Diana The Witnesses In The Tunnel - Royal Scandal - British Documentary

Diana, Princess of Wales, became a global phenomenon. The most photographed woman in the world. Millions of pictures in thousands of publications, taken by hundreds of photographers. Her face made many fortune. The Princess of Wales was our bread and butter. We depended upon her. Diana's death in the car crash of August 1997 stunned a world that had lived her life with her. You can't believe something as simple as that would kill her. There's got to be something else. There's got to be a bastard somewhere who killed the Princess of Wales. The blame was put squarely on the photographers who had surrounded her in death as well as in life. I always believed the press would kill her in the end. Every proprietor and editor of every publication that has paid for intrusive and exploitative photographs of her has blood on his hands today. For ten years, conspiracy theories, claims and counterclaims have obscured what happened in the tunnel. Did the photographers chase Diana to her death? Did they hinder the emergency services that they had not called because they were taking pictures? This is the story of the men arrested that night in the tunnel. They witnessed and recorded one of the iconic moments of the 20th century. For one night, their pictures were amongst the most valuable press photographs ever taken. But for ten long years, they had paid a heavy price for being there. Their photographs have not been seen on television, and they have never felt able to tell their side of the story to a world still mourning the death of Diana. Until now. August sunshine on the French Riviera. Princess Diana was enjoying a holiday with her new man, Dodi Fayed. Their romance was the hot tabloid story of the year. Probably the biggest story that you could hope to have with a princess who is now divorced. We'd never had anything like it in tabloid newspapers before. And we had these photographs arriving on our desk each day. Diana was happy to grab the headlines by playing up to the cameras. Her new affair kept Charles and Camilla off the front pages. There were a lot of photographers because there was a permanent Diana show. She usually tried to hide, but this time she gave and gave and gave. Every day. Photographs of the lovers were netting big rewards for the lucky photographers who were giving their romance global coverage. It was a dream come true for a few guys. The money was flying everywhere, packets loads of money. It was... In Paris, dodging photographers. Someone tipped off the press that they were waiting for Dodi's father's hotel, the Ritz. A large crowd of photographers and onlookers had gathered outside, captured here on a tourist's video. At ten to ten, the couple arrived for dinner. Outside, waiting, were a mixed bunch of photojournalists, news photographers and celebrity paparazzi. Some were freelance, others worked for agencies that sold their pictures to newspapers and magazines. Amongst them was 28-year-old agency photographer Pierre Helmsfield. We thought they'd come out and that they wouldn't really try to hide away a great deal, since for the whole summer they'd given photo ops time and time again, so we thought, why would they hide away in Paris? Another photographer was 38-year-old Nikola Arsov. He specialised in news and celebrity pictures. We knew something was happening. We knew that she was inside the hotel, and so we waited. 44-year-old Jacques Langevin was different from the others. He was one of France's most respected prize-winning photojournalists, used to trouble spots like Iraq and Rwanda. But that night, he was assigned to cover Diana. I was at a friend's, having a quiet dinner, when I got called late, around 10.30pm. So I didn't want to go. I dragged my feet and tried to get out of it. I tried to get another photographer to replace me, but it didn't work. Langevin joined the press pack outside the Ritz. There he saw the hotel's acting head of security, Henri Paul, chatting to photographers. He wasn't discreet at all. For a security guard, his behaviour was bizarre. He was like, oh, don't worry, they'll come back through the front, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes. You know, he came back two, three times, and it was always changing, so he instantly felt, uh-oh, they are trying something here. He came out of the hotel very quickly, looking round, went back into the hotel, and came out looking round again. Why? I don't know. Suspecting something, Langevin and some of the other photographers decided to wait for Diana in the Rue Cambon, at the back of the Ritz. At 12.20pm, they struck lucky. Diana and Dodi, accompanied by Henri Paul and one of Dodi's bodyguards, Trevor Rhys-Jones, slipped out of the back door. Henri Paul went out, followed by Dodi and Diana. Once they hid themselves a little bit, you know, in that classic way, they walked normally, but they were hiding a bit, like this. The photographers took pictures as the black Mercedes drove away at speed. In this picture, a camera flash illuminates Diana, who is sitting in the back right-hand seat. In this picture, we see Henri Paul at the wheel. Trevor Rhys-Jones is in the front passenger seat, raising his hand. Diana is in the back, with her head down. Dodi is on her left, but not visible. This is one of the last photographs taken before the crash. I was happy. I'd taken pictures, I'd fulfilled my mission. So I didn't intend to follow them, because I'd come by car, and I can't follow a car taking off like that. At the front of the Ritz, two decoy vehicles faked a departure, seen here in the tourist video, and here, caught on the hotel's security cameras. As they pulled away, some of the waiting photographers knew they'd been duped. When I realised that they had left, I felt, oh, yeah, mistake, you know. But, again, it's a mistake, but, you know, ---- happens. Nikola R. Sov also missed getting shots of Diana. I said to the colleagues that were with me, right, I've had enough, I'm not going. Other photographers did give chase, in cars and on motorbikes. Some nearly caught up with the Mercedes by the Place de la Concorde. At the lights, Henri Paul sped off. He accelerated along the riverside, leaving the photographers behind. At 12.23, on August 31st, 1997, he raced into the Alma Tunnel, and into history. As the Mercedes carrying Diana entered the Alma Tunnel, it lurched to the left to try and avoid a slow-moving Fiat Uno in front of it. Driver Henri Paul lost control. The car slammed into the 13th concrete pillar at 65 miles an hour. The force of the impact removed the front bumper. The car then spun round 180 degrees and smashed into the opposite wall. This picture shows the car in its final position, up against the wall, lights on, horn blaring, facing the direction it had come from. Dodi and Henri Paul died instantly. Trevor Rhys-Jones was pinned in the route. News footage taken later that night shows the damage to the front of the car. The photographs used in this programme were taken by onlookers as well as the professionals. Some of the photographers' pictures were printed in the French investigation dossier. These photographs are the most precise record of what happened during the first chaotic minutes after the crash. In them, we see the actions of the photographers, police and onlookers. The first to arrive on the scene was 24-year-old photographer Romuald Rahr and his driver. They were about 30 seconds or 600 metres behind the Mercedes. Rahr had a diploma in first aid. He was the first to approach the car and open the rear door to see what he could do. I was in shock for a few moments. I backed off from the car and then I came back and went towards the car so that I could open the door and see what I could do and if I could give them some first aid. I saw the driver and Mr Alfaïd were dead and I couldn't do anything. So I leaned over the princess to see if she was alive. I leaned over to try and take her pulse and as I touched her, she moved and breathed a little bit and I spoke to her in English. The emergency services were called by several people. Next on the scene, amazingly, was an off-duty doctor trained in emergency medicine. Dr Frédéric Maillé was driving in the opposite direction with a friend, Marc Barthes, when they saw the wreckage. Maillé quickly assessed the condition of the car's occupants. I remember the left-back passenger was apparently dead. He didn't breathe, didn't react, didn't show any signs of life. There was the front passenger who was still alive, shouting, screaming because he was severely injured on his face. So at least he has a kind of consciousness, a kind of blood pressure, so he was not extremely urgent. And the left passenger was a beautiful woman. She didn't have any blood on her face, but she was unconscious and her head was down like that and she had difficulty to breathe. So she needed some assistance very quickly. Dr Maillé rushed back to his car to get his medical kit and oxygen. Only now did more of the photographers see the car. Romuald Ra told him to get back. It took me just maybe one minute to go and come back from my car and these people, like three or four people, were walking around the wreckage. When I went inside the car to give assistance to the beautiful lady, they began to take a lot of pictures with a lot of flash. This is one of the earliest pictures taken. Many photographs of Diana were taken that night. We will not be showing her face. Diana is jammed between the front and back seats. Dr Maillé is administering oxygen to her. I know it's very surprising for everybody, but I didn't recognize her because my attention was focused on so many other things. I didn't have time to try to understand who she was. A night out for a group of students changed dramatically when they saw a lot of activity inside the Alma Tunnel. We saw a photographer on a scooter coming out of the tunnel. He stopped beside us. One of his colleagues was saying, come back, she's still alive. We started to wonder what was happening. We ran in and went to look at the crashed car. One of the students, Damien Dolby, was a volunteer fireman trained in first aid. The picture showing Dr Maillé treating Diana also shows Dolby at the front car door helping Trevor Rhys-Jones, who is trapped in the wreckage with multiple injuries. One of the accusations against the photographers was that they impeded the treatment of the injured. The thing that got to me was that they had very huge lenses and they were taking pictures very close to the car, almost even with the car door very, very close. We decided to push the photographers back so as to leave some space for Damien and a doctor who was close to the car. We pushed them back without actually touching them. They showed no resistance. They were probably very, very close, but at no time they hampered me doing my job. They didn't impede anyone from entering the car. They didn't climb all over the car or anything like that. They were just close, taking pictures. This picture was probably on the car, a mixture of onlookers and photographers. From this angle, it does not appear that any photographers' vehicles are obstructing the tunnel. The damage to the left side of the car, where it hit the wall, is extensive. The exhaust has fallen off. Dr Maillé and Damien Dolby are still attending to Diana and Trevor Rhys-Jones. Two policemen had arrived. One of them is keeping the photographers away from the car. It was a bit chaotic because you had the police trying to make a perimeter around the accident and trying to back the photographers up. You had one of the passers-by yelling at a photographer. Pushed away from the car, the photographers continued to take pictures. In this picture, taken from a distance of about 15 feet, one of the policemen is looking into the rear of the car. They had recognised Princess Diana and called for backup. This picture was taken by an American tourist. In it, we can see a policeman controlling a couple of the photographers. The enormity of the event was beginning to register with many in the tunnel. One of the photographers, Fabrice Chasséry, called his boss for advice. I said to him, we're photographers, we have to take pictures. We're not doing radio, we're not writers. We cover an event by getting pictures passed. I told him to take some very quick photos, come out of the tunnel, give me the films and that I would handle it. Nine minutes after the crash, a fire and rescue crew trained in emergency medicine arrived. At this point, Dr Maillé handed over the care of Diana to them and left the tunnel. I thought that this beautiful woman had a good chance to live because I thought it was just a head injury. Diana's external injuries appeared slight. No one realised how serious her internal injuries were. In the picture, the fire crews are in the difficult process of extracting Diana and Trevor Rhys-Jones from the car. Jacques Langevin, who got his shots of Diana at the risk, was on his way home when he saw the crashed Mercedes. I didn't make the connection between the car and the photographers. I was probably a bit slow. Obviously, after 30 seconds, my brain finally engaged and to me it was impossible that the people that I had been photographing 10 minutes before were the people in the crashed car. I realised that it was such an incredible event, I started to take pictures as well. I was surprised. Why was he there? I turned like this because I was on my motorbike and I saw the car. Shit, a completely smashed up car with people surrounding it. And it's terrible. What am I going to say? But I said, they are completely messed up. But not for one second did I think it was Diana and Dodi's car. Not at all. It's he who said to me, you don't understand. I said, understand what? He said, it's Diana's car. In one of the pictures taken at this time, we see the police effectively maintaining a perimeter. The fire crew help Diana and Trevor Rhys-Jones unhindered. Approximately 17 minutes after the crash, an ambulance for Diana arrived. Because of the condition of the car and the nature of her injuries, it was some time before Diana could be transferred to it. Two photographers who'd missed Diana and Dodi at the Ritz heard of the crash and rushed to the tunnel. By the time they arrived, the riot police were there too. I ran down, I had a glimpse of the tunnel, a split second, and a riot policeman stopped me, insulted me, I don't remember which term, but I heard names, and he threw me outside. I was taking photos of the scene, and a little group of policemen asked me to stop taking photos. I did, and they asked me for my film. I really didn't want to give them my film. We had a rather terse discussion. I ended up opening the canister and taking out the film. That meant I didn't have the photos, but neither did they. But some of the photographers had got their films out of the tunnel. Pictures of the injured Diana would be worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. In North London, Ken Lennox, picture editor of The Sun, was woken by his ringing phone. There was an unusual telephone call. A slightly panicked French-speaking photographer said he'd got photographs of Diana being involved in a car crash. And I could have them exclusively for the UK for £300,000. My heart jumped. I didn't waste time. I had to see these pictures, but in principle I'd said yes to buying them. A few miles away, photographer and picture agent Lionel Chereau was also woken with the news. I got a call from somebody in Paris who's got pictures of the accident. So I said, yes, yes, please get hold of these pictures and arrange to have them wired. In Paris, the police chief, Philippe Massonni, had sealed off the tunnel. From the moth, back off. And then they told us to go to the end of the tunnel. They said to us, you photographers, and put us against the wall, brought us our bags, is this yours, or this one, or this one? And everyone had their photographer's bag at their feet. And there they searched us as well. Every policeman padded us down to see if we had hidden films. Martine Montet, head of the elite criminal brigade, had the photographers questioned. She quickly gave the order that they be held on suspicion of causing the accident. We didn't have any witnesses because it was the middle of the night. Very few people, well, no-one saw what really happened. However, we quickly understood the paparazzi were behind and around the car, a bit like an escort. I was stunned when I heard that. They'd gone mad, I thought. Me, I refused to sign that accusation. I thought it was ridiculous and stupid. We hadn't done anything. We had a press card, we were journalists, and here we were in a Paris police station. And we were completely naked in front of all the police. Diana had been in the car for 37 minutes, semi-conscious, before the emergency services could lift her out. As she was, she suffered a heart attack. It took 40 minutes to stabilise her before the ambulance could set off. Photographer Pierre Su saw it come to a halt minutes later. You can, from there, see the entrance of the hospital. Virtually, you can see it. It's about 400, 500 yards away. And the ambulance stops. So we go, uh-oh, something is getting worse. And it lasted for ages, a good 15 minutes. Yes, we understood that the situation was critical inside. The ambulance finally arrived at the hospital 25 minutes after leaving the tunnel. The British ambassador and French officials were waiting. She was lying on a stretcher, her blonde hair falling this way. Her face was very serene. She had a very untroubled face. She had bruises here. That is to say, she had bruises on her eyes as if she'd been beaten up. Philippe Massonni, the Paris chief of police, imposed a news blackout. But he briefed all the officials on his initial findings. He explained to me, in fact to all of us, that the matter was linked to paparazzi who hounded, who chased the car. They had already arrested some of them. But not all the photographers who'd been in the tunnel were in police custody. Three got out before the arrests. Laurent Sola was agent for two of them. Oh, yes, it was fantastic. I had the exclusive on the story. They'd all been arrested with the films, and everyone that had been together during the night and on all the jobs, with one blow, they were all gone. So that left me the only player in the game. In London, Ken Lennox, wearing his slippers and an old tracksuit, rushed to the Sun offices to see the photographs sent from Paris. I just ran through security, straight up to my electronic picture desk. Opened it up, sat in front of it. The first picture jumped up. And I knew right away that we had to have them, because she had a trickle of blood coming down her forehead. But she didn't look badly injured. There was no horrific injuries to her at all. So it was a great, publishable story. It was going to be absolutely sensational. At the same time, Phil Hall, editor of the Sun's sister paper, The News Of The World, was looking at his own set of photographs. I remember sort of looking across and seeing a slightly furtive look on their face, thinking, come on, this is going to be a huge story if this story develops. Any story involving Diana was front-page news, but this promised to be the biggest ever. The world's media were starting to wake up to the events in Paris. A phone went alongside the bed, and it was my editor at the time saying, Dodie's dead and Diana may be dead. And using extremely fruity language, I thought this was a wind-up. I said, you know, don't wind me up. It's quarter past one on a Sunday morning. He said, no, this is true, Dodie's definitely dead, there's been a car crash, can you come in? Gowing went on air at 2.30 London time. Welcome to BBC World News, I'm Nick Gowing. Diana, Princess of Wales, has been seriously injured and her companion, Dodie Al-Fayed, has been killed in a motor accident in the French capital, Paris. Reports say a vehicle carrying the princess and her entourage was being chased by a carload of paparazzi photographers. At News International, the mood rapidly changed from excitement to shock, as reports suggested the paparazzi were to blame. One of my first thoughts, and I remember saying it in the office, was that, gosh, if one of these photographers has caused this accident, we're all going to be in trouble, this could be the end of the free press as we know it, because there'll be a massive, massive backlash against us. I felt sick. I felt anxious about it all. I knew that my photographers would be in trouble on the streets, and it didn't look good. One of the few voices to challenge the report blaming the photographers for Diana's accident was James Whittaker. I'm now joined by James Whittaker, who is the royal correspondent for the Mirror newspaper. There's one thing with the paparazzi following, but the driver doesn't have to drive in such a way that an accident is then caused. What I did think was, how can these people just blame the photographers for doing it? They haven't got a clue what's going on. It wasn't the BBC who were making this judgment about paparazzi. It was already beginning to come out from a number of people. It's the damn paparazzi who were chasing the princess and caused the car to have this serious smash. Whilst who was to blame filled the airwaves, the photographs taken in the tunnel were fetching record-breaking prices. I was practically at 20 million francs. If you do the conversion, it was enormous. An example is that it was double that offered for the photos of Fergie and her charming finance man doing stuff to her feet. At the sun, heated discussions were taking place about the pictures showing Diana in the crashed car. We looked at the photographs again. He said, what do you think? I said, well, if it doesn't get any worse, we can use these all over the place. If it does get worse and Diana dies, we can't use them anywhere. And he agreed. But it was like a con guy. But there was little optimism at the hospital in Paris. Diana had suffered a second heart attack and had massive internal haemorrhaging. They tried to revive her for two hours. At four o'clock in the morning, the chief of police was informed by a doctor who came out and said, it's over. The British ambassador fell apart. He cried and cried and cried like a child. Diana was declared dead at 4am French time, but no announcement was made. I got a phone call from the Paris-based photographer saying that he thought it was getting very serious. He had seen someone he recognised from the British embassy, he thought a First...whatever, First Secretary, coming out of a room, leaning against the wall and sliding down the wall. And he just assumed that he was the bearer of bad news. By half-past four-ish, we essentially knew that she was dead. But we had to be absolutely sure. We needed an official confirmation. At the moment, we have no further official news on the accident which has taken place in Paris this evening, involving a car, involving Princess Diana, and the death of her companion, Dodi Al-Fayed. By now, half a billion people around the world were tuned in to news channels watching the unfolding drama on TV. I had to hold my breath metaphorically, realising that something dreadful was about to be made public, and I would have to reflect that on air. Nearly two hours after Diana died, the truth was reported. Within the last few moments, the Press Association in Britain, citing unnamed British sources, has reported that Diana, Princess of Wales, has died. This is not yet confirmed by any official source. So an unconfirmed source from the Press Association is that Diana, Princess of Wales, has died. At this moment, the photographs of Diana suddenly became untouchable, priceless to worthless in moments. I couldn't profit from her death. I decided to stop the sale, tear up all the faxes, and tell everyone I was no longer selling the photos. They were... They'd become, instead of being a great commodity to use, with a slightly injured Princess of Wales in a car crash, which is a great story, to be something that you just couldn't envisage publishing in a national newspaper the next day, for people to waken up and see these photographs. At 6am in Paris, the French Interior Ministry officially announced Diana's death and put forward whom they thought was to blame. In Britain, people were shocked by the news that Princess Diana had been killed in a crash because the paparazzi had chased her car. It seemed everyone knew who to blame. People have been pointing fingers, angry fingers, at some of the photographers here. A bus driver leaned out of his cab and simply shouted at the Northern media people here, leave her alone. Mohammed Al-Fayed spokesman denounced the role of the photographers in the accident. Mr Al-Fayed believes that this appalling tragedy would never have happened but for the attentions of these people, I suppose we should have to call photographers. It was quite appalling what happened and we're just coming to terms with that. In Paris, some eyewitnesses told the media what they had seen in the tunnel. A police was pushing two of the journalists to go away from the car and another one would run around to try to get by again, like it was relentless. And from South Africa, Diana's brother, Earl Spencer, was absolute in his condemnation of the press. It would appear that every proprietor and editor of every publication that has paid for intrusive and exploitative photographs of her, encouraging greedy and ruthless individuals to risk everything in pursuit of Diana's image, has blood on his hands today. Earl Spencer's statement inflamed the public's anger. You've lost a lovely person for nothing. You're horrible. He helped to kill her. Not you, but your profession. Why did they pay so much money for the photographs? Why were the paparazzi after them? If there was no money in the photographs, they wouldn't have been after her in the tunnel. In response to the public mood, some in the press began to distance themselves from the photographers. But as long as, frankly, the public want to buy this sort of tasteless material, many of us are deeply embarrassed. I feel embarrassed to be part of the same trade as the paparazzi. From day one, it was like a tidal wave had landed on the photographers without proof, without really knowing what had happened or waiting for any sort of conclusion to be drawn. It was the photographers who were thrown to the mob. It was their fault. It was them. There wasn't even any point in having a trial because it was them. For sure, they... The seven arrested inside the tunnel were being held at the criminal brigade headquarters. We were held in custody cells for two and a half days, in a room with a window and a wooden bench. Mine was quite long. I could lie down. But the others couldn't. They had to sit for two days because they couldn't lie down. Each of us was put in a transparent cell with a neon light above. I had no idea whether it was day or night. It was all psychological. The French authorities had 20 rolls with more than 80 pictures shot in the tunnel. But they wanted them all. Across Paris, photo agencies were raided and told they faced three years in prison and £30,000 fines if they sold any of the pictures. Laurence Sola didn't want to give up his negatives but went voluntarily to the criminal brigade. The first strip search is done when you're... ..accidentally in such a way that the emergency services were delayed by 10 or 15 minutes in getting them. The accusation against the dead driver, Henri Paul, did not keep the seven men out of a French court. On Tuesday 2 September, the photographers went before the judge. The police have asked that two of the photographers believed to be more seriously implicated should be held here in custody. But by the end of the day's proceedings, the other five will have walked free. Yet despite their profession and their claims of innocence, none of them has chosen to come out here and face the cameras. We were served up on plates. We were served as dessert, the pièce de résistance to the entire media. It was extraordinary. Everyone was saying whatever they liked about it and it sold. A phalanx of photographers in the world's press were waiting. Nikola Arsov slipped out of a side door. Suddenly I turned my head like this and I saw hundreds of journalists and then I carried on walking ahead of me without turning round. Then, on the other side of the Seine, Mr Seeper, my boss, who was waiting for me in his car. And once I was in his car, I cried like a baby. Because you empty yourself. It's the tension, the pressure, you crack up. Diana's funeral at Westminster Abbey. A chance for the world to express its grief at her untimely death. It is a point to remember that of all the ironies about Diana, perhaps the greatest was this. A girl given the name of the ancient goddess of hunting was, in the end, the most hunted person of the modern age. When Diana's brother spoke out against the media, the crowds were with him. Mohammed Al-Fayed kept up the pressure on the photographers because the alternative was to say, my employee was drunk, was responsible for the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. After two years, the French...