Diana, Princess of Wales: Stevens Report

[antiaristo]

You see from the post above the attitude of the Press Association. Too dicey to print in England.

But that's not the case in Scotland.
This was published by the scotsman, in Scotland.

Scottish news direct from Scotland Tuesday, 6th January 2004
Tue 6 Jan 2004
Latest News
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12:25pm (UK)
Butler Condemns Naming of Prince

By PA News Reporters

Former royal butler Paul Burrell today distanced himself from a decision to identify Prince Charles as the senior member of the Royal family who the Princess of Wales believed was plotting to kill her in a car crash.

As an inquest into the Princess’s death was opened and adjourned in London, Mr Burrell said he did not “support or endorse” the move by the Daily Mirror.

A statement released through his agent Ali Gunn read: “As the editor of the Daily Mirror will confirm, Mr Burrell never wanted any new information to be published following the serialisation of his book.

“Today’s publication was solely a decision taken by the newspaper without Mr Burrell’s knowledge or consent.

“He was only informed late on Monday evening and he does not support or endorse its publication.

“The Daily Mirror only became aware during the photographing of the letter for its book serialisation last October of certain sensitive information.

“Mr Burrell could not have made it clearer that he did not want any new information to be published then or in the future.

“Mr Burrell would also like to make clear that quotes attributed to him in today’s newspaper were made in relation to the inquest opening and not in relation to the publication of new material.”

Speaking to Sky News outside his home in Farndon, Cheshire, Mr Burrell said: “I’m not happy about it. I only learned about it late last night and it was always my intention never to publish that name. I never ever wanted it to be published.”

The princess’s allegation was made in a letter written 10 months before she died.

The letter was included in Mr Burrell’s book A Royal Duty by her last year, but was previously blanked out by the publishers Penguin and the Daily Mirror, which serialised the work.

But today the Mirror revealed that the relevant passage read: “This particular phase in my life is the most dangerous – my husband is planning ‘an accident’ in my car, brake failure and serious head injury in order to make the path clear for him to marry.”

Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan defended his decision to publish Prince Charles’s name.

He said he was made aware in the last 24 hours by Mr Burrell that the coroner had formally approached him twice for the letter.

He said the letter was not going to be censored and therefore the information was going to be in the public domain at the inquest.

“At that point I think any newspaper that was aware of this kind of information has a duty to publish it and the situation changed.

He added: “This morning Paul Burrell was not aware of what we were doing. I knew he would not be very happy about it because he has always tried to keep this information suppressed.

“But I am afraid if a letter goes to a coroner for an inquest containing this kind of information it will come out.”

He said the letter was “utterly sensational”.

“Is it preposterous? Probably. I just don’t know.


“What I do know is that thankfully we finally have an inquest where perhaps we can finally lay to rest all these conspiracy theories.”

Within royal circles, the allegation is said to be viewed as merely another untrue and unfounded conspiracy theory.

Sources pointed to the conclusion of the French investigation which ruled that the deaths of Diana and Dodi were accidental.

It is understood that the matter was being looked at in legal terms, but it was not thought it would be taken further at present.

[antiaristo]

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Paul Burrell's account to the police about his conversation with the Queen was redacted by the last Coroner, so it does not appear in the legal documentation.

Here are two contemporary writeups from November 2002.

'Beware, Queen told me, powers are at work'
Former royal butler offers account of key conversation

Rebecca Allison and Jamie Wilson
Wednesday November 6, 2002
Guardian

The former royal butler Paul Burrell today claimed that the Queen had warned him that his close relationship with Princess Diana could put him in danger.

In his first interview since being acquitted of stealing Diana's personal treasures, Mr Burrell said that the Queen had urged him to be vigilant. "There are powers at work in this country about which we have no knowledge," he said she had told him.

It was the Queen's intervention, recollecting that she had spoken to him, which forced the trial's collapse last week. Mr Burrell had told her of his intention to hold some of Diana's papers for safekeeping.

He was only speaking now, he said, because he feared the Queen's reputation was being damaged by speculation over her 11th-hour intervention.

Once described by Diana as her "rock", Mr Burrell turned down lucrative offers to sell his story before agreeing a deal with the Daily Mirror worth a reported £300,000.

In his account of the three-hour meeting at Buckingham Palace, he told the paper: "I told Her Majesty I intended to protect the princess's world and keep safe her secrets. The Queen responded by nodding her approval and smiling."

Mr Burrell, 44, said he had no idea about whom the Queen was speaking when she gave her warning, but she had made clear she was "deadly serious". "There were many she could have been referring to. But she was clearly warning me to be vigilant."

He also said he had given detectives an explanation for every single item that had been taken from his Cheshire home in a police swoop.

A palace spokeswoman would not comment on Mr Burrell's allegations: "It was a private meeting. There were only two people in the room and it is confidential."

The interview was published hours after lawyers for Mr Burrell confirmed he had been granted an injunction against the Sun, to prevent the paper publishing further disclosures from statements he made about the princess during the investigation. Last night Lord Carlile QC, his defence counsel, alleged the confidential "proof of evidence" statements had been stolen from the defence team.

While the Mirror was trumpeting its success in signing Mr Burrell yesterday, other tabloids ran spoiling operations, quoting extensively from a leaked 39-page statement the butler gave police.

Among the more salacious details was a claim that Diana begged heart surgeon Hasnat Khan to marry her, and that the butler had smuggled Diana's lovers into Kensington Palace in the boot of his car.

The statement is also said to have disclosed how he and the princess would drive around Paddington station giving £50 notes to prostitutes so they would stop work and go home.

The injunction was granted minutes before "sensational new details" would have been printed in today's Sun. The injunction, granted until Monday, bans the publication of "any extract from Paul Burrell's two witness statements", and any further statements belonging to the prosecution.

Mr Justice Eady also ordered that nothing be published which could be "reasonably understood to convey" to any person reading the Sun that Mr Burrell had "voluntarily provided information for publication or authorised information for publication when he had not done so".

Earlier, friends of Earl Spencer briefed newspapers that he was furious Mr Burrell had decided to sell his story.

"The family gave him £50,000 as a thank you for all he had done for their sister," a source told the Press Association. "What possible good for her children and her family can come out of selling her story to the Daily Mirror?"

The source said there was no vendetta against Mr Burrell, and that it was "absolutely untrue" that Lady Sarah McCorquodale, the late princess's older sister, had been the force behind the failed prosecution.

Mr Burrell gives his first TV interview, to ITV's Sir Trevor McDonald, on Sunday. He is also believed to have been lined up to host a TV quiz show, imaginatively entitled What the Butler Saw.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007

http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,4540 ... 90,00.html

http://www.sfgate.com/ Return to regular view

Royal butler: Queen warned me about mysterious forces
BETH GARDINER, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, November 6, 2002
©2002 Associated Press

URL:


(11-06) 07:00 PST LONDON (AP) --

Queen Elizabeth II warned Princess Diana's butler that his close ties to the family could bring him trouble, a British newspaper quoted him as saying on Wednesday.

The Daily Mirror quoted former butler Paul Burrell as saying the queen's warning came during a three-hour meeting shortly after Diana's 1997 death in a Paris car crash.

"No one, Paul, has been as close to a member of my family as you have," Burrell recalled the queen as saying, according to the paper.

"There are powers at work in this country which we have no knowledge about," Burrell reportedly quoted the queen as saying.

"She looked at me over her half-rimmed spectacles as if she expected me to know the rest. ... I had no idea who she was talking about. There were many she could have been referring to. But she was clearly warning me to be vigilant."

The Daily Mirror reportedly paid $620,000 to interview Burrell. Buckingham Palace said it had no comment.

Burrell -- whom Diana called "my rock" -- was acquitted Friday of stealing more than 300 items from the princess and other members of the royal family.

His trial came to a dramatic and unexpected end when the queen told prosecutors that Burrell had informed her during the same meeting that he was holding some of Diana's belongings for safekeeping.

The former butler told the Daily Mirror the queen had corresponded with Diana until her death in an effort to mend their notoriously frosty relationship.

"I tried to reach out to Diana so many times," he quoted the queen as saying. "I wrote many, many letters to her, Paul."

The butler said he told the queen he'd seen her letters.

"But the trouble was, your majesty, that you spoke in black and white. The princess spoke in color," he recalled saying.

Many wondered why the queen had waited so long to make the revelation that cleared Burrell, who was once her personal footman. Some suggested she eventually acted to prevent her relatives from being called to testify or to stop Burrell from revealing potentially embarrassing details about the royals on the witness stand.

"I had always wondered why ... was the royal family not defending me," the butler said. "I thought I had been fed to the lions but, as it turned out, I had the most powerful witness to come without ever knowing it."

He reportedly said he had failed himself to realize the conversation would clear him, saying he'd only mentioned it to his lawyer last week.

"He nearly fell off his chair but the truth is that its significance was lost on me," Burrell was quoted as saying. "My own barrister thought I was nuts. I told him 'No, I'm just loyal.' ... In the royal household, it is unthinkable to recount any conversation with her majesty."

Burrell reportedly said he'd taken some of Diana's papers and belongings for safekeeping because he feared her mother -- from whom she had been estranged for months -- and her sister wanted to erase the princess's legacy.

"I thought it was my duty to protect those documents and keep them safe," the paper quoted him as saying.

Burrell won a court injunction Tuesday to stop The Sun newspaper from publishing further details of a statement he gave to police after he was charged about his relationship with Diana.

Burrell's lawyer, David Price, said excerpts printed Tuesday were from a "confidential witness statement that had been prepared by Mr. Burrell's lawyers," as the paper claimed they were.

The Sun had quoted Burrell's statement as saying the princess had smuggled men into Kensington Palace, greeted a lover clad only in a fur coat and distributed money to prostitutes.

Under the headline "Blabbermouth gags us," the paper quoted its legal spokesman Wednesday as saying The Sun was disappointed with the ruling but would contest it.

Several newspapers also reported that Burrell, in an effort to show how close he was to Diana, had said she sent him out to buy porn magazines for her son Prince William, who was 14 when she died. William "was very interested in them notwithstanding his early age," Burrell was quoted as saying.

Burrell's manager said Tuesday that the former butler will host a new TV game show in which contestants will be quizzed about the news, social history, scandals and the British royal family.

©2002 Associated Press

[antiaristo]

.

Paul Burrell's account to the police about his conversation with the Queen was redacted by the last Coroner, so it does not appear in the legal documentation.

Here are two contemporary writeups from November 2002.

'Beware, Queen told me, powers are at work'
Former royal butler offers account of key conversation

Rebecca Allison and Jamie Wilson
Wednesday November 6, 2002
Guardian

The former royal butler Paul Burrell today claimed that the Queen had warned him that his close relationship with Princess Diana could put him in danger.

In his first interview since being acquitted of stealing Diana's personal treasures, Mr Burrell said that the Queen had urged him to be vigilant. "There are powers at work in this country about which we have no knowledge," he said she had told him.

It was the Queen's intervention, recollecting that she had spoken to him, which forced the trial's collapse last week. Mr Burrell had told her of his intention to hold some of Diana's papers for safekeeping.

He was only speaking now, he said, because he feared the Queen's reputation was being damaged by speculation over her 11th-hour intervention.

Once described by Diana as her "rock", Mr Burrell turned down lucrative offers to sell his story before agreeing a deal with the Daily Mirror worth a reported £300,000.

In his account of the three-hour meeting at Buckingham Palace, he told the paper: "I told Her Majesty I intended to protect the princess's world and keep safe her secrets. The Queen responded by nodding her approval and smiling."

Mr Burrell, 44, said he had no idea about whom the Queen was speaking when she gave her warning, but she had made clear she was "deadly serious". "There were many she could have been referring to. But she was clearly warning me to be vigilant."

He also said he had given detectives an explanation for every single item that had been taken from his Cheshire home in a police swoop.

A palace spokeswoman would not comment on Mr Burrell's allegations: "It was a private meeting. There were only two people in the room and it is confidential."

The interview was published hours after lawyers for Mr Burrell confirmed he had been granted an injunction against the Sun, to prevent the paper publishing further disclosures from statements he made about the princess during the investigation. Last night Lord Carlile QC, his defence counsel, alleged the confidential "proof of evidence" statements had been stolen from the defence team.

While the Mirror was trumpeting its success in signing Mr Burrell yesterday, other tabloids ran spoiling operations, quoting extensively from a leaked 39-page statement the butler gave police.

Among the more salacious details was a claim that Diana begged heart surgeon Hasnat Khan to marry her, and that the butler had smuggled Diana's lovers into Kensington Palace in the boot of his car.

The statement is also said to have disclosed how he and the princess would drive around Paddington station giving £50 notes to prostitutes so they would stop work and go home.

The injunction was granted minutes before "sensational new details" would have been printed in today's Sun. The injunction, granted until Monday, bans the publication of "any extract from Paul Burrell's two witness statements", and any further statements belonging to the prosecution.

Mr Justice Eady also ordered that nothing be published which could be "reasonably understood to convey" to any person reading the Sun that Mr Burrell had "voluntarily provided information for publication or authorised information for publication when he had not done so".

Earlier, friends of Earl Spencer briefed newspapers that he was furious Mr Burrell had decided to sell his story.

"The family gave him £50,000 as a thank you for all he had done for their sister," a source told the Press Association. "What possible good for her children and her family can come out of selling her story to the Daily Mirror?"

The source said there was no vendetta against Mr Burrell, and that it was "absolutely untrue" that Lady Sarah McCorquodale, the late princess's older sister, had been the force behind the failed prosecution.

Mr Burrell gives his first TV interview, to ITV's Sir Trevor McDonald, on Sunday. He is also believed to have been lined up to host a TV quiz show, imaginatively entitled What the Butler Saw.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007

http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,4540 ... 90,00.html

http://www.sfgate.com/ Return to regular view

Royal butler: Queen warned me about mysterious forces
BETH GARDINER, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, November 6, 2002
©2002 Associated Press

URL:


(11-06) 07:00 PST LONDON (AP) --

Queen Elizabeth II warned Princess Diana's butler that his close ties to the family could bring him trouble, a British newspaper quoted him as saying on Wednesday.

The Daily Mirror quoted former butler Paul Burrell as saying the queen's warning came during a three-hour meeting shortly after Diana's 1997 death in a Paris car crash.

"No one, Paul, has been as close to a member of my family as you have," Burrell recalled the queen as saying, according to the paper.

"There are powers at work in this country which we have no knowledge about," Burrell reportedly quoted the queen as saying.

"She looked at me over her half-rimmed spectacles as if she expected me to know the rest. ... I had no idea who she was talking about. There were many she could have been referring to. But she was clearly warning me to be vigilant."

The Daily Mirror reportedly paid $620,000 to interview Burrell. Buckingham Palace said it had no comment.

Burrell -- whom Diana called "my rock" -- was acquitted Friday of stealing more than 300 items from the princess and other members of the royal family.

His trial came to a dramatic and unexpected end when the queen told prosecutors that Burrell had informed her during the same meeting that he was holding some of Diana's belongings for safekeeping.

The former butler told the Daily Mirror the queen had corresponded with Diana until her death in an effort to mend their notoriously frosty relationship.

"I tried to reach out to Diana so many times," he quoted the queen as saying. "I wrote many, many letters to her, Paul."

The butler said he told the queen he'd seen her letters.

"But the trouble was, your majesty, that you spoke in black and white. The princess spoke in color," he recalled saying.

Many wondered why the queen had waited so long to make the revelation that cleared Burrell, who was once her personal footman. Some suggested she eventually acted to prevent her relatives from being called to testify or to stop Burrell from revealing potentially embarrassing details about the royals on the witness stand.

"I had always wondered why ... was the royal family not defending me," the butler said. "I thought I had been fed to the lions but, as it turned out, I had the most powerful witness to come without ever knowing it."

He reportedly said he had failed himself to realize the conversation would clear him, saying he'd only mentioned it to his lawyer last week.

"He nearly fell off his chair but the truth is that its significance was lost on me," Burrell was quoted as saying. "My own barrister thought I was nuts. I told him 'No, I'm just loyal.' ... In the royal household, it is unthinkable to recount any conversation with her majesty."

Burrell reportedly said he'd taken some of Diana's papers and belongings for safekeeping because he feared her mother -- from whom she had been estranged for months -- and her sister wanted to erase the princess's legacy.

"I thought it was my duty to protect those documents and keep them safe," the paper quoted him as saying.

Burrell won a court injunction Tuesday to stop The Sun newspaper from publishing further details of a statement he gave to police after he was charged about his relationship with Diana.

Burrell's lawyer, David Price, said excerpts printed Tuesday were from a "confidential witness statement that had been prepared by Mr. Burrell's lawyers," as the paper claimed they were.

The Sun had quoted Burrell's statement as saying the princess had smuggled men into Kensington Palace, greeted a lover clad only in a fur coat and distributed money to prostitutes.

Under the headline "Blabbermouth gags us," the paper quoted its legal spokesman Wednesday as saying The Sun was disappointed with the ruling but would contest it.

Several newspapers also reported that Burrell, in an effort to show how close he was to Diana, had said she sent him out to buy porn magazines for her son Prince William, who was 14 when she died. William "was very interested in them notwithstanding his early age," Burrell was quoted as saying.

Burrell's manager said Tuesday that the former butler will host a new TV game show in which contestants will be quizzed about the news, social history, scandals and the British royal family.

©2002 Associated Press