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Diana 'feared royal family plot'
20/02/2008 08:48 - (SA)
London - Weeks before Princess Diana died, she told her lover, Dodi Fayed, that she feared there was a plot by the royal family to get rid of her, and that she would be killed in an accident, a former assistant to Fayed testified on Tuesday.
Melissa Henning said Diana told him the accident would happen when her sons, Princes William and Harry, were not around.
Henning gave her testimony via video link from the US to a coroner's inquest examining the death of Diana and Fayed in a Paris car crash in August 1997.
Henning, who worked as Fayed's US assistant, said she first thought Diana's claims were a "little far-fetched", but later realised the couple "deeply" believed this was a possibility.
The witness said she learned of Diana's fears when she had dinner with Fayed shortly before his death.
"He told me that Diana was very concerned for her personal safety. They had discussed this several times. She had felt the royal family did not want her around anymore," Henning said.
"She thought they felt she was a threat to them and they would prefer not to have her around. She felt it would be an accident and it would only happen when the boys were not with her because the boys would never be harmed."
After the car crash in Paris, Henning said she called Fayed's father, Harrods' owner Mohamed Al Fayed, to tell him about the couples' fears. But Henning said she did not tell British or French authorities because she did not know if they would regard such information as significant at the time.
On Monday, Al Fayed testified at the inquest that he believes Diana and his son were killed by Britain's MI6 spy agency on the orders of Prince Philip because she was pregnant and the couple were about to get engaged.
- AP
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