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BRITISH POLICE HAVE said they have finished examining new information about the 1997 death of Diana, princess of Wales, but had found “no credible evidence” she was murdered.
Scotland Yard police headquarters announced in August it was checking the credibility of recently received information about the deaths of the princess and her boyfriend Dodi Fayed, including an allegation that she was murdered by a British military figure.
In a statement this morning, the Metropolitan Police Service said officers had conduced a scoping exercise to decided whether the information provided was sufficient to warrant a re-opening of the criminal investigation.
“Every reasonable line of enquiry was objectively pursued in order to fully evaluate any potential evidence,” it said.
Paris
Diana and Fayed were killed in a car crash in a Paris underpass in the early hours of 31 August, 1997, along with their driver, Henri Paul.
It is understood that the claim a member of elite British army regiment the Special Air Service (SAS) was involved was made by the former parents-in-law of an ex-soldier, based on information he had talked about in the past.
“The final conclusion is that whilst there is a possibility the alleged comments in relation to the SAS’s involvement in the deaths may have been made, there is no credible evidence to support a theory that such claims had any basis in fact,” said the police statement.
“Therefore the MPS are satisfied there is no evidential basis upon which to open any criminal investigation,” it added.
Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley has provided all involved parties with a summary report of the probe.
Conspiracy theories
Operation Paget was the name of the two-year police inquiry into the numerous conspiracy theories surrounding the crash.
Led by John Stevens, formerly Britain’s top policeman, it concluded in 2006 that all the allegations it assessed were without foundation.
It rejected the murder claims voiced by some, including Fayed’s father, the Egyptian tycoon Mohamed Al-Fayed.
Dodi Fayed, 42, and driver Paul – the deputy head of security at Al-Fayed’s plush Hotel Ritz in Paris – were pronounced dead at the scene of the crash. The Mercedes-Benz car had smashed into a pillar and spun around.
Diana, 36, the ex-wife of Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, and the mother of Princes William and Harry, died later in hospital.
Bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones, a member of the Al-Fayed family’s protection team, survived.
Seeking to outrun chasing paparazzi photographers, Paul was found to have been speeding. His blood alcohol level was found to have been more than three times over the French limit.
- © AFP 2013 with additional reporting by Michelle Hennessy.
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If I hear anyone else say “life style choice” in relation to social welfare, I swear to God I wont be responsible!!!
The other thing that I m tired of hearing is “we need to reduce social welfare to motivate people to go back to work” Our TDs receive over €2500 pay per week, plus expenses, free transport etc and they are spending their time on how to cut child welfare by €10 and the dole by €8. Those who profit most from Irelands wealth are mostly tax exiles and pay nothing at all …is something wrong here?? Should we not be “motivating” those who earn €1 million plus to be paying their fair share?
I “live” on Social Welfare. Yes you could say it is a “lifestyle choice”. I have cardiac artery disease, diabetes and arthritis, and am on Disability Allowance. I get the same amount to exist on as someone trying to find a job. It is not a lot. In fact it is not enough. Do our T.D.s know or care? I think not. Would they do anything if they did know?
NO! Because they are not concerned about how ordinary people get by.
Oh Sugar !!
this country has thee most disconected politicians in relation to real life and how we cope and live with the decisions they make.
living on social welfare is a great lifestyle choice, i do it all the time :-P
It is an absolute disgrace what happened to Fr Kevin Reynolds and I am happy for him that his name was cleared. Why the hell won’t Dev jnr respect this mans wishes and those of Fr. Reynolds legal team?
Before cutting social welfare for single mothers, can we please first have a National plan to provide community childcare to every family? Community Childcare workers do a great job but when they have to be closed during school holidays, what’s the point?
Believe it or not, not every child in this country has a granny who can take over during school holidays.
Am I the only person who thinks the defamation by autocomplete thing is stupid? It would be like punishing a news reporter for reporting the news. It happened and people were looking up the recievership online to find out information about it so google took a popular term being used and suggested it as a search item. Google simpley did what it’s supposed to do, help people find information online in a quick manner by streamlining what is relevent to what people wanted at that time.
If the term “receivership” is now considered pejorative then google in Ireland had better beware, as the number of businesses in that situation is more likely to grow than shrink.
have your say