Of course there was no ‘flash before the crash’

The heavyweight legal collision between the coroner Lord Justice Scott Baker’s evidence-driven inquests into Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed’s deaths, and Planet Fayed’s evidence-free legal and media circus, had always threatened to be messy. Last week was the first full week of witness evidence from Paris and London, and it produced ominous signs. Planet Fayed’s three QCs are his performing elephants — already dubbed ‘Hugefee QCs’ by Private Eye. Three heavyweight legal teams support the Hugefees — representing Fayed, his hotel and his dead driver’s parents. Planet Fayed’s objective is to secure an ‘open’ verdict from the inquest jury; any other outcome would see the eclipse of Mohamed’s fantasies.

Planet Fayed exists to exculpate the Fayed family from its responsibility for Diana’s death. The Hugefee QCs argue that Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed were murdered on the orders of the royal family. They spent the first half of the year at the inquest pre-hearings resisting the coroner’s entreaties to ‘tether allegations to evidence’.