Put aside your sympathies coroner tells Diana jury
For many people the inquest has reopened some old and painful wounds but the jury were today asked to put aside their sympathies.
Diana’s family have lost a “devoted” mother, sister and with her death the world lost “an iconic figure”, while Harrods tycoon Mohamed al Fayed is a grieving for son Dodi, Britain'd Coroner Lord Justice Scott Baker noted.
The “frail” and elderly parents of Henri Paul must not be forgotten, he said.
“No one who has not lost a child or a very close loved one can perhaps ever truly comprehend the devastating effect of such a loss and how it gnaws away at one,” the Coroner told the jury.
“You will, I am sure, have great sympathy for Mohamed Al Fayed and his family because of that. You will also, I am sure, have in mind that not only was Diana an iconic figure, but also that two sons have lost a wonderful and devoted mother and that they too have suffered an irreparable loss, a loss which must be the harder to bear because not only of the intimate details that have been publicised during the case, but also their every move is watched so intently by the world’s media.
“It was not only her sons who lost a mother, but other family members who lost a sister and a daughter.
“You will have sympathy too for the frail parents of Henri Paul.”
The spotlight has been shone on some of the most private details of Diana’s love life because of the claim, solely from Mr al Fayed, that she was pregnant, the court heard.
Witnesses ranging from friends Rosa Monckton, Lucia Flecha De Lima and Lady Annabel Goldsmith have stated there was no chance that Diana was pregnant. They noticed she had her period within the weeks before she died. Former lover Hasnat Khan said Diana as “assiduous” in taking her contraceptive pill.
No tests to check if she was pregnant were conducted and embalming her body would not have hidden signs of a baby, experts have told the court.
The medics involved in the post mortem did not notice a pregnancy, despite Mr al Fayed’s claim that he had talked on the telephone to the couple just an hour before they died.
They were delighted with their happy news and were about to announce an engagement on Monday – the day after they were killed.
“The (telephone) conversation involved three people but only one can tell us about it now,” the Coroner told the court.
“Sadly the only other people who can confirm or deny it are no longer alive so this fairly and squarely raises the issue of Mohamed al Fayed’s credibility.
“Is this a man on whose word you can rely?”
The Coroner reminded the jury they must reach their verdicts on the evidence.
He said: “But the bottom line, members of the jury, you are charged with returning a verdict on the evidence and you must decide and assess what you make of the evidence, dispassionately putting your own emotions, whatever they may be, on one side.
“Your duty is to find the facts and reach a conclusion on the evidence, and that transcends any desire, for example, to mark your disapproval of anyone’s behaviour or to make a statement of some kind.”
