Hearing transcripts

28 January 2008 - Afternoon session

1 Monday, 28th January 2008
7 (2.00 pm)
8 (Jury present)
9 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: I call Lady Sarah McCorquodale.
10 LADY SARAH MCCORQUODALE (sworn)
11 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Please sit down, Lady Sarah, if
12 you prefer giving your evidence sitting.
13 A. Thank you.
14 Questions from MR BURNETT
15 MR BURNETT: Would you give us your full name please?
16 A. Sarah McCorquodale.
17 Q. Lady Sarah, I am conscious that even though we are
18 10 years and more after these events, this is a very
19 difficult process for the families of both the Princess
20 of Wales and Dodi Al Fayed. I hope you will forgive us
21 for probing what may, on occasion, be quite painful
22 memories.
23 A. Thank you.
24 Q. You are the sister of the late Princess of Wales?
25 A. Yes.

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1 Q. How many siblings are there?
2 A. One more sister and a brother.
3 Q. Where do you rank in the hierarchy?
4 A. Eldest.
5 Q. We have heard from a number of witnesses, Lady Sarah,
6 who have spoken of the particular closeness of your
7 relationship with the Princess. Is that correct?
8 A. Yes, it is.
9 Q. Was that a closeness that lasted throughout her adult
10 life?
11 A. Yes, I believe it did.
12 Q. It's right, is it, that you became what I think is
13 called an "extra lady in waiting" -- I hope I have that
14 right -- in 1989?
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. In the course of the years that followed, so from 1989
17 through to September 1997, how frequent, ordinarily, was
18 your contact with the Princess of Wales, first of all
19 face-to-face?
20 A. I live two hours north of London, she was based in
21 London, so more telephonic than face-to-face.
22 I couldn't put a number of times on it, I am sorry.
23 Q. But you either saw her or were in touch very frequently
24 indeed?
25 A. Yes.

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1 Q. As a result of being a lady in waiting, you had official
2 duties in connection with the duties of the Princess of
3 Wales as well?
4 A. I did.
5 Q. It is striking, Lady Sarah, that we have heard from
6 a large number of people who explained that they were
7 very close to your late sister, but none of them
8 appeared to have known her for very long. Is that
9 something you were aware of?
10 A. The compartmentalisation?
11 Q. Partly that, and also a sense of friends coming and then
12 going.
13 A. Yes, I think that's true.
14 Q. As family, that never happened to you?
15 A. It may have done on one or two occasions.
16 Q. But nonetheless always came back together?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. As such, to what extent, in your judgment, do you
19 believe that the Princess confided in you of personal
20 and private matters?
21 A. I believe she did.
22 Q. Now, I would like to take you back, if I may, to 1991
23 and 1992. This was a time where you indicate in your
24 statements that the Princess was particularly down.
25 A. She was.

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1 Q. Without going into enormous detail and trespassing into
2 very private matters, in general terms why was that?
3 A. The deterioration of her marriage.
4 Q. She was also suffering at that time from bulimia?
5 A. She was.
6 Q. How did that affect her during that period?
7 A. Peaks and troughs; many more troughs than peaks.
8 Q. So would it be fair to describe 1991 and 1992 as
9 particularly dark times, so far as the Princess was
10 concerned?
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. Now, we know and we have heard from others that in
13 December 1992 the formal separation of the Princess and
14 the Prince of Wales was announced. I would like to ask
15 you about some events that preceded that. You are
16 aware, I am sure, that there has been much discussion in
17 these inquests and elsewhere concerning correspondence
18 between His Royal Highness, the Duke of Edinburgh, and
19 the Princess --
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. -- and in particular a focus on 1992.
22 A. (Witness nods)
23 Q. Did you ever see those letters?
24 A. Never.
25 Q. I shall come back in due course and ask you about events

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1 much later in 1998, but can I just stay with the
2 correspondence for a moment? In your statement, you
3 indicate that the Princess discussed those letters with
4 you.
5 A. She did.
6 Q. Are you able to recollect now when you had that
7 discussion with her?
8 A. Not with any accuracy, I am afraid.
9 Q. Was it, do you think, at the time or a bit later?
10 A. Am I right in thinking the first letter was June 1992?
11 Q. That's the first letter we have seen, yes.
12 A. And the last one?
13 Q. October.
14 A. October would be the earliest, and I would guess it
15 might have been later than that.
16 Q. In your statement, you say that the context of the
17 discussion you had with the Princess about them was that
18 the media had decided that the letters were attacking
19 her.
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. You remember that being the context?
22 A. I remember that. She was amused by that.
23 Q. And what was her take on it?
24 A. "If only they knew", sort of take.
25 Q. And that was because?

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1 A. Well, I assumed that the letters were not attacking her.
2 Q. Was that the sense that she conveyed to you?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. In general terms, are you able to say what the quality
5 of the Princess's relationship with the Duke of
6 Edinburgh was?
7 A. It was good, I believe.
8 Q. Was that a judgment that you made as a result of things
9 that she said to you?
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. You also speak, in your statements, of her having a very
12 fond relationship with the Queen --
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. -- and also that, by the end of her life, she was on
15 very good terms with Prince Charles.
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. And that's an accurate representation, is it?
18 A. Yes, it is.
19 Q. 1992 was a difficult time for the Princess, and no doubt
20 also for you and others in the family as well because
21 that's when you lost your father?
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. Can I take you forward to 1995 and ask you to focus on
24 the period leading up to and around the Panorama
25 programme? That is again something, as you know, that

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1 has been ventilated and discussed in these proceedings.
2 What was the Princess's state during the second half
3 of 1995?
4 A. In what way?
5 Q. Well, how was she?
6 A. Back to up and down again.
7 Q. Was there any particular reason for that of which you
8 are aware?
9 A. I think it stemmed from what could be an inevitable
10 divorce, and with divorce goes problems of access to
11 children, and she was very stressed about sharing them
12 and having to not have them with her all their holiday
13 times.
14 Q. Did she speak to you at all in the second half of 1995
15 about any particular fears that she might have had?
16 A. No, she didn't.
17 Q. So do we take it, then, that she didn't speak to you at
18 all about a belief, if that's what it was, that the
19 Prince of Wales was contemplating arranging an accident?
20 A. No, never.
21 Q. Did she speak to you at all about her concerns about the
22 boys' nanny, Tiggy Legge-Bourke?
23 A. No.
24 Q. You have seen, I am sure, and know about the "Burrell
25 note", as it has come to be called, which is not

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1 a letter, but a note containing some of those fears.
2 Also you have seen, I think, a note written by
3 Lord Mishcon 31st October 1995 --
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. -- which followed a meeting he had on the
6 30th October 1995. Was the Princess's mood, as conveyed
7 in those notes or meetings, representative of how she
8 seemed to you and the family at that time?
9 A. No.
10 Q. Is there any particular event that you recollect and
11 have in mind that might illustrate that?
12 A. There was a family outing, the three sisters and my
13 mother, to the ballet on, I believe it was,
14 1st November 1995. I believe Mr Foley may have some
15 photographic evidence.
16 Q. Before he pops that on the screen, if I can just take
17 you through it. You were seen in the car going to the
18 ballet and you were photographed --
19 A. Returning.
20 Q. Returning, and you were photographed?
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. And the photographs appeared --
23 A. In all the papers the next day.
24 Q. If we could see that. So we can see you and the
25 Princess, and I think the lady furthest from the shot is

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1 Lady Jane Fellowes.
2 A. Yes.
3 Q. So that evening at least, 1st November 1995, was a happy
4 one?
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. It looks to have been fairly fun-filled; would that be
7 fair?
8 A. Very, yes.
9 Q. And someone might look to have just told a joke.
10 Perhaps you can't remember.
11 A. I am afraid I can.
12 Q. For once I shan't pursue it.
13 Now, in 1996, of course, the divorce was finalised
14 and settlements were made financially and concerning the
15 boys and so forth. Did that lead to a change in the
16 Princess's mood for better or for worse?
17 A. After the divorce?
18 Q. Yes.
19 A. Yes, she became much more focused. There was -- she
20 knew what she wanted to do. The boys were happy,
21 sorted. It was time to go forward.
22 Q. Is it right that during this period -- I don't think we
23 have a precise date, but some time at the end of 1995 or
24 beginning of 1996 -- the Princess began seeing
25 Hasnat Khan?

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1 A. Yes.
2 Q. Now, were you aware of that from an early stage?
3 A. Not from an early stage, but I was aware of it once it
4 became an established relationship.
5 Q. So once it became serious?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. What was the quality of the relationship that developed
8 between Hasnat Khan and the Princess, so far as you
9 could judge?
10 A. I believed there was a strong possibility that they
11 might have married.
12 Q. Was that a belief that stemmed from discussions you had
13 had with the Princess about it?
14 A. Not necessarily discussions; more just a feeling.
15 Q. Did the Princess discuss with you the circumstances in
16 which the relationship came to an end?
17 A. He couldn't take, if that's the right word, her
18 lifestyle and was a very committed surgeon, and the two
19 didn't go together. I don't think she believed the
20 relationship was ended or she hoped it wasn't.
21 Q. Again, was that something that you picked up from things
22 she said or --
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. This, then, must have been towards the end of her life.
25 A. Yes, the summer, early summer.

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1 Q. I will come back to the summer. Were those discussions
2 that you had when the Princess came to see you towards
3 the end of July or were they --
4 A. I believe it was a little earlier than that.
5 Q. Now, during that whole period, 1996 and the beginning of
6 1997, did the Princess speak to you of any fears that
7 she had?
8 A. Safety fears?
9 Q. Safety fears.
10 A. No, but I knew she was having her apartments swept.
11 Q. So she believed that her apartments were being bugged?
12 A. Yes, but she didn't have any what I call "safety fears"
13 more than that, no.
14 Q. But she told you that she had had the apartments swept
15 for bugs on a couple of occasions?
16 A. I think it was two occasions she told me about
17 (inaudible).
18 Q. Did she mention to you any suggestion that she had been
19 threatened by a politician in February 1997 in
20 connection with her landmines work?
21 A. No.
22 Q. Is that the sort of thing she might have mentioned?
23 A. Possibly, yes.
24 Q. If she had been threatened, would she have done
25 something about it or would she have taken it lying

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1 down?
2 A. That depends what the threat was, I suspect. In this
3 case, I am -- I don't know. Either. Neither.
4 Q. Now we heard about that through Simone Simmons. Is that
5 a name that means anything to you?
6 A. I know the name. I have never met the woman.
7 Q. Did the Princess speak to you about Simone Simmons?
8 A. Simone Simmons was one of many -- what word did my
9 ex-stepmother use -- soothsayer, and my sister was aware
10 that I didn't agree with her seeing that much of
11 soothsayers, so whatever Simone Simmons may have said
12 didn't get as far as me.
13 Q. Do you know whether the Princess continued to see or
14 talk to Simone Simmons after the beginning of 1997?
15 A. I believe she didn't.
16 Q. Why do you believe that?
17 A. I believe my sister may have told me that she had
18 stopped seeing her, excommunicated her.
19 Q. Is that the language that your sister used or is that
20 your take on her language?
21 A. It's my interpretation of what she might -- I can't
22 remember what she would have said, but she was no longer
23 in the circle.
24 Q. The language of "excommunication" conveys being cast out
25 completely.

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1 A. Yes.
2 Q. Is that what used to happen?
3 A. Yes, and you knew when it had happened because you would
4 get told there was a new mobile number.
5 Q. So that those who had not been excommunicated could
6 communicate and --
7 A. Yes.
8 Q. How seriously did the Princess take what was said to her
9 or predicted by the people your stepmother described as
10 "soothsayers"?
11 A. Very seriously.
12 Q. That wasn't something you shared?
13 A. No.
14 Q. Or any other members of the family?
15 A. You would have to ask them.
16 Q. Were you aware before it happened that the Princess and
17 the boys were going to St Tropez to stay at
18 Mr Al Fayed's estate down there?
19 A. Yes.
20 Q. That was something she discussed with you?
21 A. She told me she was going.
22 Q. Do you know how long it was arranged in advance of the
23 trip?
24 A. Not very long. A month?
25 Q. Presumably arrangements for such a trip have to be made,

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1 domestic arrangements that any family that's subject to
2 a divorce would have to make, no doubt much more given
3 that the Royal Princes needed protection and so forth?
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. Did you talk to your sister while she was in St Tropez
6 on that first trip?
7 A. I believe she rang because she was coming to stay with
8 us when she got back, but I can't give you a date.
9 Q. She went to stay with you, I think, on 24th July.
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. Was she with the boys?
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. How long did she stay with you?
14 A. Two nights, three days.
15 Q. Was that something that had been planned long in
16 advance?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. Did she talk to you then about the time that she had had
19 in St Tropez?
20 A. Yes, she did.
21 Q. At that stage -- so this is after the holiday with
22 Mr Al Fayed Senior, if he will forgive me for calling
23 him that, and before going off on the Jonikal -- did she
24 talk to you at that stage at all about Dodi Al Fayed?
25 A. No, she didn't.

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1 Q. Not at all?
2 A. No, just the holiday generally.
3 Q. And the holiday had been a great success?
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. She had had a wonderful time?
6 A. The boys had had a wonderful time.
7 Q. And the boys had had a wonderful time. Were you aware
8 before it happened that the Princess was going on the
9 boat, the Jonikal, with Dodi Al Fayed towards the
10 beginning of August?
11 A. No. When she left me, she came to London to go to
12 Paris --
13 Q. Yes.
14 A. -- and that's as far in advance as I knew.
15 Q. I see. Then we know that she went on the Jonikal for
16 a few days at the beginning of August.
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. Then, of course, she had the trip to Bosnia --
19 A. Yes.
20 Q. -- the landmines, and then with Rosa Monckton --
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. -- to the Greek Isles before the second trip on the
23 Jonikal.
24 Were you, during that period, at home in
25 Lincolnshire?

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1 A. Yes, I was.
2 Q. During that period, did you and the Princess continue to
3 communicate by phone?
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. How often?
6 A. Not during Bosnia. I would think once a week; something
7 like that.
8 Q. Did you see the Princess again after her return from
9 Bosnia or her return from the trip with Rosa Monckton?
10 A. No, I didn't.
11 Q. When you spoke on the phone, did she talk at all about
12 Dodi and the relationship that was developing or had
13 developed?
14 A. The only one I remember is the last call she made, the
15 day before she died.
16 Q. We will come to that in a moment.
17 A. I don't remember the content of the previous
18 conversations.
19 Q. Where were the boys in August?
20 A. In Scotland with their father.
21 Q. At Balmoral?
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. That was a pattern that had been established, was it?
24 A. Well, it was the first year, but, yes, it was.
25 Q. It was a pattern that became established. Do you know,

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1 before the boys went to Balmoral, what plans your sister
2 had put in place for the whole of August, if any?
3 A. For herself?
4 Q. Yes.
5 A. Christmas and August were very bad times for her because
6 she didn't have the boys, and other times it was sort
7 of -- they moved between the two parents. So August she
8 was always very keen to fill up with things to do, as
9 opposed to sit in London. Does that answer your
10 question?
11 Q. Yes, I think it does. Thank you. We come, then, to the
12 second trip on the Jonikal, so we are coming towards the
13 end of August. In your statement you say that you spoke
14 every day during that trip.
15 A. No, I don't think every day.
16 Q. Not every day?
17 A. No.
18 Q. Can you remember how often?
19 A. No, I can't. I am sorry.
20 Q. Did the Princess talk to you from the boat about being
21 bugged?
22 A. Yes, she did.
23 Q. What did she say?
24 A. She thought the boat was being bugged by Mr Al Fayed.
25 Q. Mr Al Fayed Senior?

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1 A. Senior.
2 Q. As far as you know, did she have any basis for that
3 belief?
4 A. No, none that I know of, but she wasn't going to tell
5 me, was she?
6 Q. She didn't explain it to you?
7 A. (Witness shakes head)
8 Q. Was she phoning you or you phoning her?
9 A. No, she rang me.
10 Q. Was she using her mobile phone?
11 A. I assumed.
12 Q. But you just don't know?
13 A. No.
14 Q. During the second trip on the Jonikal when she
15 telephoned you -- and we will come to the last
16 conversation -- did she discuss Dodi with you at all
17 that you remember?
18 A. In the last telephone conversation?
19 Q. Or earlier calls.
20 A. I just happened to remember the one that she made on the
21 Friday.
22 Q. One can understand why that one would have stuck in your
23 mind. Well coming to that call then, what was the
24 particular subject matter of it that you remember?
25 A. There had been an article in a French newspaper,

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1 I believe it was Le Monde, about landmines, and she was
2 very, very upset because she felt she had been misquoted
3 and, as a result, she had been appearing to criticise
4 the Government and -- she was distraught. I suggested
5 she talk to Dodi about it, and she said that -- I can't
6 remember the words, but that would be a waste of time,
7 and from that I just didn't think the relationship had
8 much longer to go.
9 Q. Did she talk to you about any gifts that she had
10 received from Dodi --
11 A. No.
12 Q. -- or gifts that she had given to Dodi?
13 A. No, neither.
14 Q. In the course of that last conversation -- you say it
15 was on the Friday?
16 A. Friday afternoon.
17 Q. So that was Friday the 29th?
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. -- did the Princess tell you that she was going to
20 Paris?
21 A. No.
22 Q. She didn't mention that?
23 A. I thought she was coming back straight to London the
24 next day.
25 Q. I see. Was it a long conversation or a short one?

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1 A. 10/15 minutes.
2 Q. Now, at the beginning of July -- or I should say more
3 precisely when she was in St Tropez, so after 11th and
4 before 20th July --
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. -- the Princess is said to have made an enigmatic
7 statement to the press that the next thing she was going
8 to do would surprise them. Do you remember that being
9 spoken of?
10 A. I remember hearing it, yes.
11 Q. Do you know whether that was serious and, if so, what
12 she had in mind?
13 A. I have no idea.
14 Q. Had the Princess discussed with you, before then, the
15 possibility of moving abroad?
16 A. Every time she took a battering from the press, she
17 talked about France, America and then latterly
18 South Africa, where my brother was living.
19 Q. Your brother had moved to South Africa --
20 A. Yes, 1995.
21 Q. -- in part to get away from the press?
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. Can we take it that the Princess didn't mention to you
24 any question of engagement?
25 A. None.

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1 Q. Or pregnancy?
2 A. None.
3 Q. If she had been contemplating either, leaving aside you
4 and her close friends, who would she have talked to
5 about it?
6 A. I believe she would have talked to William, her son.
7 Q. Why is that?
8 A. They were very close. William had suggested these
9 dresses of hers being sold at auction in America.
10 I believe she would have consulted both him and Harry.
11 Q. Would she, in your view, knowing her as you did, have
12 made impulsive decisions on either of those scores?
13 A. No way, never.
14 Q. Now, I will move forward, if I may, but briefly, to the
15 events of the weekend after you spoke last to your
16 sister. We have heard evidence from others that you and
17 members of the family travelled to Paris before
18 returning to the United Kingdom, and I don't need to ask
19 you any questions at all about what happened in Paris
20 and events surrounding those hours or indeed those one
21 or two days.
22 What I would like to do, if I may, is take you
23 forward to events that followed when you were dealing
24 with the belongings of the Princess. You, I think, are
25 one of the Princess's executors.

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1 A. Yes, I am.
2 Q. You knew before her death that she had named you as
3 an executor in her will?
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. The other executor named in the will was your mother?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. In evidence she gave at the trial of Paul Burrell, she
8 indicated that she didn't know that in advance.
9 A. What, she didn't know she was one or I was one?
10 Q. No, that she was one.
11 A. Okay.
12 Q. In due course the Bishop of London was added as
13 an executor. We will not need to go into any detail
14 about that.
15 It was thus part of your function and that of your
16 mother and other members of the family to sort out the
17 effects of the Princess?
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. Now we know that the effects that the Princess had with
20 her in Paris in due course came back to
21 Kensington Palace. I don't think it necessary for me to
22 follow the trail round. Can I just ask you whether you
23 remember one particular aspect? We heard from
24 Paul Burrell that, when the suitcase was opened, there
25 were some empty Bulgari boxes.

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1 A. Yes.
2 Q. Does that ring a bell with you?
3 A. Yes, it does.
4 Q. Also he told us about a Bulgari ring, a very plain ring,
5 that the Princess had apparently worn on her right hand
6 at the time of her death. Do you remember his talking
7 about that?
8 A. Yes, I do.
9 Q. Now, in due course, you and your mother, and no doubt
10 with the assistance of others, including Paul Burrell,
11 sorted through what was in the flat at
12 Kensington Palace; that's right, isn't it?
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. Can I ask you generally about correspondence and what
15 happened to it?
16 A. Certainly.
17 Q. In the course of Paul Burrell's trial, your late mother
18 gave evidence and explained that she shredded, she put
19 it, between 50 and 100 documents. Mr Burrell suggested
20 it was rather more. When you were asked about it, you
21 confirmed that you knew that your mother had been
22 shredding some documents, but you didn't know what they
23 were.
24 A. Correct.
25 Q. Is that a fair summary of your understanding of what

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1 your late mother had been doing?
2 A. Yes.
3 Q. Were you there at all times when she was in the flat or
4 would there be some occasions when you were there and
5 not she and vice versa?
6 A. I wasn't there -- I can't remember a time when I was
7 there with her when she was shredding, but we had agreed
8 beforehand that anything that was sensitive or would be
9 distressing to the boys, then or in 30 years' time,
10 should be destroyed, and that's what we both did because
11 there was a lot of correspondence.
12 Q. What sort of things did you have in mind, Lady Sarah?
13 A. A thank you letter for a lunch or for some flowers or
14 a book or -- thank you letters. There were also
15 publications from the aforementioned soothsayers with
16 accompanying letters and we destroyed the publication
17 and the letter. Nothing historical was ever shredded.
18 Q. Certainly not by you?
19 A. And certainly not by me, and I believe my mother carried
20 out -- you know, we worked by the same rules.
21 Q. In giving your evidence at the trial of Mr Burrell, you
22 described shredding "thank you letters and things like
23 that", I think was the language you used. So would that
24 include correspondence from the group you are describing
25 as "soothsayers" --

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1 A. Yes.
2 Q. -- and publications, books, magazines from them and so
3 on?
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. Do you have any sense of the volume of correspondence
6 that you personally shredded?
7 A. No, I don't, I am afraid.
8 Q. Now you shredded nothing of what you describe as
9 "historical significance", so within that presumably you
10 would include any serious correspondence between the
11 Princess and senior members of the Royal Family?
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. And things such as her legal correspondence, matters of
14 that sort, would not have been destroyed?
15 A. No.
16 Q. Could you describe to us, in general terms, how the
17 Princess's correspondence was organised or ordered in
18 her apartment?
19 A. She had a study with a desk, and almost the whole of the
20 right-hand side of the desk was like a filing cabinet,
21 and -- I wouldn't call it "filing", I would call it
22 "chucking in". There was no filing in there. Then --
23 are you asking about the box?
24 Q. Come to the box in your own time. So we have one side
25 of a desk full of letters?

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1 A. Cards, letters --
2 Q. Random, is that?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. So that's what you and your mother carefully went
5 through?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. What did you do with all the correspondence that wasn't
8 being shredded?
9 A. It was packed up and sent to Althorp where all her other
10 chattels and belongings had gone.
11 Q. We will come then to the box. First of all, this box
12 that we see up here (indicating), I think you made
13 arrangements through Mr Smith, the Solicitor to the
14 Inquests, for it to come here.
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. Where was it until Mr Smith picked it up last week,
17 I think?
18 A. It had been at Althorp since -- no, it had a brief visit
19 to the Old Bailey, but it has been at Althorp since
20 1998.
21 Q. Althorp or Lincolnshire?
22 A. Lincolnshire up to the trial, sorry, and then Althorp.
23 Q. Let us get that chronology clear. The box went to your
24 home in Lincolnshire?
25 A. I took it home, yes.

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1 Q. From Kensington Palace?
2 A. From Kensington Palace in June 1998.
3 Q. There it stayed until Mr Burrell's trial in
4 October 2002?
5 A. I am not certain whether the police didn't come and take
6 it away and produce it there, but yes, it ended up at
7 the trial.
8 Q. And after the trial, it went to --
9 A. Althorp, along with all the other items that were
10 returned from Mr Burrell's --
11 Q. From the trial?
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. With that broad chronology in mind, can we wind back to
14 when you came across it in the apartment? Now, before
15 sorting your sister's belongings, were you aware of the
16 existence of this box, in other words had you seen it
17 before?
18 A. I had seen it, but I didn't realise it had a compartment
19 inside it. I thought it was a table; a low table.
20 Q. So could you now tell us the circumstances in which it
21 came to be opened at Kensington Palace?
22 A. There was no key, but we found a key, and it was --
23 Q. "We" were?
24 A. Sorry, Paul Burrell and myself. I believe it was in
25 March 1998.

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1 Q. Where did you find the key?
2 A. The key was found in a tennis racquet cover in the
3 sitting room where the box also was, and we opened it
4 and there was a list. Do you want me to run through it?
5 Q. Yes. First of all, you and Mr Burrell, just the two of
6 you?
7 A. Just the two of us.
8 Q. You opened it and you say there was a list. Was there
9 a list --
10 A. No, I have a list.
11 Q. Would you tell us what you remember was in it?
12 A. (Pause) A man's gold signet ring; Patrick Jephson's
13 resignation letter; dictaphone tapes --
14 Q. Dealing with an alleged criminal act?
15 A. -- wrapped up in a rubber band with my sister's writing
16 on it. Then a wad of documents appertaining to her
17 divorce, and I think there was also --
18 Q. What were they in?
19 A. A plastic sheet. You have all got them here, a
20 see--through cover.
21 Q. When you say you have a list, is this a list you have
22 made more recently rather than --
23 A. This is Roger Milburn's list.
24 Q. So you are using that as an aide memoire?
25 A. I am using that.

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1 Q. How full was the box?
2 A. Well, the wad of divorce papers was about that thick
3 (indicating), but there is actually less room in there
4 than you think there is going to be.
5 Q. The jury have seen inside and seen the little
6 compartments.
7 A. It wasn't in any way half-full. It was well less than
8 half.
9 Q. The divorce papers were the biggest thing?
10 A. That was the biggest, fattest thing in there, yes.
11 Q. Now you appreciate that it's been suggested that there
12 were letters from Prince Philip in there. Is that
13 right?
14 A. I have heard, yes.
15 Q. There were?
16 A. No, I have heard that it has been suggested.
17 Q. Sorry, it was my hearing on that occasion. So you have
18 heard it has been suggested?
19 A. Yes.
20 Q. Is that right?
21 A. There were no letters from the Duke of Edinburgh in the
22 box.
23 Q. Can I ask you, with me, to look at a note Mr Milburn
24 made, from whom we heard this morning, detailing a visit
25 to you in November 2000?

119

1 A. Yes.
2 Q. Perhaps we can have the typewritten version this time on
3 the screen. It's [INQ0060523]. Before we look at the
4 detail of it, do you remember Mr Milburn coming to see
5 you in Lincolnshire in November 2000?
6 A. Yes, I do.
7 Q. Are you able to recollect, after this period of time,
8 for how long he was with you?
9 A. No.
10 Q. Do you remember his coming with another police officer,
11 a lady?
12 A. Yes, only because I have looked it up in the diary, I am
13 afraid. The police came on more than three occasions to
14 my house. I am afraid I don't remember each one.
15 Q. Now, the purpose of their visit was in connection with
16 allegations that were being made against Paul Burrell.
17 Mr Milburn has told us that those allegations did not
18 come from you, and that's right, is it?
19 A. That's true.
20 Q. If we could just have a look at this document. I am
21 sure you are familiar with it. The copy we have on the
22 screen, Lady Sarah, has some telephone numbers and names
23 blacked out, but otherwise it's complete.
24 "Original executor.
25 "Mother and I.

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1 "London, three days a week for two to three months."
2 Would that be an accurate record of the sort of time
3 you were spending in London at the end of 1997?
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. "Wedding presents to Prince Charles."
6 That was the arrangement, was it?
7 A. Yes.
8 Q. The importance of that, of course, is that the
9 investigation was into a precious metal dhow which had
10 been a wedding present.
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. One sees that coming back on a number of occasions.
13 Then if we run through it without my reading it out,
14 various descriptions of what was going on. Then we see
15 this:
16 "Box in sitting room as you described. Now at
17 Althorp."
18 A. Well, it wasn't. In 2000, because that's before the
19 trial --
20 Q. Yes.
21 A. No.
22 Q. So it was definitely in Lincolnshire?
23 A. It was with us, yes, with me.
24 Q. Mr Milburn described to us this morning that his
25 recollection is that you got the box that you had,

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1 that's to say that one, and showed it to him on that
2 visit.
3 A. Yes. So it's not at Althorp, is it?
4 Q. No. But you confirm that you showed him the box?
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. There is then a discussion about the inventory being
7 done by Christies, Garrard's involvement. Then on the
8 next page, [INQ0060524], you mentioned Michael
9 Gibbins -- we have heard from him -- and gave his
10 telephone numbers.
11 Then the note is simply:
12 "Correspondence shredded."
13 Do you remember talking to him about shredding
14 correspondence?
15 A. No. I am not saying I didn't. I just don't recall.
16 Q. You just don't remember?
17 A. No.
18 Q. If you were discussing the circumstances in which you
19 cleared the apartments, then that's something you were
20 very likely to have mentioned?
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. There are two things that follow:
23 "Correspondence in box. Taken by Christmas by
24 Lady Sarah".
25 Is that accurate?

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1 A. I don't know. In the original transcript, was it
2 written -- the original note -- with another line in
3 between "correspondence in box"? Were they meant to be
4 grouped together?
5 Q. They are on separate lines, and there appears to be
6 a bracket at the end of the "box", but --
7 A. I don't know what he is talking about, "taken by
8 Christmas by Lady Sarah", but it wasn't the
9 correspondence in the box because I have never seen it
10 since.
11 Q. Let us focus on that then. The box that you had in
12 Lincolnshire, did it have anything in it at all?
13 A. It might have had a scarf -- no, it had nothing -- none
14 of the list I read out to you.
15 Q. So what had happened to what was in the box?
16 A. I had asked Paul Burrell to take it home the evening we
17 opened the box for safe-keeping, and he did, and that's
18 the last I ever saw of it, despite asking him to give it
19 back to me on several occasions.
20 Q. Why did you ask Paul Burrell to take the contents of
21 that box home with him when you opened it in
22 Kensington Palace?
23 A. The volume, made so by the divorce papers, plus the fact
24 that I believe I was on the train that night, and
25 I would have felt fine driving my car home with that

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1 sort of documentation, but not on the train.
2 Q. So there is no doubt in your mind that, so far as the
3 content of that box is concerned, Paul Burrell had it
4 and had it with your authority?
5 A. Approval, request, yes.
6 Q. So are you able to help at all with the two lines we
7 were just looking at "Correspondence in box", "Taken by
8 Christmas by Lady Sarah"?
9 A. No, I am not able to.
10 Q. Had the box been opened by Christmas 1997 at least?
11 A. No. March 1998 would be the earliest it could have been
12 opened.
13 Q. So you have never had any correspondence from that box
14 in your possession in Lincolnshire or elsewhere?
15 A. Never.
16 Q. Then moving on, there is a discussion about Paul Burrell
17 and various bits and pieces.
18 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: When Burrell was to take it home,
19 where was "home"?
20 A. "Home" was 200 yards away in his apartment.
21 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: So it wasn't "home", Cheshire, or
22 "home" --
23 A. I am not certain he had Cheshire then.
24 MR BURNETT: So he had it for safe-keeping?
25 A. Yes.

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1 Q. Turning the page, so we are now on [INQ0060525], there
2 is a slightly curious entry about the Inland Revenue
3 being instructed by Sotheby's. Then "Items missing" and
4 some dates there. Does that mean anything to you at
5 all?
6 A. Yes. The Inland Revenue wanted a re-valuation, and as
7 we had already used Christies, they used Sotheby's.
8 "Items missing", I can't remember that bit, I am afraid.
9 Those dates are the three days that Sotheby's carried
10 out their re-valuation at Althorp.
11 Q. Then we have a reference to offices being empty. Are
12 you able to help us with that?
13 A. Yes. That was the day that my sister's offices at the
14 back of the apartments were finally cleared.
15 Q. I see. Then Mr Milburn makes a list of the contents of
16 the box which are with Mr Burrell. This is a note that
17 he tells us he made at the time and was recording what
18 you were telling him.
19 A. Yes.
20 Q. So we have number 1, "JH sign ring", so short for
21 "signet ring", and that is something that you remember
22 being in the box?
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. Then "Letters, Prince Philip".
25 A. I don't know why that's there.

125

1 Q. Did you say to Mr Milburn that there were letters from
2 Prince Philip?
3 A. I may have hoped that there would have been letters from
4 Prince Philip because everyone was talking about them,
5 but I never would have said to him that they were there
6 because they weren't.
7 Q. Who was always talking about them?
8 A. The press were always "Where have these letters gone?",
9 I believe, were they not, about the letters from
10 Prince Philip to my sister?
11 Q. We need not worry too much about what the press were
12 saying. There had been an earlier stage. Can you
13 provide any insight into how Mr Milburn might have
14 written that if you had not mentioned it to him?
15 A. None.
16 Q. I will come back to them in a second. If we go down the
17 list: "Patrick Jephson's resignation letter", something
18 you do remember?
19 A. Yes.
20 Q. The dictaphone tape, something you do remember?
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. But no mention of the divorce papers?
23 A. No. I thought there was on here. Perhaps -- No, there
24 isn't.
25 Q. Now, how confident are you, first, that when you opened

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1 that box with Paul Burrell, there were no letters in it
2 from Prince Philip?
3 A. 100 per cent.
4 Q. How confident are you that you didn't mention to
5 Mr Milburn that there were letters from Prince Philip?
6 A. In it?
7 Q. In it.
8 A. Oh, 100 per cent.
9 Q. Can we follow this through? You see, the suggestion may
10 be -- and no doubt it will be put with clarity -- that
11 you knew there were letters from Prince Philip, you knew
12 what their content was and that you or someone you know
13 has got rid of them to protect Prince Philip and that in
14 some way you are party to covering things up relevant to
15 your sister's death.
16 A. Not true.
17 Q. That's the train of thinking. What are your
18 observations on any or all of that?
19 A. I have never seen the letters. I think I was expecting
20 to find them in her desk and they weren't there. I have
21 no idea where they are, no idea.
22 Q. Do you think it's possible that your mother shredded
23 them?
24 A. No.
25 Q. She simply wouldn't have done that?

127

1 A. She wouldn't have done that, no.
2 Q. Either deliberately or inadvertently?
3 A. She wouldn't have done it.
4 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Have you seen the thick wadge of
5 divorce papers since you saw them in the box?
6 A. No. None of the contents of that box have I ever seen
7 since.
8 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Have you any idea where they have
9 gone to?
10 A. Farndon in Cheshire, I am guessing, because that is
11 where they went via Kensington.
12 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: As far as you are aware, has
13 anybody described seeing them since you saw them in the
14 box?
15 A. No.
16 MR BURNETT: You mentioned in passing, a moment or two ago,
17 that you had asked Paul Burrell for the contents of the
18 box back.
19 A. Yes.
20 Q. Can you remember when that was?
21 A. It would be later on in 1998, and I can't remember -- he
22 worked for the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund
23 and he was made redundant at the end of that year, so it
24 would have been obviously before then, and it was on two
25 or three occasions, and he said "They are in packing

128

1 boxes, they are in Cheshire, I will get them to you",
2 and then he was made redundant and that was the end of
3 communication as such.
4 Q. They never did come to you?
5 A. No.
6 Q. You never made a complaint that he had stolen these?
7 A. No, I didn't.
8 Q. You mentioned, in the course of the evidence you gave at
9 the trial of Mr Burrell, that the police, at one stage,
10 had come to take photographs of the box; do you remember
11 that?
12 A. Yes, I photographed it for them, actually.
13 Q. You mentioned that it was in connection with another
14 case; do you remember that?
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. Do you know what that was?
17 A. The blacked out one in the Milburn note.
18 Q. I see. So it was to do with the criminal allegation
19 made in the tape that had been found in the box?
20 A. Yes.
21 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Which is quite irrelevant for
22 present purposes.
23 A. Totally irrelevant.
24 MR BURNETT: We are not naming names because it's irrelevant
25 and it's as simple as that.

129

1 Did you ask Mr Milburn and his colleague to ask
2 Paul Burrell for the contents back?
3 A. I did.
4 Q. Presumably you are not directly aware of whether they
5 did so --
6 A. I hope they did.
7 Q. -- but Mr Milburn has told us that they did ask him and
8 he said he didn't have them.
9 Now the box we see there has a big key in it, and
10 you have told us it was found in the tennis racquet
11 cover in the apartment in Kensington Palace. Did the
12 key go back into the tennis racquet cover for the time
13 that the box remained there?
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. We have heard, I think, from Mr Burrell -- and indeed
16 I think he got it from what you said at the trial --
17 that the box was put into the lift there --
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. -- and left there until you took it to Lincolnshire.
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. At some stage you mention in the course of your evidence
22 at his trial that the box was forced because you
23 couldn't find the key. Could you explain the
24 circumstances in which that happened please?
25 A. I think it was the visit from the police when they came

130

1 to photograph the box and they needed to photograph
2 inside, and I am afraid I had to break into it because
3 I had managed to lose the key myself.
4 Q. But you subsequently found it, I guess, rather than
5 having a new one made; is that right?
6 A. I am quite surprised to see the key, actually. I wasn't
7 aware the key had been found, but obviously it has.
8 Q. This is a box -- I shall not pretend to be
9 an enthusiastic auctioneer, but it's a large oak box,
10 perhaps. Now, at the trial, you were asked about some
11 other boxes; do you remember that?
12 A. I do, yes.
13 Q. You were asked by Lord Carlile, who was acting for
14 Mr Burrell, whether you remembered a smaller box made of
15 wood but covered in blue leather with a "D" on it, which
16 might have contained some correspondence. Is that
17 something you remember at all?
18 A. That was the box that had the correspondence in it.
19 Q. That's the only one --
20 A. That's the only one that had correspondence in it.
21 Q. You say that's the only one that had correspondence in.
22 My question --
23 A. The correspondence that I am talking about in here.
24 Q. -- was whether you remember the other box, a box that
25 was covered in blue leather.

131

1 A. I do not remember that.
2 Q. You don't remember that at all.
3 A. Is that what I said at the trial?
4 Q. You said you didn't remember it then too.
5 You were also asked about a smaller box which was
6 embossed or inlaid with "VRI", "Victoria Regina
7 Imperatrix", on the top, and you don't remember that one
8 either.
9 In his evidence at the trial, a police officer gave
10 evidence of seeing Mr Burrell with a box that he
11 described as "mahogany and ornate with brass
12 finishings". Does that ring any bells with you at all?
13 A. No, it doesn't.
14 Q. So that's the only box that you can help us with?
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. And none other?
17 A. No.
18 MR BURNETT: Thank you, Lady Sarah. Those are all my
19 questions.
20 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Mr Mansfield?
21 Questions from MR MANSFIELD
22 MR MANSFIELD: Good afternoon. My name is
23 Michael Mansfield. I think, as you know, I represent
24 Mohamed Al Fayed, and I have some questions to ask about
25 a variety of matters. I apologise for doing so 10 years

132

1 after the event and some of them, I appreciate, are
2 painful memories and I will be careful.
3 I want, if I may, just to start, since it's here
4 today, to deal with the box, if I may. Now, first of
5 all, so we do have clarity about it, the box that we
6 have here today is that the box that you opened with
7 Paul Burrell?
8 A. I believe it is.
9 Q. I mean, is there any doubt?
10 A. None.
11 Q. Because, as you have just been reminded, you were
12 certainly asked about other boxes at the trial,
13 altogether another two, and just to see if we can
14 progress it slightly, it was suggested to you that there
15 was another box, wooden chest, brass corners and
16 handles, which of course that one doesn't appear to
17 have, and the emblem "VRI", a reference to
18 Queen Victoria, on the top. First of all, do you
19 remember that box?
20 A. I don't.
21 Q. At all? So really if what we are talking about here,
22 namely the correspondence -- or what was in it, in the
23 box you opened with Paul Burrell -- you are saying "It's
24 not this one I have just mentioned", otherwise you would
25 have remembered it?

133

1 A. Yes, it's this one.
2 Q. All right. I will come back to this one in a second.
3 There was suggested another one, not wooden, although
4 perhaps underneath it was, but it was covered in blue
5 leather. Do you remember that one?
6 A. No.
7 Q. With a green coronet on the top?
8 A. (Shakes head)
9 Q. No? So if it were that one that had contained these
10 items, again you would have remembered it?
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. So we can expressly exclude other boxes; it's this one?
13 A. It is.
14 Q. Right. You have indicated that when you saw it in her
15 sitting room from time to time, you didn't realise it
16 was a box; is that because it didn't have a key in it?
17 A. It didn't have a key and it had magazines on top of it.
18 Q. That's fully understandable. You left troubling with
19 it, as it were, until the year after the crash; in other
20 words 1998 seems to be what you are saying.
21 A. Six months.
22 Q. So it's just into 1998?
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. Please understand I am not going to pin you to precise
25 dates. It's very difficult. Now it was suggested that

134

1 the point we are making will be put with clarity.
2 Of course you must understand that naturally, as far
3 as those on behalf of Mr Al Fayed are concerned, we
4 don't have access, do we, to Kensington Palace, what was
5 going on, other than what people say was going on; do
6 you appreciate?
7 A. Yes.
8 Q. Therefore we are trying to piece together
9 retrospectively what must have happened here. What
10 I want to suggest to you is that there are a series of
11 items of importance that have gone missing; do you
12 realise?
13 A. What?
14 Q. Well, you know what -- in fact I will suggest to you
15 that you know what they all are, the ones that have gone
16 missing, and I will start with the obvious ones. You do
17 appreciate what's gone missing, don't you?
18 A. I presume you are going to give me a list.
19 Q. No, I presume you are going to be aware of what it is.
20 I will give you a list. You do appreciate what's gone
21 missing and still appears to be missing?
22 A. I will wait for you to tell me.
23 Q. Why?
24 A. Because I don't know what you are talking about.
25 Q. You really don't?

135

1 A. No.
2 Q. Sorry, I do not want to play games at all. It's
3 suggested -- deadly serious -- a question of the
4 Duke of Edinburgh's letters, for a start. They are
5 missing, aren't they?
6 A. I believe they were in -- have not Buckingham Palace got
7 copies of them?
8 Q. You might like to follow me through. When the Duke
9 wrote to Diana -- I am not interested in the copies or
10 who may have been shown various different letters at
11 different times; do you follow -- you never saw the
12 letters; is that --
13 A. Never.
14 Q. Never saw them. Diana never asked you for any help in
15 replying to them?
16 A. No.
17 Q. Did you know that she was getting help from all sorts of
18 people in order to reply to them?
19 A. No, I didn't.
20 Q. Does that come as a surprise?
21 A. No.
22 Q. Right. It's plain that she didn't always confide in
23 you, did she?
24 A. No.
25 Q. So just going on with the question -- never mind the box

136

1 for the moment -- if he wrote to her, which he obviously
2 did, at least in 1992 or any other year, the originals
3 of the letters from him to her would be in her
4 possession, wouldn't they?
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. Where are they?
7 A. I have no idea.
8 Q. You did appreciate, when I was first asking you, that
9 that was the topic --
10 A. No, I didn't.
11 Q. You really didn't?
12 A. No.
13 Q. You see, there did come a time when letters or the
14 question of the letters was a question that was in the
15 public domain and certainly the question about the
16 whereabouts of the letters has been in the public domain
17 particularly since this inquest was opened in 2004. You
18 attended the opening of the inquest, didn't you?
19 A. I did.
20 Q. And you followed the various stages because you have
21 been permitted, quite rightly -- no objection
22 obviously -- to be here if you wanted to be, to be
23 represented if you wanted to be and so forth. So you
24 have followed the proceedings?
25 A. I have.

137

1 Q. You must have known before today that one of the issues
2 that the learned Coroner had certainly, upon
3 application, considered was relevant and needed at least
4 clarification is these letters.
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. Right. What have you done about it?
7 A. I have never ever seen the letters, so I have relied on
8 other people to produce the letters.
9 Q. No, no, I am so sorry. What have you done about it?
10 A. Put in touch the lady from Mishcons who rang me to tell
11 me that she had had the copies in her safe.
12 Q. When did that happen?
13 A. December.
14 Q. Of which year?
15 A. 2007.
16 Q. 2007. So she is probably one of the two who have given
17 evidence here. She telephones you to say what?
18 A. She has remembered that she stored letters in her safe.
19 Q. Yes, and you put her in touch with the Coroner?
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. Right. I will come straight to the point. The most
22 obvious thing for you to do, I suggest, since you were
23 asking the police to go to Mr Burrell, is for you to go
24 to the family seat, if I may put it that way, at
25 Althorp, isn't it?

138

1 A. The letters aren't there.
2 Q. How do you know?
3 A. I have never seen them.
4 Q. How do you know they are not there?
5 A. Do you think they are?
6 Q. Please understand, we don't know, and this is
7 an inquiry -- independently undertaken -- to discover
8 where they are and whether we have seen all of them.
9 Now, I am going to ask you this: how often did the Duke
10 write to Princess Diana?
11 A. I don't know because the only letters I have seen have
12 been on the screen here.
13 Q. I mean, he would not have only written to her in 1992,
14 would he?
15 A. I don't know.
16 Q. You see, there is a relationship between him and the
17 Princess before 1992, ever since the marriage, so that's
18 quite a few years, isn't it?
19 A. Mm.
20 Q. Then there is a relationship after 1992, up until at
21 least the time in 1996 when the divorce is finalised and
22 she loses her title at that point. So that the
23 suggestion I do make is: there must be other letters
24 besides the ones in 1992; do you follow?
25 A. Yes.

139

1 Q. Right. Now, all I am asking is whether it's the ones in
2 1992 or other ones written later which a witness claims
3 that she saw or ones written earlier, where are all
4 these letters, the originals?
5 A. If they exist, they would be at Althorp.
6 Q. Right. I had better take it in stages. After you had
7 asked the police to follow this through in
8 November 2000, you asked them, whilst they were seeing
9 Burrell, to ask about the contents of the box; yes?
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. Once they had done that -- it was, in fact, in
12 January 2001 -- did the officer or officers -- there
13 were two at least -- report back to you about what
14 Mr Burrell had said?
15 A. I presume they did, but I don't recall it.
16 Q. Well, I would like you to think very carefully. Do you
17 agree that the items that we have so far specified --
18 leave aside the Duke of Edinburgh's letters for the
19 moment -- the other items you described at Burrell's
20 trial, did you not, as "the most sensitive of material"?
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. Right. And therefore, particularly if in fact it was
23 a file of divorce papers, that really is very important,
24 isn't it?
25 A. Yes.

140

1 Q. Right. If the police came back to you -- and I suggest
2 you would be wanting to know, since you asked them, and
3 it's one of the first things they ask when they go there
4 because you must know that through the Burrell trial --
5 they must have come back to you and said, "Not a drop,
6 no box" -- of course we will go through that, the box is
7 with you or somewhere; we will come back to it -- but
8 certainly none of that material that you talked about
9 which he has noted down as including the letters and you
10 disagreed -- but in any event, none of that. If they
11 came back and told you that, you would be very
12 concerned, wouldn't you?
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. So kindly let us know when it was, roughly speaking,
15 that an officer comes back to you and says "Nothing can
16 be found"?
17 A. I presume it's very shortly after the search of
18 Paul Burrell's house.
19 Q. So did you then say to the police, in the clearest
20 possible terms, "Well, he has stolen them"?
21 A. He had not stolen them because I had given them to him
22 for safe-keeping.
23 Q. Wait a minute. According to you, you had asked for
24 their return on a number of occasions --
25 A. Mm.

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1 Q. -- especially in 1998 --
2 A. (Witness nods)
3 Q. -- and he said they were in packing cases.
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. The police don't find anything. It is beginning to look
6 as though he has appropriated them, if that's what's
7 happened; do you follow? Do you say to the police,
8 "Well, I want this matter taken further forward"?
9 A. I don't remember what I said.
10 Q. I would like you to think, please. Did you ask the
11 police, "I want this matter pursued"?
12 A. I don't remember.
13 Q. I am pausing because I want you to have plenty of
14 opportunity in relation to "the most sensitive of
15 documents", the divorce file, if nothing else -- that
16 you don't remember whether you asked the police to
17 pursue it.
18 A. I don't remember.
19 Q. Because there was a mass of material that was taken from
20 there. Well over 300 items were taken by the police
21 from Mr Burrell's address in 2001, weren't they?
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. So you don't remember whether you asked the police, but
24 leaving aside the police, did you -- I mean, how often
25 do you go to Althorp?

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1 A. Four times a year.
2 Q. Right, and relationships are fine?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. There is no problem there. Did you ask anyone at
5 Althorp, "Listen, I want to double-check here. Burrell
6 hasn't -- at least we haven't found anything in his
7 place, so maybe, by mistake, we have got them"?
8 A. No.
9 Q. So you didn't do it then?
10 A. No.
11 Q. And you have never done it since?
12 A. No.
13 Q. Why not?
14 A. Because I don't believe the letters are there.
15 Q. That's all very well. Of course mistakes can be made,
16 can't they?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. Is there any problem about you doing it now?
19 A. No.
20 Q. Would you be kind enough, with the Coroner's permission,
21 to make inquiries now?
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. If they were taken to Althorp by mistake at some stage,
24 are all her belongings, as it were, kept in one place?
25 A. One house?

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1 Q. Well, I am sorry, I am not familiar with Althorp and
2 I don't know which part of the various buildings, or if
3 there are various buildings, that her belongings might
4 be kept. Do you know where they are kept at Althorp?
5 A. I do.
6 Q. Is it one specific place?
7 A. One area.
8 Q. I am not asking for it to be defined. So it's one area.
9 Is there someone who is looking after them?
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. Is that person there most of the time?
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. So it really would have been quite easy to ask that
14 person a long time ago, "Could you just do a check",
15 wouldn't it?
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. You are concerned about all this material, aren't you?
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. If I may say so, you have done very little to secure it,
20 haven't you?
21 A. Nothing.
22 Q. Nothing. All right. Now the box itself and it's
23 contents, that box (indicated). I just want to take you
24 back to the trial, when you were asked a number of
25 questions about the box, and in particular have you read

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1 what you said at the trial recently?
2 A. Yes.
3 Q. You have. So hopefully I will not take you by surprise.
4 If you wish to see the transcript, you are welcome. Do
5 you have it there?
6 A. Yes, I have it here.
7 Q. I don't know how it's divided up in how you have it, but
8 it's page 54, where you are being cross-examined by
9 Lord Carlile who, as has been pointed out, was
10 representing Mr Burrell at the time. Do you have
11 page 54?
12 A. I do.
13 MR MANSFIELD: Sir, do you have the same copy that we have?
14 A. "Burrell's hand" is the first line.
15 Q. Sorry, the first line on page 54 is:
16 "Do you remember that ever happening?"
17 A. That's my third line.
18 Q. I think the bit I am coming to is on the same page.
19 There is a mismatch by about three lines. Now,
20 Lord Carlile -- what I want it put to you -- is plainly
21 taken by surprise that this box is at the Old Bailey.
22 Do you follow?
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. So we can see what happened:
25 "I should like to turn now to the box."

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1 And he asks the question:
2 "Is this a blue box?
3 "Answer: No.
4 "Question: What colour is it?
5 "Answer: Wooden.
6 "Question: Wooden box, and you have it?
7 "Answer: No, it is here.
8 "Question: You say the box is here, in this
9 building?
10 "Answer: Yes.
11 "Question: Have you seen it today?
12 "Answer: No, yesterday.
13 "Question: Yesterday?
14 "Answer: Mm.
15 "Question: Do you know where the box came from to
16 here?
17 "Answer: From my home.
18 "Question: From your home?
19 "Answer: Yes.
20 "Question: So the box was taken to your home and
21 remained in your possession?
22 "Answer: Yes.
23 "Question: And it was taken to your home from
24 where?
25 "Answer: Kensington Palace.

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1 "Question: By?
2 "Answer: Either me or a driver who brought it up to
3 me.
4 "Question: Under your supervision?
5 "Answer: Yes.
6 "Question: Could we see the box?"
7 Then the box is obtained or is being obtained while
8 he continues to ask you questions. He asks whether you
9 knew that Diana kept copies of letters which she wrote
10 and you said, "Yes, she did".
11 I pause. Of course, that's another category of
12 document, the copies of the letters that she wrote, her
13 copies. Do you follow?
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. You understand what I am --
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. Where are they?
18 A. I don't know.
19 Q. Well, you confirmed that she did keep the copies.
20 That's at the Old Bailey. Then obviously the box is
21 brought in by somebody:
22 "Just put it on the table", says Lord Carlile,
23 "please. Is the key there with it?
24 "Answer: No.
25 "Question: No? Do you have the key?

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1 "Answer: I have the key.
2 "Question: You have always had the key?
3 "Answer: No.
4 "Question: Since it was found in the tennis racquet
5 cover, where you found it --
6 "Answer: Yes.
7 "Question: -- you told us earlier?
8 "Answer: Yes.
9 "Question: Could you just shut the box?"
10 Now, did you have the key at the Old Bailey to this
11 box?
12 A. Apparently I did. I didn't think I had.
13 Q. You see, I want to ask you about this, the key. You
14 didn't think you had it at the Old Bailey --
15 A. No.
16 Q. -- but you are telling the jury at the Old Bailey and
17 her Ladyship as well, "I have the key". Where was the
18 key?
19 A. After the tennis racquet cover?
20 Q. At the time you were giving evidence, where was the key?
21 A. (Pause) Well, we must have opened it because I say
22 "Question: Could you shut the box, please?" So I must
23 have found it between when the police came to photograph
24 it and producing it at the Old Bailey.
25 Q. Where was it?

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1 A. At my home.
2 Q. If you just go on on this page, to save going back to
3 it, after being asked about "the lid might drop" and so
4 on:
5 "That was a box in which the Princess kept
6 confidential things."
7 Do you see that? You say "Yes".
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. Then this question:
10 "When she died that box was quite full."
11 Do you see that?
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. "Answer: Yes, quite full."
14 A. Yes, and today I have said "half empty".
15 Q. Yes, I really don't want to, as it were, be pernickety
16 about it and I will have to come back to this.
17 This box, according to your earlier evidence at the
18 Old Bailey, had two major categories of material; namely
19 the sensitive items and the non-sensitive. Yes?
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. What's happened to the non-sensitive?
22 A. I have no idea. The whole lot was given to
23 Paul Burrell.
24 Q. We will have to come to that, I am afraid. The
25 non-sensitive is all the other material that's not in

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1 the Milburn list because that's the sensitive material.
2 Do you understand?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. It was called "the remainder" at the Old Bailey. What
5 was in the remainder?
6 A. The only thing I remember was a scarf.
7 Q. Is that all?
8 A. If you could produce the list from the Old Bailey,
9 I will see if it jogs my memory.
10 Q. You see, there was not a list. The only list -- and we
11 are operating on what we are given -- we have been
12 provided with in relation to the box is Mr Milburn --
13 the officer, he is now a temporary DI -- his list which
14 you relied on when you first started giving evidence.
15 There is his list, which is the sensitive items, but he
16 has not made a list of all the other items, has he?
17 A. Apparently not.
18 Q. Did you want the other items back? Did you say, "Look,
19 when you go and see Burrell, can I have the other
20 items"?
21 A. The only thing I can remember was a scarf. I can't
22 remember anything else.
23 Q. Well, a scarf plus the sensitive items wouldn't make
24 that box quite full, would it?
25 A. It could do because the divorce section was fat;

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1 bulging.
2 Q. Could you hold it up, so we have an idea?
3 A. (Indicating)
4 Q. So sizeable. So we are dealing with an 8-inch file
5 there.
6 I haven't myself looked inside to see what the space
7 is there, but anyway, an 8-inch file. Just
8 concentrating on the key, if we just go on before the
9 break, if I may.
10 So after the trial, what happens to the box?
11 A. It's returned to Althorp with the other items from the
12 trial.
13 Q. With the key that you had?
14 A. Presumably, because it's here today.
15 Q. Because the other surprise that you had today was to see
16 the key with it?
17 A. (Witness nods).
18 Q. Where did you think the key was?
19 A. Hidden very well in my home. So well that I hadn't been
20 able to find it.
21 Q. Because when the police came to take a photograph, you
22 had to break the box open.
23 A. I did.
24 Q. Which police came?
25 A. What date?

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1 Q. Never mind the date. It's difficult probably. But
2 I will ask for the year, if you can give us a year, can
3 you? Was it 1998, the year afterwards?
4 A. No, no, because Roger Milburn first came to see me about
5 this in 2000.
6 Q. So --
7 A. So sometime between November 2000 and the start of
8 Paul Burrell's trial.
9 Q. Very well. So likely to be, therefore, 2001, possibly?
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. Likely to be 2001. Now, who was the officer who came?
12 Was it Milburn or was it -- there was a woman officer
13 called "de Brunner".
14 A. If you tell me the date, I can tell you who came.
15 Q. We haven't got a date, and in fact the only reason I am
16 raising it, and I did this morning -- were you here this
17 morning?
18 A. No.
19 Q. Have you followed the transcript from this morning?
20 A. No.
21 Q. -- was that it's because in your evidence at the
22 Old Bailey, you mention:
23 "I couldn't find the key when the police [it's
24 a later page] came to visit and take photographs of it.
25 The police came and took photographs of it.

152

1 "Question: When was that?"
2 You don't actually answer that particular aspect.
3 You say:
4 "It was another possible prosecution."
5 You "... lost the key and the lid was forced open.
6 Until then it had a lock which worked ..."
7 A. It was different policemen if it was to do -- if they
8 came to visit me for the other prosecution.
9 Q. I am not going into if it's related to a prosecution
10 concerning the tapes. Why were they coming to see a box
11 if it was a prosecution concerned with the content of
12 the tapes?
13 A. I don't know.
14 Q. Or was it that they were police officers coming to have
15 a look at the box because of what it had contained at
16 one time?
17 A. I don't know.
18 Q. You must have, before you let them in, said, "Why on
19 earth do you want to photograph a box?" In fact you
20 took the photographs for them, did you?
21 A. I don't remember.
22 Q. Well you said today that you did.
23 A. No, I did take the photographs, but I don't remember ...
24 Q. Do you have the photographs?
25 A. No, not with me.

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1 Q. Do you have them somewhere?
2 A. I think the police have them.
3 Q. The police have them. Which police?
4 A. I photographed them for the police, but I can't remember
5 who I gave them to.
6 Q. All right. Can I ask you this? When the police came,
7 what was in the box?
8 A. Nothing.
9 Q. So why was it locked?
10 A. I don't know.
11 MR MANSFIELD: Sir, would that be a convenient moment?
12 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Yes. Mr Mansfield, we seem to be
13 spending a long time with this witness on a very narrow
14 area that is some way removed from the central question
15 that has to be decided. There is a limit to how long
16 Lady Sarah can give her evidence for and I hope you will
17 bear that in mind.
18 MR MANSFIELD: Sir, I am. May I just say, I think you are
19 aware, as far as this is concerned, we say it's central
20 to this inquest.
21 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: I appreciate that, but the
22 witness says that she has not seen the letters, the
23 contents of the box went to Burrell, and you are getting
24 fairly quickly into the position where either you have
25 to accept what she says and leave it there or put to her

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1 that there is some sinister activity on her part
2 explaining the absence of any letters.
3 MR MANSFIELD: Sir, that's the object of the inquest, if
4 I may say so. I am not in a position other than to ask
5 questions of a witness in order to discover the truth,
6 and until we get close to the truth, I am not in
7 a position to make a suggestion.
8 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: No. It is an inquiry, of course,
9 at the end of the day.
10 MR MANSFIELD: Yes. Well, that's what an inquiry, in my
11 submission, would do.
12 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Anyway, you appreciate the
13 position and we will resume in quarter of an hour.
14 (3.25 pm)
15 (A short break)
16 (3.40 pm)
17 (Jury present)
18 MR MANSFIELD: Sir, there has been some discussion. I have
19 made it very clear, I hope fairly, that it's unlikely
20 I will finish tonight. I will almost certainly go into
21 tomorrow and it would be unfair on the witness to
22 believe that it might be finished today, but
23 I understand that's possible.
24 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: We can go until 5 o'clock
25 tonight.

155

1 MR MANSFIELD: Right.
2 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: But really I don't see that the
3 time that's been allocated for this witness, 2 until 5,
4 ought to be insufficient.
5 MR MANSFIELD: Sir, I understand your concerns, but may I
6 say on this one so far as -- and I do not want to say
7 too much in her presence, but --
8 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: I don't, at the moment, know what
9 Lady Sarah's position is tomorrow anyway, but that's
10 another matter.
11 MR MANSFIELD: May I ask it now?
12 Are you able to come back tomorrow?
13 A. I am.
14 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Don't let that encourage you to
15 be any longer!
16 MR MANSFIELD: No. I have very clear areas I want to ask
17 about.
18 Now, if you have the transcript -- I am sorry, I am
19 not leaving the box and the letters just yet -- of what
20 happened at the Old Bailey, you were asked questions
21 initially by counsel for the Crown, Mr Boyce, and that
22 starts at page 2 on Thursday, 24th October 2002.
23 I am going to come to the questions about the chest
24 or the box. In fact it's at the bottom of page 11 on to
25 page 12. It might be slightly differently numbered:

156

1 "Next topic, if I may. During her life at
2 Kensington Palace, are you aware of any particular place
3 where Diana, Princess of Wales, kept personal letters
4 and private correspondence?
5 "Answer: She had a desk in her sitting room where
6 she kept a lot of letters. Then there was this chest,
7 box, which, when I found the key, I opened up and found
8 these most sensitive items."
9 Then you deal with the key, you found the key, and
10 so on. Then at the bottom of page 12:
11 "In relation to what you have described as being the
12 most sensitive items, were there also items which did
13 not fall into that category? Were they only the most
14 sensitive items or were there also other items in the
15 chest?
16 "Answer: There were lots of other items in the
17 chest."
18 Do you see that?
19 A. Yes.
20 Q. Well, is that right?
21 A. I don't remember now what I said then. It's five years
22 ago.
23 Q. No, no, I do appreciate, but it's likely that your
24 memory then is going to, if anything, be more accurate
25 than it is now?

157

1 A. Yes.
2 Q. Then the question -- this is why I asked you those other
3 questions before the break:
4 "Thank you very much. In relation to the contents
5 of the chest, some of which you have described as the
6 most sensitive, I am going to call the others 'the
7 remainder'."
8 Do you see?
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. Did you take any steps in relation to either the most
11 sensitive items or to the remainder?
12 "Answer: The sensitive items I passed to Paul."
13 Now, is that right?
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. I want to be clear. Were you meaning there -- the
16 implication is -- that you selected the sensitive items
17 and gave those to Paul as opposed to the non-sensitive?
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. So what it comes to, what you are saying, is that they
20 are taken out of the box and given to him quite
21 separately?
22 A. On the day that we opened the box?
23 Q. Yes.
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. I wondered if that's what you meant. So that it becomes

158

1 even more important, I suggest, to track down -- if
2 what's left in the box, the lots of other items that you
3 now don't remember, aren't that sensitive, we might
4 begin to follow what's happened here if we can at least
5 track down what's in the other items. Do you follow?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. You didn't keep a list of anything, did you?
8 A. No.
9 Q. An inventory?
10 A. No, not for this.
11 Q. Well, not for the box; as a whole.
12 A. (Witness nods)
13 Q. So you don't have a list of what the sensitive items
14 were and you don't have a list of what the non-sensitive
15 were, do you?
16 A. I don't.
17 Q. In fact, if I were to ask you whether the non-sensitive,
18 in other words "the remainder", actually contained
19 letters relating to the Duke of Edinburgh, you wouldn't
20 know, would you?
21 A. Well, I would suggest that they would come under the
22 sensitive category.
23 Q. They might, but did you look through the remainder?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. You see, on this question of the list, you are not in

159

1 a position to explain how on earth the officer, that's
2 Mr Milburn, in the presence of another senior officer,
3 a woman -- do you remember her --
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. -- wrote down -- because it doesn't sound like divorce
6 papers, "Letters, Prince Philip" -- can you?
7 A. No idea.
8 Q. Do you say you didn't mention them at all?
9 A. He said they were going to -- I believe he said they
10 were going to visit Paul Burrell's home, and I asked him
11 to look for them when he was there.
12 Q. Look for what?
13 A. Any letters from Prince Philip.
14 Q. You did?
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. Oh, right. Why?
17 A. Because if they were going to Paul's house, I suspected
18 that's the place they could be.
19 Q. So they were missing even then, were they?
20 A. Well, we hadn't found them.
21 Q. You had been looking?
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. Yes. Not because it was in the press, I suggest to you,
24 by then -- 1997/1998; it wasn't in the press. People
25 didn't know about any missing letters at that point, did

160

1 they?
2 A. I can't remember.
3 Q. Because that's what you said today. You expected to
4 find the letters in the box --
5 A. But they weren't there.
6 Q. -- but they weren't there. So even before there is any
7 publicity, you are concerned to find the letters. Is
8 this the actual position?
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. Right. This is a position that has not been explained
11 before, isn't it?
12 A. I don't know.
13 Q. Well, I am sorry to take up time today. We have asked
14 all these questions months ago, in fact years ago, and
15 it's only today we are beginning to get some answers,
16 you do appreciate, and I am sorry to keep you here to
17 ask you these questions.
18 So unless there is any doubt about their relevance,
19 the suggestion here -- because there is some evidence
20 that these letters reflect upon motivation that those
21 within the Royal Family, in particular the
22 Duke of Edinburgh and his approach to her, might be. Do
23 you follow that?
24 A. I follow you. You need to find the original letters.
25 Q. Exactly. So what seems your recollection now is that

161

1 what you told the officer -- that you did mention the
2 Duke of Edinburgh's letters because you say you had not
3 found them in that box?
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. Right. Now, you have already dealt with the fact that
6 he told you he put the items from the box into packing
7 cases.
8 A. This is Paul Burrell?
9 Q. Yes.
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. But that doesn't explain the letters. Did you ask him
12 about the letters?
13 A. I asked him about the contents.
14 Q. No, sorry, if the letters you expected to find weren't
15 in the box and you only gave him the sensitive matters
16 which you say didn't include the letters, did you ever
17 say to him, at any point, "Where are the Duke's
18 letters?"
19 A. I can't remember. I may have done.
20 Q. Again, when dealing with this matter, if you would be so
21 kind -- probably overnight or whenever you are able to
22 do it -- we now have a situation in which there is the
23 sensitive items in the box that have not been traced,
24 the remainder of whatever it was that was in the box
25 which has not been traced and the Duke of Edinburgh's

162

1 letters which also have not been traced.
2 A. Yes.
3 Q. Right. Besides yourself and Paul Burrell, who would
4 have had access to Kensington Palace after Diana's
5 death?
6 A. My mother.
7 Q. Yes.
8 A. My sister.
9 Q. Right. Your sister in fact lived right next door,
10 didn't she?
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. Lady Jane lived next door?
13 A. Not next door.
14 Q. Well, 200 yards?
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. Did you consider giving the sensitive materials, less
17 the letters, to her at any point?
18 A. No.
19 Q. The box, less the sensitive items, where does that go?
20 A. It stays in the lift.
21 Q. In the lift?
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. Yes. We had a somewhat amusing situation here with it
24 going up and down in the lift. So there comes a time
25 when you take the box?

163

1 A. Yes.
2 Q. When was that?
3 A. I am guessing around June 1998, which is when the office
4 and the final clearout of the apartments was made.
5 Q. June 1998?
6 A. I am guessing.
7 Q. None of us necessarily have seen the lift. Has it been
8 going up and down in the lift ever since?
9 A. No.
10 Q. So where did you --
11 A. Nobody went in the lift after -- well, nobody went in
12 the lift from September 1997.
13 Q. So it stayed in the stationary lift?
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. From that September all the way through to the following
16 June?
17 A. No, because I don't believe I found the box or opened
18 the box until March 1998.
19 Q. So it's after you have opened the box with Burrell, it's
20 then put in --
21 A. The lift.
22 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Just a moment, I think there may
23 be a problem. (Pause). We are up and running again.
24 MR MANSFIELD: Thank you.
25 So just to get the dates, the crash is at the end of

164

1 August 1997. You get round to the chest -- may I call
2 it that -- or box by March of 1998 and then you take the
3 box in June of 1998, thereabouts?
4 A. I hope, yes.
5 Q. From the lift?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. Where it has been?
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. When you take the box back to your home -- why are you
10 taking it back to Lincolnshire?
11 A. I can't remember, there must have been a reason.
12 Q. Yes. Can you help us? Why would you want the box as
13 opposed to it going to Althorp?
14 A. I am wondering. It's not necessarily what happened, but
15 the apartments were cleared and the box was forgotten,
16 and I then took it to home to take it to Althorp.
17 Q. Did you take it to Althorp?
18 A. No, I think I forgot to take it then.
19 Q. You forgot to take it?
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. But is there anything in it?
22 A. No.
23 Q. It's an empty box?
24 A. Yes.
25 LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER: Was it alone in the lift or --

165

1 A. Nothing else in the lift, tiny lift.
2 MR MANSFIELD: By the time you get round to taking it, there
3 is nothing in it. But, of course, for the moment we can
4 just forget about the Duke of Edinburgh's letters being
5 in there -- this is quite a separate matter, the Duke's
6 letters -- but there are some other documents I want to
7 come to.
8 So, in fact, the Duke of Edinburgh's letters weren't
9 given to Burrell, were they, on your account?
10 A. No, no.
11 Q. So if they are anywhere, they have got to have been
12 either in her desk or in some other box or somewhere,
13 all right? Now have you, before today, ever explained
14 that to anyone?
15 A. Explained what? Sorry.
16 Q. That the Duke of Edinburgh's letters were somewhere
17 else. They have nothing to do with Burrell and so on.
18 A. I have always said the letters were not in the box.
19 Q. Yes, that puts us -- no letters in the box.
20 When you were looking at the box with Burrell in
21 March 1998, why were you so keen to find the Duke's
22 letters?
23 A. It was something that I, as an executor, felt I ought to
24 locate.
25 Q. And Diana's copies of letters to him?

166

1 A. Whatever I was looking for. She may have done copies;
2 she may not.
3 Q. You were asked this in the trial and I have read out the
4 piece.
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. You accept she did keep copies?
7 A. Yes.
8 Q. Made copies of letters that she wrote. So irrespective
9 of whatever was going on with Paul Burrell, at that
10 time -- that is 1998 -- there is nothing in the press.
11 I think from what you have been saying today that you
12 don't go to the family home at that point and see if you
13 can find the letters there.
14 A. I don't believe they are there.
15 Q. I appreciate what you are saying. We are narrowing it
16 down. There can't be too many places where they can be.
17 A. When the police came to me and produced the -- told me
18 about the silver dhow and they said they were going
19 there, I believed that Paul Burrell's house could be
20 somewhere where those letters were.
21 Q. Why?
22 A. I had looked everywhere else.
23 Q. Except at your own home?
24 A. I don't believe they are there.
25 Q. I appreciate your belief. I want to ask you about

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1 shredding. You shredded materials as well as your
2 mother; is that right?
3 A. I did.
4 Q. You actually don't know what your mother shredded, do
5 you?
6 A. No.
7 Q. This you made very clear at the trial. Both the learned
8 trial judge and also counsel asked you very carefully,
9 and your answer, in a short phrase, is "I have no idea";
10 right?
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. You also went on to agree that not only were you not
13 there, but you had not actually ever asked her or
14 discussed it with her?
15 A. No, we had discussed it.
16 Q. Well, I am sorry, would you turn to page 49? Page 49
17 has -- I have summarised the answers -- her
18 correspondence being shredded.
19 A. Yes.
20 Q. Answer: "No. I knew she had destroyed some
21 documentation. I assumed it would be sensitive, but
22 I don't know ..."
23 "Question: What sort of sensitive items, do you
24 think ...?
25 "Answer: I have no idea ... I can't second-guess my

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1 mother."
2 Am I going too fast?
3 A. Sorry, yes, page 50.
4 Q. More questions about sensitive items:
5 "I don't know what she was destroying.
6 "Question: Was it not discussed between you?
7 "Answer: No."
8 A. Well, I think it was before we even entered the
9 apartments and realised that we would be there at
10 different times.
11 Q. You see, then there is the question "... did the witness
12 answer that?", and the judge says: "She did. She said,
13 no, it was not discussed between them'. Then
14 Lord Carlile:
15 "Your mother spent quite a lot of time shredding
16 documents, didn't she?
17 "Answer: I don't know.
18 "Question: Did you not see her?
19 "Answer: No, I wasn't there with her when she did
20 any shredding ..." and so on.
21 You see, would it be fair to say that you have
22 absolutely no idea whether, in fact, your mother
23 destroyed the very letters we have all been looking for?
24 A. I think it's highly unlikely.
25 Q. You think it's unlikely, what, because she was shredding

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1 what?
2 A. The same as me, anything that was sensitive or thank you
3 letters.
4 Q. I will not take up time, but thank you letters on the
5 whole are not particularly sensitive, are they?
6 A. They can be.
7 Q. All right. I appreciate some of them could be. Can
8 I pass to another category of document? Did you find
9 any materials at all relating to her work with
10 landmines?
11 A. No.
12 Q. In particular, you are aware obviously that she went to
13 Angola, Bosnia, lot of publicity and so forth, and
14 I will ask you in particular about what has been called,
15 just for shorthand purposes, a "dossier", but
16 a compilation of material headed or described as
17 "Profiting from misery". Do you know anything about
18 that?
19 A. No.
20 Q. You see, just on that topic, how much did you know about
21 what she was doing with regard to that campaign?
22 A. To landmines?
23 Q. Yes.
24 A. Whenever we met up, we would discuss what she had been
25 doing, and if it was landmines, that's what we would

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1 discuss.
2 Q. Did she ever tell you that's what she was doing,
3 assembling materials, information, in order to expose
4 companies who had been involved in the deployment of
5 mines in areas like Angola?
6 A. She didn't.
7 Q. She didn't tell you?
8 A. No.
9 Q. Did she tell you that she had had a meeting with
10 Tony Blair related to this topic?
11 A. No, she didn't.
12 Q. So you never knew about that?
13 A. No.
14 Q. I suppose, would this be fair, it wouldn't surprise you
15 that there are going to be quite a lot of topics you
16 knew nothing about because, in fact, obviously, you were
17 a confidant from time to time but not all the time?
18 A. (Witness nods)
19 Q. Like everyone else in her life?
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. So it's not a case of, "She would have told me about X,
22 Y and Z"; the answer is "She might, she might not, it
23 depends"; is that fair?
24 A. She might, she might not.
25 Q. Yes, because just to take one or two examples, the book,

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1 the Andrew Morton book, which was an expose of certainly
2 her relationship with Charles and to some extent the
3 Palace and being a lamb to the slaughter -- those kind
4 of phrases come out of the book -- did you know she was
5 doing that book before --
6 A. No.
7 Q. You didn't?
8 A. No.
9 Q. Did you ever talk to her about how that book came into
10 existence?
11 A. I don't recall doing so.
12 Q. The fact that she had provided tape-recordings of
13 interviews for the author through a third party?
14 A. I knew after, not before.
15 Q. Did you ever discuss that with her --
16 A. I can't remember doing so.
17 Q. -- as to why she would want to do it that way and why
18 she, as it were, laid bare the nature of the
19 relationship in this way?
20 A. I don't know.
21 Q. You have no recollection of any discussions on that
22 area?
23 A. No.
24 Q. You see, you said you thought her relationship with the
25 Duke was a good one. Were you familiar with any

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1 reaction that the Duke may have had with regard to the
2 publication of the book?
3 A. No.
4 Q. Let us move on to the Bashir interview. Did you know
5 before she did it that she was going to do it?
6 A. No.
7 Q. Did you discuss the effect of it afterwards?
8 A. I have never seen it, so no.
9 Q. You have never seen it?
10 A. No.
11 Q. So, in fact, may I put it, your relationship wasn't --
12 A. It was fine, thank you.
13 Q. Yes, I am not saying it was not fine. I am suggesting
14 to you -- "fine" is one thing, "close" is another. You
15 have never seen the programme so perhaps there is no
16 point in me asking you. There was fall-out from that
17 programme, wasn't there? You do know that?
18 A. Fall-out?
19 Q. Yes. In other words, there are those who were
20 sympathetic and those who certainly were not sympathetic
21 to what she was doing; you knew that?
22 A. Are you telling me that?
23 Q. Well, we have heard evidence of that. Are you really
24 saying that you weren't aware, as her sister, of the
25 alleged damage that was done by the Bashir interview on

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1 Panorama -- in fact a few days after the photograph that
2 was shown to the jury today. That's the beginning of
3 November.
4 A. Yes, it is.
5 Q. It's only a couple of weeks later that the programme was
6 shown. So when she was sitting in the back of the car
7 laughing with you, she must have, in fact, known by then
8 that an interview was going to be shown on television
9 which was going to be critical of the Monarchy, her
10 relationship with Charles and so forth.
11 A. I did not know the interview was coming.
12 Q. You didn't?
13 A. No.
14 Q. Did Lady Jane know?
15 A. You would have to ask her.
16 Q. I am asking you whether she, Lady Jane, ever said to
17 you, "What is she doing with that interview?"
18 A. I don't recall.
19 Q. No. That was all in the period 1992 through to 1995.
20 So that the question of getting involved with landmines
21 was not something you were keeping abreast of any more
22 than you were with some of the other matters in her
23 life; do you agree?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. The last call that you recall having in the summer --

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1 and I am sorry to have to ask you about it because
2 obviously it's a more than a tragic event that happened,
3 but it's on the day before -- the one thing she tells
4 you is about the landmine problem in an article in
5 a French newspaper?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. What she is concerned about is the effect that that
8 article might have back here in the United Kingdom?
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. Now, once again, were you aware of the article in
11 Le Monde?
12 A. No.
13 Q. You have not seen it since?
14 A. No.
15 Q. All right.
16 A. I know it was an interview she did, I am guessing, early
17 July, so it took a month -- well, nearly two months to
18 come out.
19 Q. Yes, I am not in a position to ask you when she did it,
20 but the fact is it wasn't published until the week
21 before --
22 A. End of August, yes.
23 Q. Yes, literally the week before she died. That's when
24 she is ringing you up. You said today -- and I want to
25 ask you a little about this -- that because she said,

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1 "Oh, I can't talk to Dodi" or some words to that effect
2 about this, that you thought the relationship wasn't
3 going anywhere. Well, is that really fair? All she is
4 saying to you is, "Well, I can't talk to him about
5 an article -- I did the interview before I even met
6 him". It's really got nothing to do with him, do you
7 follow, how it's being received in the United Kingdom.
8 Did you not think that that's what she was really
9 saying?
10 A. No.
11 Q. Then I have to ask you a little bit more. First of all,
12 she had a long-standing relationship with
13 Mohamed Al Fayed, didn't she?
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. I mean you did know this, that she often went to
16 Harrods; yes?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. And she would have her staff party there?
19 A. I didn't know that.
20 Q. She would have the assistance of Mohamed Al Fayed in
21 terms of a particular cause she was interested in and
22 would celebrate at Harrods, namely the National Ballet.
23 A. I was a lady in waiting at one of the events at Harrods.
24 Q. So there was that connection she had. I will not go
25 through all of them. But she would be going to Harrods

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1 quite regularly; you knew that?
2 A. No.
3 Q. You didn't know that?
4 A. No. I didn't know it or I didn't not know it.
5 Q. All right. It plainly follows that you are not aware of
6 the correspondence between her and Mohamed Al Fayed in
7 terms of her gratitude for what he had done. This is
8 just the year before 1997; in other words in 1996. You
9 didn't know about that?
10 A. No.
11 Q. In the summer of 1997, in the second trip where she's
12 ringing you a little more regularly, the only call you
13 actually remember is the last one?
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. You see, we have heard that people who knew her said,
16 whatever else, that they had never known her quite so
17 happy as at this period.
18 A. She was happy.
19 Q. Very happy, wasn't she?
20 A. She was happy.
21 Q. Did she tell you -- and I am not going to ask for it to
22 come on screen; I think you are fully aware of it --
23 that she had given a pair of your father's cufflinks to
24 Dodi for safe-keeping as a special present?
25 A. No.

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1 Q. Did she tell you that on the day she rang you, the
2 evidence appears to show that she received a Bulgari
3 ring, a band, which she put on her right finger of her
4 right hand and was wearing when she arrived in Paris?
5 Did you know anything about that?
6 A. No.
7 Q. So she didn't tell you, "He has bought me a ring, but
8 I stuck it on my right finger"?
9 A. No.
10 Q. None of this. I suppose it follows that plainly you
11 were unaware of what actually happened as far as the
12 ring is concerned on the Saturday?
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. She didn't ring you on the Saturday and say to you,
15 "Look" --
16 A. The last time I spoke to her was Friday.
17 Q. I know. I appreciate. So what seems to follow is that
18 she didn't ring you on the Saturday and say, "Look, he
19 has bought me or he is about to buy me" --
20 A. No. I spoke to her for the last time on the Friday.
21 Q. All right. Were you aware at any stage -- had she told
22 you that Mohamed Al Fayed was prepared to help fund
23 a couple of her particular projects, one to do with
24 hospices and so on for various victims of AIDS
25 throughout the world and the other was connected with

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1 landmines and her project on victims of that? Did you
2 know anything about that?
3 A. No, neither.
4 Q. Neither?
5 A. Neither.
6 Q. Didn't know any of that?
7 A. No.
8 Q. So just going back a moment, when she had an invitation
9 to go to St Tropez, did you know about that? I think
10 you say you did.
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. Did you have a view about whether she should go?
13 A. No.
14 Q. You didn't say "yes" or "no" to it?
15 A. No.
16 Q. You thought it was all right, did you?
17 A. I didn't have a view.
18 Q. You have already been asked -- because it was on
19 July 14th that she announced that she had a big
20 surprise. You have been asked about that.
21 A. I have no idea what that was.
22 Q. Did you know at the time, by reading the newspapers,
23 that that's what she said? She had only been there
24 a short time.
25 A. I have not read the papers for 15 years.

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1 Q. No, I am trying to get back into the situation. So it
2 follows that you don't recall reading it and you
3 certainly didn't talk to her about it and it wasn't
4 something that featured.
5 It might be easier if we take it through and perhaps
6 a little quicker. Do you have a copy of the jury bundle
7 there, please?
8 A. Is it one of these?
9 Q. I am not sure. It's a bundle with a chronology. It's
10 not that. I will pause because I think it will be
11 produced for you to see. (Pause) Thank you very much.
12 The jury have it behind divider 1. It's easier because
13 the dates are agreed. At the bottom of the first page
14 you will see "24th to 26th July".
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. Do you see that?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. She stays with you. When she came to stay with you, you
19 knew she was going to Paris, did you?
20 A. No, she arrived and told me she was going to Paris.
21 Q. Right. Did she say who she was going with?
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. Dodi?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. Did she talk to you about Dodi at that point?

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1 A. Yes.
2 Q. What was she saying then?
3 A. She was looking forward to going to Paris.
4 Q. Yes, I am sure one does with anyone, but did she say
5 anything else about Dodi?
6 A. She was excited about going to Paris.
7 Q. All right. After that -- I am on the second page; you
8 will see the dates are there -- she goes on the first
9 cruise on 31st July.
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. Did you know she was going before she went?
12 A. I can't remember. I am sorry.
13 Q. During this, you will see the photograph, renowned
14 photograph, "The Kiss" photograph, was taken on the 4th.
15 Do you see?
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. That's the date, but actually it wasn't published until
18 the 10th when she was in Bosnia. Do you remember that
19 photograph?
20 A. I don't because I don't read the papers. I probably saw
21 it on the news or something.
22 Q. Leaving that to one side, if you say you didn't see
23 that -- and you have had, what, little communication
24 with her in that period?
25 A. During Bosnia?

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1 Q. Well, during the first trip and Bosnia --
2 A. Bosnia I remember none, and I -- I can't remember.
3 Q. We come straight to the second trip. Did you know she
4 was going on yet another one?
5 A. With Rosa?
6 Q. No, sorry, with Dodi on the 22nd.
7 A. No, I can't remember. I am sorry.
8 Q. You see, how much -- I appreciate it's a long time
9 ago -- real contact were you having with her during this
10 period?
11 A. It wasn't the contact. It's my grey cells. I can't
12 remember.
13 Q. That's understandable. All right. You see, during this
14 period, if not in the first period -- and even if you
15 don't read the newspapers, I suggest you would have
16 known in this period because it would have filtered
17 back -- they were on the front pages of most newspapers
18 in Europe for this week, the second time.
19 A. Right.
20 Q. Were you aware of any of that?
21 A. I was aware of the press interest, I suppose, yes.
22 Q. I suggest if she is ringing you up on an every-other-day
23 basis and she was in the habit of talking to you about
24 her relationships -- was she in the habit of talking to
25 you about relationships?

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1 A. Not necessarily on the telephone.
2 Q. Not on the telephone. Then if she is not necessarily
3 talking to you on the phone about it, you would not have
4 been in a position to make an assessment of whether this
5 was a relationship that was going somewhere or not,
6 would you?
7 A. Are you talking about that last conversation I had with
8 her?
9 Q. No, I am talking about the last week as a whole.
10 A. I can only judge by the one conversation I can remember.
11 Q. Yes. I have already dealt with that. I don't go back
12 to it.
13 So far as the other person you have mentioned today,
14 Hasnat Khan, did you talk to her about him?
15 A. Not really, no.
16 Q. So you don't really know, do you, whether that was going
17 to go anywhere either?
18 A. I did from the fact it was 18 months/21 months.
19 Q. Yes, well, that's possible. Who broke this relationship
20 off, do you know?
21 A. I think it was her.
22 Q. Yes. So this wasn't a case where she thought it was
23 going to go on; she had broken it off.
24 A. But I suspect she broke it off with the hope of getting
25 back together with him.

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1 Q. Possibly, but it was a fairly dramatic breaking up,
2 wasn't it, that --
3 A. All break-ups are.
4 Q. Yes, they all are. How much about that do you know?
5 A. About the break-up?
6 Q. Yes, just the break-up, that's all; when it was and so
7 on. You say it was her and I accept that.
8 A. I think it was June or July.
9 Q. June or July.
10 A. 1997.
11 Q. So if you were aware that that had broken up at that
12 ti