FORMER royal butler Paul Burrell had to “hot foot” it back to his Cheshire home mid way through giving evidence at the inquest into the deaths of Princess Diana and her lover Dodi Fayed.
He drove back from London to his house in High Street, Farndon, at the request of coroner Lord Justice Scott Baker, to retrieve documents including a letter from Diana in which she referred to “a secret”.
After reading the details the coroner decided the information was “already in the public domain”.
But Mr Burrell’s spokesman Steve Dennis indicated that may not be the end of the matter, telling The Chronicle that people should wait until all the evidence had been heard “before jumping to any conclusions”.
The former butler this week talked about a fire-bomb attack on his flower shop while being cross examined by Michael Mansfield QC, representing Dodi’s father Mohamed Fayed, who believes his son and the Princess were killed by MI6 on the orders of the Duke of Edinburgh to stop them marrying.
Mr Mansfield firstly referred to Mr Burrell’s widely reported conversation with the Queen in which she apparently warned him of “powers at work in this country” which the former butler interpreted in his book as either the media, the establishment or the security services.
It was in this context that Mr Mansfield asked about Mr Burrell’s belief his phone had been tapped and about an arson attack in December 2002 on the flower shop at Holt, which has since relocated to Farndon.
Quoting from Mr Burrell’s TV show Tabloid Tales, presented by Piers Morgan, in which Mr Burrell featured, Mr Mansfield said: “Unfortunately you say to Mr Morgan: ‘The arson attack literally finished the business. Unfortunately the police were not able to find out who did it, but it was a little more sinister than we first thought because they told us it was a device that was pushed through the window, not just a piece of paper lit’.”
Mr Mansfield asked: “To this day, we don't know who was behind that?” to which Mr Burrell replied “No”.
It was Mr Burrell who put a letter into the public domain written by Diana which expressed fears Prince Charles was planning an accident in her car. But this week he dismissed claims that any member of the royal family could be behind her death.
Mr Burrell refuted speculation Diana and Dodi had intended to marry explaining that she was “on the rebound” from her relationship with heart surgeon Dr Hasnat Khan.
