14 where that Chinese restaurant is. In 1997, the building
15 at number 6 currently called the New York Restaurant was
16 a Chinese restaurant. We have heard other evidence
17 about that. So it looks like Mr Guizard crossed
18 the hatching and parked up next to that restaurant?
19 A. I think it was in that vicinity. Most of the paparazzi
20 moved their vehicles parked in that area.
21 Q. Indeed, I think Mr Arsov's bike was there?
22 A. Rat's bike was there.
23 Q. And by his own account at 11B, he went after leaving
24 the tunnel, he went to Angeli's agency.
25 Now, we know from Mr Sola's evidence that Angeli's

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1 was not only the agency where Mr Guizard worked or was
2 the chief editor but it was the only agency open at that
3 time of night that would perform developing?
4 A. Does he go to Angeli's as in the agency or does he go to
5 Daniel Angeli's home --
6 Q. You are quite right, it may be his home in Levallois
7 about 20 minutes later:
8 "I remained there for roughly half an hour and
9 returned into the tunnel."
10 That is my mistake.
11 MR DE LA MARE: Thank you very much, Inspector Carpenter.
12 MR HORWELL: No thank you, sir.
13 Questions from MR HOUGH
14 MR HOUGH: Just two very quick matters to deal with in
15 relation to the questions that you have just been asked.
16 You describe how paparazzi waste photographs.
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. We heard through Mr Gigou about the evidence of
19 Mr Benhamou, that he provided strips of negatives and
20 one suggestion was that the other negatives on the film
21 must have been spirited away. That is one possibility;
22 correct?
23 A. Yes, the other possibility is that they were just blank
24 exposures.
25 Q. And the only other matter was that you referred to

21

1 ambiguity about whether Mr Chassery went up
2 the Champs-Elysees after getting to the Place de
3 la Concorde shortly after the Mercedes --
4 A. No, what I meant to say there was ambiguity as to what
5 point he was in the Place de la Concorde. He obviously
6 went up the Champs.
7 Q. Why do you say that it is obvious?
8 A. Because the phone records put him in that area.
9 Q. But obviously that subject to the qualification, is it,
10 that the sectors --
11 A. Exactly.
12 Q. -- have this uncertain ambit which Mr Stokes has already
13 given evidence about?
14 A. Yes, with Chassery's photographs, he is obviously in
15 the tunnel fairly early as well because he is there
16 before the emergency services. It could be rubbish, he
17 could have gone straight to the tunnel. We don't know.
18 MR HOUGH: Thank you very much.
19 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Now, next, it is Arnal, is it?
20 Evidence relating to MR SERGE ARNAL
21 Questions from MR HILLIARD
22 MR HILLIARD: That is right. Mr Carpenter, again you are
23 going to help us with him. There are two more we are
24 going to do this morning, Mr Arnal and Mr Langevin.
25 There is a copy for you, sir, and for the jury.

22

1 We might take this opportunity to collect up the one
2 that the jury were given yesterday as well.
3 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Thank you.
4 MR HILLIARD: So, as far as Mr Arnal is concerned, in our
5 section 7 in the jury bundle, photographs of
6 photographers, he is at page 2 at the bottom of that,
7 isn't he, and that indicates, Mr Carpenter, Serge Arnal,
8 driver of black Fiat Uno. Passenger, Christian
9 Martinez.
10 A. That is right.
11 Q. If we look at your timeline, just again by way of
12 background before we get into what he had to say, there
13 are references obviously to him but we don't have
14 a reference to him leaving?
15 A. Not directly, no.
16 Q. But if we turn to page 8, I think, is that right?
17 A. Page 8, yes.
18 Q. And at 17.36 on page 8, so that is five entries up from
19 the bottom on page 8 of your paparazzi timeline, it
20 says:
21 "Place Vendome, long view, two people from the crowd
22 go to a vehicle parked nearby and leave."
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. Now, that is obviously pretty shortly after, we can see,
25 17.28, that the Mercedes has pulled away?

23

1 A. Yes.
2 Q. Anything you just want to say about those two people
3 leaving in that vehicle?
4 A. Yes. I deliberately put two people because I could not
5 be definite that it is Martinez and Arnal. But
6 the passenger going to the vehicle is wearing a light
7 blue T-shirt. Martinez was wearing a light blue
8 T-shirt. It is a small black car, so if I was asked to
9 make a judgment, I would say it was Arnal and Martinez
10 but because I cannot say for certain, I did not put
11 "Arnal and Martinez".
12 Q. Cannot say for certain but at the very least, there is
13 a good possibility that that may be them leaving?
14 A. The timing is right --
15 Q. And the clothing of one of them is right and the car
16 appears to fit?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. All right. Thank you.
19 So, we start with the first statement. It was given
20 on 31st August 1997 and he said this:
21 "Late yesterday afternoon at around 18.30, I was
22 contacted by my editor who asked me to go to the Ritz
23 Hotel in Paris in connection with the story of
24 Princess Diana and her boyfriend. We knew that they
25 were there. I went straightaway driving my own vehicle,

24

1 a black Fiat Uno", and he gives the registration.
2 "I arrived at the venue at about 19.30 hours and
3 noticed that a number colleagues were present. I met
4 one colleague in particular there, Christian Martinez.
5 Obviously it was my aim to get some pictures of
6 the couple. Given how few of our colleagues were
7 present, I realised that the Princess could no longer be
8 there. I knew of a possible address in Paris and
9 I decided to go there together with my colleague
10 Martinez.
11 "I therefore went in my car to the Rue Arsene
12 Houssaye, near the Place de l'Etoile, where I came
13 across all my colleagues. I realised that the couple
14 were there. We waited for them to leave which they did
15 at around 2100 hours.
16 "I did manage to get a few pictures of the subject,
17 maybe 15 or so, but they were of no great interest.
18 They were photos of them getting into the car.
19 "At that stage, the car was a large black Mercedes.
20 "It was not, however, the same one that was involved
21 in the accident.
22 "They calmly went straight to the Ritz Hotel, taking
23 the Place Vendome. The car stopped outside the front of
24 the hotel. The couple went as per normal into the hotel
25 in front of us. I also took some pictures of them going

25

1 in. It must have taken about 20 minutes to make
2 the journey.
3 "In reply to your question, they were accompanied by
4 a back-up vehicle, a black UK-registered Range Rover.
5 It followed the Mercedes from the Rue [Arsene] Houssaye
6 to the Ritz. The Range Rover was also parked alongside
7 the Mercedes in front of the hotel.
8 "A good hour later, I and my colleagues noticed
9 activity on the part of the drivers and the escort.
10 We thought that they might be preparing to leave.
11 I knew that some of our colleagues were waiting at
12 the back of the hotel in Rue Cambon. I decided to stay
13 at the front with my colleague Martinez. The Mercedes
14 and the Range Rover then left the front of the hotel in
15 order to go round the Place Vendome, finishing up
16 immediately afterwards at their starting position.
17 I had nevertheless noticed that the subjects were not in
18 the vehicles. I then noticed that the security staff
19 were making signs towards the rear of the hotel.
20 I thought that that might mean they were leaving via
21 the Rue Cambon and so, with Martinez, I left the Ritz to
22 take the Rue de Castiglione and then the Rue de Rivoli.
23 There was really no point in going to Rue Cambon.
24 I planned to pick the subject up either in the
25 Rue de Rivoli or at Place de la Concorde.

26

1 "When we got to the Place de la Concorde, at
2 the junction with the Rue Royale, I noticed my
3 colleagues turning left from Place de la Concorde
4 towards the Seine. I recognised my colleagues by their
5 car, a gold Pajero belonging to a colleague of whom
6 I know neither the name nor the agency for which he
7 works. His name could be Ker. There was also a scooter
8 with just one rider and a motorbike with two people on
9 it. As regards the motorbike, I think it was my two
10 colleagues from the Gamma agency who are in custody with
11 me [so that is Rat and Darmon] but I do not know who was
12 on board the scooter.
13 "I then followed my colleagues from a distance.
14 They crossed the Champs-Elysees and the Place de
15 la Concorde and turned right along the Seine in
16 the direction of the Trocadero. It was at that point
17 that I noticed a car that I did not recognise
18 straightaway. I did however see that it was a large
19 limousine. The car was in front of my colleagues and
20 accelerated suddenly as soon as it was on the straight,
21 or, to be more precise, as soon as it had turned right.
22 "It was only then that I noticed this car and
23 I thought that it could be the Princess's.
24 "In reply to your question, I do not know if an
25 escorting car was following it, but I do not think so.

27

1 "In the distance I could see the car speeding into
2 the tunnel. I say this by comparison to the other cars
3 on the road, which it rapidly overtook.
4 "On reaching the first underpass, I saw it emerging
5 from the other side. As it exited this first underpass,
6 I slowed down as I could no longer see the car and
7 wanted to see if it had changed its route. In reply to
8 your question, I did not pay any attention to my
9 colleagues. I think they were in front. We carried on
10 after slowing down, along the expressway. I went into
11 the second underpass and saw a car embedded in the wall
12 on the right-hand side towards Trocadero. I went past
13 the car and parked immediately in front of it. I must
14 have stopped maybe 20 metres past it.
15 "As far as the presence of other stationary vehicles
16 when I arrived is concerned, I noticed that cars had
17 stopped on the other side of the road. In the same
18 direction, I think one car had stopped after
19 the accident, just in front of my own. I do not
20 remember anything about this vehicle or its occupants.
21 "As regards the presence of pedestrians around
22 the crashed car, I have no recollection of there being
23 any when I went past. However, when I got out in order
24 to get closer, I did notice that there were people
25 around it. I did not notice any flashes at that stage.

28

1 I cannot recall anything about the rear right-hand door
2 of the vehicle, I could not tell you if it was open or
3 closed. I did notice that the hooter was sounding.
4 I think this was coming from the crashed car. There was
5 also a bit of smoke.
6 "Once I was out of my car, I did not get too close
7 as I am afraid of blood. Given the state of the car,
8 I realised that it was very serious. I used my mobile
9 phone to call the emergency services, that was my first
10 reaction. I dialled 112."
11 In fact, Mr Carpenter, we have seen 00.23, there is
12 a call on his mobile, isn't there, but it is to
13 the number 12 which is directory enquiries, so if he is
14 trying to get 112, he has dialled the wrong number?
15 A. He has.
16 Q. Anyway, he says:
17 "I dialled 112. I had to move away from the scene
18 of the crash in order to get a better signal. I went
19 towards the exit to the underpass in the direction of
20 Trocadero. I used my mobile [and he gives the number]
21 in order to call the emergency services. I shouted into
22 the phone because I could not make myself heard easily.
23 I was also in a state of panic. I remember shouting to
24 the operator that there had been an accident, but I was
25 not able to give a description of the location.

29

1 "I went back towards my car. One of my colleagues,
2 Rat, informed me that it was the Princess's car. I did
3 not approach, I stayed alongside my car. I then noticed
4 that my colleagues were taking pictures of the accident.
5 "In reply to your question, I got out of the car
6 without my camera. I got my camera out ten minutes or
7 so after I arrived.
8 "I did not go to the spot where the accident had
9 taken place. Firstly, I remained by my vehicle and
10 approached the scene afterwards. I noticed some people
11 rendering assistance, I could not tell you who they were
12 or what they were doing. My colleagues were taking
13 photos. There must have been ten of them or so.
14 I should point out that some of them are not in custody
15 with us, they must have left before we were arrested
16 I think the one with the Pajero must be amongst them.
17 I do not know the others.
18 "I only grabbed my camera roughly when the police
19 arrived and just took some pictures of the car. I do
20 not think I took any pictures of the VIP.
21 "I took one film of the accident, maybe 20 shots.
22 Then the fire brigade arrived and the police got us to
23 move back after a while. It was then that I was
24 arrested by your colleagues. I had remained at
25 the scene with the intention of making a statement.

30

1 I wanted to talk about the accident. I could have left
2 well before if I had wanted to.
3 "In reply to your question, I did not render
4 assistance right away, as people seemed to be doing this
5 when I got out of the car. I therefore used my phone,
6 as I have already said. I am unable to tell you who
7 rendered assistance.
8 "As far as the taking of pictures is concerned,
9 I was not the first to do so."
10 And then he said he had nothing to add, other than
11 he was very shocked by the accident and by the important
12 people involved.
13 And then, just as far as the photographs are
14 concerned, we have those in the bundle of paparazzi
15 photographs, pages 1 to 17. And if we just look at
16 those against the background of the claim there that
17 these are photographs that he took ten minutes or so
18 after his arrival, if we just start at page 1 and turn
19 on through to 8, there is nobody else in those pictures,
20 is there?
21 A. No. There is no way those were taken 10 minutes
22 afterwards.
23 Q. So if we look, just passing 4 and 5, I think he said
24 later on that he thought may have been people by
25 the headlamps of the vehicle. Obviously, in those

31

1 pictures we cannot see the headlamps but there don't
2 appear to be any people present?
3 A. No. When you look at some of the photos, I am not sure
4 it is theres ones, these are quite dark but when you are
5 looking at them on a computer, if you have the right
6 software, you can light them up. There is sometimes
7 a man standing down near the car that you can see in the
8 background but I am not sure if it is on these
9 photographs or other photographs.
10 Q. But certainly not near the Mercedes?
11 A. No, there is nobody near the Mercedes.
12 Q. That would appear to be the first 8. There didn't
13 appear to be a sign of anybody at all. If we go on, 9
14 and on, there are other people who have arrived in those
15 photographs. And in 12 onwards, the emergency services
16 are there, aren't they?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. All right. Well, we will see that this is a point that
19 the police took up with him in the next interview, which
20 was on 1st September. And it begins like this:
21 "I have been informed by you that having developed
22 the films that were found in my possession, it would
23 appear that I am one of the very first at the scene
24 following the accident and one of the first to take
25 photos.

32

1 "I maintain despite everything that I was not one of
2 the first to take photos. I stand by my initial
3 comments in which I stated that I called the emergency
4 services on my mobile phone immediately after getting
5 out of my car.
6 "Whilst I was phoning, some of my colleagues were
7 already at the scene. I do not remember seeing them
8 taking photos at that stage.
9 "Question: In your first statement, you said that
10 you only took pictures ten minutes after the accident
11 whereas your colleagues had already started
12 photographing the scene. Your statement appears to
13 conflict with the prints of your pictures, what do you
14 have to say to that?
15 "Answer: Maybe it was five minutes after. I had
16 lost track of the time. In any event, the first thing
17 I did was to call the emergency services.
18 "Question: Were you the first on the scene
19 following the accident as your photos would seem to
20 suggest?
21 "Answer: I was in fact one of the first to arrive
22 at the scene. I think my colleagues from the Gamma
23 agency were there. They were the two people on
24 a motorbike, one of whom was Rat. There might have
25 possibly been a car stopped in front of me as I have

33

1 already said. I do not know if it was the 'Pajero' at
2 that stage. I did, in any event, notice that vehicle
3 later on. I should point out that I did not leave my
4 car in the same place all the time. I moved it in order
5 to allow the emergency services past well before they
6 arrived. I drove it out of the underpass and parked it
7 in the narrow side street on the right as you come out
8 of the tunnel.
9 "I can confirm that when I arrived, I must indeed
10 have been one of the very first. As regards the Gamma
11 motorbike, I did not notice where it stopped.
12 "I shall relate once more the precise sequence of
13 events that I witnessed. Once I stopped the vehicle in
14 front of the crashed car, I got out to make a phone
15 call. I did not approach the scene of the accident.
16 I did not know that the Princess was involved or at
17 least, I was not sure. As I said, I used my mobile
18 telephone and called the emergency services by dialling
19 '112'. The call was very brief. When I got through to
20 the operator, I simply said there had been an accident
21 and I could not give the precise location. I recall
22 saying that it was under the Alma Bridge. I then
23 returned to my car, as I had had to move away slightly
24 to get a better signal. I recall that at that time
25 there were people around the car. I do not think they

34

1 were taking photos at that point. I cannot say who was
2 around it. I can only tell you how many there were,
3 three or four. Romuald came towards me. I do not know
4 if he was coming from the car. In any event, he came up
5 to me and told me that it was the Princess. I was very
6 upset when I learned of this, as was he, to such an
7 extent that we fell into each other's arms. Although
8 not wanting to take any pictures, on seeing the few of
9 my colleagues who were there taking them, I decided to
10 take some photos. I did not want to be taken to task by
11 my agency for having done nothing. I did therefore take
12 some pictures of the car. I did not take any of the
13 victims.
14 "Question: Some of your pictures show the car
15 smoking, its doors closed and nobody around it. These
16 photos would seem to indicate that you were the first
17 one to take any photos and the only one to be doing so.
18 What do you have to say?
19 "Answer: The angle from which I took my pictures
20 was such that I took the car and just the car. In
21 general, I tried to avoid having my colleagues in my
22 photos. They were certainly standing outside of my
23 field of vision. As regards the time between my arrival
24 and the taking of the pictures, this includes the time
25 I spent on the phone, then speaking to Romuald and

35

1 lastly, getting my camera. I would remind you that
2 I only took my camera after speaking to Romuald.
3 "You tell me that there are pictures being offered
4 on the market that would lead you to conclude that some
5 other photographers managed to get away before you
6 arrived. It is certain that several of my colleagues
7 managed to get away before you attended. I know that
8 some of them took photos of the victim's bodies. I base
9 this on the flashes that I could see as the firemen were
10 removing the bodies. As regards the photos of
11 the inside of the vehicle, I did take some when
12 the emergency services were at the scene. I took these
13 photos without hindering the emergency services. In my
14 pictures, I think you should be able to see
15 the emergency services going about their work and some
16 photographers between them and my lens. I was not right
17 next to the car. As far as my colleagues are concerned,
18 I cannot tell you which of them took photos inside.
19 "In reply to your question, I do not know exactly
20 which of my colleagues were present at the scene. As
21 I said, Romuald and his motorcyclist ... "
22 It looks as if there must be a comma in there after
23 motorcyclist?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. So:

36

1 "... Romauld and his motorcyclist [that is Darmon],
2 Martinez were there, and the owner of the Pajero.
3 The others were journalists who I did not know.
4 "Question: Can you give me the names of the other
5 photographers present at the scene at the same time as
6 yourself apart from those you already mentioned?
7 "Answer: No. We know one another by sight, but not
8 by name. I do not even know who they worked for. There
9 are a lot of freelance photographers.
10 "Question: For what reasons did you not attempt to
11 render assistance to the occupants of the vehicle?
12 "Answer: Some people appeared closer to the car
13 than me. Furthermore, I did not want to touch
14 the bodies for fear of doing something wrong. I would
15 point out that I had called the emergency services and
16 thought that they would arrive very quickly.
17 "Question: For what reason did you choose to take
18 photos of the crashed car instead of trying to render
19 assistance to possible casualties?
20 "Answer: My answer is the same as the one to your
21 previous question. I called the emergency services, and
22 I do not know what to do under such circumstances.
23 I then took the photos as a witness to an event."
24 Then, if we turn over, also on 1st September, he
25 says, below the crossed out part:

37

1 "I note that you are showing me again a photograph
2 album containing prints made by your technical services
3 from three films found in my possession. I confirm that
4 I took all these photos.
5 "Question: Contrary to what you have stated before,
6 the first photos numbered 1 to 8 seem to indicate that
7 you were one of the very first people on the scene and
8 that you might have been the only person there. What
9 have you to say?
10 "Answer: I still say that I took these photos with
11 other colleagues [and he gives the details of the lens].
12 Rat and Martinez were there and they were taking photos
13 too. I did not include them in the shot. As far as
14 the timing goes, I am also sticking to what I said
15 before, that is that I phoned first, then talked to Rat
16 and lastly took the photos."
17 Then, if we go on, the next one is 14th October of
18 1997 and if we go to the second page, 2 of 10, just
19 before the middle of the page, he says:
20 "We are salaried in the agency, but we also receive
21 a share of the royalties for any photos published.
22 I generally earn between 35,000 and 40,000 francs per
23 month."
24 And then, he deals with earlier events in the day
25 and we will summarise this, but he says it was somebody

38

1 called Bruno Klein:
2 "... the editor of my agency, who informed me by
3 phone later in the afternoon that Diana and her friend
4 were in Paris."
5 He then describes going to the Ritz and to then to
6 Arsene Houssaye. If we turn over to page 3 of 10,
7 two-thirds of the way down the page, he says:
8 "We all arrived at the Place Vendome in front of the
9 Ritz."
10 So that is coming back to the Ritz from
11 Arsene Houssaye.
12 The paragraph below, he says:
13 "This must have been at around 22.00 or 22.30 and
14 we then waited outside the hotel. I went with Martinez
15 to the Rue Cambon in the car to see if the couple were
16 going to leave via the back. We saw that there was some
17 [it looks like road or building] works. We did not stay
18 at the back and returned and positioned ourselves at
19 the front.
20 "Whilst I was outside the entrance to the hotel,
21 I saw M Paul, who I knew by sight through other
22 assignments, talking to some photographers. Some
23 fashion parades were held at the Ritz pool and I had
24 seen Mr Paul in that context as well as during visits by
25 celebrities who we were able to photograph inside with

39

1 authorisation.
2 "It is fair to say that I was surprised to see him
3 chatting with photographers outside the hotel that
4 evening. This was not the way he normally behaved from
5 what I knew of him previously. Moreover, being from
6 security, it was not normal for him to come and chat to
7 members of the press.
8 "At one point ..."
9 And then he deals with the dummy departure. Next
10 paragraph:
11 "At one stage, I saw the drivers of the Mercedes and
12 the Range Rover chatting to colleagues on the steps of
13 the Ritz. They were gesturing towards the inside of the
14 hotel. I thought that the couple had left or were about
15 to leave.
16 "Martinez, who knew Alain Guizard who was in
17 the Rue Cambon, told him that the couple were leaving
18 via the Rue Cambon while we were still at the front."
19 Just going on to the section:
20 "Reply to question: Martinez and I returned to my
21 car. We left the Place Vendome by the Rue Castiglione.
22 We arrived at the traffic lights with the Rue de Rivoli.
23 We then went along the Rue de Rivoli to the start of the
24 Place de la Concorde.
25 "As I was going across the Place de la Concorde

40

1 I saw a photographer's Pajero in front of [something
2 missing, but anyway] turn off towards
3 the Champs-Elysees. There was also a scooter and
4 a motorbike. They all stopped at the traffic lights,
5 the first or second set before the junction of the
6 Champs-Elysees and the Place de la Concorde. As
7 I approached, the lights changed to green. At that
8 point, I noticed a Mercedes in front of the other
9 vehicles I have mentioned. I do not know if
10 the Mercedes jumped the lights or not. It set off very
11 quickly towards the embankment and I saw it going into
12 the first underpass. At that stage, I was coming out of
13 the right-hand bend that leads to the embankment. I do
14 not know where the other vehicles I have mentioned were
15 at that point. I thus saw the car take the underpass
16 but I did not see it after that. I think there were
17 other cars on the route between us and the Mercedes
18 although I cannot say whether or not they were
19 photographers' cars. Halfway through the first tunnel
20 I slowed down, as I wanted to see if the Mercedes had
21 taken the first sliproad after the tunnel and also,
22 because there is always a speed camera at that location.
23 There were no vehicles in that right-hand lane so
24 we carried on."
25 And then he describes seeing the vehicle, embedded,

41

1 as we can see, in the right-hand wall of
2 the Alma Tunnel, he and Martinez getting out of their
3 vehicle, him dialing 112, explains that he went back to
4 his car, got his camera and then went down, he says for
5 the first time, close to the Mercedes:
6 "I think I saw some other flashes while I was on the
7 phone."
8 Then he says:
9 "I went back on my own to my car, Martinez did not
10 come with me. I moved my car, as I had just called
11 the emergency services and it was in the way there.
12 I parked in a narrow street metre nearby and went back
13 into the tunnel. I had my camera and my mobile.
14 I called my editor, Bruno Klein, to tell him what had
15 just happened."
16 And that call, as we have seen, was at 00.27?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. And if we go over the page, top of the page, having made
19 that call, he says:
20 "When I got back down, I think that the police were
21 there."
22 Three lines further down:
23 "I took some photos when the emergency services were
24 there and there were people by the car.
25 "In reply to question: It is true that I was among

42

1 the first to arrive at the scene. If, apart from having
2 telephoned, I did not go myself to render assistance
3 directly, it is because on the one hand I had just
4 called the professionals and on the other, I did not
5 want to do anything wrong in opening a door or touching
6 a casualty without authority."
7 Then there is a section, "Photographs Taken" and he
8 says:
9 "I think I took three films. The first photos were
10 taken in the Rue Arsene Houssaye and when the couple
11 arrived at the Ritz."
12 And he was then, is this right, shown photographs
13 taken earlier in the day?
14 A. He was, yes.
15 Q. And if we turn over the page, we can see a reference to
16 some D numbers, 226 to 219 and those are pages 1 to 8 in
17 our paparazzi photograph bundle.
18 Reply to question:
19 "These pictures are the ones I took after phoning
20 112. They are shots of the Mercedes."
21 And he says:
22 "It is true that the Mercedes was smoking before
23 I arrived. In D224 [that is page 3] the flash did not
24 work.
25 "In D223 to D221 [that is our pages 4 to 6] it is

43

1 the same shot at the back of the Mercedes. I note that
2 the rear right-hand indicator appears to be flashing,
3 whereas I had previously thought that this was due to
4 the flash.
5 "In D223 and D222 [that is our pages 4 and 5] it
6 appears that there are people around one of the
7 vehicle's headlamps."
8 We have looked and --
9 A. No.
10 Q. -- you cannot see that:
11 "Photos D220 and D219 [that is pages 7 and 8] were
12 taken when I had gone round the car to the front.
13 "I do not think that I changed films when I went and
14 moved my Fiat, but I do not have any particular
15 recollection in respected of this. I only had the one
16 camera."
17 Q. And then about the pictures that we have from 9 to 17 he
18 says:
19 "These photos were taken when I returned to the
20 Mercedes after parking the Fiat. In [9 and 10] you tell
21 me that I appear to have taken Diana. What I was trying
22 to do was to get an idea of the person or one of the
23 persons inside the car. I did not know who precisely
24 was in the foreground. I was not using the zoom, I must
25 have been fairly close when I took these pictures.

44

1 "In [11] you can see another photographer's camera.
2 I can tell it is a Canon and from the appearance of the
3 hands, it could be Benhamou. Apart from Benhamou and
4 Langevin, I cannot see anyone else wearing glasses."
5 Our page 12:
6 "... was taken from some distance away.
7 "I could see some people at the car at this stage
8 and thought they were competent to render assistance."
9 Our page 13:
10 "... you can see a police vehicle. That photo was
11 taken in the tunnel but I don't remember the exact
12 circumstances."
13 Our page 14:
14 "... it is a photo of the Mercedes when I was also a
15 bit further away. The following photos were taken when
16 the fire brigade arrived.
17 "At one stage, the fire brigade got a body out of
18 the car. I think it was Dodi's. I turned round so as
19 not to see it. I am positive that I did not take any
20 pictures at all at that time and that [our photo 17]
21 must be the last one I took.
22 "It is true that I did see some flashes, mainly when
23 the bodies were removed from the car."
24 Then he goes through the same exercise that
25 the others did, of looking at the pictures of the

45

1 identity parades and who he recognised?
2 A. That is right.
3 MR HILLIARD: Thank you very much.
4 MR MANSFIELD: No questions.
5 Questions from MR DE LA MARE
6 MR DE LA MARE: Inspector Carpenter, at the risk of sounding
7 like a scratched record, I want to ask you some
8 questions about Mr Arnal because I want to suggest, much
9 like Mr Odekerken and Mr Rat, his statement is littered
10 with obvious lies and untruths.
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. Can we start with perhaps the most obvious topic that
13 was touched upon by the French investigation.
14 Mr Hilliard has taken you through the questions that
15 were asked about it. It is the subject of photographs.
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. It is quite plain that the story that Mr Arnal tells and
18 sticks to, namely that he was not the first or among
19 the first photographers, that he held back, called
20 the emergency services, talked to Romuald Rat, all of
21 that, before he started taking photographs is simply
22 untrue, isn't it?
23 A. It does not hold water at all.
24 Q. It doesn't hold water at all because what we know from
25 comparing Mr Arnal's and Mr Rat's photographs is that,

46

1 if anything, Mr Arnal is ahead of Mr Rat?
2 A. Yes, in Rat's first photographs in the tunnel, Arnal
3 appears.
4 Q. Exactly. At page 117 of the bundle, you can see
5 Serge Arnal on the left-hand side, can you not?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. Which rather suggests that the photographs he has taken
8 at 1 and 2 and 3 of the bundle were taken at a time when
9 he was ahead of Mr Rat. He has beaten him to the shot,
10 effectively?
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. What you can see in photograph 118 is the shadowy figure
13 that you mentioned in your discussion with Mr Hilliard.
14 A. That is right.
15 Q. You can see him some distance ahead of the Mercedes and
16 indeed, when you asked about this way back in October,
17 you indicated you were unable to identify that figure?
18 A. I think it is probably Bouzid, from another photograph
19 where you can see the colour of his jacket. But
20 obviously you cannot see that there.
21 Q. Another candidate might be Mr Martinez, mightn't it?
22 A. If I can find the photograph --
23 Q. You see Mr Martinez on the next page, at 119?
24 A. But that is a different direction.
25 Q. But you can see he is quite a tall individual, he is

47

1 quite thin and he appears to have somewhat of a stoop.
2 But that is conjecture.
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. But it is quite plain, isn't it, that the initial story
5 that we have seen in tab 1B, the first statement of
6 Mr Arnal --
7 A. If I can take you back, if you can look at 117, you can
8 see the figure with some light on him. And it does not
9 look like Mr Martinez.
10 Q. In 117?
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. Where can you see the figure?
13 A. If you see where the roof joins the pillar, the A post
14 and look straight up, there is a man standing there in
15 the background.
16 Q. You have keener eyes than me. I cannot see anything.
17 A. I have seen it on a computer screen as well, so it is
18 easier to say, anyway ...
19 Q. So the initial account in 1B at page 3 at least insofar
20 as when he started taking photographs, is obviously
21 completely untrue.
22 A. Appears to be.
23 Q. Significant to note though that he says he thought he
24 had seen one car stopped after the accident just in
25 front of his own?

48

1 A. Yes.
2 Q. Who that car might be, we simply don't know?
3 A. No.
4 Q. And no questions were seemingly asked to attempt to
5 describe that car. So it is a bit of a mystery, he
6 says:
7 "I do not remember anything about this vehicle or
8 its occupants."
9 A. All of that is -- you don't know what the timing is
10 there and other people say they saw his car but nobody
11 else's.
12 Q. You cannot even be sure it was there, because he might
13 have been trying to incriminate some other person, we
14 simply don't know.
15 A. Total confusion.
16 Q. It is also notable, is it not, that unattractive as his
17 account is and obviously untrue as it is, he did his
18 level best to persist in it. One can see that in
19 the statement at 1G when the French put to him
20 the contents of the developed film and he is continuing
21 to maintain, okay, if it was not ten minutes afterwards,
22 it was five minutes afterwards but that also is plainly
23 untrue?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. Because we know that some of the bystanders, the people

49

1 who went to help, were there pretty promptly around
2 the car. Mr Gooroovadoo, Mr Bouzid, et cetera?
3 A. I think from memory the police were there in five
4 minutes and you have those in a later series of
5 photographs.
6 Q. And as for the call to the emergency services, we know
7 from the phone records that there was an attempt to
8 phone the emergency services?
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. Or at least he appears to because he called 12 as
11 opposed to 112.
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. But the story he gives later to the effect that he had
14 a brief conversation with the person handing over
15 the details of the crash in the Place de l'Alma, I think
16 you find that in the statement at 1L, that is obviously
17 untrue. He has misdialled the number --
18 A. He called directory enquiries and the directory
19 enquiries person would not have been particularly
20 interested.
21 Q. It is a plain confection, isn't it.
22 He has also made up a false story in his statement
23 about being squeamish about the sight of blood. You
24 have seen the unpixellated photographs at 9, 10 and 12
25 of the bundle. There is not much evidence of

50

1 squeamishness in the taker of those photographs?
2 A. No.
3 Q. It is a self-serving lie. Those lies that he has told
4 about what he did when he arrived on the scene tend to
5 colour one's approach to what he said about the events
6 preceding that, don't they?
7 When we go back to the statement at 1B and look at
8 his account of the journey from Place Vendome to
9 the tunnel, we are immediately struck, aren't we, by
10 some themes that we have seen in some of the other
11 witness statements, notably Mr Martinez who we were
12 looking at earlier today. First of all, on page 2 at
13 the paragraph starting, "A good hour later ..." through
14 to the paragraph "I then followed my colleagues from
15 a distance ..." we have an account that can only be
16 described as pure fiction?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. Because we know that the Arnal/Martinez vehicle was
19 tipped off by Mr Guizard's. It was not happenstance
20 that they simply left?
21 A. That is right.
22 Q. We know that Mr Guizard flagged up to them the presence
23 of the Mercedes, don't we?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. So we know effectively that the account he gives about

51

1 seeing the Mercedes and working it out that that was
2 the car they were chasing is nonsense?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. And we know from Mr Guizard that Mr Guizard pulled aside
5 in order to let the Arnal/Martinez vehicle to pull into
6 his place behind the Mercedes?
7 A. That is what he says, yes.
8 Q. So this is just another series of lies, isn't it?
9 A. It would appear to be. But as I said yesterday, you
10 should take everything they say with caution and he has
11 a vested interest in distancing himself from the
12 Mercedes.
13 Q. Indeed. When he says "I then followed my colleagues
14 from a distance", we know that he had cut in behind the
15 Mercedes and was probably in pretty close contact with
16 it at that point?
17 A. The evidence points that way, yes.
18 Q. Then we have the story that we have with the others
19 about the Mercedes burning off at pace and we know again
20 from the acceleration tests that that is simply not true
21 in the way that he describes it.
22 Would you accept, Inspector Carpenter, that
23 the stories he tells about the respective locations of
24 the vehicles, the Mercedes and his car in
25 the Alexandre III underpass, does not make sense either?

52

1 A. Well, he changes his story.
2 Q. Well, he changes his story, because his initial story is
3 that he saw it leaving the exit so he must have been in
4 the Alexander III tunnel at some point or other, yet in
5 his later statement, he says he had lost it by the time
6 it went into the entrance into the tunnel?
7 A. Yes.
8 Q. And that is plainly impossible given the Mercedes'
9 acceleration speed?
10 A. It depends which one of his versions you believe.
11 Q. It is one of those areas where a hackneyed lawyer would
12 ask him the inevitable question, 'Which is it?', because
13 they are completely inconsistent accounts.
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. So there is not much really that one can lay any
16 credence on in this account?
17 A. No.
18 Q. Again, going from the best available objective evidence,
19 the photographs, et cetera, it is pretty safe to infer
20 that this car was in pretty close contact with
21 the Mercedes; how close, we cannot tell from his
22 accounts or from the other paparazzi?
23 A. He was obviously very quickly on the scene and he either
24 took the first or second photographs but more likely
25 the first, judging by the content of the photographs.

53

1 Q. Yes. It is plain, as the story progresses, that rather
2 than trying to correct the earlier errors in his
3 accounts, or lies in his accounts, he perpetuates them
4 and if anything, this tendency emerges of him trying to
5 put himself even further away from the outset.
6 If his second Alexander III story, namely that he
7 lost the vehicle as he went into that is true, he would
8 have doubtless have been stopped by the cordon put
9 across the road after the crash?
10 A. I do not know that he would have been. He says he has
11 put himself far enough behind not to be held responsible
12 but not far enough away to be stopped by the cordon. He
13 is still there. The cordon is going to take a while to
14 set up. He would have had to have been a long way back
15 to have been stopped by the cordon.
16 Q. On his last account actually he describes slowing down,
17 not only having lost the Mercedes but slowing down in
18 the Alexandre III --
19 A. He has not got far to go then, has he?
20 Q. He is pretty close, isn't he?
21 A. He has obviously been well advised by that point.
22 Q. Like many of the statements, this has the smell, doesn't
23 it, the later account, of a varnished account fitted
24 around the known facts in the most advantageous fashion
25 possible?

54

1 A. Yes.
2 Q. Mr Arnal does also mention the speed camera in
3 the location at the exit from the Alexandre III tunnel.
4 You can see that at the foot of page 4 and that is
5 consistent with what we know from the film that was
6 shown to Mr Pourceau, the flashing lights, et cetera?
7 A. He says it is always there. It is obviously not always
8 there.
9 Q. But it is certainly, from what we can see there, some of
10 the time and it would be potentially consistent --
11 I appreciate the lack of clarity in Mr Hounsfield's
12 evidence -- with where he says the speed camera was as
13 well?
14 A. I think we discussed that yesterday.
15 Q. We did indeed.
16 A. The only thing I can say about that of course is that
17 the French police did try to find out where the speed
18 cameras were that night and there was not one near
19 the Alma Underpass.
20 Q. One further untruth I suppose it is worth bringing to
21 light as well: it is pretty plain, isn't it, that
22 Mr Arnal initially covers up for Mr Benhamou leaving
23 the tunnel, because in his initial statement, if you
24 look at 1G, at page 3:
25 "Can you give me the names of the other

55

1 photographers present at the scene at the same time as
2 yourself, apart from those that you have already
3 mentioned?
4 "Answer: No. We know one another by sight but not
5 by name. I do not know who they work for. There are
6 a lot of freelance photographers."
7 It is only once he is out of garde a vue that he is
8 willing to admit that he effectively saw Benhamou leave
9 and one can see that at statement 1L, I think it is at
10 page 9 of 10?
11 A. Yes, he has known Benhamou for 12 years, so he obviously
12 does know who he is.
13 Q. Exactly. Again, once the cat is out of the bag, once
14 the relevant person has been pulled in and their story
15 has been blown, at that point he is willing to identify
16 who he saw in tunnel?
17 A. That is right.
18 MR DE LA MARE: Thank you very much, Inspector Carpenter.
19 MR HORWELL: Lemon is bone dry, sir.
20 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: I think we will probably break
21 off at this stage.
22 We will break off for quarter of an hour, members of
23 the jury. There is one matter I want to raise with
24 counsel, members of the jury, and I will deal with that
25 after you have left.

56

1 (Jury out)
2 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: I now hand down my written
3 reasons for the decision that I gave on Friday.
4 They are made available at this juncture to counsel
5 and instructing solicitors and lay clients. And perhaps
6 counsel would like to consider to what extent, if at
7 all, they should go into the public domain before
8 the jury return its verdict. The present position is
9 that they will not, but it may be that other
10 considerations ought to apply.
11 MR MANSFIELD: Yes, thank you.
12 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: If you would like to let me know
13 when you have formed a view about it. We will break off
14 for quarter of an hour.
15 (11.22 am)
16 (A short break)
17 (11.39 am)
18 (Jury present)
19 MR HILLIARD: Mr Langevin.
20 Evidence regarding MR JACQUES LANGEVIN
21 Questions from MR HILLIARD
22 MR HILLIARD: At page 10 in divider 7 we have a photograph
23 of him.
24 A. Minus his glasses.
25 Q. It says here:

57

1 "Driver of grey Volkswagen Golf" and then
2 a registration number is given.
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. And then if we look at your timeline again at page 8, if
5 we have page 8, seven entries up from the bottom just to
6 remind ourselves, we have the Mercedes pulling away at
7 00.17.28 so 17 and a half minutes past midnight?
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. And then three up from the bottom, 17.52, so not many
10 seconds later, Mr Langevin leaving in his VW Golf?
11 A. That is right.
12 Q. And then, the first account from him we have, if we go
13 to that bundle, is 10.40 we can see on 31st August 1997
14 and he said this:
15 "I have been a photographer for the Sygma agency in
16 Paris since 1984. It is a press photo company that
17 sells its pictures to various newspapers and magazines
18 in France and abroad.
19 "Yesterday, Saturday 30th August 1997, I was on
20 standby in the evening, in other words, I had to be
21 available on my mobile phone ..."
22 And he gives the number:
23 "Around 10.30 at night I had a call from my
24 editorial office telling me that Princess Diana was at
25 the Ritz Hotel, possibly with Dodi Al Fayed. I was

58

1 having dinner with some friends ... in Paris and after
2 getting the details from the editorial office, I went to
3 the Ritz at about 11 o'clock. I was on my own and went
4 in my own car", the Golf.
5 "So I was outside the Ritz from 11.15 onwards.
6 I met Stephane Cardinale who works for the same agency.
7 He was in his own car as well. I cannot tell you
8 anything about the car. None of the agency
9 motorcyclists were available yesterday evening.
10 Stephane and I were each going to take our own photos.
11 There was never any arrangement for us to work directly
12 together, I mean we had our own cars.
13 "There were quite a number of other photographers
14 and a lot of onlookers. I know some of them by sight
15 because we know each other to some extent in the job,
16 but I do not know their names.
17 "Stephane had taken up his position outside the main
18 entrance and I went and stood in the street behind
19 the hotel (Rue Cambon) then I started going round
20 the Ritz waiting for something to happen. My phone
21 battery had run out and I was afraid of missing it when
22 they left. Between 11.20 and midnight two cars [what he
23 calls] a Landrover and a Mercedes, parked outside the
24 main entrance and then drove into the street behind.
25 Some of the journalists tried to follow them but we soon

59

1 realised it was a decoy. The procession soon came back
2 in front of the main entrance. I then decided to go to
3 the back of the hotel and stay there and
4 Stephane Cardinale stayed at the front.
5 "Shortly before midnight I think it was, a Mercedes
6 came to the back door where I was standing.
7 Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed got straight into
8 the back of the car. There was already a man inside,
9 next to the driver.
10 "I took four or five photos but the Mercedes left
11 very quickly. I went straight to my car which was about
12 30 metres further up but I did not manage to follow
13 the Mercedes. I saw a car that seemed to be following
14 the Mercedes, possibly a Peugeot 205. I did not see any
15 motorcyclists start to tail the car.
16 "I was left behind and since my phone had stopped
17 working, I did not manage to catch up with the people
18 who were following his car.
19 "I decided to go and see if there were any
20 colleagues outside the main door who knew which way
21 the Mercedes had gone. The only people left there were
22 the onlookers.
23 "So I gave up and set off for my friends' place in
24 Paris 15. I got to the Place de la Concorde and drove
25 towards the Maison de la Radio offices. I got to the

60

1 Place de l'Alma and about 100 metres in front, in
2 Cours Albert 1er, I saw people blocking the entrance to
3 the tunnel. I wanted to go down the underpass and I saw
4 a crowd of people there. I didn't know what was
5 happening and I parked my car at the lights just before
6 the Place de l'Alma to walk towards where the crowd was.
7 I thought the crowd was strange but I just assumed
8 it was a traffic accident.
9 "There was no policeman blocking the entrance to
10 the tunnel as yet, just civilians. I walked along
11 the slope and got to the scene of the accident. I saw
12 there were some colleagues there and some of them were
13 taking photos. I did not understand what they were
14 doing there. When I asked what was going on, someone
15 told me it was Mr Al Fayed. I was surprised and it was
16 only then that I realised what had happened.
17 "I should say that when I got there a police car and
18 the fire brigade were already at the scene. So
19 I arrived at least ten minutes after the accident, but
20 I cannot tell you the exact time.
21 "I stood about 15 metres away and I certainly did
22 not get in the way of the emergency team. I had my
23 camera with me and I took four or five photos with
24 the same film I had used earlier outside the hotel.
25 I rewound the film later and put it in my jacket pocket.

61

1 That was the film that was put down on the list when
2 I was searched. I did not take any other photos. As
3 far as the last four or five photos are concerned,
4 I only photographed the car and the emergency services
5 resuscitating Mr Al Fayed.
6 "I cannot tell you much about the other
7 photographers, I do not know who took photos and what
8 actually happened.
9 "Later on, I was told I was being taken into police
10 custody. At no point did I try to get away, I had not
11 done anything wrong. After all, it was more or less by
12 chance that I happened to be at the scene and I simply
13 did my job as a journalist without getting in the way of
14 the emergency team."
15 He said he had nothing further to add and then, if
16 we just look, Mr Carpenter, at his photographs which
17 start at page 55 in the paparazzi bundle, and go on to
18 page 76, they start with pictures that are taken at
19 the back of the hotel; yes?
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, now in the car, 60/61?
22 A. That is right.
23 Q. Then at 62 and 63, we have seen before how it is we know
24 that those pictures are taken in the Rue Cambon because
25 you can align with the other photographs?

62

1 A. Yes, you can see the headlight of Odekerken's jeep
2 behind as well.
3 Q. Thank you. So that is 62 and 63. 65 and onwards, those
4 are photographs taken at the scene and the emergency
5 services we can see in those, finishing at 74/75 with
6 pictures he mentioned about resuscitation, finishing at
7 76?
8 A. That is right, yes.
9 Q. Then if we go back to the bundle, and move on to
10 the next day, 1st September of 1997, he said this:
11 "I have nothing in particular to add to my original
12 statement. I do not think I have forgotten anything.
13 "I still say that I arrived at the scene of the
14 accident well after it happened, when members of the
15 public were blocking the entrance to the tunnel. It
16 must have been at least ten minutes afterwards.
17 I parked in the Place de l'Alma and walked down
18 the tunnel on the Place de la Concorde side. Access was
19 not restricted at that point. There were a lot of
20 people in the tunnel. There was a police car there and
21 fire engines. When I got there the emergency team were
22 at work around the casualties. I did not realise
23 straightaway what was going on, it was not until a few
24 minutes later that I was told that it was the Princess.
25 I took photos of Mr Al Fayed when the emergency services

63

1 were resuscitating him in the road. I took photos of
2 the car as well.
3 "Then the police moved us aside and asked us for our
4 press cards, although even so, they left us near
5 the accident scene. We were detained later.
6 "In answer to your question, I did not have any
7 arguments with anyone, not with my colleagues or
8 the police.
9 "As regards any colleagues at the scene who have not
10 been taken into custody with me and were around the Ritz
11 before the Princess left, I must say that I do not know
12 any of them, except by sight. Of course, I knew that my
13 colleague Cardinale was there, but as I told you before,
14 he was standing in the Place Vendome whereas I was
15 covering the Rue Cambon.
16 "There were only three or four of us waiting in
17 the Rue Cambon. In fact, what happened when
18 the Princess came out was this: just after midnight
19 I noticed the hotel's head of security standing at
20 the hotel exit in the Rue Cambon so I thought they were
21 coming out that way. Shortly afterwards a Mercedes
22 arrived around the same time, when the Princess and her
23 boyfriend were coming out. The Mercedes stopped by
24 the rear exit of the hotel, the couple got in and
25 the car drove off quickly. So I was able to take a few

64

1 photos of them coming out of the hotel and of getting
2 into the car. My car was parked quite a way away, about
3 30 metres further up, I lost the Mercedes. After that
4 everything happened as have I already told you. Going
5 back to my colleagues who were at the scene, by
6 the hotel exit, I cannot tell you who they were. I only
7 know them by sight.
8 "I did not notices any cars or motorbikes chasing
9 after the Mercedes when it drove away from the back of
10 the hotel.
11 "I think that all of the photographers who were at
12 the scene of the accident when I arrived are in custody
13 with me. I did not notice any colleagues there who are
14 not here now.
15 "You tell me that photos have been offered for sale,
16 which suggests that some photographers left before we
17 were taken into custody. That is quite possible.
18 Colleagues could easily have taken photographs before
19 the police arrived and left straight afterwards. I do
20 not know who could have done something like that.
21 "I do not know any colleagues who use a Pajero.
22 I did not notice a vehicle like that in
23 the Place Vendome or the Rue Cambon. It might have been
24 there, but I did not see it."
25 If we turn over, there is a record of questioning on

65

1 8th October 1997, it runs to 30 passages and if we can
2 go to page 6 of 13? He is just talking about a time in
3 the evening waiting at the Ritz and at the front of the
4 Ritz and he says, top of this page:
5 "There was Henri Paul whom I did not know but who
6 was in front of the photographers. He was rather merry
7 and smiling. He was showing off a bit in front of the
8 photographers. Evidently, certain photographers knew
9 him. I heard some photographers say that he was not in
10 his normal state that evening, that he had been
11 drinking. Photographers said that he was normally
12 serious and straightforward and did his job seriously,
13 without speaking to the photographers."
14 And then he deals with the false departure and then
15 he deals with events at the back of the Ritz, just below
16 halfway down, when he has gone to the back:
17 "After a fairly short while we saw Mr Paul come out
18 of the back door of the Ritz and stay on the pavement.
19 We were diagonally opposite him. He seemed to be
20 waiting for something. Using a small telephoto lens
21 I aimed at him without taking a photo in order to
22 register the distance between him and me. He no doubt
23 thought I wanted to take an photo and waved his hand,
24 meaning that he was a bit of a star.
25 "Ten minutes later while he was still there a man

66

1 came out, I suppose it was an employee leaving work, and
2 signaled to us that the couple were coming. That seemed
3 to me strange, as there was no car waiting for them.
4 Very shortly after this signal people came out. Perhaps
5 the bodyguard whom I did not know, I saw Diana whom
6 I recognised come out. I did not see Mr Al Fayed come
7 out as I did not know him. I took a photo of Diana but
8 it was blurred. I followed her with my camera from
9 the pavement opposite without changing position. Almost
10 simultaneously the car arrived. Because of the works
11 they were obliged to walk 10 metres on the pavement
12 opposite us but in our direction in order to get to
13 the car which had stopped level with us because of the
14 works."
15 Then he explains that Diana got into the car first
16 and then a little passage, in answer to question:
17 "As soon as the car left, I returned to my car which
18 was parked 30 metres away. I told myself that
19 presumably the story was finished as far as I was
20 concerned since by the time I got into my car and came
21 out from where I was parked the Mercedes had already
22 dashed past a moment ago. I was not in a position to
23 follow them. I started off and decided to return to
24 the Place Vendome."
25 And if we turn on, please, to 11 of 13 in this

67

1 section, he is told that he is going to be asked -- do
2 you see this section: "The Witness Statements
3 Recorded" -- questions about witness statements. First
4 of all Gooroovadoo:
5 "This witness states that he recognises you as
6 having been near the damaged car when he arrived. He
7 states that he saw you taking photos without giving
8 assistance to the injured persons whom you were
9 photographing?
10 "Answer: What this witness says does not stand up
11 at all. The photos I took with a telephoto lens show
12 that the police and firemen were present at the scene.
13 They were in the immediate proximity of the car and were
14 giving assistance. I recall that I took only one film
15 between leaving the Ritz and the accident and that none
16 of my photos shows the car on its own without
17 the presence of the police and firemen. I maintain that
18 the witness is mistaken and that he could not have seen
19 me in the conditions he indicates."
20 Mr Gagliardone:
21 "This witness recognised initially you as being the
22 person who had an altercation with Rat, however on
23 the one hand, he has reservations about recognising you
24 and on the other hand, he did not mention you again when
25 I questioned him?

68

1 "Answer: I did not have any altercation with anyone
2 at all during the evening and particularly at the scene
3 of the accident and more particularly still with Rat."
4 And if we turn over the page, 12 of 13, quarter of
5 the way down:
6 "Dorzee:
7 "Question: This witness identified you as being
8 present at the scene of the accident, he states that you
9 were nervous and although you were being pushed back,
10 you continued to take photos saying, 'Let me do my job'.
11 "Answer: Not at all. We were asked to move back
12 when the largest contingent of police moved into
13 position. The police may have asked us to move back but
14 it is the standard thing in this kind of situation as
15 the police arrive, they push the security cordon further
16 back. Personally I was not present at any altercations
17 at that moment, when the police were pushing us back."
18 Then, if we go, please, to the next interview,
19 31st March 1998, and he says this:
20 "When the vehicle left via the Rue Cambon, I was on
21 foot and I took some photographs as the Mercedes left.
22 I had to return to my car by going back up
23 the Rue Cambon about 30 metres. Then I went down
24 the Rue Cambon and turned left at the first traffic
25 lights on the Faubourg Saint Honore to go towards

69

1 the Place Vendome where I went round the Vendome column
2 and parked near the Ritz. I wanted to go and see if
3 there were any other photographers colleagues there.
4 I went towards the place where there were some
5 bystanders. I did not find any photographers and I left
6 in my car. I went off towards the Place de la Concorde.
7 That was how, while going to the home of some friends,
8 I arrived on the scene of the accident.
9 "I note that the angles of view of the Ritz
10 surveillance camera which we have viewed do not enable
11 me to be seen when I return to the Place Vendome. On
12 the other hand, I identify myself in the Rue Cambon at
13 the place where I took the photos when the Mercedes left
14 while I was on foot, before collecting my vehicle which
15 was parked about 30 metres away."
16 So, Mr Carpenter, he is certainly, on the film,
17 leaving in his car, the Rue Cambon, pretty swiftly after
18 the Mercedes does; correct?
19 A. Yes.
20 Q. Then he says he goes back into the Place Vendome and he
21 only comes across the scene because he is going to visit
22 some friends?
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. Is this right: he is accepting that there is really no
25 sign of his vehicle in the Place Vendome?

70

1 A. No. The French judge did actually instruct an expert to
2 have a look at the film on his behalf to see if he could
3 see him there and he could not.
4 Q. Right. He seems to be saying that the camera would not
5 enable him to be seen; is that right?
6 A. As I said the other day, it depends where he stands but
7 after midnight, the cameras are in fixed position, they
8 are not zoomed in on the crowd at all and it is very
9 difficult to discern anything so I can fully understand
10 that he might have well been there but not been picked
11 up by the camera.
12 Q. Then, finally, and I think although not today, there is
13 only one more to go after this, but finally for him at
14 least, 29th January 1999, there is a little passage
15 there at the bottom where he says he contacts somebody
16 from the Sygma agency after the accident at his home and
17 he says that his battery had run out and it was
18 a photographer who lent him one.
19 A. Yes.
20 MR HILLIARD: Thank you.
21 MR MANSFIELD: No thank you.
22 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Mr Keen?
23 MR KEEN: Just one short point.
24 Questions from MR KEEN
25 MR KEEN: I think what we have here is again an example of

71

1 a member of the paparazzi who gave a statement on
2 31st August 1997 referring to Henri Paul as the head of
3 security at the Ritz and seeing him in the Rue Cambon.
4 A. Yes, sir.
5 Q. Making no reference to his demeanour or his condition or
6 anything of that kind whatsoever?
7 A. No.
8 Q. And then we have the Public Prosecutor making a press
9 release on 1st September saying that Henri Paul was
10 criminally drunk, three times over the drink drive
11 limit?
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. And when this paparazzo is reinterviewed on 8th October,
14 he picks up on the suggestion that Henri Paul is drunk?
15 A. Yes.
16 MR KEEN: Thank you Mr Carpenter.
17 Questions from MR DE LA MARE
18 MR DE LA MARE: I have refreshingly few questions, because
19 this looks like the rarest of things: a paparazzo who is
20 actually telling the truth in large measure throughout.
21 It is correct, isn't it, Inspector Carpenter, that
22 the objective evidence supports Mr Langevin's story?
23 A. Yes, totally.
24 Q. He walks back to his car in the Rue Cambon. He does not
25 run or hurry back to his car. He drives away in

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1 a leisurely fashion. There is no evidence of any
2 telephone calls of the kind that we have seen in
3 the tracking between the other paparazzi and the chasing
4 pack?
5 A. No.
6 Q. So he has no source of information as to where the
7 Mercedes is?
8 A. No.
9 Q. Admittedly you cannot see him in the Place Vendome
10 because of the limitations of the CCTV, but there is
11 actually nothing to suggest that his account there is
12 untrue?
13 A. No. What he says matches what you can see on the
14 camera.
15 Q. And his film was comprehensively seized, was it not, by
16 the French police, because the film runs from Rue Cambon
17 into pictures taken at the scene without a break; they
18 are on the same film?
19 A. Can I point something out? You remember I said earlier
20 on there is some anomaly with the way they count films.
21 If you look at Langevin's search, they talk about him
22 having a film in his camera of a certain number and also
23 a fully rewound film in his possession so using the same
24 logic as we have used for Martinez, that would indicate
25 two films whereas in fact we know he only had one and

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1 that records all his photographs.
2 Q. The point I was making is that one roll of film embraces
3 photographs from the Rue Cambon and the tunnel so there
4 is no possibility by contradistinction to the other
5 paparazzi of him having got a film out. That is
6 the entirety of his shots.
7 A. Yes.
8 Q. And therefore the shots he took in the tunnel tend to
9 corroborate when he got to the tunnel --
10 A. Yes, and actually if you look at Rat's photo on
11 page 127 --
12 Q. You are ahead of me. I was coming to that. That is
13 the first photograph of any of the paparazzi in which
14 Mr Langevin appears?
15 A. Yes and Benhamou's 32 and 33.
16 Q. Exactly. When you marry up those photographs with the
17 first photograph that is taken, that is very much the
18 angle of view you would expect him to have because you
19 can see in 127 the fireman crouching underneath the car
20 and they appear in the first photograph at page 85?
21 A. To be fair to Langevin, he is not a paparazzo, he is
22 a renowned photographer. He just happened to be unlucky
23 enough to be on duty that night.
24 Q. He is a renowned war photographer.
25 The other thing you note is that by contrast to the

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1 other paparazzi, his photographs appear to be well
2 taken, clear, well framed. They look like a man who is
3 not under any pressure or shock or stress, taking
4 photographs calmly?
5 A. And obviously the argument they are talking about is
6 between Martinez and Rat, not Langevin and Rat. I do
7 not know how you could mistake them. They don't look
8 alike at all.
9 Q. On the basis of that, we can eliminate Mr Langevin from
10 any chasing pack?
11 A. I think so.
12 MR DE LA MARE: Thank you.
13 MR HORWELL: No thank you.
14 MR HOUGH: Now, Mr Carpenter, I think you are in a position
15 to deal with a couple of eye witnesses, not paparazzi.
16 Unusually for these and subject to your view, sir, I am
17 proposing that a bundle of the statements made by
18 Mr Gooroovadoo, who is the first one, be given to
19 the jury, just because he made six statements and it is
20 a much more efficient way of dealing with it when
21 a witness has made so many statements.
22 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Very well.
23 MR HOUGH: I do not know if anyone has any objection to
24 that. I see nobody jumping up.
25 Mr Gooroovadoo was somebody who was going to be

75

1 proved by Mr Gigou but there has been agreement that he
2 can be dealt with by Inspector Carpenter.
3 Again, perhaps the old bundle could be collected up?
4 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Is this being done on the same
5 basis as the paparazzi statements? They are put before
6 the jury when it is being read and then taken away at
7 the end, because they are in the LiveNote transcript?
8 MR HOUGH: Absolutely.
9 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: I think there is a plan
10 somewhere?
11 MR HOUGH: There is a plan. The relevant part of it can be
12 shown on screen and a full copy will go into the jury
13 bundle. I have discussed that with Mr Foley.
14 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Thank you.
15 MR HOUGH: Mr Gooroovadoo was an eye witness. If we want to
16 have him in view while we are reading these,
17 the paparazzi photographs bundle, pages 80 to 81 show
18 probably the best images of him in his distinctive
19 chauffeur's blazer.
20 A. Yes.
21 Evidence relating to MR CLIFFORD GOOROOVADOO
22 Questions from MR HOUGH
23 MR HOUGH: The first statement made on 31st August 1997 at
24 2.30 in the morning, so a couple of hours after
25 the accident; correct?

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1 A. Yes.
2 Q. The witness gives his name as Clifford Gooroovadoo and
3 his details, including the fact that he is a chauffeur.
4 Then he says:
5 "Tonight at around midnight I was parked outside 5
6 Avenue Montaigne, Paris 8."
7 Pausing there, if we can look at the maps and plans
8 volume, and have on screen also page 14 of that.
9 If it is possible to see on this number 5
10 Avenue Montaigne. Mr Carpenter, if we look towards
11 the right, that is Mr Foley zooming in.
12 Avenue Montaigne just above the Place de l'Alma box
13 there.
14 So that is where he was parked outside.
15 "I had got out of my vehicle to get a breath of
16 fresh air. I was walking along a terrace situated near
17 the embankment expressway when my attention was drawn to
18 the roar of a car's engine. I was so surprised by
19 the sound that I looked over in the direction of the
20 vehicle that was making it. I then saw a motorbike with
21 two people on it and also saw that the pillion passenger
22 of this motorbike was taking one photo after another in
23 the direction of the vehicle that was making the noise.
24 The vehicles then disappeared into the tunnel and a few
25 moments later I heard a tremendous noise.

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1 "I had no doubt about what this noise was, it was
2 the sound of an accident. Then the hooter sounded.
3 I immediately ran to see if there were any injured. On
4 seeing the state of the vehicle, I suspected that some
5 of the occupants must have been injured.
6 "Upon my arrival, there were already some
7 photographers (two or three) there. They were taking
8 photos of the vehicle and the occupants. None of them
9 tried to render first aid to the occupants of the
10 vehicle.
11 "I myself approached the passenger side as
12 the vehicle turned through 180 degrees.
13 "I noticed that the front seat passenger had gone
14 through the windscreen. His face was a complete mess
15 but he was still alive.
16 "At that moment the photographer said 'No one in
17 the car speaks French'. As I speak English I went
18 closer and said to the passengers, 'Don't move, please
19 wait'. Whilst holding the front seat passenger's head
20 I could see the rear passengers. I first of all saw
21 a man who was dead and later found out it was Dodi,
22 Princess Diana's boyfriend.
23 I then saw the woman in the back and someone said to
24 me, 'It's Lady Di.'.
25 "The woman was trying to get out of the vehicle.

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1 "I went round the back and said to Lady Di, 'Don't
2 move, somebody gone come to help you'.
3 "The photographers carried on taking photographs and
4 shouting at one another.
5 "Then the emergency services arrived and took over.
6 "The woman was in a very bad way, she was bleeding
7 profusely from the face and she did not speak.
8 "Reply to question: in my opinion, when it entered
9 the tunnel, the vehicle was travelling in excess of
10 100 kilometres per hour.
11 "Reply to question: the vehicle involved in
12 the accident was an 'S' class Mercedes.
13 "Reply to question: it was metallic grey in colour."
14 We know that is wrong about the colour, it was black
15 rather than grey:
16 "Reply to question: I cannot say whether
17 the motorcyclists hampered the vehicle's progress.
18 "Reply to question: I would like to correct
19 something. I do not remember if there were any flashes
20 at the entrance to the tunnel.
21 "Reply to question: I can tell you that the Mercedes
22 was travelling behind another vehicle. The vehicle in
23 front of the Mercedes was certainly travelling at normal
24 speed.
25 "As a result, the Mercedes must have accelerated

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1 powerfully enough to be able to pull out and overtake
2 that car.
3 "Reply to question: As I have said, when I got to
4 the car, there were already two photographers at
5 the scene. They were not rendering first aid to
6 the victims, all they were doing was taking photographs.
7 "Reply to question: the two photographers that I saw
8 are indeed those that I have seen at the police station
9 and who have given their names as Romuald Rat and
10 Christian Martinez.
11 "Moreover when the police arrived, I asked them to
12 stop [arrest] the photographers as they were the first
13 witnesses. It is true that when the first police
14 officers arrived, the journalists would not let them
15 through. The police officers were pushed away violently
16 but I could not tell you by whom."
17 He signs off that statement and then the second
18 statement, made on 31st August again, at 6 am, so three
19 and a half hours after that first statement, again
20 we see the name and details of Mr Gooroovadoo. He notes
21 that he is being interviewed and he says once again that
22 he was parked outside number 5 Avenue Montaigne and then
23 he mentions that he was with his colleague,
24 Olivier Partouche. And the jury heard from him on
25 24th October?

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1 A. Yes.
2 Q. He says:
3 "We had been waiting for roughly four hours for some
4 clients who were at their home address."
5 He gives their vehicles and then he says this:
6 "We had decided to go for a walk to get some air.
7 As we were walking along, we got slightly separated.
8 However, the roar of the engine of a fast approaching
9 vehicle attracted our attention. I was at the park
10 between the Avenue Montaigne and the tunnel."
11 Is that the green area that we can see, roughly
12 triangular, separating the Avenue Montaigne from
13 the embankment roads?
14 A. Yes, it would appear to be, sir, yes.
15 Q. I think the jury have already heard from Mr Partouche
16 that he was on that same triangle somewhere?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. He goes on to say:
19 "I looked in the direction of the noise and saw
20 a car travelling at speed. I recognised it as
21 an S-class Mercedes. It was travelling towards
22 Trocadero from the direction of the Place de
23 la Concorde. It was going to take the tunnel that is
24 called the Alma Tunnel, I believe.
25 "The Mercedes was travelling in the right-hand lane.

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1 In front of it there was a car about which I cannot
2 provide any information. This car was travelling at
3 a considerably slower speed. I do not know if this was
4 in order to make the Mercedes slow down or if it had
5 nothing to do with the photographers about whom I shall
6 comment presently."
7 And Mr Partouche also gave evidence I think about
8 a vehicle in front that was going more slowly.
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. "However, I did see the Mercedes pull out, whilst
11 accelerating even harder to overtake on the left with
12 its tyres screeching.
13 "I should point out as a chauffeur I do have
14 occasion to drive the same type of Mercedes. I thought,
15 given the speed and the engine noise, that the driver
16 must have changed from position D on the automatic
17 gearbox to change down manually whilst accelerating."
18 I think Mr Partouche again gave evidence in relation
19 to that kind of noise:
20 "Following the screech of tyres I could no longer
21 see the car properly as it had sped into the tunnel.
22 I estimated that its speed was in excess of
23 100 kilometres per hour.
24 "I would add that I did have time to see that there
25 was a motorcycle following the Mercedes very closely.

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1 "Behind the car, on the wall that leads into
2 the tunnel, there are neon lights and so I cannot say
3 whether the passenger on the motorbike was taking
4 pictures with a flash gun or whether it was a reflection
5 of the neon lights that I could see, producing
6 a flashing effect."
7 A. Yes.
8 Q. "I had hardly had time to say to myself that the driver
9 was mad to drive that fast, when I heard a huge crash.
10 The crash was so violent that I felt a sort of
11 vibration. Then, immediately afterwards, a hooter
12 started sounding in the tunnel.
13 "I thought that it was serious. I went and locked
14 my vehicle and went into the tunnel."
15 Just pausing there, so he takes the time to walk
16 back from the triangle, back across the Avenue Montaigne
17 to where his vehicle is parked before going back into
18 the tunnel?
19 A. I think he says later on about three or four minutes.
20 Q. So he explains a short time between him hearing
21 the crash and getting into the tunnel?
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. "As I arrived, I noticed four or five men around the
24 damaged Mercedes, of whom at least three were taking
25 photos with cameras fitted with flash-guns, it was

83

1 professional equipment. Among them were the two
2 motorcyclists from the motorbike that was following
3 the Mercedes a few seconds earlier.
4 "The Mercedes was facing against the traffic in
5 the wake of the crash. I counted four occupants, three
6 men and a woman I had not seen straight away as she was
7 in the footwell of the vehicle behind the front
8 passenger seat.
9 "There were no other cars parked in the tunnel, just
10 the photographer's motorcycle that I am unable to
11 describe."
12 Then he repeats that none of these men went to
13 the assistance of the people and over the page:
14 "However, those men were taking photographs from all
15 angles, from a distance, close up, of the car and of the
16 injured.
17 "On seeing this spectacle, I shouted 'What do you
18 think you are doing, not calling for help?'.
19 "The photographers did not answer me, they carried
20 on taking photographs. They were arguing amongst
21 themselves, each of them wanting to be at the front to
22 get the best picture. They were even jostling one
23 another and throwing punches. I could hear them saying
24 'Fuck off. I am doing my job. I am the same as you'
25 and suchlike."

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1 Then, in the next two paragraphs, he recounts again
2 trying to speak to the injured people. And then this:
3 "Lady Di tried to speak to me, she was opening her
4 mouth to say something to me, but nothing came out."
5 Then again, he says she was bleeding and that
6 the photographers continued taking photos and nobody
7 helped him:
8 "Then a young man arrived with an oxygen mask.
9 I think it was the man driving the SOS Medecins vehicle
10 that had come from the opposite direction to
11 the accident. The man placed a first aid oxygen mask
12 over Lady Di's face, as she was the only one whose face
13 could take such treatment."
14 That young man we know was Dr Mailliez?
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. If we look first of all at page 12 of the paparazzi
17 photos bundle, then at pages 78 to 79, that can just
18 help us to visualise Mr Gooroovadoo standing behind, as
19 Dr Mailliez bends into the vehicle?
20 A. Yes. And in 1, you can actually see the ambu-bag in
21 Dr Mailliez's hand.
22 Q. Yes. And then he talks about taking the pulse of
23 Mr Al Fayed and then he says this:
24 "At the scene, quite a few people had arrived and
25 called the emergency services. I myself called my

85

1 colleague on my mobile to tell him to join me and that
2 Lady Di had just had an accident. He did not believe me
3 but he came all the same."
4 And then I think after that, on page 4, he
5 summarises the arrival of the police officers?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. Says that he saw some photographers being arrested, as
8 we have heard?
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. And then this:
11 "Among the photographers who were arrested, there
12 are two that I saw at the First Judicial Police Division
13 police station. They are definitely the photographers
14 who did not do anything to help the injured. One of
15 them is apparently called Romuald Rat and the other is
16 Christian Martinez, according to what your colleagues
17 told me. I would add that I had to push the bigger and
18 stronger one of the two away as he was taking photos
19 without helping. I was outraged. I could not
20 understand their attitude.
21 "Apart from the two I saw arrested, I would not be
22 able to recognise the other four who approached and
23 photographed the car. I was too busy helping
24 the injured."
25 One line down:

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1 "I am quite positive, the photographers that I have
2 spoken to you about, including the two who were arrested
3 that I recognised, at no stage came to the assistance of
4 the injured, they just to go photographs of the seen.
5 I think the emergency services might even have arrived
6 sooner if they had just called them."
7 Then, next statement, statement 3, again made in
8 the early hours of 31st August, this one at 9 am,
9 I think.
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. This is a statement in which he is shown the seven man
12 line-up and the jury have seen that photograph many
13 times. And after the preliminaries he says this, just
14 after halfway down the page:
15 "I definitely recognise the individual carrying
16 the number 2 as being one of the first photographers
17 present at the scene of the accident. By this I mean
18 that he was present on my arrival."
19 And that is Rat?
20 A. It yes.
21 Q. "I can remember him clearly. It was he who stayed in my
22 mind the most.
23 "He had a big camera and was taking photographs.
24 "I remember I had to push him away at one point,
25 I was so revolted by his attitude.

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1 "In fact, at no time did this man give the slightest
2 assistance to the four injured people. However, he took
3 photographs of them.
4 "I can add that this man, number 2, even got into
5 a violent argument with another photographer, the one
6 carrying number 7."
7 I think that is Martinez?
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. And we heard a couple of days ago certainly Mr Martinez
10 being probed about that altercation?
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. "It was they who were speaking in the following way,
13 'Sod off, get out of there', 'But I'm doing the same job
14 as you'.
15 "It was this man who had words with the police
16 officers. I definitely recognise him.
17 "I can tell you that I definitely recognise
18 the individual who is carrying the number 7 as being
19 another photographer who was close to the car that had
20 the accident at the time of my arrival.
21 "This man also took photographs of the injured
22 people without giving them the slightest assistance.
23 "As I have already explained, it was he who
24 violently argued with number 2.
25 "Beside, the argument did not stop him from

88

1 continuing to take photographs.
2 "I definitely recognise the individual carrying
3 the number 6 as being one of the photographers who was
4 already close to the car that had had the accident on my
5 arrival."
6 Number 6 is Langevin?
7 A. Yes, so he is probably mistaken.
8 Q. Why do you say that, just to be clear?
9 A. Because Langevin arrived a long time afterwards.
10 Q. But again, that is something that you have deduced from
11 the evidence that we were discussing a little earlier;
12 this is something to set against that evidence.
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. "This man took photographs without giving the slightest
15 is assistance to the four injured people that he was
16 photographing.
17 "Finally, I can assure you that I definitely
18 recognise the individual carrying the number 5 as being
19 one of the people who at one point in time were close to
20 the vehicle that had had the accident. However I could
21 not say whether this man took photographs or not."
22 That is Arnal, isn't it?
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. "I remember him as when I was holding the head of one of
25 the injured people, I heard the photographers arguing

89

1 about the best shots. I turned round to shout at them
2 that they had better things to do.
3 "In any case, this man, number 5, did not give any
4 assistance to the injured people.
5 "The faces of the other men do not mean anything to
6 me."
7 The other three men being Darmon, Veres and Arsov?
8 A. That is right.
9 Q. "I am certain that I recognise the individuals carrying
10 the numbers 2, 7, 6 and 5 as having been at the scene
11 and not having given any assistance to the injured
12 people to whom they were close, as the first three took
13 photographs of them in my presence."
14 Moving on to the fourth statement, this one taken on
15 5th September, and I think in this one, there is
16 recorded Mr Gooroovadoo's response to the five man
17 line-up, the men who were arrested later.
18 He says this:
19 "A group comprising five men was shown to me behind
20 a one-way mirror.
21 "Following a careful examination of each of them,
22 I am in a position to recognise one of the photographers
23 who was present on Sunday 31st August at around
24 00.30 hours at the scene of the drama.
25 "This is the man carrying the plaque argued

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1 number 4."
2 That is I think Odekerken?
3 A. It is, yes.
4 Q. "I cannot be certain but I think it is him. I remember
5 his general physiognomy, his face and in particular, his
6 eyebrows.
7 "This man was part of the group of photographers was
8 present in the immediate vicinity of the vehicle that
9 had the accident. Each of the members of this group was
10 taking photographs of the victims and of the vehicle.
11 I also remember that he was one of those who ran off
12 when the police arrived. He cannot therefore be one of
13 the photographers who hindered the action of the
14 police."
15 So, is this right, that Gooroovadoo in total
16 recognises five: men, Rat, Martinez, Langevin, Arnal and
17 Odekerken?
18 A. That is right, yes.
19 Q. Moving on to his fifth statement, 12th September 1997.
20 This one to the judge rather than to the police. And if
21 you can start on the second page, he describes his
22 position first, "on examination of the witness", he says
23 that he was with his colleague Mr Partouche and they
24 were waiting for the people they were to drive. He says
25 he had gone towards the sliproad from the exit of from

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1 the Alma Tunnel whilst his car was parked in front of
2 number 5, Avenue Montaigne:
3 "I just wanted to stretch my legs as I had been
4 waiting for the person I was to drive."
5 And he repeats his evidence about that:
6 "There was a road between me and the entrance to
7 the tunnel. There are trees and what happened next
8 forced me to look and subsequently, I was focused on
9 the car. In fact, I should add that I was on the point
10 of turning back when I was drawn by the noise of the
11 Mercedes."
12 So, again, that puts him in the triangular area
13 where we can see there were trees?
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. He says that he is a hire limousine chauffeur and gives
16 some details about his own background.
17 Then, moving on to the events witnessed:
18 "From my position when I was about to return to my
19 vehicle. I first of all heard the roar of an engine
20 that I immediately identified as a Mercedes. As far as
21 I was concerned at that point, it was a 300 S-class.
22 It was when this car came out of the tunnel at Place du
23 Canada situated before me that I heard the noise of its
24 engine. The car was travelling at speed. In fact, there
25 were only about two or three seconds between the time

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1 that I began to hear the noise and the time that I saw
2 it.
3 "I am absolutely sure there was a car in front of
4 the Mercedes. I think this car was travelling at
5 a normal speed and respecting the Highway Code.
6 The Mercedes was a long way behind this first car.
7 Personally, given my angle of vision, I did not see
8 the Mercedes catch up with this first car before
9 the entrance to the Alma Tunnel. In my opinion, this
10 first car which was travelling normally did not
11 especially attract my attention as it was particularly
12 the Mercedes which interested me. With regard to this
13 first car, I am afraid I cannot give any information on
14 it.
15 "With regard to the Mercedes, given its speed,
16 I only saw it for one or two seconds -- no longer than
17 that. The windows were tinted and I am unable to
18 distinguish how many people were inside. With regard to
19 the speed, when it passed in front of me, I estimated
20 that it was travelling at more than 100 kilometres per
21 hour. I add that seeing the cars in profile, it is
22 difficult to say which lane they were travelling in.
23 "I also saw a powerful motorcycle go by. I cannot
24 say how many people were on this motorcycle as it was
25 travelling very fast and I was concentrating on

93

1 the Mercedes. The motorcycle was also travelling very
2 fast, I would say the motorcycle was approximately 30 or
3 40 metres behind the Mercedes."
4 Pausing there, we have heard from Mr Partouche that
5 he recalls seeing more than one motorcycle in a group
6 close behind the Mercedes?
7 A. Yes.
8 Q. So there is a slight difference between two people who
9 are looking from very similar positions?
10 A. That is right.
11 "Question: In your opinion, was the motorcycle
12 travelling as fast as the Mercedes?
13 "Answer: At that point in time, I did not think
14 there was any connection between the Mercedes and
15 the motorcycle, it was only afterwards, in the tunnel,
16 that I deduced that the motorcycle was following
17 the Mercedes?
18 "Although I stated to the police officers that there
19 were two people on the motorcycle and that the passenger
20 was taking one photograph after another, today I cannot
21 say that there were two people on the motorcycle but
22 there was a motorcycle -- this is definite. Neither can
23 I say that a passenger was taking photographs. I add
24 that it was as I saw the Mercedes go past and as I was
25 returning to the car that I said to myself, 'he is

94

1 a madman' and it was after making this comment that
2 I saw the motorcycle go past.
3 "Straight afterwards I heard a loud noise.
4 I immediately realised that it was an accident. Two
5 seconds later the car's horn started to sound. I had
6 not locked my car. I ran to my car to lock it and
7 I immediately went to see what was happening in
8 the tunnel.
9 "Three or four minutes must have elapsed from my
10 returning to the car and reaching the tunnel."
11 And then over the next page, it is mentioned that
12 the witness annotated a plan of the scene on which he
13 indicated his position as well as the angle of view.
14 Perhaps we can now have that plan on screen, please?
15 This is only part of the plan, but do we see there
16 Mr Gooroovadoo's annotations?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. Do we see the words, just near the circle, "Mon
19 emplacement"?
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. And then followed by that: "Lorsque que j'ai vu ... le
22 Mercedes"?
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. So is that indicating where he was when he sees
25 the Mercedes?

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1 A. I believe so, yes.
2 Q. And with the two lines he is indicating his field of
3 vision?
4 A. Yes, that is right.
5 Q. And then, behind him, the Avenue Montaigne and his
6 vehicle just next to his colleague's vehicle?
7 A. Yes.
8 Q. Then, moving finally to the sixth statement, this one
9 was made sometime later to another examining magistrate,
10 4th November 1997 and if we can pick it up after
11 the preliminaries on the second page, just down below
12 the first hole-punch:
13 "As I explained in my previous interview, when
14 I heard the impact of the accident, I ran to lock my
15 vehicle and then I went down into the tunnel.
16 "When I arrived in the tunnel, I immediately saw
17 the seriously damaged Mercedes which was smoking. There
18 was a lot of noise, horns, shouts and people talking.
19 In fact, there were more than a dozen people around
20 the vehicle who were taking photographs of the scene.
21 "Parked in the vicinity of the Mercedes, I saw five
22 or six powerful motorcycles, including two BMWs and
23 I also remember a black scooter. There was also a car
24 stopped behind the Mercedes -- on the slope down to
25 the underpass. I do not remember the make of this

96

1 vehicle, but I think the occupants of this car were
2 trying to divert the traffic away from the tunnel.
3 "When I arrived, both right-hand doors of the
4 Mercedes were open. Nobody was trying to assist
5 the occupants."
6 I do not think that we need the remainder of these
7 two pages, because they are largely repetitious but if
8 anybody else wants them, I am sure they will deal with
9 them with you.
10 Thank you very much, Mr Carpenter.
11 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Mr Mansfield?
12 MR MANSFIELD: No thank you.
13 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Mr Keen?
14 MR KEEN: Thank you, sir.
15 Questions from MR KEEN
16 MR KEEN: A short point, Mr Carpenter.
17 I think Mr Gooroovadoo indicated that when he
18 arrived in the tunnel, one of the first people he saw
19 was Romuald Rat.
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. And I think he described him as someone who was moving
22 into the vehicle, taking photographs, swearing, offering
23 no assistance, conducting himself in a manner which in
24 fact the witness said revolted him?
25 A. Yes.

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1 Q. And if you look at page 77 of the photographs in
2 the book, I think we know this is the first of the
3 Martinez photographs. Do we see that crouched almost
4 into the rear of the car is Mr Rat?
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. And then, if we go over, I think to page 80 and page 81?
7 A. Yes.
8 Q. Do we see that he is away from the car slightly,
9 although leaning toward it and by this time, Dr Mailliez
10 has managed, as we can see from page 81, to get into
11 the rear door where Mr Rat had been?
12 A. Yes. You can see on page 77 Dr Mailliez arriving.
13 Obviously Rat's interpretation of this photograph is
14 different to yours.
15 Q. We can just see Dr Mailliez's hands --
16 A. Yes, you can tell by his watch and the ambu-bag in his
17 hand.
18 Q. And at page 81 we can see that Mr Gooroovadoo is there
19 just behind Dr Mailliez?
20 A. That is correct.
21 Q. And to the left, I think we can see Mr Gooroovadoo
22 appears to be assisting someone identified as Mr Dalby
23 with another victim in the crash?
24 A. That is right.
25 MR KEEN: Thank you, Mr Carpenter.

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1 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Mr de la Mare?
2 Questions from MR DE LA MARE
3 MR DE LA MARE: A few quick question, if I may.
4 First I would like Mr Foley to put the plan drawn by
5 Mr Gooroovadoo back on the screen because I think it is
6 important to locate precisely the place indicated by
7 that plan. You may remember when Mr Partouche gave
8 evidence, there was some debate about where he was but
9 he eventually indicated that he was in that triangular
10 area of park, in between Avenue Montaigne and
11 the sliproad; not the triangular piece of grass between
12 the sliproad and the tunnel and I think he eventually
13 established that he was down towards the bottom
14 right-hand corner of that tunnel, so near the pedestrian
15 crossing across to below Rue Jean Goujon.
16 It would appear from Mr Gooroovadoo's plan that that
17 appears to be where he was standing?
18 A. It appears to be, yes.
19 Q. You can see Avenue Montaigne. You can see another road
20 which is plainly a sliproad and can you see an
21 expressway itself?
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. It is quite important, that particular location, because
24 that impact upon his angle of view, not least because
25 you can see that the potential is for the corner of the

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1 building but more particularly the trees, the tree
2 trunks, any passers-by, any cars et cetera on the
3 sliproad to impede his line of sight?
4 A. Potentially.
5 Q. Can we look then at Mr Gooroovadoo's initial account
6 because of all of the contemporaneous statements, this
7 is undoubtedly one of the very earliest. The first
8 statement is given in the early hours effectively of
9 the 31st; at 2.30 in the morning. So in terms of the
10 golden hour which we have heard about, this is
11 the statement ticking that box?
12 A. Almost.
13 Q. This is a fresh recollection of what the witness had
14 seen, but a couple of hours beforehand?
15 A. It certainly seems fairly accurate from what we know.
16 Q. Certain facts emerge from that statement with marked
17 clarity, don't they?
18 He saw a motorbike?
19 A. Yes.
20 Q. With a pillion passenger?
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. And that motorbike was behind the Mercedes?
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. And its pillion passenger was engaged in taking "one
25 photograph after another"?

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1 A. That is what he says initially, but he changes his mind
2 later on.
3 Q. We will come to that because that is what I want to
4 explore. But there is no ambiguity in his statement at
5 the time. He has recounted the immediate thing that he
6 has been confronted with?
7 A. Yes.
8 Q. Indeed, later on on the 31st, in his next statement,
9 the one at 6 o'clock in the morning, at page 2 of that
10 statement, he is clear that the pursuing motorbike is
11 following the Mercedes very closely, though he cannot
12 say whether or not the flashes he saw were from
13 a flash-gun or the reflection of neon lights?
14 A. That is right.
15 Q. But the Mercedes and the motorbike in both statements
16 for want of a better word; they are a package, aren't
17 they?
18 A. Later on, he says 30 to 40 metres and I am not an expert
19 on the dynamics of crashes but --
20 Q. I want to come back to that. But I just want to look
21 for the moment as to what precisely he is saying in
22 these two very contemporaneous statements.
23 He is basically describing the Mercedes being hotly
24 pursued by a motorbike with a pillion passenger and that
25 passenger taking photographs, maybe, maybe not, with

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1 a flash?
2 A. Certainly.
3 Q. At the end of that statement, there is the following
4 remark, the end of second statement of the 31st:
5 "I would point out that on the way to your offices
6 I was followed by a motorcyclist who asked me my name
7 and address because according to him I was the main
8 witness of this incident. I sent this journalist
9 packing and I will inform you if I am approached in
10 the future."
11 Plainly from that, people are interested in who
12 Mr Gooroovadoo is and what he has seen?
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. The next statement is the one on 5th September and you
15 see near the bottom of that statement he says that he
16 maintains in full the previous statement, "That you are
17 reading to me". So his account had not changed at this
18 point in time?
19 A. No.
20 Q. It is a week after that that we begin to see the changes
21 that you have mentioned. The changes are pretty
22 substantial, aren't they?
23 A. Well, you point them out to me.
24 Q. Well, page 3 of 6: when he comes to describe the car, he
25 said it had tinted windows. We know that is not true?

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1 A. That is right.
2 Q. And he goes on to say:
3 "I saw a powerful motorbike go by. I cannot say how
4 many people were on this motorcycle as it was travelling
5 very fast and I was concentrating on the Mercedes."
6 He has not had such difficulty in any of his
7 previous statements?
8 A. No.
9 Q. "The motorbike was also travelling fast. I would say it
10 was approximately 30 to 40 metres behind the Mercedes".
11 Now, given his placement, the bike and the Mercedes
12 would probably not have appeared in his line of sight at
13 the same time?
14 A. Probably not?
15 Q. So how could he have seen both with that confined
16 triangular vision? That is a pretty different account.
17 He goes on to say:
18 "At that point in time, I did not think there was
19 any connection between the Mercedes and the motorbike.
20 It was only afterwards in the tunnel that I deduced that
21 the motorbike was following the Mercedes."
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. Again, that is very different in character from the
24 previous evidence, isn't it?
25 A. I am not sure if he does in the first statement connect

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1 the Mercedes with the motorcycle. Obviously he says
2 it is very close behind it.
3 Q. He says it is close behind and the pillion passenger was
4 taking photographs of the Mercedes?
5 A. So you could infer that they are quite connected.
6 Q. It seems pretty strange, his change in story, doesn't
7 it?
8 A. It does. But I do not think it is unusual for witnesses
9 to change their stories as time goes on.
10 Q. But the effect of this story is to exculpate the people
11 on the motorcycle, the people he had identified with
12 great clarity earlier on as being Mr Rat and Mr Darmon.
13 If you remember in the statements Mr Hough has taken you
14 to, he says those were the two people on the bike that
15 he had seen earlier, I saw them in the tunnel?
16 A. He says he saw both of them taking photographs, which is
17 obviously not right, because Darmon is not
18 a photographer, but he says the two people on the
19 motorbike were in the same --
20 Q. He makes the linkage between the people he saw on the
21 bike and the people he saw in the tunnel.
22 A. Yes, he does.
23 Q. And now he says he couldn't work it out and he only
24 deduced it later. It is regrettable that Mr Gooroovadoo
25 is not here to answer these questions, but there is, and

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1 I put it no higher than this, at least a suspicion that
2 he has been got at. We know that the press were
3 trailing him and interested in his evidence, he said as
4 much earlier and now his account has changed in a very
5 fundamental way to exculpate the people on the
6 motorcycle whoever they may be. It is a bit fishy?
7 A. I wouldn't like to comment on whether he has been got at
8 or not.
9 Q. It would certainly call for further questions, were he
10 here.
11 A. Were he here, you could ask him. Unfortunately I was
12 not.
13 Q. I believe if you had been the investigating officer and
14 been faced with such a change in story, you would want
15 to ask him questions as to why his account has changed
16 in this fashion?
17 A. By this time he is talking to somebody else, he is not
18 talking to a police officer any more.
19 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: One possible explanation is that
20 the memory close to the time is the better memory and
21 his memory just isn't quite as good later on.
22 A. Obviously, he is still very angry on the 31st. He may
23 have calmed down and reflected by the time of this
24 statement.
25 MR DE LA MARE: Maybe. But certainly amongst asking those

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1 questions, one of the questions you might also consider
2 asking is: has he been put under any pressure to change
3 his statement?
4 A. You could argue that.
5 MR DE LA MARE: Thank you very much.
6 Questions from MR HORWELL
7 MR HORWELL: Mr Carpenter, simply a few points, please that
8 emerge from the evidence that has been read.
9 We have heard how artificial lighting at night can
10 affect the colour of a passing vehicle?
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. And the Mercedes is plainly black.
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. And Mr Gooroovadoo described it in his first statement
15 as metallic grey.
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. The evidence that we have heard of flashing lights again
18 in his first statement he describes the light that he
19 saw as possibly coming from a flash-gun on the
20 motorcycle?
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. Or, he says, it could have been the reflection of the
23 neon lights at the tunnel?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. And to summarise the evidence that he has supplied over

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1 the course of these various statements, he has described
2 the Mercedes as travelling at a significantly higher
3 speed than the car in front?
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. And the car in front, he has described, as travelling
6 "at a normal speed and respecting the Highway Code".
7 A. Yes.
8 Q. And he says that there was a long -- whatever that might
9 mean in the circumstances -- distance between the two
10 cars?
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. And the Mercedes plainly catching up the car in front?
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. And again, from his first statement, as emphasis is
15 placed on that, he describes the Mercedes as then
16 pulling out to overtake the car in front and these are
17 the words "accelerating even harder".
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. "To overtake it on the left" and he describes hearing
20 the tyres screech as the Mercedes executed that
21 manoeuvre. And in a later statement, described his
22 reaction as being to assess the actions of the driver of
23 the Mercedes as being those of a madman.
24 A. Yes.
25 MR HORWELL: Thank you.

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1 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Mr Hough?
2 Further questions from MR HOUGH
3 MR HOUGH: Just a couple of very short things. First of
4 all, you were being asked about the motorcycles and
5 the accounts given by Mr Gooroovadoo at different times.
6 I think you managed in the first statement that he said
7 that the motorcycles were very close behind.
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. Or motorcycle, rather. It may be my mistake, but as far
10 as I can see from the statement, there is nothing to say
11 how close or far it was behind, just that photographs
12 were being taken?
13 A. Earlier on.
14 Q. That is in the first statement?
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. And then, secondly, you were asked about the vision, and
17 it being important and Mr Partouche appearing to be near
18 where Mr Gooroovadoo was?
19 A. Yes.
20 Q. Do you recall that when Mr Partouche was giving
21 evidence, there was in fact a reconstruction of his
22 field of vision?
23 A. I am not sure if I was here when Mr Partouche was giving
24 evidence, but I read it on the transcripts.
25 MR HOUGH: That is it, under tab 5 of the jury bundle at

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1 number 11. Thank you very much.
2 Perhaps now we can move to Mr Medjahdi?
3 Evidence relating to MR MOHAMMED MEDJAHDI
4 Questions from MR HOUGH
5 MR HOUGH: No photograph of him to help us and no bundle of
6 statements because there are only a couple and they are
7 not excising any particular parts.
8 The first statement made by Mr Medjahdi on
9 31st August 1997 at 6.35 in the early evening and he
10 identifies himself as Mohamed Medjahdi and says this, as
11 to the facts:
12 "I would inform you that I was a direct witness of
13 this accident and came to the police station with a view
14 to helping you with your inquiries. I attended somewhat
15 belatedly because I only linked what I had seen with the
16 Princess's death when I saw it in the media. This
17 morning, between half past midnight and 1 o'clock,
18 I cannot be more precise regarding the time, I was
19 driving my car with my girlfriend, Souad Moufakkir --"
20 I think she gave evidence on 6th November.
21 A. Yes, I was here for that.
22 Q. "My vehicle is a light grey Citroen BX [he gives the
23 registration]. I was driving along the embankment of the
24 Seine towards Trocadero on the Place de la Concorde
25 side. I was driving and was travelling at roughly 80 to

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1 90 kilometres per hour. The traffic was moving freely
2 but there were nevertheless a few people travelling in
3 both directions. I went into the first underpass
4 towards Trocadero ..."
5 That is the Alexandre III tunnel?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. "... and then the second. Nothing up until that point
8 attracted my attention. I carried on until I became
9 aware of a noise. It was a screeching of tyres coming
10 from behind. At that precise moment I was in
11 the underpass on the straight flat section just before
12 the incline."
13 I think there he is placing himself in exactly
14 the position that Miss Moufakkir did, the end of the
15 flat section, just before it goes up:
16 "The noise was intense as I could hear it very
17 clearly, despite the radio. However I did have my
18 windows open. On hearing this noise, I looked in my
19 left external rearview mirror. I would add that I was
20 travelling in the right outside lane. I noticed
21 a vehicle; it was a large car, a Mercedes, approaching
22 the bottom of the underpass across the road. It was
23 approaching very quickly. I would estimate its speed as
24 being at least 150 kilometres per hour. The Mercedes
25 was skidding in such a way that it formed an angle of

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1 roughly 45 degrees with the centre. The front was
2 facing towards the other side of the road. I can
3 remember that clearly because I could see its headlights
4 lighting up the other side of the road. In fact, it was
5 on seeing them that I was able to identify the car as
6 a Mercedes. I carried on looking in my mirror and
7 noticed that the Mercedes straightened up in the right
8 direction and then immediately afterwards I heard a loud
9 noise and saw a part of the car fly off as it struck
10 the central reservation.
11 "The car rebounded from the centre of the road and
12 went towards the right-hand side. I could no longer see
13 it in my rearview mirror. I actually stopped looking
14 behind at that point in order to see where I was going.
15 Whilst all that I have described was going on,
16 I continued on my way and was already in the uphill
17 section of the underpass."
18 Just pausing there, he describes the movement of the
19 Mercedes during its collision reasonably accurately?
20 A. As I understand it, yes.
21 Q. And there comes a time, either during its loss of
22 control and the impact, or right afterwards when he is
23 mounting the slope and can no longer see?
24 A. That is right.
25 Q. In this statement, he does not give the distance between

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1 his car and the Mercedes; is that right?
2 A. No.
3 Q. Miss Moufakkir, we have heard, gave evidence that there
4 were about 80 metres between them and then when she was
5 shown her statement when she said it was between 30 or
6 40 metres between her car and the Mercedes, she accepted
7 that and said, yes, very close?
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. Now, it is true, isn't it, that both Mr Medjahdi and
10 Miss Moufakkir appeared on a television programme in
11 1998?
12 A. Yes, they did.
13 Q. And I think you have seen the transcript of that?
14 A. Yes, I have seen the programme and the transcript.
15 Q. I am going to read a short section of the transcript to
16 you because it bears on this. The interviewer says this
17 to Mr Medjahdi:
18 "Question: So you accelerated, why?
19 "Answer: So that the car [the Mercedes] did not
20 come and hit me from behind. I thought that because in
21 my mirror I thought it was right behind me and so I
22 accelerated to get away so that he did not take me with
23 him. But after all, I think it was much further behind.
24 "Question: How many metres?
25 "Answer: When I was looking in my rearview mirror,

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1 I thought it was 2, 3 or 4 metres behind me. What
2 I thought straightaway was: what do I do? And
3 I accelerated. It must actually have been 50 metres,
4 40 metres, I do not know."
5 You recall reading and see that?
6 A. Yes, I do.
7 Q. So moving on from the immediate description of the
8 collision, Mr Medjahdi says this in his statement:
9 "I do not know what happened afterwards, I carried
10 on my way and got out as quickly as I could. My
11 girlfriend was very shocked by what had happened.
12 I parked my car by the Eiffel Tower [that is some
13 distance to the west] I do not know where exactly, and
14 we both went for a walk. I went over to a telephone box
15 near a crepe stall. I did not have a phone card but
16 thought I would be able to borrow one from somebody in
17 order to call the emergency services.
18 "I would point out that I was not really aware of
19 the seriousness of the accident. I did expect that
20 the impact had been very violent but I did not think
21 there would be any fatalities. I then heard
22 the emergency services arriving and decided not to
23 phone. I would say that there must have been perhaps
24 five minutes between my witnessing the accident and
25 the arrival of the emergency services. It was only this

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1 morning that I found out that it was the Princess that
2 was involved.
3 "As regards the presence of other vehicles at the
4 time of the accident, I should point out that I did
5 notice a motorbike pass me just before the accident at
6 the underpass. This motorbike was travelling fairly
7 quickly and had a man and a woman on board. That is all
8 I can tell you about them and the motorbike. I do in
9 fact recall the sound of that motorbike passing me at
10 speed just before I heard the screech of the Mercedes'
11 tyres.
12 "In reply to your question: I do not think there
13 were any vehicles between myself and the Mercedes. In
14 fact, I was really scared that the car would hit me and
15 that is why I accelerated. I cannot tell you if there
16 were other vehicles behind the Mercedes. My attention
17 was focused on the Mercedes itself."
18 Then he confirms that statement. Then I think
19 the next statement was made on 17th September 1997, so,
20 two to three weeks after the collision, to an examining
21 magistrates and after the preliminaries, Mr Medjahdi
22 says this:
23 "On the evening of the incident, I was driving my BX
24 motor vehicle in the Alma Tunnel. I was driving in
25 the right-hand lane at approximately 80 kilometres per

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1 hour."
2 He replies to a question:
3 "Whilst in the tunnel, I was overtaken by some
4 vehicles which were travelling faster than myself. My
5 attention was attracted by a screeching of tyres.
6 I then looked in my rearview mirror and saw a Mercedes
7 coming towards me sideways on with its front turned
8 towards the other side of the tunnel. I heard
9 the screeching of tyres for roughly 20 or 30 metres.
10 I saw the vehicle straighten up in the right direction
11 and immediately afterwards, there was a crash.
12 "Reply to question: at the moment of impact, I was
13 still on the flat section. I had not yet started to go
14 up the incline towards Trocadero. My girlfriend, who
15 was next to me and had turned round, was very shocked
16 and in tears. I looked for a place to park my car and
17 to try to comfort my girlfriend.
18 "Reply to question: before the exit to the tunnel,
19 I was not overtaken by any vehicle whatsoever. I cannot
20 vouch for what happened afterwards."
21 He confirms that.
22 A. Yes.
23 MR HOUGH: Thank you very much.
24 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Any questions?
25 MR MANSFIELD: No thank you.

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1 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Mr de la Mare?
2 MR DE LA MARE: Yes, a couple of questions.
3 Questions from MR DE LA MARE
4 MR DE LA MARE: We learned a couple of things from
5 Miss Moufakkir when she gave evidence. The first is she
6 was not asked a number of questions by the French
7 investigation team, no doubt because the statements in
8 question were taken on 31st August 1997, so at that
9 time, the existence of the Fiat Uno was not known of.
10 And she said for that reason, with respect, she was not
11 asked any questions about it. She remembered such
12 a vehicle however.
13 A. Much later, she said that.
14 Q. Yes. Equally, she explained that she recalled some
15 flashes but had not been asked about flashes at the time
16 of her first statement?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. It is obvious that those questions were not asked to
19 Mr Medjahdi either?
20 A. Well, from the statements I have seen, they do not
21 appear to be.
22 Q. Because the statements were taken at approximately
23 the same time. So, that is the first problem with these
24 statements.
25 The other question I really wanted to ask you about

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1 is this: we heard from Miss Moufakkir in her evidence
2 that one of the reasons why she did not come forward
3 with her evidence about the white Fiat Uno and about
4 the flashes earlier was because of her fears.
5 The journalist that originally broke the story suggested
6 that those fears were her fears of Mr Medjahdi, but
7 the way she put it in the witness box were her fears of
8 the whole story, whatever that means. It seems to mean
9 what she saw unfolding in the tunnel?
10 A. I seem to remember she ended up saying that. She
11 changed her mind.
12 Q. Yes. But we have no way to explore that with
13 Mr Medjahdi?
14 A. No.
15 Q. The last point I want to ask you about this witness and
16 this witness evidence is to address the suggestion that
17 has been made that the vehicle being driven by
18 Mr Medjahdi was the vehicle that Mr Boura saw coming
19 the other way?
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. You will remember Mr Boura's evidence from 26th October.
22 He saw the Mercedes preceded by a dark vehicle, medium
23 size with a rounded back.
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. And then behind the Mercedes there was a motorbike and

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1 both of them drove off from the scene in question.
2 A. Yes.
3 Q. And under careful questioning from Mr Croxford, Mr Boura
4 accepted that his car was into the tunnel at the time
5 when he heard the first sound that attracted his
6 attention to the other carriageway?
7 A. Yes.
8 Q. Mr Medjahdi's evidence as to the location of his vehicle
9 is at page 2 of the more substantial statement. He says
10 in clear terms that he heard the screeching of the tyres
11 coming from behind:
12 "At that precise moment I was in the underpass on
13 the straight flat section, just before the incline".
14 And then, later on, he goes on to say, having looked
15 in his mirror and seen the Mercedes swerve a bit:
16 "I actually stopped looking behind at that point in
17 order to see where I was going. Whilst all that I have
18 described was going on, I continued on my way and was
19 already in the uphill section of the underpass."
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. Now, that is the point from which he estimated
22 the distance back to the Mercedes, the distance that he
23 has variously identified as being 30 or 40 metres,
24 80 metres. There has been any number of estimates but
25 the location he gives is at the beginning of the incline

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1 from the Alma underpass?
2 A. Why he.
3 Q. If his car was located at that point and Mr Boura's was
4 already into the tunnel, there is no way Mr Boura could
5 have seen these two vehicles in conjunction?
6 A. I am not sure. I cannot answer that question.
7 Q. One would either have been level with him or behind him
8 and the other in front of him, because we know that
9 the swerve starts at the beginning of the tunnel before
10 the 13th pillar?
11 A. That's right, yes.
12 Q. They are the length of the tunnel apart?
13 A. The length of the tunnel.
14 Q. There is no way he is going to see that in the same eye
15 shot?
16 A. I would not have thought so.
17 Q. And then I think on the basis of that and the difference
18 in colour of Mr Medjahdi's vehicle, which is a light
19 grey Citroen, we can eliminate that as being the vehicle
20 --
21 A. I am not an expert on how different witnesses see
22 different things. Obviously colours change in different
23 lighting.
24 Q. But it looks pretty unlikely, doesn't it, the
25 combination of the length and the tunnel and the colour?

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1 A. You have plenty of evidence from people who are more
2 qualified than I am to answer that.
3 MR DE LA MARE: Thank you very much, Inspector Carpenter.
4 Questions from MR HORWELL
5 MR HORWELL: Inspector Carpenter, just a few questions,
6 please, on that particular topic.
7 It is not only colours that are difficult to
8 estimate; distances as well?
9 A. Yes. Especially looking in a mirror.
10 Q. Yes. And we have heard not just from Mr Boura but of
11 course his passenger, Miss L'Hostis.
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. And they are describing the same car but Mr Boura
14 describes it as dark not black?
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. He describes it as a medium-sized car?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. And eventually said something like a Citroen Berlingo?
19 A. Yes.
20 Q. Now, that was his evidence.
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. Miss L'Hostis described the black, although not sure?
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. But she said it was a small-sized vehicle; something
25 like a Renault 5 or a Super 5?

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1 A. Yes, they are nothing like each other.
2 Q. No. So the two vehicles they describe are nothing like
3 each other. Mr Medjahdi is in a light grey Citroen BX,
4 and a Citroen BX is a small --
5 A. It is an medium-sized car.
6 Q. Thank you. And we know from Mr Gooroovadoo, he at night
7 is describing a black car as a metallic grey car?
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. Now, if Mr Medjahdi is correct in the statement that he
10 provided that there was no vehicle between his car and
11 the Mercedes, then there must be a very reasonable
12 prospect, Mr Carpenter, do you not agree, that the car
13 seen by Boura and L'Hostis was in fact Mr Medjahdi's?
14 A. Could well have been.
15 Q. Mr Medjahdi is looking in his rearview mirror. He sees
16 the Mercedes out of control. We all remember what he
17 said about distances but plainly he thought he was going
18 to be hit?
19 A. Yes.
20 Q. And he accelerated out of the tunnel, to get out of the
21 way of the Mercedes.
22 MR HOUGH: Thank you.
23 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Mr Hough?
24 MR HOUGH: Nothing further.
25 MR DE LA MARE: Sir, could I just mention, Mr Horwell has

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1 raised the evidence of Miss L'Hostis, I think it is only
2 fair to remind Inspector Carpenter was actually asleep
3 until the very moment she heard the impact, the screech
4 of tyres and therefore her recollection may not be
5 the sharpest.
6 MR HORWELL: And then woke up, of course.
7 MR HOUGH: Perhaps the jury can remind themselves of the
8 evidence.
9 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Thank you very much,
10 Mr Carpenter. Members of the jury we will break off as
11 far as you are concerned until half past 2, by which
12 time I am pretty confident I will have resolved my video
13 call to Paris.
14 (1.08 pm)
15 (The short adjournment)
16

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