Prince William and Prince Harry called yesterday for the inquest into the death of their mother to be not only fair and open but swift.
The princes’ call, backed by the sisters and brother of the late Diana, Princess of Wales, was revealed by Baroness Butler-Sloss as she began preliminary legal hearings into the content of the inquest, over which she is presiding, into the Princess’s death.
Lady Butler-Sloss said that she had received a letter from Major Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, the princes’ private secretary, in which he wrote: “The princes have asked me to indicate that it is their desire that the inquest should be open, fair and transparent but that it moves swiftly to a conclusion.” The coroner had also received a letter supporting the princes from Lady Sarah McCorquodale, the Princess’s elder sister and executor, on behalf of Lady Jane Fellowes and Earl Spencer.
The inquest will be sitting ten years after the Princess and Dodi Fayed died in a car crash in Paris. Last month Lord Stevens of Kirkwhelpington, the former Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, produced a 830-page report dismissing claims of a plot to kill her.
The inquest is expected to start in May but Lady Butler-Sloss said she was unlikely to call either prince. The Royal Household will also not be represented in future hearings.
