Hearing transcripts

13 March 2008 - Morning session

1 Thursday, 13th March 2008
2 (10.00 am)
3 (Jury out)
4 MR MANSFIELD: Good morning. I did give notice, I am sorry
5 to take up a few minutes before the jury come in, but
6 there is a matter of some concern, and I would submit
7 some urgency.
8 May I ask if you kindly have the latest statement --
9 the only statement as far as I am aware, but it came
10 very late yesterday from somebody called Michael Faux.
11 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Yes, I do not have it immediately
12 in front of me but it will be found for me. Yes.
13 MR MANSFIELD: More importantly, attached to it is a message
14 which is 1,111. I will not read the message out in
15 public but it's clear that the message is of some
16 length, two and a bit pages.
17 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: You want to know why the message
18 wasn't disclosed?
19 MR MANSFIELD: If I may say so, may I just pose what the
20 questions are?
21 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Yes.
22 MR MANSFIELD: First of all, it's of concern to know why
23 a statement was never taken from this witness, secondly
24 in any event why the material in it was never put to
25 Mr Burrell before the inquest, because this took place

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1 in March 2007, and as you will see without reading it
2 all out, there are at least six points that bear upon
3 issues in the case.
4 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Yes.
5 MR MANSFIELD: And putting it shortly, obviously property
6 that he had hidden and in particular, reference to
7 a ring, and paperwork.
8 Now, those are -- I just put it in very short form
9 -- extremely important issues however one views the
10 inquests as a whole, and were plainly relevant long
11 before the opening of the inquests; at least the opening
12 last year by you.
13 So that there was no statement, Burrell wasn't asked
14 about it, there is no reference in the Paget report to
15 this material, which again is of concern, and then of
16 course there is no disclosure.
17 Now, one accepts that oversights can happen, but
18 this is, we would say, a rather large oversight.
19 Because, and may I identify the occasions, on 21st March
20 I made a submission in which at that time, obviously,
21 you were not supervising these inquests, but on
22 21st March at page 53 I made a very precise point,
23 namely may we not have all the messages, memoranda and
24 other documents but may we have access via some form of
25 log or list so that we can identify what may or may not

2

1 be potentially relevant.
2 That, and in that request specifically, messages
3 were raised because we have the Paget report by then and
4 the Paget report refers to messages but we didn't know
5 how many.
6 Then on 9th July, it's raised again. On that
7 occasion it's pages 28, 29 and onwards. And then
8 a third time is in fact before yourself on
9 5th September, and there it's much more particular and
10 much more extensive. The pages on 5th September are the
11 24th, the 25th and the 26th, and what we are indicating
12 is a subcategory of messages, and the message bundle
13 that we now have demonstrates very clearly the risks of
14 not allowing the access that we have asked for.
15 Putting it shortly, what I was demonstrating was
16 that effectively the bundle that we have been provided
17 with doesn't cover and omitted certain particular items,
18 and I am going to itemise them, they are set out there.
19 On page 26, on 5th September, I say this:
20 "Plainly as far as we know there must be at least
21 1,021, there are probably more."
22 Well, that's right, because this message is 1,111,
23 the one I am now concerned about.
24 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Yes.
25 MR MANSFIELD: And in fact at no stage, obviously, were we

3

1 provided with a list, let alone of course this
2 particular message. We failed to see how this, in
3 a system of disclosure which must have been started well
4 before the inquest and there must have been a system in
5 operation during the Stevens Inquiry, and I see as
6 a matter of interest Lord Stevens is here today, I am
7 not suggesting he will necessarily know the inner
8 workings of all the disclosure systems but he no doubt
9 could find out relatively quickly.
10 Nevertheless, the system has plainly not worked.
11 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Mr Mansfield, as you are aware,
12 I have had an ongoing review of disclosure of all the,
13 I think, messages as well as other documents, and my
14 representative has been going through them, and from
15 time to time we have indicated that certain things ought
16 to be disclosed because they had possible potential
17 relevance.
18 It so happens that we found this document at
19 virtually the same time as the intimation that Mr Faux
20 was a possible potential witness.
21 MR MANSFIELD: The request I have this morning -- and I make
22 it now rather than wait because of course we are running
23 out of time very fast -- is that there should be
24 a comprehensive reappraisal of disclosure, because if
25 something like this can, for whatever reason, be missed,

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1 given the length of time over which the exercise of
2 disclosure must have been --
3 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Well, it wasn't missed in the
4 sense that we have picked it up, but obviously it takes
5 time to go through such a vast number of documents, and
6 this is really an audit process.
7 MR MANSFIELD: Sir, what we had asked for originally, may
8 I say it is regrettable that it was not done, it really
9 wasn't asking a great deal and you will be very familiar
10 with police practice in the past. It must have been
11 possible for an indexing system to have been constructed
12 so that somebody could run their eye down the headings,
13 this one would undoubtedly be Scotchbrook meeting with
14 Faux re: Burrell. That's all it needed to have said,
15 and immediately people would have recognised there is
16 a potential of interest and of course once you read it,
17 you see it's highly relevant and of course anybody with
18 this information would have wanted it put to Burrell
19 when he was here, and I appreciate there is now
20 an attempt possibly to approach him yet again, but it's,
21 in our submission, too late.
22 Really what needs to be asked is: how -- it's picked
23 up now, but the question really is: why wasn't it picked
24 up before given the repeated requests that we made?
25 So we would ask: could we be given a comprehensive

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1 list of all the messages, not access in the sense of
2 being given duplicates immediately of all the messages,
3 that's far too much and in fact, one can see on the
4 front of this bundle there is a message 1,134 so there
5 are plainly more messages than this.
6 Without knowing the total number and without knowing
7 what they may contain, the question of relevance has
8 plainly been overlooked because this leaps off the page,
9 it doesn't require anybody who even knows about the
10 background to the case to recognise the significance of
11 this one.
12 There may be others, that's our concern, and
13 without, as it were, the opportunity that we may have to
14 have access to this material at least on the index
15 front, this would never have occurred, and you will
16 recognise the significance of what this person is
17 saying, whether it's true, or not, and there are two
18 aspects to this, and therefore it's of great concern
19 given that it touches upon some of the most fundamental
20 issues.
21 I would ask that we be given now, or at least within
22 the next 24 hours, an index list of at least all the
23 messages, if not memorandum as well. For all we know,
24 there may be memoranda in this category. And once the
25 inquest is over, it is going to be too late to do

6

1 anything about it.
2 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: I don't think Mr Keen and
3 Mr Croxford probably have anything to add to this
4 debate?
5 MR CROXFORD: Nothing to add, sir.
6 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Mr Horwell, what do you say about
7 this?
8 MR HORWELL: I have no instructions on this message at all
9 so I don't think it's right for me to say anything at
10 the moment. I will find out as much as I can,
11 obviously.
12 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Yes, it's not just on the
13 message, it's a question of list of messages, and what
14 the position is there. My recollection is that my
15 representative has been going through conducting
16 an audit as a cross-check to make sure that nothing that
17 might be relevant has been missed. From time to time,
18 hardly surprisingly in an exercise of this kind, various
19 matters have been picked up that have been thought to
20 have possible relevance and this was one of them, but
21 only at a late stage in the exercise.
22 MR HORWELL: Sir, I understand. That is of course my
23 understanding too, our disclosure has been to you and
24 you have examined that material.
25 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Yes. There are an enormous

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1 number of documents in this case that have been
2 disclosed, and examined, and cross-checked, and it's
3 perhaps not surprising that not absolutely everything
4 that could conceivably have some materiality has not
5 been picked up at the first opportunity.
6 MR HORWELL: Sir, I will find out as much as I can and
7 report to the Court.
8 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Yes.
9 Well, Mr Burnett, where do we go from here?
10 MR BURNETT: Sir, as you have indicated, you have been
11 reviewing all of the material through members of your
12 staff, and I should say legal members of your staff, to
13 ensure that nothing has been overlooked, and as you
14 indicate, once or twice in the course of that review
15 that has been going on now for some months, messages and
16 other documents have been picked up which have been
17 disclosed to the interested persons.
18 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: This particular message,
19 I haven't really looked at it in enormous detail, but
20 it's something that probably is of more potential
21 interest after the witness of Mr Burrell than
22 beforehand.
23 MR BURNETT: Yes, there are one or two points of detail that
24 I should perhaps refer to. The first is that the review
25 is now complete, as I understand it. The second is that

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1 as you indicated, this message was picked up just a day
2 or two before the witness in respect of whom it is
3 relevant was notified or got in touch indirectly with
4 your office.
5 The date of the message is 20th March 2007, as
6 I understand it. My learned friend Mr Mansfield
7 indicated that it was perhaps surprising that the
8 message wasn't referred to in the Stevens Report. Well,
9 with respect to my learned friend, it's not surprising
10 at all as it's a message that post-dates the
11 Stevens Report by four months.
12 But sir, if I may say so, although the process of
13 reviewing all that documentation has been a long one,
14 it's also been a rather laborious one. It has
15 nonetheless worked in the sense that a number of
16 documents have been picked up which had not earlier been
17 identified for disclosure, and you can have some
18 confidence that the process has been a thorough one, and
19 a complete one.
20 Of course, it would have been better had we had this
21 information available to us, that's to say it would have
22 been better for all of us, before Mr Burrell gave his
23 evidence, but alas the process of checking had not got
24 as far as this message, which is one of the very last in
25 the whole sequence.

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1 Nonetheless, sir, you will remember, and I hope my
2 recollection is accurate on this, not having had
3 an opportunity to check the transcript, that Mr Burrell
4 was asked whether he had any of the material referred to
5 in this letter. He denied that, and you will remember
6 he gave an explanation for that denial, and although the
7 point might have been put to him with rather more colour
8 and particularity with the information that one now has,
9 his position is unlikely to have been different.
10 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Yes, what about this suggestion
11 of Mr Mansfield that he ought to have a list of all
12 these messages indicating what they are?
13 MR BURNETT: Sir, I am not even aware, as I speak, whether
14 there is such a list of the sort that Mr Mansfield has
15 indicated.
16 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Nor am I. Really, what he is
17 asking for is another audit process but it's already
18 been done.
19 MR BURNETT: If there were a list it ought to be easy to
20 find out whether one exists, but as you say, the audit
21 process has been done.
22 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: He will have to accept that we
23 have done that and indeed it would have thrown up this.
24 MR BURNETT: Disclosure is a matter for you, with
25 considerations of relevance in mind, and sir, you have

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1 applied a test of relevance which is perhaps as broad as
2 is conceivable, and what we would submit is
3 inappropriate in any inquest is for the interested
4 persons essentially to ask to double-check and second
5 guess the judgments made by the Coroner and those who
6 are operating for him.
7 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Mr Mansfield, anything to add?
8 MR MANSFIELD: Yes. This situation is -- well, dare
9 I say -- unique in the sense of --
10 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Well, the inquests are unique.
11 MR MANSFIELD: Yes, and therefore although one would
12 normally understand the position, it's not questioning
13 judgment, it's a double check in relation to clearly
14 this should have been looked at a long time ago; in
15 other words, I understand a double check going on at the
16 moment, but actually it got through the first check.
17 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Yes, that's the whole point of
18 having the second check.
19 MR MANSFIELD: But then the concern is, if something of this
20 substance gets through the first check, and is only
21 picked up at the very last minute, I don't know how many
22 more messages -- as I understand it, it's complete so
23 presumably the total number of messages must be known,
24 but what I am submitting here in the unusual
25 circumstances is that we be given an opportunity to see,

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1 that there must be, if I may put it this way, a list,
2 a catalogue of all the messages.
3 Normally a log is kept of messages coming in, and so
4 that somebody can quickly go back, otherwise a police
5 investigation would be bogged down in no time at all if
6 they didn't know where to find a message. They normally
7 do know where to find a message and what it's about and
8 it's easy to cross-reference in my submission.
9 All I am asking is that we have access as we asked
10 for many months ago to the list to ensure -- because, as
11 many people say, two heads may be better than one, in
12 other words to ensure that nothing has been overlooked,
13 not to, as it were, give a second judgment on what has
14 already been done. I don't deny that the exercise has
15 been done, but being a fairly large one and given that
16 this is a good example of where it's plainly not worked
17 so far, and we don't know the extent to which even
18 a re-audit may have overlooked material, and whilst
19 I can be assured that it's been done, there may be
20 oversights, plainly.
21 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Well, Mr Horwell says he does not
22 have instructions on this at the moment, he is looking
23 into it, and we will await the results of that I hope
24 fairly swiftly because we don't have a lot of time left.
25 Can we have the jury back now? Anything else?

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1 MR MANSFIELD: No, thank you.
2 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Good.
3 The discussion that's just taken place I think
4 probably shouldn't go on the website for the time being.
5 MR HILLIARD: No.

6 (10.20 am)
7 (Jury present)
8 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Sorry for the delay, members of
9 the jury, an issue cropped up about some documentation
10 with regards to a witness who is giving evidence next
11 week which needed to be sorted out.
12 Before Mr Carpenter continues with his evidence,
13 I think I should make statements that I intend to have
14 read the evidence of Mr Peet and Mr Whiteford in
15 relation to the accident to Barry Mannakee in due
16 course, the usual rules apply.
17 INSPECTOR PAUL CARPENTER (continued)
18 Evidence relating to MR FABRICE CHASSERY
19 Questions from MR HILLIARD
20 MR HILLIARD: Yes.
21 Mr Carpenter, the last paparazzo is Mr Chassery.
22 Sir, we have a bundle to distribute and perhaps if we
23 have not collected the last one up, we can do that at
24 the same time. (Handed).
25 Mr Carpenter, at page 6 of section 7 we have

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1 a photograph or more than one of Mr Chassery, and then
2 it indicates driver of black Peugeot 205?
3 A. That's right.
4 Q. Also just by way of background, if we look at your
5 timeline, at page 8, at 17 minutes past midnight, we
6 have reference to Mr Chassery, by the Mercedes; yes?
7 A. Yes, that's right.
8 Q. And then 7 seconds after that with the Mercedes pulling
9 away?
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. We will hear what Mr Chassery had to say about what he
12 did. So the very first document we have got from him is
13 a statement on 4th September of 1997, and he said this:
14 "On Saturday, 30th August 1997 at around 12.30,
15 I received a telephone call at my home from Laurent
16 Sola, the owner of the press agenda LSD, in which he
17 asked if I and my friend David [that's Mr Odekerken]
18 were free as he had some interesting information for us.
19 He told me that the aircraft carrying Diana and
20 Mr Al Fayed was leaving Sardinia to around in Paris at
21 around 1.30 at Le Bourget. My acceptance served as the
22 contract between us. He told me that this information
23 came from his photographer in Sardinia without giving
24 further details. He also told me to expect competition
25 at the scene, as other agency photographers in Sardinia

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1 had alerted their corresponding Parisian agencies of
2 this arrival.
3 "I called David Ker on his mobile ... and after
4 informing him of the situation I arrived to meet him at
5 Le Bourget. I therefore left for Le Bourget in my 205
6 vehicle.
7 "On arrival there I found David in a car park with
8 his Pajero vehicle, opposite the Transair company, as he
9 thought he would spot the Mercedes habitually used by
10 the Ritz (car and chauffeur known by sight to us). It
11 must have been about 1300 hours. Not being sure of our
12 assessment [of the situation] we walked around a little,
13 and after getting some information, we were reassured by
14 the fact that this type of celebrity aircraft, in
15 particular this one in Harrods colours, regularly parked
16 there.
17 "We waited on foot, and I myself went up to a fence
18 from where I could see the runway and have a good vision
19 for taking photographs. The competition was already
20 arriving. There was Romauld Rat and his motorcyclist,
21 a motorcyclist from Angeli whose name I can't remember,
22 two other photographers from Angeli (Francis and another
23 whose name I don't know) and a senior editor from
24 Angeli, Alan Guizard with his grey 205.
25 "Whilst I remained behind my fence, the people from

15

1 Angeli were swarming everywhere to find positions. At
2 one point I turned round and saw the black Range Rover
3 vehicle belonging to Al Fayed going past and that
4 reassured me that the final destination was the correct
5 one.
6 "We waited until the aircraft arrived, at about
7 1415. David called me by mobile to tell me that the
8 aircraft was arriving. Telling me that the aircraft was
9 coming towards me, I got prepared but it transpired that
10 my angle of vision was not good. I moved in my vehicle
11 to a small car park in front of customs.
12 "At that point, Romauld arrived, as did David. We
13 positioned ourselves just on the edge of the tarmac,
14 after having requested permission from the on duty
15 police officer in the sentry box.
16 "As soon as the aircraft came to a halt, we saw the
17 two vehicles parking at the base of the aircraft, namely
18 the Mercedes ... and the Range Rover. They came down
19 the steps, and I took the opportunity to take
20 photographs of Diana and Dodi. This was all very quick.
21 I took a film, using the motor, namely 32 shots. David
22 also took some but I don't know how many. I even saw
23 Mr Paul, who was talking to Dodi Al Fayed. The
24 celebrities remained in the vehicle for a while -- still
25 on the tarmac -- before departing.

16

1 "We had already been spotted as the chauffeurs whom
2 we knew had seen us.
3 "We waited for the departure of the convoy, which
4 was accompanied by two police motorcyclists as far as
5 the entrance to the motorway. We decided to follow
6 them. Me, in my black 205, David in his Pajero, and
7 Romauld on the motorcycle. There was also the
8 motorcyclist from Angeli. We followed normally. We
9 were travelled at 110. I can state that nobody tried to
10 overtake as we knew that we would have been prevented
11 from doing this by the tail car, namely the Range Rover.
12 This is a constant that we do not seek to transgress,
13 given the problems that we could encounter with the
14 bodyguards.
15 "I didn't deliberately overtake the convoy with the
16 aim of taking photographs. I was at a reasonable
17 distance from the Range Rover and sometimes cars
18 travelling normally slipped in between us. Anyway,
19 I was alone in the car, and I could not allow myself to
20 take any photograph whatsoever. This is not my way of
21 working.
22 "As we got close to the Porte Maillot, the convoy
23 pulled away but we thought it was going to the Ritz
24 where we knew we could rejoin them.
25 "Suddenly the Range Rover, which was 200 metres in

17

1 front effected a sudden, even dangerous, manoeuvre going
2 from the extreme left-hand lane to leave directly
3 towards Neuilly.
4 "We immediately went into action on this vehicle
5 which in fact had just been used as a decoy, thus
6 throwing us off our target -- namely the Mercedes.
7 "We went to the Ritz. It must have been 1500 or
8 1515 hours. Once there, we made inquiries to find the
9 cars making up the convoy. An unfruitful search. The
10 competition came and stuck to us. Serge Benhamou, Laslo
11 Veres, Francis and an individual whose name I do not
12 know and another chap from Angeli whose name I don't
13 know, somebody new. I waited in front of the Ritz both
14 on foot and in my car. I called Laurent Sola to tell
15 him that we had lost the trail. He asked us to remain
16 at the scene and to be there for the arriving. Knowing
17 the customs at the Ritz, we each provided cover, one
18 going to the second exit in Rue Cambon, whilst the other
19 person covered the main Vendome exit.
20 "The two cars did indeed return together to drop off
21 their passengers at the Cambon exit and went towards the
22 Vendome exit to park. Not being present at the back,
23 I found this out by telephone from Romauld.
24 "In the afternoon, whilst I was on stakeout, I saw
25 Mr Paul talking to the chauffeurs and bodyguards. It

18

1 was the first time that I had seen him laugh.
2 "At the end of the afternoon, the vehicles moved to
3 go to the Cambon exit. I immediately informed David of
4 the car's departure.
5 "When the convoy had left, I went towards Rue
6 de Rivoli to pick up the convoy. We drove towards the
7 Champs-Elysees at a normal speed. All the professionals
8 whom I have already mentioned were there, plus the fans
9 who were behaving like madmen. There must have been two
10 cars. They quickly stopped their pursuit. The convoy
11 arrived at Rue Arsene Houssaye, an address of
12 Mr Al Fayed known to people in the profession for at
13 least 15 years. David informed me that he was covering
14 the site. On arrival at the scene, behind the convoy,
15 I was unable to take any shots as I couldn't park and
16 I was taken by surprise. However, the others had been
17 quicker than me. They were able to take photographs
18 from a respectable distance. However, Romauld attracted
19 the wrath of a bodyguard from the Ritz who guarded the
20 private residence and who rushed over to him. An
21 English bodyguard (Trevor) intervened in Romauld's
22 favour to calm things down.
23 "We parked at the end of the road to be able to
24 cover any exit. At this point, the others came to join
25 us, and even the bodyguard who had got excited came to

19

1 apologise to Romauld. I left to go and develop the
2 films -- mine from Le Bourget and the one that David had
3 just taken of the private residence.
4 At 2145, whilst at Photo-service on the
5 Champs-Elysees, David called to tell me that the couple
6 had left the residence, without giving me the
7 designation.
8 "At 2200 I collected the films and David announced
9 that our clients had returned to the Ritz.
10 "At 2215, I returned to the Ritz where the following
11 people were gathered: Benhamou, Veres, Rat,
12 Stephane Cardinale, Sigma, Arnal, Martinez and other
13 photographs whom I don't know and around 100 onlookers.
14 There was Pierre Hounsfield and Pierre Suu. There was
15 an Englishman.
16 "There was a false departure of two Mercedes and
17 Range Rover vehicles which drove around the [square] at
18 high speed and then returned to park in the same place.
19 There was a certain agitation among the chauffeurs and
20 bodyguards who were coming and going, in and out.
21 Mr Paul kept us informed of the imminence of the
22 departure in an ironic manner. At around 0005, Mr Paul
23 told us that they were going to leave in 10 minutes. At
24 0015, Mr Paul again said that it was imminent. I then
25 thought that we were stuck in front of the main entrance

20

1 and that the departure was going to take place at the
2 back by taxi. I went round the back by car and I parked
3 some way from the exit as Rue Cambon is often blocked by
4 parked cars. I went to the probable exit for the
5 departure on forgot. The competition was there --
6 Guizard, Benhamou and a big chap with a red car, perhaps
7 Langevin. I saw Paul again who looked at us. He went
8 in, came out again, as if he was coming to check on
9 whether things were calm for a discreet exit. At one
10 point, Mr Paul came out again and I caught a glimpse of
11 Mr Al Fayed and Diana still in the hotel behind him who
12 were waiting to leave. I immediately called David to
13 tell him and to confirm the exit for the departure.
14 Just after my telephone call, a Mercedes arrived in
15 a hurry and Mr Al Fayed and Diana got into it with the
16 bodyguard. I was unable to see whether there had been
17 a change of chauffeur, as a few seconds before I had
18 seen Mr Paul come out without knowing where he was
19 going. Being occupied in fixing my attention on the
20 couple, I was unable to notice the substitution. The
21 car sped off.
22 "I returned to my vehicle, and David arrived beside
23 me. We agreed to end our photographs there as the
24 context was not appropriate and the English competition
25 was going to arrive. I left to go to the Champs-Elysees

21

1 to eat and David told me that he was going home.
2 "We left each other. I had barely reached level
3 with Place Franklin Roosevelt when David called me, very
4 upset, to tell me that the Mercedes had crashed.
5 I should add that he normally takes this route to return
6 to his home in ... Paris 16. He explained with
7 difficulty on the telephone that this had taken place in
8 the tunnel beneath the Alma Bridge. He didn't say that
9 he had stopped to take photographs. It's not his style
10 and I can assure you that he was genuinely shaken.
11 I immediately called him back to get some details. He
12 confirmed the place, the Alma Bridge tunnel, it's
13 horrible and I could not take photographs. I understood
14 that he was at the scene and he told me that he was
15 parked at the exit of the tunnel with a motorcyclist
16 from Gamma (Darmon).
17 "I arrived at the scene some 10 minutes after the
18 telephone conversation. I parked next to the expressway
19 on the top in the normal lane, Cours Albert 1er, on the
20 embankment side. I realised the reality of the drama
21 before going down then I went into the tunnel towards
22 with the car already surrounded by people. I had taken
23 my camera with me. When I arrived level with the car,
24 there were a lot of people around, photographers,
25 onlookers and three youngsters who were screaming at the

22

1 photographers, calling them vultures. I didn't see any
2 colleagues photographing the injured people. There were
3 already two people, volunteer first aiders, who were
4 attending to Diana. I did not understand what was
5 happening. The youngsters' invective directed against
6 my colleagues aroused me from my torpor, as did seeing
7 an onlooker with a disposable camera, and galvanised me
8 into doing my job, knowing that not being a first aider
9 I could not be useful. I must have taken about 12
10 shots. Wide views. I saw David coming down again. He
11 was as white as a sheet. The fire brigade arrived about
12 a minute after I had started taking photographs. The 12
13 shots also included the intervention of the fire
14 brigade. I also have the police. Being at my
15 view-finder, I also took a shot of the fire brigade when
16 they freed Mr Al Fayed. This upset me and I decided to
17 leave. Anyway, the police were making us move away.
18 David and I took our leave, each going his own way."
19 Mr Carpenter, if we pause for a moment to look at
20 his photographs, we have them in our paparazzi
21 photograph bundle, they start at page 35?
22 A. That's right.
23 Q. And go on to page 54.
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. The first ones are at the back of the hotel; yes?

23

1 A. Yes, that's right.
2 Q. 35, 36, 37 being one of the photographs that enabled us
3 to put the other photograph at the back of the Ritz when
4 they were compared?
5 A. Certainly.
6 Q. And 38, and then 39 onwards are at the scene, aren't
7 they?
8 A. That's right.
9 Q. Where we can see the sort of people who were present had
10 these photographs were taken, Dr Maillot and so on in
11 the first ones; is that right?
12 A. That's correct.
13 Q. Then we can see police officers in 49; is that right?
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. And so on, and the last shot at page 54.
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. So if we just go back to the text of his statement, so
18 he finishes that section by saying the police were
19 making them move away and he and Mr Odekerken left each
20 going their own way. He goes on:
21 "I called Sola to tell him that Diana's car had
22 crashed. I had difficulty in speaking as I was very
23 upset. Seeing this, Sola asked me if I had any
24 photographs. I told him yes. He asked me to come and
25 see him at his agency. David had gone home and I called

24

1 him for him to come with me. We therefore went to Sola
2 in the night. At his place, he asked us what had
3 happened and offered us a pick-you-up.
4 "After three-quarters of an hour, all three of us
5 went to Angeli to have the films developed. One film
6 (leaving Ritz plus accident) of mine, and two films for
7 David (one entering Ritz and accident), and one
8 (accident). We returned to the agency whilst calling
9 journalists to ask their opinions and find out what they
10 thought about it. All colleagues on the magazines were
11 in agreement to circulate the photographs. Having
12 learned that Mr Al Fayed was dead, we opposed the
13 circulation of shots featuring him. Several magazines
14 from around the world called to get photographs. Sola
15 did his job and it was he who replied that he was in
16 possession of the photographs and he was surprised that
17 people knew he had them. We warned him about his final
18 decision to sell the photographs. We went home leaving
19 him the films. For our part we didn't keep anything
20 back, neither shots nor films, I confirm this.
21 "At 0530, I learned of Diana's death and I received
22 a telephone call from David who had called Mr Sola
23 regarding the issue of circulation. He was not at all
24 keen and Sola had told him of Diana's death to him at
25 the same time. Immediately David ordered him not to

25

1 sell the pictures. In agreement with David, I called
2 Mr Sola back to confirm this decision."
3 Then if we turn to the next document, it's dated
4 5th September of 1997, there is just a passage at the
5 bottom of the first page, top of the second, just to
6 read. He says this:
7 "To reply to your question concerning the afternoon
8 of Saturday 30th August, more specifically the journey
9 between Le Bourget and Neuilly whilst we were following
10 the two vehicles -- the Mercedes carrying Princess Diana
11 and Dodi Al Fayed -- and the Range Rover following them
12 -- I will relate what took place as we shadowed them.
13 "In fact, when the two vehicles left Le Bourget
14 airport, we followed them from the exit. I was driving
15 my metallic anthracite grey Peugeot 205 vehicle whilst
16 David Odekerken was driving his Pajero vehicle. In
17 addition to us two, there were only two motorcycles,
18 that of Romauld Rat and that of a motorcyclist from the
19 Angeli agency.
20 "We followed them as far as the [Paris orbital road]
21 where we saw the Range Rover leave very rapidly at
22 Porte de Maillot towards Neuilly and at that point I
23 decided to stop shadowing and return to Paris in the
24 direction of the Ritz, as I had seen that the Mercedes
25 was no longer there. For his part, David continued.

26

1 "To reply to your question, the journey took place
2 normally, we only followed the two vehicles from
3 a respectable distance.
4 "I didn't try to intentionally overtake the two
5 vehicles, but it is possible that I overtook them in the
6 flow of the traffic.
7 "You tell me that Mr Wingfield, the bodyguard who
8 was in the front passenger seat of the Range Rover,
9 states having seen a black Peugeot 205 overtake the
10 convoy several times and pull in, braking very hard, in
11 front of the Mercedes, in a dangerous manner.
12 To reply to your question, it's true that I was
13 driving the only black 205 in the shadowing pack, but
14 I think that there must have been others on the
15 motorway.
16 "You tell me that Mr Wingfield had even spotted my
17 black 205 at Le Bourget Airport and that each time he
18 was talking about this same black 205.
19 "To this I reply that he couldn't have seen my car
20 at Le Bourget as it was parked in a small car park, out
21 of sight ..."
22 "Still in reply to your question, in any case
23 I didn't try to overtake the Mercedes and to pull in, in
24 front of it, in a dangerous manner to make it slow down.
25 "I don't see what I would have gained from this."

27

1 Then if we turn on, the next document is dated
2 6th October 1997, we don't need to read the first parts
3 but if we go, please, to page 5, and third paragraph
4 down on that page begins:
5 "At 9.45 pm", and Mr Carpenter, he has just been
6 explaining that whilst waiting at Arsene Houssaye he had
7 left to get the photographs developed?
8 A. That's right, so he wasn't there when they came back to
9 the hotel.
10 Q. He says:
11 "At 9.45 pm, David Ker called me to tell me that
12 they were leaving again. I had to wait to collect the
13 shots. David called me back to tell me that the couple
14 were at the Ritz and I arrived at 10.15 pm."
15 Then if we just go down four paragraphs, I think, so
16 he is now at the Ritz:
17 "I had already seen Mr Paul, whom I knew by sight,
18 following other shots involving other celebrities,
19 Madonna, for example. He was a serious person, never
20 laughing. He never spoke to the photographers, he was
21 not really friendly.
22 "That evening he wasn't like that at all. He came
23 out, he came to see us, he had a laugh. He seemed.
24 Happy, he told us they were coming out in a quarter of
25 an hour. He spoke to us, whereas he had never done so

28

1 before.
2 "At one point there was a false start with a car."
3 If we go to the next paragraph:
4 "Mr Paul again started coming out two, three times,
5 each time repeating the same thing, namely 'they are
6 coming out in 10 minutes, they are coming out in 5
7 minutes'. He spoke with the drivers and the English
8 bodyguards. At one point they consulted together, all
9 five, and went into the Ritz. That was when I told
10 myself that they were going to come out via the back.
11 I went there in my car. I parked on a driveway
12 entrance, 20, 25 metres from the entrance to the Ritz in
13 the Rue Cambon."
14 The last three lines:
15 "I was then on foot and leaning forward, I saw Dodi,
16 Diana and the bodyguard a little way back from the
17 door."
18 Then he deals essentially with the account that he
19 has already given.
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. If we just go, please, to page 8 of 11, he is asked
22 a question at the top of page 8 of 11.
23 "Question: Did you see the vehicles which left
24 behind the Mercedes and did you observe the convoy at
25 any other time when you were going towards the

29

1 Champs-Elysees?"
2 And he said this:
3 "Answer: Behind the Mercedes, there was Langevin
4 who has a red car, Guizard, who has a light coloured
5 205, Benhamou who has a scooter. That's all I saw.
6 Afterwards I went via the Place de la Concorde but later
7 because of my lens which I had dropped. Alongside me at
8 the first traffic lights at the Place de la Concorde,
9 there was Nikola Arsov who was on a motorbike, dressed
10 in yellow. The firemen were not there when I arrived at
11 the scene, but the two policemen were already present
12 and had already blocked off the entrance with their
13 car."
14 No more, I think, that we need of that. Then
15 finally, there is, if we turn to the next document,
16 a document headed "Fabrice Chassery notes, meeting,
17 14th February 2007". These are the notes, is this
18 right, of a television journalist?
19 A. I believe so, yes.
20 Q. Did this relate to a programme that was going to be or
21 was in fact broadcast on Channel 4?
22 A. Yes. I don't think Chassery actually appears in the
23 final programme.
24 Q. Can you summarise what had happened, the journalist had
25 got hold of some photographs; is that right?

30

1 A. Yes, it's very difficult to comment without knowing what
2 the photographs he was shown were, not having seen them
3 but it sounds like they were colour photographs from the
4 dossier belonging to Benhamou and Odekerken.
5 Q. This is the note:
6 "After a fruitless afternoon trying to find their
7 new office address (they have moved, their secretary
8 wouldn't give out their address as she had been told not
9 to) they have not informed French information services.
10 Their new (mobile) phone number is continually on
11 answerphone. Every picture desk we tried told us they
12 couldn't give us the address, we would have to get it
13 from them. We were still in the areas of the 17th as
14 one estate agent told us she believed they had moved to
15 bigger premises on a road [the name is given] a very
16 long road, but she had no idea [which number]. Suzy
17 called Fabrice around 5ish. She could hear him in the
18 office, but his colleague (probably Ker) said he was
19 out. Suzy gave a brief precis of our objective and he
20 said he would get him to call back. He didn't. Suzy
21 eventually got through to him on the telephone around
22 6 pm."
23 It says "he explained", I think that should be "she
24 explained":
25 "[She] explained that I had some pictures to show

31

1 him, I had no idea who they belonged to but it would be
2 useful to show them to him to see if he could identify
3 them.
4 "His response was friendly but very bullish, we
5 could go ahead and use them if we wanted, but that we
6 would have to suffer the consequences. He would have no
7 alternative but to come after us. He said he had asked
8 the Judge for his negatives back. He fully expects to
9 get them back next month. He would then go after
10 everyone who had used his pics against his -- especially
11 [some people he names] and CBS -- as he would then be
12 able to prove that they were his copyright.
13 "Suzy explained several times that we had no idea if
14 they were his pictures, could we not just meet up with
15 him for five minutes in order that he could look at
16 them. She asked him this continually and he continually
17 prevaricated. All in all the conversation lasted about
18 20 minutes and it wasn't until he said, 'They are black
19 and white pictures aren't they' (ie photocopies from the
20 dossier) that she replied no, they are colour
21 photographs, that his tone suddenly changed. He seemed
22 very shocked. Susie said he seemed just to crumble, and
23 he said that he would meet us in 10 minutes ... at
24 a local cafe.
25 "He eventually turned up at the cafe [and he is then

32

1 described] quite tense at first, sat down, made a few
2 pleasantries, and then cut to the quick, 'You have
3 something to show me' he said pointing to my bag. His
4 English is very good and we talked mainly in English.
5 I pulled out the photos and showed them to him. His
6 reaction was palpable, he looked very relieved. He
7 said, 'The photographer that took these will be very
8 upset to find out there are colour copies around'.
9 "I said 'Who is the photographer?' and he just
10 shrugged and grinned.
11 "I said, 'Did you take them?'.
12 "He didn't answer.
13 "I said, 'Are they David Ker's?' and he just gave me
14 another shrug and grin, which I took to mean yes.
15 "After looking at the wide shot of the car in the
16 tunnel, he said intriguingly, 'This is a famous photo
17 but I have got better ones than that.' Then went on to
18 explain that he took wide shots of the car where you
19 could see the crumpled front but not Diana in the car.
20 "He said, 'You can't possibly use the one of her in
21 the car with the doctor where you can see her face.
22 It's impossible, think of her children.'.
23 "He then said, 'I have got one of the doctor leaning
24 in the car, but it's not so obvious that it is her'. He
25 also said that he had photos of the police around the

33

1 car.
2 "I said, 'So you still have your negatives?'
3 "And he said no, he didn't, but he was expecting to
4 get them back in March, he has asked the Judge for them
5 back.
6 "He said, 'Those photos you have have been taken by
7 two different photographers.'.
8 "I said, 'Who is the other photographer?'
9 "He said, 'You know him, he is a friend of yours, he
10 called me up about your programme.'.
11 "I went through various names until I reached Serge
12 Benhamou and he said yes. I understood that two shots
13 of Diana in the car were Ker's and the others
14 Benhamou's.
15 "Anyway, he kept saying 'I cannot believe you have
16 got these pictures, it's impossible, who gave them to
17 you? How much did you pay for them? You must have paid
18 a fortune for them'. I said I had paid nothing for
19 them, that I had been given them temporarily to check
20 out ownership with a view to helping me get my
21 documentary made. He kept trying to find out who had
22 given them to me.
23 "Having looked at the photos he then relaxed and got
24 quite chatty and jokey. He ran through various bits of
25 the night, where he was, et cetera, how he got there

34

1 after being called by Ker, how they all thought she
2 would be okay, and how it had all affected them. He
3 kept saying, 'you have no idea what it was like, it's
4 impossible to explain unless you were there'."
5 Then going to the last paragraph:
6 "After about two hours we left and we walked down
7 the road, he said, 'We have to talk about this'.
8 I understand what you are trying to do, we will have to
9 sort something out. Let us speak again at the beginning
10 of March'. He said this several times. Clearly I have
11 something he wants, he would like the colour photos
12 back. He is worried that I am going to use them without
13 his permission. Reading between the lines I surmised
14 that once he gets his nges back, he would let us use the
15 more distant shots although not the ones directly in the
16 car. Although I did talk about pixilating her face, and
17 he didn't dismiss that.
18 "He still refuses to talk about it on camera, even
19 though once he starts, he can't stop."
20 Yes.
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. Thank you very much.
23 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Mr Mansfield?
24 MR MANSFIELD: No thank you.
25 MR KEEN: No, thank you, sir.

35

1 Questions from MR CROXFORD
2 MR CROXFORD: Mr Carpenter, the last time I think on this
3 type of topic.
4 Mr Chassery had been clearly one of the more
5 persistent paparazzi who had been present effectively
6 throughout the material part of the day, following the
7 couple's arrival at Le Bourget?
8 A. That's correct, yes, sir.
9 Q. He had followed them on the motorway, he turned up at
10 Rue Arsene Houssaye and then he had part of the stakeout
11 at the Ritz.
12 His account of events, of course, given firstly on
13 4th September when first accounting for himself and
14 essentially repeated on 6th October, both 1997, was that
15 after the departure of the Princess' Mercedes from the
16 back of the Ritz after midnight, he and Odekerken
17 exchanged a few words somewhere in the vicinity?
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. And between them they decided that they were each going
20 to go their separate ways, Odekerken to go home and he
21 to go and get something to eat, I think he said, on the
22 Champs-Elysees?
23 A. That's right.
24 Q. I just want to ask you some questions about how far one
25 can place reliance upon the detail of that explanation.

36

1 Odekerken we know apparently did follow the route taken
2 by the Mercedes car along Cours Albert 1er?
3 A. That's right.
4 Q. Mr Chassery, of course, explained that he came to learn
5 of the crash at a time when he was on the Champs-Elysees
6 at or about Place Franklin Roosevelt -- I had better not
7 give him a cod French accent -- and if we look at page 9
8 in our bundle of maps, and locate first of all the red
9 line, the route of the Mercedes, take ourselves into
10 Place de la Concorde, we can see Avenue de
11 Champs-Elysees going off to the left and as we go along
12 I think it's the second big junction with the "M" in it,
13 is place Franklin Roosevelt, and that's where he says he
14 was about when Odekerken called him; is that right?
15 A. Yes, that's correct.
16 Q. Following that route, up the Champs-Elysees by
17 coincidence or design if he had gone all the way along
18 the Champs-Elysees up towards where we can see the
19 Arc de Triomphe, and Charles de Gaulle Etoile would have
20 taken him past Rue Arsene Houssaye, wouldn't it?
21 A. Yes, it would have done, I said the other day it was
22 a cynical view but one I probably agreed with.
23 Q. On the cynical view, what they decided to do was to
24 split up, one to follow the car in the hope of getting
25 a snap, Odekerken?

37

1 A. Yes.
2 Q. The other to go to what they thought might have been the
3 destination, Chassery, in the hope of getting a snap
4 there?
5 A. Yes, it's speculation but I wouldn't argue with that.
6 Q. Except, Mr Carpenter, if you just look at that statement
7 of the 4th October, again, and go to page 4 I think it
8 is, they had done something very similar earlier in the
9 day, hadn't they?
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. If you look, just above halfway down the paragraph:
12 "The cars started to get into position", do you have
13 that?
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. Let us set this at the time, this is when the couple
16 left the Ritz for the first time, late afternoon, early
17 evening, to go?
18 A. That's right.
19 Q. The cars started to get this position facing the main
20 door, the cars went his Honour the Rue Cambon,
21 I immediately warned David, at that moment I went to the
22 Rue de Rivoli to get ahead in order to pick up the
23 convoy?
24 A. That's right.
25 Q. So if one were being cynical, to use your words with

38

1 which I sympathise, this was a tactic they had already
2 employed previously that day and on one view, they were
3 simply doing it again?
4 A. Yes, it does show a bit of a pattern.
5 Q. You were here yesterday when I no doubt clumsily asked
6 some questions of Mr Stokes, the mobile phone expert,
7 about what the mobile phone records show but in summary
8 it appears to be that there is some support, first of
9 all at or about the time of the crash or shortly
10 afterwards, for Mr Odekerken being in an area close to
11 the Alma Tunnel but slightly to the north of it?
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. But that Mr Chassery, from the location of his
14 handpiece, was using a cell sector, not the one for the
15 Alma Tunnel, not the same as the one of Mr Odekerken but
16 somewhere else?
17 A. No, I find that as difficult to understand as most
18 people, probably but it is --
19 Q. It's right, isn't it, it's not the Alma Tunnel one, it
20 is not the one that Odekerken was in, but it was
21 somewhere else?
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. Although later on he came to use the same sector as
24 Mr Odekerken, and it may be an obvious point but it's
25 none the worse for that, these two men, at the time when

39

1 they were exchanging these phone calls in the half hour
2 after midnight?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. If they were actually close together, it's pretty
5 unlikely that they would have been having to phone one
6 another, isn't it?
7 A. No, that's correct.
8 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: The fact that they were phoning
9 each other does indicate that they were working as
10 a team and still had some interest in what was going on?
11 A. Yes, sir, I think it does.
12 MR CROXFORD: It may do. I hope, not unfairly, preying on
13 your cynicism about the explanation, I think the
14 conclusion you have come to is at least possible, in
15 fact probable, that they had indeed separated and
16 Chassery was on his way to the Rue Arsene Houssaye
17 apartment.
18 A. Yes, it's probable.
19 Q. Next let me ask you about this: I have asked you some
20 questions before, many weeks, months ago probably, about
21 whether you were satisfied you had got all the
22 photographs and I think in summary in respect of the men
23 Odekerken and Chassery, and their photographic agent
24 Sola, your conclusion is that you are not satisfied you
25 have seen all the photographs they have taken?

40

1 A. Not now I have heard Darren Lyons' evidence and no, I am
2 not satisfied of seeing all of them. There was always
3 a possibility, because they didn't turn up for four
4 days, that they had the opportunity to get rid of some,
5 had they taken any.
6 Q. Is it right, just to remind everywhere, in respect of
7 these two, I don' t think you have seen the negatives
8 either?
9 A. No, I haven't.
10 Q. Insofar as Mr Hilliard has been taking you through the
11 Channel 4 material, it appears that the French Juge has
12 had some negatives but you haven't had access to those?
13 A. No, they did have the negatives at one point but I don't
14 know what's happened to them.
15 Q. If we look in the paparazzi photograph bundle, pages 23
16 and 24, we can see Chassery bending down trying to take
17 photographs, as I explained some days ago, pointed out
18 at a time before Mr Rees-Jones had got into the car?
19 A. Well, you can see him there with his camera.
20 Q. With his camera, and on the 6th October, the statement
21 that I took you to a few moments ago, if you go to
22 page 6, a third of the way down, under the bold heading
23 "In Answer to Question", do you see that?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. "The couple came out, went round the roadwork hoardings.

41

1 I took a photo at that moment, then they dived into the
2 car. I tried to take some photos in the car"?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. You have never seen any photographs which he took as
5 a result of trying to take the photographs in the car,
6 have you?
7 A. Obviously there are some photographs of them in the car,
8 in Chassery's photographs, specifically --
9 Q. If one looks at 37 and 38 --
10 A. -- at 37 and 38, there's quite a gap between the two.
11 Q. They are a bit later on, aren't they?
12 A. They are.
13 Q. With Mr Rees-Jones in situ in the car?
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. Very well.
16 A. If I had had the negatives then it would be a lot easier
17 to make a judgment as to whether or not I had them all.
18 Q. Of course because you would be able to go through the
19 numbered sequence as you have done in other cases, and
20 see, for example, Mr Benhamou, as to whether some are
21 missing?
22 A. Exactly.
23 Q. Lastly, this: on 4th September, the first of the
24 statements that we have heard about today, if you turn
25 up, Mr Carpenter, page 3, towards the foot of that page,

42

1 Mr Chassery is giving a description of events in the
2 Place Vendome, the Ritz Hotel shortly before the party
3 left to go to the Alma Tunnel?
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. Right in the middle of the paragraph, he gives
6 a description of the competition who was there; do you
7 see that?
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. He says Guizard, Benhamou and a big chap with a red car,
10 perhaps Langevin?
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. Take it in stages for a moment. He appears to identify
13 the colour of this car as being red, doesn't he?
14 A. Yes, he is the only person who does that, though, and
15 I have never been able to see a red car at the back of
16 the hotel.
17 Q. You are ahead of me. He does it then?
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. He also does it on 4th October at page 8 of that
20 statement of 4th October?
21 A. In Place de la Concorde.
22 Q. Yes, it's where he talks about -- it's the question that
23 Mr Hilliard asked, I think, top of the page --
24 A. Sorry, page 8?
25 Q. Page 8, 6th October:

43

1 "Behind the Mercedes there was Langevin", pausing,
2 do you see that?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. "... who has a red car"?
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. Langevin doesn't have a red car?
7 A. No, he doesn't, he has a --
8 Q. For the sake of completeness, I think you can confirm,
9 the jury have heard it already, in the confrontation,
10 Mr Langevin in his own defence pointed out he didn't
11 have a red car?
12 A. That's right.
13 Q. He had a grey Volkswagen Golf?
14 A. That's right.
15 Q. Also, I think you have given evidence that from your
16 observation, Langevin, the war photographer, is the man
17 I think you told the jury yesterday walked in
18 a comparatively calm and leisurely fashion back to his
19 car after the Mercedes had left?
20 A. That's correct.
21 Q. And getting on for what nearly 30 seconds later started
22 up his own car and made off and he said went to the
23 Place Vendome?
24 A. I see no reason to disagree with that.
25 Q. The position comes to this, I think, Mr Carpenter,

44

1 doesn't it: if Chassery was right in identifying the
2 presence of a red motor car --
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. -- then so far as you are aware, take it in stages, the
5 French investigation never identified whose car that
6 was?
7 A. No.
8 Q. Because there is no red motor car?
9 A. No.
10 Q. And your own investigations, considerations,
11 cogitations, and musings, and I am not being rude for
12 one moment, far from it, you have never been able to
13 find out who such a car might have belonged to if
14 Chassery was correct?
15 A. No, but it wasn't in Rue Cambon.
16 MR CROXFORD: Thank you very much.
17 Questions from MR HORWELL
18 MR HORWELL: Mr Carpenter, only this: Mr Chassery has
19 described Henri Paul in his statement in these terms:
20 I knew him by sight, following other shots involving
21 other celebrities, such as Madonna?
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. He was a serious person, never laughing, he never spoke
24 to the photographers, he was not really friendly?
25 A. No.

45

1 Q. That evening he wasn't like that at all, he came out, he
2 came to see us, he had a laugh, he seemed happy, he told
3 us they were coming out in a quarter of an hour, he
4 spoke to us, whereas he had never done so before?
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. If Mr Chassery was giving evidence, we could show him
7 the video film --
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. -- that we have of Henri Paul at the Ritz. Is there
10 any discernible difference in that film from his
11 behaviour before he left work early that evening, and
12 when he returned at 10 o'clock?
13 A. Yes, there is.
14 Q. Can you just describe that to us, please?
15 A. Well, I have to say, I mean, I didn't know Henri Paul
16 from Adam before this started of course so I can only
17 base my observation on six hours of videotape. In the
18 afternoon he is very determined, going about his
19 business, he does look serious, when he comes back in
20 the evening he is a different man.
21 Q. In what sense?
22 A. He is laughing and joking which I didn't see him doing
23 at all in the afternoon and he just seems far more
24 relaxed.
25 MR HORWELL: Thank you.

46

1 MR HILLIARD: No questions, thank you very much.
2 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Thank you very much,
3 Mr Carpenter.
4 Where does that now leave us time-wise? We are
5 pretty close to having a break, I think.
6 MR BURNETT: Yes, sir, the next step today will be to
7 complete the reading of the four statements that
8 Mr Foley introduced formally yesterday, and after that
9 we will deal with the Barry Mannakee crash, again by
10 reading statements, and as you know, sir, we have
11 a witness at 1.30 from France.
12 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Yes.
13 MR BURNETT: There are one or two other things we might be
14 able to read today.
15 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: It might be convenient to break
16 off now for quarter of an hour.
17 (11.15 am)
18 (A short break)
19 (11.30 am)
20 (Jury present)
21 MR HOUGH: Sir, I am about to read four statements which
22 were formally proved by Mr Foley yesterday. I don't
23 propose to ask Mr Foley to return to the witness box,
24 unless somebody stands and suggests that he should move
25 20 feet to his left.

47

1 Evidence relating to MR JEAN-CLAUDE PAUL MORERE
2 Read by MR HOUGH
3 MR HOUGH: The first statement is from Mr Jean-Luc Paul
4 Morere, and it is a statement made to the French police
5 on 17th September 1997, it forms part of the judicial
6 dossier.
7 After the preliminaries, Mr Morere says this:
8 "With regard to Henri Paul, we have known each other
9 since the end of 1993. We met at a private training
10 school, TAF, in Toussus le Noble. We were both on the
11 same course. I went there to re-train for a civil
12 aviation qualification. At the time, I was leaving the
13 forces where I had been a fighter pilot to re-train as
14 a civil pilot. Henri Paul was there to get an IFR,
15 instrument flying qualification. We trained together
16 for about six months. The training basically consisted
17 of flying hours and simulation. At the end, there was
18 an exam which I passed and so did Henri Paul.
19 "It was the first time I had met Henri Paul and
20 I soon found I got on well with him. I should explain
21 that it was not really a course as such, just hours of
22 training with an instructor. I met Henri Paul when
23 I came to the training school. I noticed him
24 straightaway, he was completely different from the other
25 trainees who were often under pressure in this kind of

48

1 training, he was relaxed and always very humorous, he
2 did not take himself at all seriously. Unlike the
3 others, he didn't put himself forward at all. While we
4 were training we flew together, I mean I sometimes sat
5 behind him or he sat behind me, it was a way of
6 perfecting our training.
7 "After becoming friends while we were training, we
8 saw each other regularly. We did not lose touch after
9 that; quite the opposite. We went out together and
10 carried on flying together. I did not manage to find
11 a job immediately I finished training. Henri Paul
12 helped me a lot at that time. I had spent a lot of
13 money getting all my qualifications and I had some
14 financial problems between finishing my course and
15 joining AOM, where I am now, in February 1995.
16 "I was very grateful to Henri Paul for letting me
17 fly with him at the time. He rented an aircraft at his
18 own expense and asked me to join him, so I was able to
19 go out flying. Apart from that he invited me to eat and
20 go out with him. After that we always kept in touch.
21 Not a week went by when we didn't at least phone each
22 other. We also ate together fairly regularly.
23 Sometimes I met him at the Ritz, he invited me to the
24 staff canteen or otherwise we regularly went to the
25 restaurants near where he lived where he was very well

49

1 known. In fact, there were four or five places where he
2 got a very warm welcome.
3 "I know there is a bar opposite where he lives in
4 a street perpendicular to the Rue des Petits Champs.
5 I can't give you the names of all the restaurants,
6 I know they are all around where he lived. I don't know
7 anything about the bar on the right when you come out of
8 his place, I never went there with him. We usually went
9 to a restaurant and stopped at the bar I mentioned
10 earlier either before or afterwards, I think it is
11 a women only bar where we were always made welcome.
12 Quite often we met there. He also came to my place.
13 "When we went out I must say I never saw Henri drink
14 without eating, he was always going on to dinner
15 afterwards, I never saw him drink for the sake of it;
16 usually he drank champagne or whiskey. He might have
17 a glass of whiskey and usually finish it while he was
18 eating. I don't think I ever saw him drink pastis or
19 anything of that sort. I don't remember seeing him
20 drink wine at table; I think he drank either water or
21 beer. When we went to the lesbian bar he certainly had
22 a whiskey as I told you, but he always had a meal. If
23 we went there after the meal he had to have a whiskey.
24 To sum it up, Henri drank normally but was not a
25 drinker. On thing is for sure, he didn't drink when he

50

1 was flying or going to fly. I never saw him have
2 a drink before he took a plane out. I am even tempted
3 to say the same about the car because whenever we went
4 out he didn't drive afterwards; he went home by taxi,
5 I don't think he enjoyed driving and he was pleased to
6 avoid it when he could.
7 As regards girlfriends, I know Henri had been on his
8 own for a while. I cannot tell you any dates. Henri
9 was very discreet about his private life. The only
10 relationship I knew about was when we first knew each
11 other, it was a woman with a small daughter. I don't
12 remember the little girl's name, I think it was Samanta,
13 I couldn't even describe the woman because I never met
14 her. I only know her daughter because Henri and I went
15 and had lunch with her in a pizzeria near where he
16 lived.
17 "Henri always came out on his own when we went out.
18 I sometimes went with my girlfriend. When I invited him
19 home, he always came on his own too. I know Henri often
20 met a group of friends, mostly from Brittany. I was
21 invited to join them occasionally. Henri invited me(.
22 There were people who were very close to Henri, there
23 was Claude Garrec, Dominique Melo, someone called Robert
24 and another friend who is a computer specialist. I only
25 met them two or three times.

51

1 "Henri was really mad about flying, he was very
2 professional. He prepared for his flights very
3 carefully, he flew regularly, more often than the rules
4 called for, at any rate, he wanted to qualify on twin
5 engine jets. Henri was very discreet professionally.
6 He didn't talk about his work. In fact, when Henri
7 invited me to the Ritz Hotel, I was surprised when
8 I found out what his job was. I think the security
9 people liked him a lot because he really acted like
10 a boss and took his responsibility seriously.
11 "Henri was always available for his work, he kept in
12 touch with the hotel all the time. He wanted to be sure
13 everything was okay even when he wasn't there.
14 I personally never saw him cut short a meal or an outing
15 to go back to work. I know Henri had been working very
16 hard this year and had trouble getting away for
17 a holiday. In answer to your question, I have been at
18 lunch with Henri when he had to go to work afterwards.
19 I never saw him drink alcohol on those occasions,
20 I think he drank water. As far as his personality was
21 concerned, he was intelligent and a good judge of
22 character. He seemed pretty shrewd to me in that way.
23 He was also very discreet in the sense that he did not
24 push himself forward, he was fairly equible, never got
25 worked up and was a very loyal friend.

52

1 "We last saw each other on 22nd August 1997 and had
2 dinner together. I don't remember where we went, but it
3 was a restaurant we had been to before near his place.
4 That was the last time we spoke. I did phone him at
5 home on Saturday 30th August to ask him to come to
6 dinner with me and a friend that evening. I left
7 a message on his answering machine asking him to call me
8 back. When I had not heard from him before dinner time,
9 I rang him at home again at about 8 in the evening.
10 There was no answer. So I went off to eat and heard
11 about the accident on the radio the morning it happened.
12 "In answer to your question, I didn't try to get
13 hold of him on 30th August 1997 on his mobile or
14 at the Ritz. I must say I was surprised that Henri
15 didn't ring me back after I left the message on his
16 answering machine, that makes me think he didn't go home
17 again, because he would have been bound to call me on my
18 mobile when he got my message.
19 "About what he wore when we went out, he usually
20 changed whenever he could get home before meeting us,
21 then he put on casual clothes, jeans and a bomber
22 jacket; it was quite different from the suit that he
23 normally wore."
24 That's the statement of Mr Morere.
25

53

1 Evidence relating MS SANDRA CUDELO
2 MR HOUGH: Next is the statement of Sandra Cudelo, this is
3 a statement dated 8th September 1997, also from the
4 French judicial dossier. Ms Cudelo gives her details
5 and then says this:
6 "I understand the reason I am being interviewed and
7 the background. I met Henri Paul about three years ago
8 through a mutual acquaintance. At the time I was living
9 near him and he was looking for someone to do the
10 ironing and a bit of housework for him. Before I had my
11 child I went to his place nearly every day to do the
12 ironing. Working at the Ritz, he had to change his
13 clothes every day and always be immaculately dressed.
14 Sometimes I ironed at his place, sometimes I took his
15 things home with me. I had a key to his flat. Recently
16 I had been going a bit less often but still three or
17 four times a week, either because Henri Paul rang me or
18 since I work nearby, I would go and see if he had left
19 anything out to iron.
20 "The last time I went to his flat was on Friday,
21 29th August. He wasn't there.
22 "The last time I saw Henri Paul was at the end of
23 July just before I went on holiday. I got back from
24 holiday on Monday, 25th August.
25 "In answer to your questions, as far as I know,

54

1 Henri Paul didn't drink. There wasn't any alcoholic
2 drink at his flat, except for a bottle of Ricard which
3 had been next to the microwave for months and months and
4 sometimes beer in the fridge. I never saw any other
5 drink, I never saw any empty bottles when I emptied the
6 bins. Henri Paul mostly drank Diet Coke and mineral
7 water. I never saw him drunk.
8 "I don't know very much about his private life.
9 I know that at one time he had a girlfriend who had
10 a little daughter, I remember meeting the woman and the
11 little girl several months ago one day when I had gone
12 to pick up some ironing, I don't know if Henri Paul and
13 the woman were still together. I got the impression she
14 lived in the provinces and came and met him in Paris
15 sometimes with her daughter.
16 "I don't know if Henri Paul went to bars or not.
17 I know he often had dinner at home because I found the
18 washing up. I never saw any signs of him having a party
19 at home.
20 "I found out about his death from the papers on
21 Sunday 31st August. They mentioned the name Paul but
22 I wasn't quite sure that it was him, so I went to his
23 flat in the afternoon on Monday, 1st September. I found
24 a handwritten note signed by Henri Paul's father,
25 Jean Paul, telling me Henri was dead. I do not have

55

1 Henri Paul's keys any more, I gave them to his parents".
2 And that is Ms Cudelo's statement.
3 The third statement is one from Mrs Della Davies.
4 This is a statement dated 13th February 2008, and made
5 to the inquest secretariat. Mrs Davies says this:
6 "I am married to David Seaborn Davies who was the
7 Chief Superintendent in command of royalty protection in
8 1997. I recall that in early July 1997 my husband came
9 home late. That was not unusual. He informed me that
10 he was extremely worried about an issue surrounding
11 Diana, Princess of Wales. He was clearly concerned
12 about it. My husband didn't go into detail about this
13 until early the next morning. He said that Diana
14 apparently was intending to go on holiday with the Fayed
15 family to France, taking her two boys with her but was
16 not having any protection. David did not normally talk
17 about his work but clearly this was troubling him.
18 "I was aware of the publicity Diana was attracting
19 at the time and I was further aware that Mr Fayed was
20 also fairly notorious. David thought Fayed was
21 engineering the whole event for his own advantage and to
22 stick a finger up at the establishment.
23 "In the same conversation, David told me that the
24 Commissioner had asked him to phone the Royals to inform
25 him of their joint concern. The gist was that David was

56

1 amazed that he wasn't going to do so himself, given the
2 importance of the issue. David also said incidentally
3 how nervous Condon, the Commissioner, appeared whenever
4 he was in the presence of royalty, which always
5 surprised him, but he was happy to do what was asked of
6 him.
7 "On the Thursday, David got up at 5 am to drive in
8 to work. He told me he was going to phone him early.
9 That evening, again very late, I naturally asked him
10 what had happened. He told me he had spoken to
11 Sir Robert Fellowes, the Queen's private secretary, who
12 had been very curt and arrogant. My impression was that
13 David was surprised at his reaction. When he was
14 telling me, I remember the look on his face as one of
15 total disgust. Sir Robert Fellowes had replied
16 'Her Majesty is aware' and said it twice. David said,
17 'I have told them there is nothing else I can do'.
18 "My husband could not believe he was so dismissive
19 when there were concerns about Mr Fayed. He told me
20 that he thought that Diana was extremely foolish and was
21 being used by the Fayed family. When she died, my
22 husband said: 'Who on earth did she have guarding her?'
23 "I would also add that my husband was an extremely
24 conscientious police officer who took great pride in his
25 work and was totally dedicated to his role. He always

57

1 worked long hours and as a family we also suffered due
2 to the demands of his job which took its toll on him
3 healthwise. He always said he was high enough to take
4 the blame but low enough not to get the credit. It was
5 a thankless job, in my opinion, I was glad when he
6 retired a year later."
7 Evidence relating to MS MYRIAM LEMAIRE
8 MR HOUGH: Then the fourth statement is from Myriam Lemaire.
9 This is a statement from the French judicial dossier.
10 It is dated 4th September 1997, and Ms Lemaire
11 identifies herself as managing Le Bourgogne Brasserie at
12 31, Rue des Petits Champs in Paris.
13 She says this:
14 "I note that I am being interviewed as a witness as
15 part of the investigation following the accident of
16 which Princess Diana, Dodi Al Fayed and Henri Paul were
17 the principal victims.
18 "I knew M Henri Paul because he lived in the Rue des
19 Petits Champs. He was a customer at my brasserie which
20 is located downstairs from where he lives. I actually
21 moved in eight months ago and M Paul had been a regular
22 in my establishment for a month and a half. He would
23 drop in once or twice a week at 8 o'clock on the dot and
24 on three occasions I believe he came in for lunch at
25 midday. Le Bourgogne is open continuously from 8.30 am

58

1 until roughly 2 am.
2 "M Paul came into our brasserie by chance. He had
3 got into the habit of standing at the bar near the
4 telephone and the exit. When he came at lunch times it
5 was because it was a Sunday. On those occasions he
6 would have a quarter litre of rose with his meal.
7 Otherwise, I would see him at 8 pm after he had finished
8 work. He would smoke a cigar, read his newspaper and
9 drank a Perrier, a shandy or a half litre of beer.
10 "He would only have one glass. He was not in any
11 way an alcoholic, he would not have an aperitive or
12 a digestif.
13 "M Paul was very discreet as far as his work was
14 concerned. It was only through the press that I found
15 out that he worked at the Ritz. He only spoke very
16 little, and our relationship was very courteous but not
17 familiar. He always came in on his own, I do not know
18 of him having a girlfriend or male friends.
19 "On Saturday mornings, he would go and play tennis
20 with a friend who would collect him in a green 4x4 and
21 he would wait. He was both pleasant and at the same
22 time reserved, keeping himself to himself.
23 "On Saturday, 30th August I worked from 11 am to
24 1 am. I did not see M Paul during the day. I thought
25 that he did not have a car as I always saw him on foot.

59

1 He did however call in on Friday, 29th August at about
2 8.30 pm and he had a shandy. I was surprised by all
3 that I have read about Henri Paul in the press. The man
4 described bears no resemblance whatsoever to the one who
5 came to my establishment."
6 That was a statement by Madame Lemaire, and all the
7 statements were proved by Mr Foley, they haven't been
8 read as uncontroversial but were proved as hearsay.
9 MR BURNETT: Sir, I am afraid Mr Foley is going to have to
10 go back into the witness box now because there is one
11 more statement that he needs to prove in the same way.
12 MR THOMAS FOLEY (recalled)
13 Evidence relating to MS NICOLA CHOPP
14 Questions from MR BURNETT
15 MR BURNETT: Mr Foley, you are still on oath.
16 A. I understand.
17 Q. Mr Foley, I am sure you are aware and will recollect
18 that in the course of his opening, the Coroner made
19 mention of the death of Barry Mannakee, who was
20 a personal protection officer of the Princess of Wales?
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. Is it your understanding that his death occurred on
23 14th May 1987?
24 A. Yes, it is.
25 Q. And were the broad circumstances that he was the pillion

60

1 passenger on a motorcycle being driven by a colleague,
2 Stephen Peet?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. Along Woodford Road?
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. Which was in collision with a car driven by
7 Nicola Chopp?
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. Which had turned out of a side road called
10 Hermitage Walk?
11 A. That's what I understand, yes.
12 Q. As she was doing that, is it your understanding that
13 another car was turning left into Hermitage Walk?
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. And that that car was being driven by a general
16 practitioner called Dr David Whiteford?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. And did the Solicitor to the Inquests obtain witness
19 statements from all three of the people we have just
20 mentioned?
21 A. He did indeed.
22 Q. Now, Mr Foley, I would invite you formally to prove the
23 statement of Nicola Chopp, whose name is now
24 Nicola Gabriel, I think?
25 A. It is.

61

1 Q. Because we will hear when I read it, there is
2 an observation or speculation in it which is
3 controversial?
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. Did she make a statement dated 5th March 2008?
6 A. She did, and I have it here.
7 Q. Is she now in fact resident abroad?
8 A. She is.
9 Q. Perhaps I could read the statement and I would be
10 grateful if you would confirm that I have done so
11 accurately:
12 "Statement of Nicola Gabriel, nee Chopp:
13 "I have been contacted on behalf of the Coroner
14 conducting the inquests into the deaths of Diana,
15 Princess of Wales and Dodi Al Fayed regarding
16 speculation that the crash in which Barry Mannakee died
17 was not an accident. I was the driver of the car
18 involved in the collision with the motorcycle on which
19 Mr Mannakee was a passenger. I was 17 at the time. The
20 collision happened just after 10 pm on 14th May 1987.
21 I had been stationary in Hermitage Walk indicating to
22 turn right. I saw a car approaching from my right, and
23 I noticed it was indicating to turn left into
24 Hermitage Walk. I waited to check that the driver was
25 in fact turning. As she slowed down and turned,

62

1 I started to pull out. As the vehicle turned left into
2 Hermitage Walk, I completed my turn into Woodford Road.
3 I saw the motorcyclist straight ahead of me on my side
4 of the road. It seemed to skid towards me.
5 "Although I did not crash deliberately, I am
6 suspicious of the events of that night and all that
7 followed. I was prosecuted for careless driving and my
8 insurance company settled civil proceedings. However,
9 I have never accepted that I was responsible for the
10 crash. I was not part of any conspiracy, but believe it
11 is possible that there was one involving the driver of
12 the motorbike and/or the driver of the car that turned
13 into Hermitage Walk. I believe the facts stated in this
14 statement are true."
15 So that's the statement of Mrs Gabriel, as she now
16 is?
17 A. It is, and accurately read, yes.
18 Q. Sir, the next two statements --
19 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: I had better see if there are any
20 questions.
21 MR BURNETT: Sorry, I had understood there wouldn't be.
22 MISS MACDONALD: No, thank you, sir.
23 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Mr Keen, Mr Croxford?
24 MR CROXFORD: No, I don't think I will.
25 MR HORWELL: In anticipation of the evidence that is about

63

1 to be read, this is an example of how conspiracy
2 theories can emerge because we are just about to hear,
3 Mr Foley, are we not, that there was never a conspiracy
4 involving the others concerned in this incident?
5 A. I can say no more than Ms Gabriel is expressing
6 an opinion in the statement.
7 MR HORWELL: And we are now about to see that it was wrong,
8 thank you.
9 MR BURNETT: Sir, the next two statements are read under
10 rule 37, so that is to say they are not controversial.
11 The first is a statement of Stephen Robert Peet
12 stated --
13 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Mr Horwell doesn't have
14 an opportunity to ask any questions about them.
15 MR BURNETT: I doubt that Mr Horwell would want to, given
16 that.
17 Evidence relating to MR STEPHEN ROBERT PEET
18 Questions from MR BURNETT
19 MR BURNETT: Stephen Robert Peet, dated 28th February 2008.
20 This is what he says:
21 "On 14th May 1987, I was the rider of a motorcycle
22 on which my friend and police colleague, Barry Mannakee,
23 was riding pillion. We were involved in a road traffic
24 collision in Woodford at about 22.15 with a car driven
25 by a 17-year old novice driver. Barry Mannakee suffered

64

1 fatal injuries and I suffered serious injuries. As
2 a result of my injuries, I do not have a total
3 recollection of the collision. The collision was
4 investigated by the police which led to the prosecution
5 for careless driving and other civil proceedings. I am
6 aware that there continues to be speculation that the
7 collision was not an accident but deliberately staged to
8 kill Barry Mannakee. Any suggestion that I was involved
9 in a conspiracy to cause the collision is preposterous.
10 I believe the facts stated in this statement are true."
11 Evidence relating to DR DAVID WHITEFORD
12 Questions from MR BURNETT
13 MR BURNETT: The next statement, sir, is that of
14 Dr David Whiteford, and it's dated 7th March 2008. He
15 says this:
16 "I have been contacted on behalf of the Coroner
17 conducting the inquests into the deaths of Diana,
18 Princess of Wales and Dodi Al Fayed. I understand there
19 remains speculation that the crash in which
20 Barry Mannakee died was not an accident.
21 "I was driving the car which turned into
22 Hermitage Walk, as the driver involved in the crash
23 pulled out. I was also a witness to the crash. I gave
24 a statement about what happened to the police who
25 investigated the crash at the time, and to

65

1 Operation Paget. The collision occurred out of the
2 blue, as my wife and I were driving home with friends
3 from the theatre. I was absolutely not involved in any
4 conspiracy to cause the crash or subsequently in
5 relation to it. Any suggestion to the contrary is utter
6 nonsense. I believe the facts stated in this statement
7 are true."
8 Sir, that completes the evidence in relation to the
9 crash involving Mr Mannakee.
10 Thank you, Mr Foley, I can't promise that you will
11 not be back there but we will see where we go.
12 Sir, the next matter which will be proved by
13 Mr Smith relates to evidence of Barbara Broccoli.
14 Now, sir, before Mr Smith is sworn, can I ask
15 a question of my learned friends? There is a statement
16 of Mark Hodges dealing with foreign intelligence
17 material that it is proposed to deal with today.
18 I understand that those representing Mr Al Fayed
19 have no questions of Mr Hodges in respect of that
20 statement. I see a nod from my right. I would be quite
21 surprised if anyone else had, but the reason I ask, sir,
22 is that Mr Hodges isn't here at the moment, and since we
23 are really engaged in an exercise formally of proving
24 statements via hearsay routes, if no-one was minded to
25 ask him questions, we could prove that also through

66

1 Mr Smith for convenience.
2 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Let us try that way, shall we?
3 MR BURNETT: We will try it in a minute unless somebody --
4 MISS MACDONALD: Sir, just to make clear, we have no
5 questions to ask of Mr Hodges who simply produces
6 various documents, but that is not to say we accept that
7 the documentation which he produces is uncontroversial
8 or accepted.
9 MR BURNETT: Sir, I emphasise, and I am sure the jury
10 appreciate this, there are two categories of documents
11 we are reading: those which are uncontroversial and
12 those which people would wish to dispute or in other
13 words, in any other sense show to be wrong, but which
14 for one reason or another it's not possible to have the
15 original maker here, and the next statements which come
16 from Ms Broccoli fall into that category.
17 With that rather long winded preamble, perhaps
18 Mr Smith can be sworn.
19 MR MARTIN LLOYD SMITH (affirmed)
20 Questions from MR BURNETT
21 MR BURNETT: Could you give us your full name, please?
22 A. It's Martin Lloyd Smith.
23 Q. You are a partner in the firm of Field Fisher
24 Waterhouse?
25 A. That's right.

67

1 Q. And you are acting as solicitor to these inquests?
2 A. That's right.
3 Q. In that connection, you have been involved from time to
4 time in obtaining evidence for the Coroner?
5 A. I have.
6 Evidence relating to MS BARBARA BROCCOLI
7 MR BURNETT: Did you make a short statement on
8 11th March 2008 concerning evidence from
9 Barbara Broccoli, and your dealings in connection with
10 that?
11 A. I did.
12 Q. Might I just ask you one or two questions about it: on
13 3rd March, did you receive an e-mail from Mr Coates of
14 Lewis Silkin, that's to say the solicitors acting for
15 Mohamed Al Fayed, which attached a statement from
16 Barbara Broccoli?
17 A. I did.
18 Q. Did you subsequently seek from Mr Coates contact details
19 for Ms Broccoli?
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. And in due course, did you make contact by telephone
22 with Ms Broccoli?
23 A. I did.
24 Q. As we shall hear in a moment, it's right, isn't it, that
25 Ms Broccoli is in the jungle in Panama at the moment,

68

1 for reasons we will come to, and thus not available to
2 give evidence?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. Can I turn first to the statement of Barbara Broccoli
5 that was sent to you by Mr Coates. Is that a statement
6 dated 3rd March 2008?
7 A. It is.
8 Q. If I read it, and then please confirm whether I have
9 done so accurately, it's as follows:
10 "I, Barbara Broccoli, of 138 Piccadilly, London,
11 United Kingdom will state as follows:
12 "I am engaged in the business of film production and
13 along, with Michael G Wilson, am currently coproducing
14 Quantum of Solace, the next James Bond film. I am the
15 daughter of Albert R 'Cubby' Broccoli, who died on
16 27th June 1996.
17 "I make this statement in Panama, where
18 Quantum of Solace is being shot on location.
19 "I knew Dodi Al Fayed for many years. I first met
20 him in the mid-1970s through school friends. By the
21 time of his death, I would say we were very close
22 friends and we spoke regularly to each other. In the
23 summer of 1997 I was based in England and like many
24 people was aware of the press coverage of
25 Dodi Al Fayed's relationship with Diana, Princess of

69

1 Wales.
2 "At some stage, I cannot recollect the date, Dodi
3 told me that he had met Diana, Princess of Wales, but he
4 did not at that point say much else. Around
5 29th August 1997, sometime in the early afternoon,
6 I received a call from Dodi Al Fayed's office saying
7 Dodi would be calling me from the boat on which he was
8 holidaying. They noted that Dodi would be careful about
9 what he said to me on the call because he was not sure
10 that the ship to shore line was secure, and he thought
11 the paparazzi might have been monitoring his phone
12 calls.
13 "A short while later, I received a call from Dodi
14 himself. I was in my office at the studio at Frogmore
15 in Hertfordshire, outside London, where we were shooting
16 the film Tomorrow Never Dies. Dodi said that he was
17 calling me from the boat in Sardinia. I teased him
18 about what I had been reading in the press. I recall
19 saying something like, 'Hi Romeo, are you all right?',
20 and him replying 'Yes, BB'. BB was the nickname for me.
21 'I have never been so happy in my life [this is again in
22 Dodi's words]. We are flying to Paris tomorrow and
23 coming back Sunday evening. I have something very
24 important to tell you, but I can't tell you over the
25 phone'.

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1 "Dodi also said that we, which I understood to mean
2 Diana, Princess of Wales and him, would like to see me
3 on Monday, 1st September 1997. I told him that we were
4 filming at Pinewood Studios the following Monday and we
5 agreed that they were going to come to see me there.
6 Dodi did not say much else in the conversation which was
7 very short.
8 "My impression at the time was that the very
9 important news which Dodi wanted to tell me related to
10 his personal life and his relationship with
11 Princess Diana and not to any other matter such as
12 a business matter. That was my impression at the time
13 and remains my impression now. Beyond that, I cannot
14 speculate as to what he meant."
15 And she concluded the statement:
16 "I believe the facts stated in this statement are
17 true."
18 Signed it and dated it in the way I have already
19 indicated?
20 A. Yes, she did.
21 Q. You spoke to Ms Broccoli on 7th March, I think?
22 A. That's right.
23 Q. And you made an attendance note of your discussion?
24 A. I did.
25 Q. An attendance note is simply notes of the conversation?

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1 A. That's right.
2 Q. If I could ask you some questions about that, I am
3 looking at the second paragraph of your note, Mr Smith,
4 did you ask Ms Broccoli whether she could remember
5 anything more about her conversation with Dodi on or
6 about 29th August?
7 A. I did.
8 Q. What did she say to you?
9 A. She said it was 10 years ago and so her recollection was
10 hazy. She said that it had been a fairly brief
11 conversation.
12 Q. Did you go on to ask her about the meeting that she had
13 mentioned in her statement?
14 A. I did, I asked if she could remember when Dodi was going
15 to meet her on the Monday. She said she did not recall
16 a specific time. Dodi had said that they, by which she
17 understood him to mean him and Diana, had to go back to
18 Paris and were then returning to London on the Sunday.
19 That was something to do with Diana having to be back to
20 see the boys. They wanted to go to Pinewood to see some
21 filming. She said she was supposed to be coming to the
22 end of the filming there imminently, finishing on the
23 Monday or Tuesday, so she said they had better be quick.
24 That was how the arrangement for Monday came about.
25 Q. Pausing there, so Ms Broccoli was filming the James Bond

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1 film at Pinewood?
2 A. That's my understanding, yes.
3 Q. Dodi and Diana wished to go and visit while the filming
4 was going on, on the Monday?
5 A. That's what she told me.
6 Q. So that is what they were going to Pinewood for, as she
7 told you?
8 A. That's what she said.
9 Q. Did Ms Broccoli go on then to tell you anything about
10 how long she had known Mr Al Fayed Senior and matters of
11 that sort?
12 A. She did, yes.
13 Q. What did she say?
14 A. She said she had known Mr Al Fayed Senior for many years
15 because she had been a childhood friend of Dodi's. She
16 had kept in touch with Mr Al Fayed because she really
17 missed Dodi.
18 Q. Was there any discussion between you about the
19 circumstances in which the statement on 3rd March which
20 we have read came to be made?
21 A. There was.
22 Q. What was the essence of that?
23 A. She said that she had received a call from Michael Cole
24 about 10 days previously.
25 Q. What in essence had been the nature of the conversation

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1 she had with him?
2 A. She told me that he had asked if she could do something
3 to help. She had said that she was in Panama, and he
4 asked if she would make a statement.
5 Q. Did you enquire of Ms Broccoli whether she had ever
6 passed on this information before to Mr Al Fayed or
7 those around him?
8 A. I did.
9 Q. What was her response to that?
10 A. She said she had thought she had seen Mr Al Fayed Senior
11 several times early on after Dodi's death and must have
12 told him then, but she did not think she had spoken
13 about this since that time, until Mr Cole had phoned her
14 recently.
15 Q. Then you had a discussion I think about her whereabouts
16 and she told you that she was one or two hours away from
17 Panama City which would make a videolink pretty
18 difficult?
19 A. She did.
20 Q. And that she was not going to be back in the UK until
21 sometime in early April?
22 A. That's correct, she told me she was filming boat
23 sequences and was very busy.
24 Q. Mr Smith, I know I have been reading about that in the
25 press and am looking forward to the film whe