The photographer accused of helping to kill Princess Diana was found dead in a burnt-out car, her inquest heard yesterday (07.02.08).
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James Andanson – who allegedly conspired with British secret services to murder the princess – was discovered with a hole in his head after boasting to friends of having secretly taken “explosive” photos of the 1997 Paris car crash scene where Diana died.
French investigating officer Jean-Michel Lauzun told the jury at London’s High Court he arrived while the vehicle was still on fire and saw Andanson’s body alight at the steering wheel with a two inch hole in his left temple.
But police concluded it was a suicide after a pathologist said the hole was due to the intense heat of the fire after he set alight to himself. High levels of carbon monoxide was also found in his blood, suggesting Andanson was alive inside the car long enough to inhale fumes, rather than being killed beforehand.
But the barrister for Mohamed Al Fayed – whose son Dodi was also killed in the Paris crash – suggested he may have been attacked before the car was set on fire.
Michael Mansfield QC said: “We just don’t know whether it is a case of a man consigning himself to a bizarre and painful death or whether in fact some violence had been meted out to him first.”
The Harrods boss believes the photographer was planning to go public with his “involvement” in the alleged plot before his body was found in the South of France in May 2000.
The Frenchman owned a white Fiat Uno, which Al Fayed claims he used to cause
the fatal collision that killed Diana and her lover Dodi. Al Fayed claims the couple were killed by the British establishment because they were about to announce their engagement and Diana was pregnant.
