Diana not carrying Dodi's baby
2004-01-07 10:51
London - The former royal coroner has denied speculation Princess Diana was pregnant when she was killed in a Paris car accident in 1997.
In an interview with the Times published on Wednesday, John Burton, a doctor who attended her post mortem, said he could tell she was not expecting a baby when he looked at her womb.
"I was actually present when she was examined. She wasn't pregnant. I know she wasn't pregnant," he told the Times.
On Tuesday, Royal Coroner Michael Burgess instructed the London police to investigate the speculation surrounding the deaths of Diana and her lover Dodi Fayed in a Paris underpass on August 31, 1997.
The same day, the Daily Mirror tabloid identified Prince Charles as the man Diana believed was plotting to kill her.
In a letter to her butler and confidant Paul Burrell about a month before her death, she said Charles was planning to fake a road accident to eliminate her so he could remarry.
Others have claimed that Diana's putative pregnancy led the British establishment to plot her death.
Burton, who was one of only two people at Diana's post-mortem, told the Times: "She had only met Dodi six weeks before. Even if she got pregnant the first time she met him, that he shook hands and got her pregnant, the baby would only be six weeks old at most."
A French investigation ruled the accident was the result of speeding by chauffeur Paul Henri, who had been drinking. - Sapa-DPA
- SAPA