Princess Di believed lover was 'bumped off'

Shortly after 9.30pm on a wet May evening 17 years ago Barry Mannakee accepted a lift to his Essex home on a fellow police officer's motorbike. Within 45 minutes Mr Mannakee, an officer in Scotland Yard's diplomatic protection squad, was dead. His spine was broken in two places during a collision with a car turning from a side street in suburban east London.

Within 24 hours the significance of the crash became clear when the Prince of Wales turned to his wife in their limousine and told her that her former bodyguard - and apparent lover - was dead. The events of that night, some eight months after Mr Mannakee was removed from his royal post for "overfamiliar behaviour" with his employer, have long helped perpetuate the florid conspiracy industry that continues to be one of Diana, Princess of Wales's most enduring legacies. The relationship has now assumed a new significance.

Diana had contemplated running away with Mr Mannakee, according to videotapes broadcast this week by the American television network NBC. She said: "I was quite happy to give all this up ... Just to go off and live with him. Can you believe it? And he kept saying he thought it was a good idea."

Sir John Stevens, the outgoing Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, has ordered a re-investigation of Mr Mannakee's death as part of Operation Paget - the inquiry into Diana's death being conducted in preparation for the British inquest due next year.

In the tapes, made by her voice coach, Peter Settelen, the Princess said she believed the man with whom she was "deeply in love" was "bumped off" by the security services. Among the more lurid claims is the existence of a secret police file that supposedly details how a device was attached to the front wheel of the bike to cause it to explode and make the rider lose control.

Nicola Chopp, then 17, who was driving the car that collided with the bike, claims that her statement was changed by police. She said in October: "I do believe that accidents can be arranged and that something suspicious happened that night."

- INDEPENDENT