Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed ruled unlawful deaths, paps and driver blamed

By Jeffrey Mitchell

LONDON (Hollywood Today) 3/7/08–Princess Diana was unlawfully killed due to the “gross negligence” of driver Henri Paul and the paparazzi, an inquest jury has found.

The jury reached the same verdict for her companion Dodi Al Fayed.

The inquest into the 1997 Paris crash that killed them and Henri Paul lasted more than six months

Mr Fayed’s father Mohamed al Fayed left the High Court without commenting as did Diana’s sister Lady Sarah McCorquodale. Sources report the senior Fayed had a “head like a storm” as he left the courtroom. It is a well know fact that Fayed was looking for a statement linking the Royal family to a conspiracy in the two deaths.

The jury also specified that Paul’s apparent drunk-driving and the fact that neither Mr Fayed nor Diana were wearing seatbelts contributed to their deaths.

The jury returned joint verdicts of unlawful killing through ” gross negligence manslaughter.” and also refered to the couple’s death as “grossly negligent driving”.

Princes Diana was killed when Paul crashed a hired Mercedes into a pillar in the Alma underpass in Paris in the early hours of 31 August, 1997.

In a statement read on Mr. al Fayed’s behalf, he said the verdicts would come as a blow to “millions” of his supporters around the world .

Fprmer Metropolitan Police commissioner Lord Stevens welcomed the verdicts as a “justification” of the inquiry he led into the deaths.

Coroner Lord Justice Scott Baker thanked the jury for their “considerable devotion” to duty over the past six months and said it was “almost astonishing” that they had been present on every day without having any absences.

Hollywood paparazzi have been under fire for their recent treatment of Lindsay Lohan (who was in a a reported paparazzi induced “fender bender” on Sunset Blvd), and the constant paparazzi entanglements that the Britney Spears camp claim have contributed to her “meltdowns” here in Hollywood.

The paparazzi storm of reporters following the re-arrest of Paris Hilton resulted in an LAPD car running over the foot of one of the hundreds of paparazzi surrounding Hilton’s Hollywood Hills home last winter. Family sources say this contributed to the immediate sale of Hilton’s house above the famed Sunset Stip north of West Hollywood.