After six months of reviewing the evidence, jurors at the inquest into the deaths of Princess Diana and her companion Dodi Al Fayed have delivered their verdict. The couple were unlawfully killed because of the reckless driving of their chauffeur Henri Paul and the paparazzi who followed them, they have decided.
The panel said other key factors contributing to the couple's deaths in the August 1997 Paris crash were that Mr Paul had consumed alcohol before driving and that the Princess and Dodi were not wearing seatbelts.
The fact that the couple's car crashed into a pillar in the Alma tunnel was also partly to blame for the tragedy, they ruled. Experts said that if the collision had been with a wall, it would have carried less of an impact.
The jurors, who deliberated for three-and-half days before reaching their conclusion, returned an unexpected verdict of unlawful killing through grossly negligent driving. It is equivalent to gross negligence manslaughter, and one of the most serious verdicts they could have delivered.
The 11 members on the panel had to decide if the deaths had been an accident, unlawful killing by negligence, or unexplained. They could not rule that the couple had been murdered.
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