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Princess diana butler lied to inquest { February 19 2008 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23238732-661,00.htmlhttp://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23238732-661,00.html
Princess Diana butler Paul Burrell admits lying to inquest
February 19, 2008 10:13am
PRINCESS Diana's former butler has confessed to lying to the inquest into her death, an admission that could lead to his arrest and the derailment of the inquiry.
The Sun newspaper in London has uncovered a video in which Paul Burrell speaks about misleading the coroner, British High Court judge Lord Justice Scott Baker.
He freely admits he knew that he broke the law by lying to the inquest, adding: “I was very naughty.”
Mr Burrell said that that he threw in “red herrings” and held back facts during his evidence.
He could now be arrested on suspicion of perjury, an offence which carries punishment of up to 10 years in jail.
The revelations come after Harrods billionaire Mohamed Al Fayed told the inquest jury how he believed his son Dodi and Princess Diana were murdered.
After waiting a decade for his day in court, the 75-year-old fired off a barrage of sensational allegations accusing everyone from senior members of Britain's royal family, spy agencies, former prime minister Tony Blair and police chiefs of plotting to kill the couple in Paris.
Meanwhile, Mr Burrell's video features claims he witheld details of a crucial conversation with the Queen months after Diana’s death in a Paris car crash in 1997.
He can be seen laughing as he tells a friend: “When you swear an oath, you have to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
“I told the truth as far as I could — but I didn’t tell the whole truth. Perjury is not a nice thing to have to contemplate.
“I was very naughty and I made a couple of red herrings, and I couldn’t help doing it.
“I know you shouldn’t play with justice and I know it’s illegal and I realise how serious it is.”
When asked if it was wrong to commit perjury, Mr Burrell said: “Maybe I didn’t tell the whole truth. Who was it to protect? My own integrity.
“Do you honestly think I’ve told everything I know? Of course I haven’t.
“Do you honestly think I am actually going to sit there in a court of law and tip out my guts and tell them? That’s what he wanted me to do — the judge — to actually tell them what I know, all the secrets. No! You know me better than that.”
Mr Burrell had previously claimed the Queen told him about “dark forces” and “powers at work” in Britain in a meeting a few months after the fatal crash in a Paris underpass.
But at the Diana inquest in January, Mr Burrell failed to give details, revealing only that the Queen told him of her concerns about Diana’s romance with Dodi.
When his pal suggests on the tape that Mr Burrell “did a deal” with the Queen to hold back the real facts of Diana’s death, he adds: “Well, it’s the Queen.
“I sacrificed my own integrity for the bigger picture. No I didn’t tell the whole truth. But he put me in the most unenviable position, that coroner. Because he said I had to report the conversation I had with the Queen.
“The conversation with the Queen was three hours long. And I wasn’t about to sit there and divulge everything she said to me. I wasn’t going do that.
"I said, ‘Do I have to answer that question?’ He said, ‘Yes, you do’. I said, ‘Well, she showed great concern’. That was all I was prepared to say.”
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