Princess Diana's death in a Paris car crash was a "tragic accident" a long-awaited report concluded yesterday, dismissing theories of a murder plot by British intelligence.
Its author however admitted that conspiracy rumors will likely continue to circulate, despite his three-year inquiry coming to largely the same conclusions as a French probe seven years ago.
"There was no conspiracy to murder any occupants of that car. This was a tragic accident," said Lord John Stevens, the former commissioner of London's Metropolitan Police, unveiling the 800-page report.
Stevens' inquiry also rejected speculation that Diana had been pregnant at the time of the crash in 1997.
"We are certain that the Princess of Wales was not pregnant," Stevens said, adding that he had also questioned numerous people, including Prince William, about the claim that the princess planned to marry her boyfriend Dodi Al-Fayed, who was also killed in the crash.
"None of them have indicated that she was either about to or wished to get engaged," he said, adding that Prince William had told him his mother did not give him the slightest indication of such intentions.
Even before the report was published, Dodi's father, Moham-med Al-Fayed had dismissed its leaked findings as "garbage," and insisted a conspiracy was behind the couple's death.
Fleeing photographers, Diana, 36, Dodi Al-Fayed, 42, and chauffeur Henri Paul, 41, were killed when their car smashed into a pillar in a Paris underpass in the early hours of Aug. 31, 1997.
Bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones survived.
Fayed has long maintained that it was a conspiracy involving British intelligence agents, and notably said Paul's blood samples, which showed his blood-alcohol level at three times the French legal limit, were switched to falsely implicate him as drunk.
Stevens dismissed this yesterday, saying: "We are satisfied from DNA testing carried out on samples in France ... that those blood samples tested belong to Henri Paul."
Al-Fayed was adamant, however, and accused Stevens of being manipulated.
"He has just done what the British intelligence has asked for," Fayed said. "They blackmailed him, definitely."
While dismissing the murder plot allegations, Stevens admitted that in the Internet age it was almost impossible to persuade everyone of his report's findings.
"I have no doubt that speculation as to what happened that night will continue, and there are some matters, as in many other investigations, about which we will never find the definitive answer," he said.
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