Diana driver riddle solved
28/11/06
By Peter Allen
THE suicide victim whose blood was mixed with samples taken from Princess Diana’s chauffeur has been identified.
The breakthrough, revealed last night, comes as scientists conclude that “numerous serious errors” occurred when they initially examined blood from driver Henri Paul.
These errors include the fact that Dominique Lecomte, the pathologist who conducted Paul’s postmortem examination, and Dr Gilbert Pepin, who tested his blood, continually misled examining magistrates.
Paul’s body was taken to a Paris morgue, where it was placed alongside at least 23 other corpses.
The Daily Express can reveal that investigators have now established the identity of all of them. But because of French privacy laws none of them, including the man whose blood was wrongly tested, can be revealed in public for 100 years.
However, what is certain is that it was this man’s blood – and not Paul’s – that was examined.
The investigators believe that his blood contained evidence to “prove” that Paul was more than three times over the limit.
All of the findings are in an interim report compiled by Paris lawyers.
Paul was the Ritz Hotel chauffeur who died alongside Diana and her boyfriend Dodi Fayed when their Mercedes crashed in the French capital in August 1997.
Within a few hours of the crash the authorities claimed that Paul had been
drinking heavily, citing evidence provided by tests on blood samples. These results are now in serious dispute, however.
Massive doses of carbon monoxide – consistent with a suicide victim who had gassed himself – were also erroneously attributed to Paul.
Only a suicide victim who had ingested car exhaust fumes for a length of time would be likely to have give such a high carbon monoxide reading.
Someone who had drunk a large quantity of whisky and then attached a hosepipe to their car exhaust as a method of suicide would have given the same readings found in Paul’s samples.
The original test results enabled the authorities to claim continually that the crash was caused by a simple road traffic accident.
But this summer, more than nine years on, the French director of public prosecutions authorised judges to re-examine the evidence provided by Lecomte and Pepin.
Their interim report has now established beyond doubt that Lecomte lied about the number of samples she examined. While Lecomte testified on oath that she had taken three blood samples from Paul, a log book shows that five were taken. It is now also certain that the two extra samples were wrongly attributed to Paul.
Pepin said one sample he tested showed that Paul had 1.74 grams per litre of alcohol in his blood. But his finding is not supported by paperwork.
Documents relating to a second blood test by Pepin give two widely differing readings for the amount of alcohol in Paul’s blood.
Furthermore, there is still no explanation for the massive amounts of carbon monoxide found, beyond the fact that it was probably in the blood of the suicide victim who had gassed himself to death.
“What is certain is that all the tests on Paul’s blood were deeply flawed, and that the truth is now slowly emerging,” said a source close to the investigation.
“The French know who this suicide victim was, and that his alcohol and carbon monoxide readings were used to make it look as though Paul should not have been driving the Mercedes. There have been numerous serious errors, but investigators can now prove that the extra samples originally attributed to Paul were those of a suicide victim.”
The vital breakthrough in the investigation will further delay police officers working on Operation Paget, the on-going British inquiry into Diana’s death.
Members of Paul’s close family from the Brittany town of L’Orient, including his parents, recently met Paget detectives in Paris.
Concerned that there may have been a “forensic mix-up”, Lord Stevens, who is leading the inquiry, is trying to persuade the French public prosecutor’s office to disclose all records of how Paul’s blood was analysed.
Although Pepin recently supplied Stevens with a full account of his analysis of the blood, doubts remain about its authenticity.
The French legal authorities are now becoming increasingly critical of the way Paul’s blood was stored.
All of the samples were kept in an unlocked refrigerator. One sample even congealed because it was not kept at the right temperature, making it useless for testing.
No DNA samples were taken which would have proved that the so-called Paul blood was indeed his.
Thierry Bellancourt, the deputy chief judge at Versailles, who ordered a criminal investigation into Lecomte and Pepin’s conduct, has accepted claims that there are serious inconsistencies and omissions in the scientific evidence that led French police to conclude in 2002 that the crash was caused by Paul’s drink-driving.
Tests carried out by Pepin and Lecomte showed such a high level of carbon monoxide – 20.7 per cent – that Paul would have been unable to stand, let alone drive.
Lord Stevens is now expected to deliver his report in the New Year. An inquest into Diana’s death will resume in London soon afterwards.
http://dailyexpress.co.uk/news_detail.html?sku=777
What are we to make of all this?
They've given up pretending it was an acident, caused by a drunken driver. Nobody buys it.
Which leaves foul play.
So I guess we can anticipate a snowstorm of propaganda about how Dodi was the real target.
Just to take the heat off of Camilla.
Maybe we'll get some truth when Chirac finally goes.
They could not have pulled this off without his active assistance.
Two- time mayor of Paris, then President of France.
Added on edit.
tal, the similarities between 9/11 and this?
(with a nod to greencrow)
Within hours they started blaming "bin Laden", the terrorist. They had no evidence, apart from the miraculous passport, for this assertion. Most people had never heard of the man. There never was any alternative put forward by the powers tb. The Establishment has never shown any curiosity about what happened five years ago. The event was used to carry out a pre-determined, controverial policy.
Within hours they started blaming Henri-Paul, the drunk driver. They had no evidence, apart from the blood sample, for this assertion. There never was any alternative put forward by the powers tb. The Establishment has never shown any curiosity about what happened nine years ago. The event was used to carry out a pre-determined, controversial policy.
(Anybody want to do the same for JFK?)
