The Diana inquest jury has been yesterday shown shocking paparazzi pictures of the princess as she lay dying.
One close-up photograph was taken moments after the Mercedes limousine carrying her and lover Dodi Fayed crashed in a Paris underpass.
It showed her lying in the back seat of the mangled car as a French doctor battled to save her.
These images cannot be shown here because the coroner, Lord Justice Scott Baker, banned their release on the inquest website "for the reason that it is possible for pictures that have been pixillated to be un-pixillated if they get into certain hands".
But he did release a series of other paparazzi images showing the moments before Diana and Dodi got into the back of the black Mercedes which was to drive them to their death.
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One close-up photograph was taken moments after the Mercedes limousine carrying her and lover Dodi Fayed crashed in a Paris underpass.
It showed her lying in the back seat of the mangled car as a French doctor battled to save her.
These images cannot be shown here because the coroner, Lord Justice Scott Baker, banned their release on the inquest website "for the reason that it is possible for pictures that have been pixillated to be un-pixillated if they get into certain hands".
But he did release a series of other paparazzi images showing the moments before Diana and Dodi got into the back of the black Mercedes which was to drive them to their death.
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Pic-1Pic-1 :Fateful journey: Princess Diana gets into the Mercedes at the back of the Ritz Hotel in Paris
In one of these grim images that can not be shown, Diana had been pulled from the vehicle and lay on the ground in the Alma tunnel, surrounded by paramedics in red fluorescent jackets desperately trying to resuscitate her.
Even as she fought for life, with her lover and chauffeur already killed in the impact, the paparazzi were determined to get their photographs. The jury was told that they began taking pictures before emergency services arrived - without even attempting to open the car doors and help those inside.
In another paparazzo photograph, emergency service personnel were seen carrying a body from the scene. It was heavily pixillated, making it impossible to identify whether it was Dodi or driver Henri Paul.
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In one of these grim images that can not be shown, Diana had been pulled from the vehicle and lay on the ground in the Alma tunnel, surrounded by paramedics in red fluorescent jackets desperately trying to resuscitate her.
Even as she fought for life, with her lover and chauffeur already killed in the impact, the paparazzi were determined to get their photographs. The jury was told that they began taking pictures before emergency services arrived - without even attempting to open the car doors and help those inside.
In another paparazzo photograph, emergency service personnel were seen carrying a body from the scene. It was heavily pixillated, making it impossible to identify whether it was Dodi or driver Henri Paul.
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Pic-2
Pic-2:The blurred images of Diana and Trevor Rees-Jones can be made out as they leave the Ritz
Pic-3The sombre series of photographs - never seen in public before - was shown on widescreen TV screens inside the High Court.
Neither Diana's sister Lady Sarah McCorquodale nor Harrods tycoon Mohamed Al Fayed was in court when the graphic images taken in the Alma underpass were screened.
The jury of six woman and five men had already heard from one French motorist, Thierry Hackett, who described seeing the Mercedes swerving from one side of the road to another at 70mph closely pursued by at least four paparazzi on motorbikes.
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Pic-4:Princess Diana, driver Henri Paul (left) and bodyguard Trevor Rees Jones (below right) all exited the Ritz Hotel by the backdoorAnother witness spoke of the underpass being lit up by 'bluish flames' as the paparazzi camera flashlights captured the grisly scene - and his shock that none of them appeared to be trying to help the stricken occupants inside the Mercedes.
Metropolitan Police inspector Paul Carpenter talked the jury through the series of graphic photographs taken in the early hours of August 31, 1997.
Afterwards Michael Mansfield QC, the barrister representing Mohamed Al Fayed, asked him: "It's perfectly obvious that the paparazzi who were present at the scene of the crash had no compunction about taking photographs of the victims both inside the car and being carried outside the car?"
The police officer replied: "None whatsoever, sir."
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Diana and Dodi are pictured as they wait in the back of the car
Police 'mugshots' of 17 photographers involved in the French criminal investigation were shown to the jury, along with paparazzi pictures of Diana and Dodi - escorted by bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones - as they left the rear of the Ritz Hotel at the start of their final, fateful journey.Eight photographers and one motorcylist were arrested after the crash and investigated on suspicion of manslaughter and failing to assist at the scene but all were formally cleared in 1999 by a French investigating magistrate.
Around 400 photographs have been seized from paparazzi taken at the front of the Ritz Hotel and earlier in the day after Diana and Dodi flew into Paris following their Mediterranean holiday.
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Police 'mugshots' of 17 photographers involved in the French criminal investigation were shown to the jury, along with paparazzi pictures of Diana and Dodi - escorted by bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones - as they left the rear of the Ritz Hotel at the start of their final, fateful journey.Eight photographers and one motorcylist were arrested after the crash and investigated on suspicion of manslaughter and failing to assist at the scene but all were formally cleared in 1999 by a French investigating magistrate.
Around 400 photographs have been seized from paparazzi taken at the front of the Ritz Hotel and earlier in the day after Diana and Dodi flew into Paris following their Mediterranean holiday.
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Crash scene: Firefighters quickly got to the wreckage
No photographs taken on the journey to the underpass have been found but a bundle of pictures has been compiled by Inspector Carpenter taken by various paparazzi in the immediate aftermath of the crash.
One shot taken by Serge Arnal showed a small group of people crowding around the wreck of the Mercedes shortly after it smashed into a concrete pillar.
A second photograph, taken just feet from the car, clearly showed Diana in the rear seat of the Mercedes. She was partially obscured by French doctor Frederick Maillez, leaning into the back of the car and desperately administering emergency aid.
The princess's body was bent forward, her head down in the well of the car. Her face - photographed in profile - was pixillated but her blonde hair was easily recognisable.
Diana and Dodi in the RitzMinutes earlier, photographs seized from Jacques Langevin showed Diana, her hand to her face, climbing into the Mercedes at the rear of the hotel before heading towards the underpass.
Another photograph showed the last images of Dodi and Diana alive together, as they hunch forward in the back of the vehicle.
In contrast to CCTV footage taken moments earlier of a happy, carefree Diana and Dodi, these new pictures showed the princess apparently distressed at the presence of the paparazzi.
Some of the grimmest photographs came from the camera of Fabrice Chassery, the inquest was told.
One showed Dr Maillez leaning into the car over the digitally-obscured figure of Diana. Another photographer, Christian Martinez, captured colleague Romuald Rat squatting next to the open rear door of the Mercedes - and inches away from Diana's face.
According to Inspector Carpenter, Rat was 'very, very early' at the scene. One of his photographs showed the Mercedes in the deserted underpass, smoke still pouring from the wreckage.
In cross-examination, Inspector Carpenter agreed with the barrister when he asked him: "Rather than approach the Mercedes and open the door to assist or ascertain the condition of those inside, what we have is someone who is simply walking past the vehicle for the purposes of taking photographs?"
A similar photograph of Diana in the wreckage provoked intense controversy and anger from Princes William and Harry earlier this year when broadcast in the Channel 4 documentary Diana: The Witnesses in the Tunnel.
In a letter to Channel 4 their private secretary Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton said the princes believed the screening was a 'gross disrespect' to their mother's memory.
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