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LONDON - Princess Diana's chauffeur taunted paparazzi and showed tell-tale signs of being an alcoholic, an inquest into her death was told overnight.
Stephane Darmon, who was riding a motorcycle for paparazzi pursuing Diana on the night she died in August, 1997, said of her chauffeur Henri Paul: "He was playing a game with the photographers."
"He seemed to be very joyful," Darmon said.
Major investigations by French and British police have concluded the deaths of Diana and her lover Dodi al-Fayed were caused by an inebriated Paul who was driving too fast.
"On a very personal note, I've got to say, my father was an alcoholic. When I saw Mr Paul, he reminded me of my father, his eyes, the way he acted, that's what I thought," Darmon told jurors by videolink from Paris.
"Paul was very jolly and smiling. He was saying that Lady Di will be arriving in a quarter of an hour, in 10 minutes, trying to create a certain pressure, an atmosphere of anticipation. I had the impression he wanted to be centre stage," Darmon said.
Diana, 36, al-Fayed, 42, and Paul died in the early hours of Aug. 31 after their limousine crashed in a Paris road tunnel as they sped away from the Ritz hotel, pursued by paparazzi.
Dodi's father Mohamed al-Fayed says that the couple were engaged and that Diana was pregnant,
He says they were killed by British security services acting on the orders of Queen Elizabeth's husband Prince Philip, Diana's former father-in-law.
Under British law, an official inquest is needed when someone dies unnaturally.
Another witness told the inquest that he saw a white Fiat Uno swerving out of the tunnel and he thought its driver was drunk.
Georges Dauzonne, who was driving his Rolls-Royce, told jurors he had to brake to avoid the car.
"My first impression was that it was Saturday night, it was 12.30 and I thought someone drunk was driving that car," he said.
The driver of the mystery car has never been traced but the Fiat Uno has been at the heart of conspiracy theories about an alleged plot to kill Diana.
Dauzonne and another witness, his wife Sabine, both picked out from a line-up of pictures the same possible driver of the car - identified as former security guard Le Van Thanh. But he has been ruled out by French police in their investigation.
The couple were presented a string of photos, including one of photographer James Andanson. Mohamed al-Fayed says Andanson was at the wheel as part of the plot to kill Diana and Dodi.
But neither Dauzonne nor his wife chose him when asked by the court to identify the driver.
- Reuters
