Princess Diana's death 'was not murder'

These are the findings of Lord Stevens' inquiry into the crash that killed Diana and her boyfriend Dodi Fayed almost ten years ago.

Read the overview of Lord Stevens' report here

"Our conclusion is that, on all the evidence available at this time, there was no conspiracy to murder any of the occupants of the car," the former Met police chief said in his report released today.

"This was a tragic accident."

After three years, £3.69 million, 300 witness statements, 600 pieces of evidence and 20,000 document checks, Lord Stevens has published the 832-page document on Operation Paget.

As expected, it quashed the countless conspiracy theories about the events of 31 August 1997.

It concluded that Diana's driver was twice over the alcohol limit and drove at least 61mph in a 30mph zone with a string of paparazzi in pursuit. The princess did not wear a seatbelt when their Mercedes crashed head-on into a pillar in the Alma tunnel in Paris.

The Paget team also dismissed claims Diana was pregnant when she died and was planning to marry Dodi.

Lord Stevens said there was no "establishment" plot, and in particular by His Royal Highness Prince Philip, to murder Diana over her relationship with Dodi.

"I have no doubt that speculation as to what happened that night will continue and that there are some matters, as in many other investigations, about which we may never find a definitive answer," he said.

"However, I do not believe that any evidence currently exists that can substantiate the allegation of conspiracy to murder that has been made."

To mask an assassination as a car crash would have required detailed planning, Lord Stevens added. Yet the couple's departure point (The Ritz instead of Chez Benoit restaurant, where they had reservations), driver (Henri Paul, who had to be called back to his work as deputy security head at the Ritz) and vehicle (a black Mercedes S280) were all changed at the last minute in a bid to escape the paparazzi.

"This left no opportunity for anyone to put into action any plan," Lord Stevens said.

He hoped his findings would bring some closure to Diana's death. "Three people tragically lost their lives in the accident and one was seriously injured. Many more have suffered from the intense scrutiny, speculation and misinformed judgements in the years that have followed.

"I very much hope that all the work we have done and the publication of this report will help to bring some closure to all who continue to mourn the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales, Dodi Fayed and Henri Paul."

Diana's former husband, Prince Charles, and their sons William and Harry were briefed on the findings yesterday. The young princes were said to be pleased with the report.

But Mohamed Al-Fayed, Dodi's father and the owner of Harrods department store, said there was "no way" he would accept the verdict. He believes Diana, 36, and his son, 42, were murdered because the "racist" Prince Philip did not want the future king to have half-Muslim siblings.

"It's shocking," Al-Fayed told NBC. "It's completely outrageous that a leading Scotland Yard officer can come up with such an unbelievable judgment. He has been definitely blackmailed to say exactly what the British intelligence want him to say."

In turn Rosa Monckton, one of Diana's closest friends, told the Telegraph Mr Al-Fayed's "disgusting" claims had deeply upset William and Harry.

"Clearly it was an appalling tragedy for him Mr Fayed and he lost his son, but Mr Fayed also has to remember that these boys lost their mother," she said.

The report will be studied by the royal coroner, Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, before she resumes the formal inquest in the new year.

Lord Stevens said the report focused only on the allegations of murder and would not pre-empt the formal inquest.

The nature of the investigation was unprecedented, he added.

"I decided that only a thorough, methodical and detailed investigation would answer these extremely serious allegations.

"Myself and the two senior members of the team have personally examined MI5 and MI6 records. We have had unprecedented access to everything we wished to examine.

"We have contacted the American intelligence services and they have assured us that they have no relevant information that will in any way affect my conclusions. I am satisfied that no attempt has been made to hold back information."

FACT VS FICTION

The 'pregnancy'

Mr Al-Fayed has claimed the British secret service murdered Diana because she was pregnant with Dodi's child. He believes her body was embalmed to skew the results of any pregnancy test.

However, new DNA tests on drops of Diana's blood found on the car seat disproved this. Miss Monckton confirmed that Diana's menstrual cycle started ten days earlier while they were on holiday together.

The 'engagement'

Al-Fayed said his son had bought Diana an engagement ring in Monte Carlo shortly before their death.

But eight close friends and family members who spoke to the princess in the four days before her death said she dismissed talk of an engagement. "I need marriage like a rash on my face," the princess told her friend Lady Annabel Goldsmith on 29 August 1997.

CCTV evidence showed Dodi did buy a £230,000 diamond ring a few hours before the accident, but that was from Repossi jewellers in Paris - not Monte Carlo. "We believe she never saw that ring," Lord Stevens said.

The spy driver

The report confirmed that Henri Paul, the couple's driver who also died in the crash, was indeed a low-level informant for the French police and secret service.

However, Mr Paul was the deputy head of security at the Ritz. Lord Stevens said it was standard practice in France recruit people like him as informers. The inquiry traced over £150,000 in his 15 accounts, but found no link to Diana.

The blood samples

Tests on two sets of blood samples showed Mr Paul was high on antidepressants and twice over the British drink-drive limit. Mr Al-Fayed claimed the samples were swapped as part of a murder cover-up.

Yet DNA tests comparing the samples to that of Mr Paul's mother confirmed the blood did belong to the driver.

Although he was under the influence, he was not "drunk as a pig", the report says. CCTV from the Ritz showed Mr Paul behaving normally. His security colleagues, who did not know him well, would not have known how much he had drunk.

The 'flash before the crash'

Francois Levistre, who claimed to have witnessed the crash, told newspapers the Mercedes lost control after being blinded by a "big white flash". He believed this may have been an "assassination attempt" or a "gangland hit"

Richard Tomlinson, a former MI6 agent, later claimed the method mirrored plans to assassinate the former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic in 1992.

However, Mr Levistre was the only witness who mentioned the flash. He was entering a slip-road at the time of the crash, which would have required his full attention. His wife Roselyne, who was with him in the car, also contradicted parts of his account.

Furthermore Lord Stevens found neither Diana nor any of the other three people in the Mercedes had been wearing a seatbelt. If they did, they probably would have lived, he said. Dodi's bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones, who sat in front, survived but with critical injuries.

The mystery Fiat Uno

White paint marks on the Mercedes along with part of a bumper and smashed taillights found nearby showed a white Fiat Uno was also involved in the accident. Despite a database search of 112,000 Fiats, the mysterious Uno was never found.

The Paget team used cutting edge 3D computer technology to recreate the crash. It collected data from 186 million points to draw the scene accurately within less than 1cm. They concluded that the Mercedes was out of control before its "glancing contact" with the Uno.

The French photographer James Andanson, who had been following Diana and Dodi in the months before, owned a white Fiat Uno which he openly part-exchanged later that year. Three years later his body was found locked in a burnt-out car in woods in the south of France.

Nevertheless Lord Stevens said he was "completely satisfied" that the missing Uno was not that of Mr Andanson. On the fateful night, the photographer was at home with his wife. His death was indeed suicide, Lord Stevens added. It is "very unlikely" that the real Uno would ever be found, the report said.

The letter from the grave

A letter written by Diana to her former butler Paul Burrell ten months before her death fuelled speculation. "This particular phase in my life is the most dangerous," she wrote. "(Name deleted) is planning an accident' in my car, brake failure and serious head injury in order to make the path clear for Charles to marry."

In a one-to-one interview with Lord Stevens, Prince Charles said he did not know why Diana would have written the note.

The report said the letter was probably written in 1995 - before her divorce from Charles. Although she repeatedly expressed safety fears at the time, there was no evidence of any grounds for her worries. "They may be an indication of how unhappy the princess was," it concludes.

Also, the wreck of the black Mercedes S280 was shipped to London for detailed forensic tests. There were no signs of sabotage.

The agents

Mr Al-Fayed has accused Britain's secret services of carrying out the "conspiracy". The Paget team interviewed the two MI6 agents who were supposedly involved. Neither was in Paris at the time.

Lord Stevens said he had "unprecedented access" to any MI5 and MI6 files he asked for. There was no trace that Dodi and Diana were under surveillance.

The bugs

Mr Al-Fayed claimed US agents had bugged Diana's calls shortly before her death. The CIA, US Secret Service and National Security Agency all denied this. Lord Stevens was satisfied that they had files on the princess, but none relating to the accident.

The ambulance

It took nearly two hours for Diana to arrive at the hospital. Of this, her ambulance took 70 minutes to drive 3.7 miles - passing two hospitals on the way.

However, French ambulances often come fully manned by doctors who do much of the stabilising on the scene.

"We have seen the surgeons and medical staff who worked so hard that night to try to save the lives of those involved in the crash," Lord Stevens said. "I believe they did everything humanly possible to do that."