The British Royal Family have all been bugged by the secret service, the inquest into Princess Diana’s death heard yesterday (09.01.08).
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Diana’s former police bodyguard, Ken Wharfe, told the jury at London’s High Court that many royals, including Queen Elizabeth, Prince Philip and Prince Charles, were being observed by British intelligence via the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), in Chetlenham, in the early 90s.
He added: “I am fairly confident in my own mind that this was routinely done.”
Diana – who was killed in a Paris car crash on August 31, 1997, along with lover Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul – always believed she was being spied on.
In 1992, a telephone conversation between the princess and her friend James Gilbey – in which James referred to the princess as “Squidgy” and “darling” – was picked up by two radio hams and leaked to the press.
Wharfe is convinced the GCHQ was responsible for the recording, which became known as the Squidgygate tapes, as they had bugged the princess’ phone.
He said: “It may well have been a loop from nearby Cheltenham, the GCHQ there, because it seems to be rather coincidental that two people independent of each other actually taped the same conversation.”
Wharfe told the court the GCHQ were monitoring members of the royal family at that time because of the “heightened” activities of terrorist organisation the Irish Republican Army (IRA).
Wharfe added Diana had told him she thought the security services were routinely spying on her and other members of the royal family. He claimed Diana was wary of the royal family, and he believed she had every reason to.
He said: “The royal family, in my opinion, were incredibly jealous of her popularity.”
Dodi’s father, Mohamed Al fayed, has always claimed his son and the princess were killed by the British establishment because they were about to announce their engagement and Diana was pregnant.
