LAWFUEL – The ‘Missing’ three hours in which Mohammed Al Fayed claims MI6 agents met the head of the Ritz security to plot Princess’s Diana’s death are captured in CCTV footage.
Haunting images of Princess Diana in her final hours – relaxed, happy and smiling broadly – have been shown for the first time at the inquest into her death.
In the most striking sequence, Diana and Dodi are seen entering the hotel at 4.35pm on August 30, 1997, walking across a lobby before getting into a mirrored lift, where the Princess, wearing a grey trouser suit and with her sunglasses on top of her head, looks up towards the camera with a familiar smile.
Eight hours later, she and Dodi were killed when a Mercedes in which they were travelling crashed in an underpass next to the River Seine.
Up to a dozen photographers, some of whom followed the car into the tunnel, can be seen crowding around Diana and Dodi as they enter and leave the hotel.
As well as showing Diana’s movements in the hours before she died, the CCTV footage also shows Ritz head of security Henri Paul, who was at the wheel of the Mercedes and who also died in the crash, leaving the hotel at 7pm and returning shortly after 10pm.
The movements of Mr Paul, including the “missing” three hours during which Mr Fayed claims he met MI6 agents to plot the Princess’s death, and the actions of the photographers, who were initially blamed for causing the crash, will be examined in minute detail during the six-month hearing.
The CCTV footage also shows Dodi Fayed leaving the hotel at 5.42pm to go to the Repossi jewellery store, where Mohamed Fayed claims he picked up an engagement ring which he and Princess Diana had earlier chosen together in Monte Carlo.
