Mohamed Al Fayed won a fresh battle yesterday over the inquest of Diana, Princess of Wales, after the coroner agreed to delay proceedings by five months.

One of the biggest inquests in modern times will now not start until October at the earliest, and is expected to stretch into next year after Baroness Butler-Sloss conceded that lawyers for the owner of Harrods needed more time to examine evidence.

Lady Butler-Sloss had planned to start the inquests into the death of the Princess and Dodi Fayed on May 8. At preliminary hearings she said she wanted to begin as soon as possible to reduce the pressure on the families of the couple. But yesterday, after hearing arguments on behalf of Mr Al Fayed and others, she agreed that the inquests should start at the beginning of October.

The coroner, who is a former High Court judge, has already conceded to Mr Al Fayed’s wish that preliminary hearings should be held in public. Last week three judges also agreed with him that she should sit with a jury and could not act as a coroner for the Royal Household.

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Mr Al Fayed also wants the inquest to hear claims that the couple were killed as a result of an establishment plot involving the Duke of Edinburgh and MI6. Mr Al Fayed wants the Duke and the Prince of Wales to be called as witnesses before the jury.

Earlier this week Lady Butler-Sloss told counsel for Mr Al Fayed that she had not received a shred of evidence to support his allegations about how the couple died in an underpass in Paris in 1997 during a high-speed drive to avoid pursuing paparazzi. Michael Mansfield, QC, for Mr Al Fayed, also argued that the inquests should be moved from the High Court, where Lady Butler-Sloss wants to hold them, to a bigger venue such as the Central Hall, Westminster.

Two more days of preliminary hearings will be held later this month and could be the scene for yet more clashes before the start of an inquest now expected to take months. During the next hearing Lady Butler-Sloss will discuss the scope of the inquest and which witnesses might be called.

Yesterday she asked for details of the documents and potential witnesses that Mr Al Fayed and other interested parties may want to call.

In an announcement posted on the inquest website, she asked interested parties for details of any further investigations they would like to see beyond those undertaken in the Operation Paget crime report prepared by Lord Stevens of Kirkwhelpington, the former Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, into suggestions of a conspiracy to kill the Princess; the police report on the crash itself; and the dossier compiled by investigators in France. Lady Butler-Sloss also wants to know which expert witnesses could be called, lists of missing or unclear material, and written submissions on disclosure of papers.

The Princess and Mr Fayed died in August 1997 when their Mercedes crashed in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris on its way from the Ritz Hotel to Mr Fayed’s apartment.

Last December Lord Stevens published his 800-page report on the conspiracy theories surrounding the deaths. The report dismissed them, describing the crash as nothing more than a tragic accident.

Mr Al Fayed is demanding disclosure of material that was used for the report and has suggested that Lady Butler-Sloss damaged her appearance of impartiality by endorsing the report’s publication. Last week the High Court judges ruled that she had not.

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