Explore the evidence in front of the jury

A paparazzo attempted to sell photographs of the dying Diana, Princess of Wales, and Dodi Fayed for £300,000 shortly after their car crashed in Paris, their inquests heard yesterday.

Romuald Rat, a French photographer who was among the pack of paparazzi that had been chasing the couple since they landed in Paris the previous day, called The Sun newspaper from the scene of the crash inside the Alma tunnel, the court was told.

The pictures “leapt off the screen” when they were wired through from Paris, Kenneth Lennox, who was then the paper’s picture editor, said. “The first photo I opened up was of Diana sitting in the back seat . . . She has a trickle of blood on her face.” The second was of a doctor attending to the Princess and apparently administering oxygen. The photographer had described the Princess as “lightly injured” and Dodi as “very badly injured”.

Q&A: the Diana inquest

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• Video: Diana CCTV footage

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BACKGROUND

• Separating fact from fiction in the great Diana conspiracy

• ‘Diana decision is yours alone’

• Inquest hears evidence Diana was on the Pill

• Jury duty with a Royal difference

• Was Diana’s death part of a secret plot?

Related Internet Links

• Coroner's inquest - Official Site

Related Links

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• Photographers 'clambered on car'

• ‘Oh my God,’ said Diana as she lay dying

A statement from Mr Lennox, given originally to a Channel 4 programme, was read out in court as part of the cross-examination of Stephane Darmon, the motorcyclist who was carrying Mr Rat in the chase.

Giving evidence on Monday, Mr Darmon told of the 12 hours leading up to the crash from the perspective of the photographers. He said that Henri Paul, acting head of security at the Ritz that night and the driver of the Mercedes who was also killed in the crash, had taunted the photographers as they waited outside the Ritz Hotel.

He said yesterday that he had lost sight of the Mercedes en route to the Alma tunnel when it “took off like a plane”, while he continued to obey the highway code. When they arrived at the scene of the crash, he added, Mr Rat had gone to the assistance of the Princess and Mr Fayed, opening the door to the Mercedes and fighting back other photographers.

Richard Keen, QC, who is representing the parents of Mr Paul, accused Mr Darmon of telling a “series of self-serving lies which you told in the face of allegations of manslaughter and failing to give assistance to persons in distress”. He said that when Mr Rat had held back other photographers, “what Mr Rat was protecting was not the victims but the £300,000 exclusive that he had just phoned in to The Sun”.

Mr Keen added: “What percentage does the driver get, Mr Darmon?” Speaking via video link through a translator, Mr Darmon replied: “I don’t want to answer that. This is totally delirious.”

Later Mr Darmon told Ian Burnett, QC, senior counsel for the inquest, that he would never receive a percentage of any sale, that he had no knowledge of the photographs and had played no part in getting the photographs out of the tunnel.

Ian Croxford, QC, representing the Ritz Hotel at the inquests, questioned how the Mercedes carrying four could have left behind Mr Darmon, a qualified motorcycling instructor who was riding a 650cc Honda motorbike.

Duncan MacLeod, representing the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said of the scene at the Ritz Hotel that evening: “There was in truth no escape from the attention of the paparazzi.”

Paparazzi, including Mr Rat, have been asked to give evidence, but yesterday Mr Justice Scott Baker, the assistant deputy coroner of Inner West London, said that it was “99 per cent certain nobody was going to turn up”.

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