The parents of Princess Diana’s driver Henri Paul have insisted their son did not have an alcohol problem.
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Jean and Gisele Paul are furious with allegations Henri – who was behind the wheel of Diana’s car when it collided with pillar 13 of Paris’ Pont d’Alma tunnel on August 31, 1997 – is to blame for the car crash that killed himself, Diana and her lover Dodi Fayed.
The inquest into the deaths have previously heard how Henri had a problem with alcohol and had been drinking before the accident.
Giving evidence to London’s High Court by video link from Paris, the elderly couple said their pleas for independent tests to prove whether or not their son had been three times France’s drink-drive limit had been refused.
They insisted official pronouncements that their son had been drunk on the night of the crash or was an alcoholic were “certainly wrong”. Asked if they had ever known their son to drink alcohol in excess the couple jointly replied: “No, never, not at all.”
They also insisted they had never seen him drunk.
The Pauls also rejected “conspiracy theories” about the crash, dismissing suggestions Henri had been paid by the security services, as alleged by Dodi’s father, Mohamed Al Fayed, to cause the accident.
The jury was also given details for the first time of a large collection of drink found in Henri’s flat after his death. But the couple’s barrister Richard Keen QC suggested the alcohol may have been planted, as they were discovered in a second search of the property but not the first.
