- Princess Diana claimed there was a plot to kill her in
a car crash in a handwritten letter only 10 months before she died. She
gave it to her butler Paul Burrell with orders that he should keep it as
"insurance" for the future.
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- The princess predicted: "This particular phase in
my life is the most dangerous." She said "XXXXXXXXXXX is planning
'an accident' in my car, brake failure and serious head injury in order
to make the path clear for Charles to marry".
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- In the letter, revealed by the Daily Mirror today, Diana
named who she believed was plotting to kill her. But the Mirror is not
able to repeat the allegation for legal reasons so we have blanked that
part of the letter out.
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- The document will fuel the conspiracy theories which
have raged in the six years since she was killed in a Paris car crash.
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- But it also appears to bring fresh importance to a warning
by the Queen that there were "powers at work in this country about
which we have no knowledge".
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- The Queen was speaking to Burrell at Buckingham Palace
in a meeting that would prove crucial in the collapse of his trial for
theft.
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- Now, plagued by that meeting and deeply troubled that
there has still been no inquest in Britain into the death of Diana and
her boyfriend Dodi Fayed, Burrell has come forward with the stunning new
evidence.
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- In his new book A Royal Duty the former servant ñ
cleared last year of stealing Diana's possessions ñ claims she began
to worry about her security TWO YEARS before her death and that this led
her to record her fears in the document.
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- Before sealing the letter in an envelope marked "Paul",
the princess told him: "I'm going to date this and I want you to keep
it ... just in case."
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- In the second paragraph of the document, written in October
1996, Diana explained in the plainest possible language that she was convinced
of the plot to mastermind an accident.
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- Burrell describes in his book the events that led the
princess to write the document at her desk in Kensington Palace.
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- Diana's divorce from Prince Charles had been finalised
less than two months earlier.
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- The princess, who had cut down on her charities to focus
on Aids, leprosy and victims of homelessness, was enjoying huge public
support.
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- But according to Burrell, by the autumn of 1996 she had
"an overpowering feeling that she was 'in the way'."
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- He adds: "Rightly or wrongly she felt the stronger
she became, the more she was regarded as a modernising nuisance.
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- "She certainly felt that 'the system' didn't appreciate
her work and that for as long as she was on the scene Prince Charles could
never properly move on."
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- Burrell says the princess told him: "I have become
strong and they don't like it when I am able to do good and stand on my
own two feet without them."
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- The princess's anxiety deepened to such an extent that
she ordered a sweep of her apartments at Kensington Palace for listening
devices.
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- By October 1996 she once again confided in Burrell that
she believed there was a concerted attempt to undermine her in the public's
eyes.
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- She recalled that she had been brooding about Charles's
relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles and the continuing role of Tiggy
Legge Bourke, nanny to Princes William and Harry, in the Royal Household.
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- Burrell says the princess was feeling "undervalued
and unappreciated". But at the root of her fears she said she was
"constantly puzzled" by attempts by Prince Charles's supporters
to "destroy her".
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- With these thoughts and fears in her head, Diana decided
to put her fears to paper, says Burrell.
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- The letter betrays the loneliness Diana was feeling:
"I am sitting here at my desk today in October, longing for someone
to hug me and encourage me to keep strong and hold my head high."
According to Burrell it was not the first time Diana had felt it neccessary
to record what was happening to her. He said: I became the repository for
royal truths.
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- "These notes are her legacy and are crucial to the
truths that enshrine her memory and debunk the damaging myths that seem
to have been peddled since the day she died."
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- Diana and Dodi Fayed were killed in the early hours of
August 31 1997 when a Mercedes S280 driven by drunken chauffeur Henri Paul
careered into the Pont d'Alma tunnel in the French capital.
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- An inquiry in 1999 by the French authorities blamed Paul,
concluding that he had taken a cocktail of drink and drugs before losing
control of the car because he was speeding.
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- However, there has been a growing unwillingness by the
public to accept the official version of her death.
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- Burrell admitted he shares the doubts. He said: "With
the benefit of hindsight, the content of that letter has bothered me since
her death."
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- It will strike a chord among people who remain puzzled
by inconsistences in her death, including questions over a mysterious white
Fiat Uno which grazed the Mercedes in the tunnel and over blood samples
taken from Henri Paul.
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- Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed, Dodi's father, has spent
tens of thousands of pounds on a private investigation, convinced that
Diana and Dodi were murdered by British security services at the behest
of Establishment forces.
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- But Diana's family refuse to believe the theories. Her
mother Frances Shand Kydd accepted the findings of the French inquiry "without
reservation".
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- Dianaís brother Earl Spencer also said he was
satisfied that the authorities had "reached the right conclusion".
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- Hopes that some of the mysteries would be unravelled
were dashed last month.
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- A spokesman for the royal coroner Michael Burgess said
the date for an inquest on Diana would be announced within days.
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- But hours later Mr Burgess ordered the statement to be
withdrawn, saying it was "premature" to suggest a date and refusing
to give a timescale.
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- The lack of an inquest and his prosecution for theft
in 2002 steeled Burrell's determination to make public the princess's concerns
for her security.
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- "That letter has been part of the burden I have
carried since the princess's death. Knowing what to do with it has been
a source of much soul-searching."
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- He insists that whether it is a "wild coincidence"
or an explanation for the tragedy is a matter for a coroner's court.
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- He adds: "It may be futile in what it achieves because
it can do no more than provide yet another question mark.
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- "But if that question mark leads to an inquest and
a thorough investigation of the facts by the British authorities it will
have achieved something."
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Media Limited 2001.
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