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American Morning
Diana Probe Delayed
Aired January 06, 2004 - 09:33 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get to London right now. The first British investigation into the deaths of Princess Diana and her former boyfriend did not get very far today.
Paula Hancocks tells us why. She's live in London now.
Paula, good afternoon there.
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Bill.
Well, what happened this morning is the coroner of the queen's household, Michael Burgess, opened the first inquest on British soil into the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. He gave a 40-minute opening statement, and then he actually adjourned the proceedings. He said it could be between 12 and 15 months before the inquest proper starts.
Now the reason for this, he says, is because it's going take some time to get all the evidence in the papers from the French investigation. There is still legal proceedings going on. There's still a legal appeal case going on in the French case. And until that's finished, he can't start the inquest proper. There's about 6,000 page document from the two-year French investigation, 300 witness statements. So he needs time to go through all that, all those papers before he can decide which, if any, witnesses he wants to recall. So that has been adjourned.
And then this afternoon, in just about half an hours time, in Surrey (ph), south England, he will be opening and adjourning the separate inquest into the death of Dodi Al Fayed, the companion of Diana, princess of Wales, who was in the car with her at the time. And Mohammad Al Fayad, the father of Dodi, came to the inquest this morning. He's expected to go to his son's inquest opening this afternoon as well. He's been calling for a public inquiry. He says the inquest doesn't go far enough, it's not far-reaching enough.
Now a new development we do have, is that after Paul Burrell, you'll remember the former butler of Princess Diana, came out with a book just a few months ago, a serialization in the British newspaper "Daily Mirror," and he said that Princess Diana had given him a memo in October '96, just a couple months after she divorced from Prince Charles, saying that she was worried that she was going to be involved in a fatal car crash.
And we can show you here, "The Daily Mirror" is naming that she thought Prince Charles could be behind that worry of a fatal car crash. CNN cannot independently confirm that, but that is what "The Daily Mirror" is reporting today -- Bill.
HEMMER: You know, a lot of people giving them something to think about nonetheless.
Paula, thanks. Paula Hancocks there.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 6, 2004 - 09:33 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get to London right now. The first British investigation into the deaths of Princess Diana and her former boyfriend did not get very far today.
Paula Hancocks tells us why. She's live in London now.
Paula, good afternoon there.
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Bill.
Well, what happened this morning is the coroner of the queen's household, Michael Burgess, opened the first inquest on British soil into the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. He gave a 40-minute opening statement, and then he actually adjourned the proceedings. He said it could be between 12 and 15 months before the inquest proper starts.
Now the reason for this, he says, is because it's going take some time to get all the evidence in the papers from the French investigation. There is still legal proceedings going on. There's still a legal appeal case going on in the French case. And until that's finished, he can't start the inquest proper. There's about 6,000 page document from the two-year French investigation, 300 witness statements. So he needs time to go through all that, all those papers before he can decide which, if any, witnesses he wants to recall. So that has been adjourned.
And then this afternoon, in just about half an hours time, in Surrey (ph), south England, he will be opening and adjourning the separate inquest into the death of Dodi Al Fayed, the companion of Diana, princess of Wales, who was in the car with her at the time. And Mohammad Al Fayad, the father of Dodi, came to the inquest this morning. He's expected to go to his son's inquest opening this afternoon as well. He's been calling for a public inquiry. He says the inquest doesn't go far enough, it's not far-reaching enough.
Now a new development we do have, is that after Paul Burrell, you'll remember the former butler of Princess Diana, came out with a book just a few months ago, a serialization in the British newspaper "Daily Mirror," and he said that Princess Diana had given him a memo in October '96, just a couple months after she divorced from Prince Charles, saying that she was worried that she was going to be involved in a fatal car crash.
And we can show you here, "The Daily Mirror" is naming that she thought Prince Charles could be behind that worry of a fatal car crash. CNN cannot independently confirm that, but that is what "The Daily Mirror" is reporting today -- Bill.
HEMMER: You know, a lot of people giving them something to think about nonetheless.
Paula, thanks. Paula Hancocks there.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
