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LONDON - Jurors for the inquest into the death of Princess Diana have been ordered to ignore a decade of controversial theories and stories about her fatal car crash in Paris.
The plea by the coroner overseeing the six-month inquest, Lord Justice Scott Baker, was made as he began selecting the 11 British men and women who will determine once and for all how Diana died.
The coroner has taken the unprecedented step of providing police protection for the jurors to ensure they are not harassed.
Each will have their own escort as they travel between their homes and the inquest, which opens on Tuesday at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.
A random group of 80 men and women were chosen to take part in the inquest's rigorous jury selection process.
Lord Justice Baker told them that while millions of words had been spoken and written about the deaths of Diana and Dodi, jurors would have to ignore it all.
"There are numerous books, television programs and articles that have been published," he said.
"You have to put out of your mind anything you have heard out of court.
"It will not be easy to do that in this particular case but you will have to."
None of the potential jurors had any idea they could be chosen for the Diana inquest until today.
Each had been told to show up for jury duty at another magistrates' court in west London, but when they arrived they were put on a bus and taken to the inquest.
Lord Justice Baker said the secrecy surrounding the jury selection was necessary because people could have been tempted to research details about Diana's death if they knew in advance they could be jurors.
He also warned the potential jurors not to speak to anyone - including relatives, friends and strangers - about the case.
The coroner whittled down the group to 15 women and 10 men after each answered 10 questions including whether they had links to the royal family or relatives of the princess and Dodi.
Lord Justice Baker will chose the final 11 jurors by ballot on Tuesday and then open the hearings.
A special annex with a live video link to the inquest has been erected in the court's grounds to cater for the hundreds of reporters and members of the public expected to attend.
Jurors will visit Paris to retrace Diana and Dodi's final journey from the Ritz Hotel, owned by his father, Mohamed Al Fayed, to the busy Pont de l'Alma tunnel where their Mercedes crashed on August 31, 1977.
Their driver Henri Paul was also killed.
Mr Al Fayed claims the couple were the victims of a murder plot cooked up by the Duke of Edinburgh and the British secret service.
Jurors will be asked to consider not only how Diana and Dodi died but whether the princess was pregnant and engaged to her lover as well as the fears she held for her life.
The inquest has suffered several delays since it was first opened and quickly adjourned in early 2004 so the Metropolitan Police could complete an investigation.
In findings handed down last December, the police said the couple died as a result of a tragic accident.
A French judge who also carried out a two-year investigation ruled in 1999 that the crash occurred because Mr Paul had been drinking and was driving too fast.
- AAP
