Waiter: Diana driver drunk before crash

Published: Dec. 21, 2007 at 5:03 PM

LONDON, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- A waiter at the Ritz Hotel in Paris has told a British inquest that the man who drove Princess Diana to her death was too drunk to walk straight.

Alain Willaumez, testifying from France Thursday by video link, said Ritz Hotel managers told him to lie to Paris police about Henri Paul's drunkenness, saying that he had been drinking fruit juice, The Sun reported.

Princess Diana, Paul and Dodi Fayed, son of the owner of the Ritz and Harrods Department Store in London, were killed in the 1997 crash. Paul was head of security at the hotel.

"When he left the bar he bumped into one of my colleagues," Willaumez testified.

"It was not a precise and accurate walk. He was walking like a clown. He was staggering like a drunk."

Also Thursday, Richard Kay, a journalist who had become close to Diana, said that she had called him a few hours before her death and said she was thinking of moving out of Britain.

French investigators concluded that Paul was to blame for the crash, which occurred as he tried to elude photographers. But Mohammed al-Fayed, Dodi Fayed's father, contends that British agents set up the crash.

© 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Order reprints



Additional News Stories
UPI Sports Calendar for Tuesday, Nov. 24 (50 min)
Hiring rivals' workers can be an advantage (60 min)
NBA: Los Angeles Clippers 91, Minnesota 87
Tea may help control blood sugar
COL BKB: Maryland 79, Chaminade 51
NHL: Anaheim 3, Calgary 2 (SO)
COL BKB: Texas 85, Iowa 60
fark
Charges dropped against dad who drove a drunken intruder away from his wife and young kids... with...
The Public Option, which was alive, then dead, then alive, then dead, then alive, then dead, then...
If you are the person who stole more than 1,000,000 bees, please return them as it is nearly pollination...
Caption President Obama and his staff overlooking a computer
Scottish city declines to sanction official drunken street party for New Year's, since citizens...
Recent immigrants to Canada more likely to be male, younger, better educated, work for smaller companies...