DNA tests show Diana driver drunk

December 9th, 2006

London, England - A new BBC documentary alleges that DNA tests on blood samples appear to prove the driver of Princess Diana's car was drunk on the night of her fatal accident.

A new BBC documentary alleges that DNA tests on blood samples appear to prove the driver of Princess Diana's car was drunk on the night of her fatal accident.

The tests indicate original post-mortem samples, which showed Henri Paul was three times over the French drink-drive limit, were his.

How Diana Died: The Conspiracy Files reports the French authorities carried out the tests within the past year.

Conspiracy theorists have claimed that Paul's blood samples were swapped.

Some suggest this was done to portray him as drunk in an elaborate cover-up of a secret service plot to murder Diana.

But the DNA tests would appear to prove that the driver's blood samples could not have been switched.

The new evidence has come to light days before the publication of Lord Stevens' report into Diana's death in Paris in 1997, which is expected to conclude it was an accident.

Meanwhile, a poll for the BBC suggests that more than three in 10 people in the UK do not believe it was.

The DNA tests were carried out in France within the last year, according to a source close to the French authorities.

A DNA profile was taken from Mr Paul's blood samples and compared with his parents' DNA. They matched.

Lord Stevens' inquiry team has pledged to investigate the many conspiracy theories that surround the deaths of Diana, 36, her companion Dodi Al Fayed, 42, and Mr Paul, the driver of the Mercedes that crashed in August 1997.

The Alma Tunnel crash investigation was the biggest in French history and was carried out by the country's top police force, the Criminal Brigade. After two years it concluded Diana's death was a tragic accident.

Mr Paul was held to blame for the crash and found to be drunk and driving at excessive speed.

However, conspiracy theories have gripped the public imagination as a result of doubts raised about the French crash investigation.

Sceptics of the official account question why a crucial witness, the driver of a second car involved in the crash, has never been identified and how it took nearly two hours to get Diana to a hospital just four miles away.