Even after the backbiting over last week’s memorial service for Diana, Princess of Wales, the controversy over her death is far from over, writes David Leppard. The long-awaited coroner’s inquest into her death is finally due to start at the High Court in London next month.

Despite two lengthy police investigations and a decade of detailed public scrutiny, many remain unsure about what really happened on the night that Diana, her lover Dodi Fayed and their driver Henri Paul died when their Mercedes hit the 13th pillar of the Alma tunnel in Paris on August 31, 1997. Last year a survey by GfK NOP, a polling firm, found that 31% of the 1,000 people questioned still believed that her death was not an accident. The responsibility for this conspiracy culture can be laid at the door of Mohamed al-Fayed, owner of Harrods, the London store, who still grieves for his son Dodi.

Fayed has campaigned obsessively to expose what he claims was a plot by MI6 to cause the accident on the orders of the Duke of Edinburgh. This allegation is dismissed by Prince Philip, MI6, Diana’s closest friends and Lord Stevens, the former Metropolitan police commissioner, who has spent three years investigating Diana’s death.

However, Fayed succeeded in arguing that the inquest should not be heard by a royal jury, as protocol dictated. Instead, Lord Justice Scott Baker, the fourth coroner to be appointed to the case, will preside alone over a detailed examination of Stevens’s report, which concluded that the princess died because Paul had been drunk and was speeding.

Stevens himself anticipates spending several days in the witness box explaining in detail the evidence behind his findings. He can expect to be asked about whether a white Fiat Uno, said by many witnesses to have been in the tunnel that night, caused or contributed to the collision with Diana’s Mercedes.

The search for the mysterious second car formed the heart of the original French police inquiry into the crash. Witnesses saw a Fiat, and shards of plastic and scrapes of paint at the scene also testified to its presence.

Witnesses spoke of a collision between the two vehicles at the tunnel’s entrance before they heard the sound of a crash. However, the vehicle has never been traced and it is unlikely that it ever will be.

Fayed has suggested that the car was driven by James Andanson, a French photo-journalist said to have been among the chasing pack of paparazzi a short distance behind Diana’s car.

Andanson committed suicide in 2000 in mysterious circumstances, which led to suggestions that he was murdered to cover up his role in the crash. But Stevens concluded that Andanson was not even in Paris on the night of the tragedy.

Representatives of the royal family, the Spencers - Diana’s relatives, Fayed and others will all take a close interest in the proceedings which are expected to last at least six months.

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