Report Finds No Plot To Murder Diana
Official Inquiry By U.K. Law Enforcement Dismisses Claims Of Murder And Conspiracy
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Play CBS Video Video Princes Praise Investigation Princess Diana's sons Princes William and Harry say that the report concluding their mother's death was an accident is "conclusive" and praise the investigation team. Charlie D'Agata reports.
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Video Report: No Diana Conspiracy Only On The Web: An exhaustive British investigation into the death of Princess Diana found no evidence of murder or conspiracy. CBS News correspondent Sheila MacVicar has the details.
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Video Dodi's Dad Disputes Di Report CBS News RAW: Mohamed Al-Fayed, father of Dodi Al-Fayed, disputes the British report on his son and Princess Diana's fatal 1997 car crash. He says it's a cover-up.
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Princess Diana smiles at the United Cerebral Palsy's annual dinner at the New York Hilton on Dec. 11, 1995. (AP)
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This file photo dated March 6, 1996, shows Diana, Princess of Wales, in London. (Getty Images/Gerry Penny)
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The former Commissioner of London's Metropolitan Police, Lord Stevens, delivers the long-awaited official British police report into the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, at the Queen Elizabeth II conference centre in London on Dec. 14, 2006. (AP Photo/Stefan Rousseau-PA)
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Interactive Diana: Tragic Accident British inquiry concludes no foul play in deaths of Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed.
The report also said Diana was not pregnant, that she was not engaged to marry Dodi Fayed, and that their chauffeur was drunk and driving at more than 60 mph — twice the speed limit — when their car crashed while being chased by photographers.
The inquiry, which largely confirmed previous findings by French investigators, also said there was no reason to suspect the involvement of the royal family in the death of Prince Charles' former wife.
"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. This was a tragic accident," said Lord John Stevens, former chief of the Metropolitan Police, who led the investigation of the deaths of Diana, 36, and Fayed, 42.
"There was no conspiracy, and no cover-up," Stevens added.
The couple was killed along with chauffeur Henri Paul when their Mercedes crashed in the Pont d'Alma tunnel in Paris on Aug. 31, 1997, while being chased by media photographers. Bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones was seriously injured.
Paul was drunk, with a blood-alcohol level twice the British legal limit, and driving at twice the local speed limit before the crash, Stevens said.
"We can say with certainty that the car hit the curb just before the 13th pillar of the central reservation in the Alma underpass, at a speed of 61 to 63 miles per hour," Stevens said. "Nothing in the very rapid sequence of events we have reconstructed supports the allegation of conspiracy to murder."The Full Diana Study (3.71 mb)
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CBS News correspondent Sheila MacVicar says Stevens' report does imply that the photographers present that night did share some of the blame for the accident.
Stevens said the photographers had prompted Diana and Fayed to change travel plans before their death.
The French courts acquitted nine photographers of manslaughter, but this result may re-open questions about exactly what role they did play that night, MacVicar says.
Fayed's father, Mohammed al Fayed, rejected the report, calling it "garbage."
He has alleged that the couple was killed as a result of a plot by the establishment, including British intelligence agencies and Prince Philip, her former father-in-law.
"I am certain, 100 percent, that a leading member of the royal family have planned that and the whole plot, being executed, in his order with the help of members of MI6," al Fayed, owner of Harrods department store, said at a news conference after the report was released.
"I am the father who lost his son and close friend, Princess Diana. Nobody have any right just to predict and spreading rumor, displaying things which is not completely real," al Fayed said, referring to Stevens.
Al Fayed said Diana "conveyed to me all her suffering, all the devastation of threats she have in her life in the last 20 years she was living in the royal family environment."
Contradicting long-standing rumors, family and friends denied in interviews that Diana was about to marry Fayed, and Diana was not pregnant, Stevens said.
"From the evidence of her close friends and associates, she was not engaged and not about to get engaged," Stevens said.
©MMVI CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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where we see things that most media outlets wont tell us.. or don't want to tell us... My husband and most of his colleagues don't bother to get papers now because of the media bias, and instead of checking out facts they all seem to copy each other.. of course it is easier to get the news on the net as one can surf all papers in the hopes of getting a better view,, hmmm...
That said, she was also a spoiled tart and adultress who somehow, managed to achieve goddess status with some. Amazing.......
come and kill me like i care your evil and corrupt but never forget what goes round comes round give the people what they deserve Freedom for all forgiveness
This is not news.
Why on earth have we Brits spent so much money on this inquiry?
We have squandered millions trying to satisfy weird conspiracy theorists, who wont believe the conclusion of this report anyway.
- by elgraz December 14, 2006 11:08 AM EST
- Sure what other conclusion would you expect from a Lord John Stevens. Do you think he is going to implicate the British crown and British intelligence(an oxymoron ??? His arse would grass.
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