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Diana revelations could embarrass Prince of Wales

Confidential interviews with Prince Charles by detectives who investigated the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, could soon be made public.

Lawyers acting for Harrods chairman Mohamed al-Fayed will use tomorrow's opening of the preliminary hearing of the inquest into the deaths of Diana and Dodi Fayed to demand the publication of the interviews with Lord Stevens, the former Metropolitan Police chief who headed the investigation into the fatal car crash in Paris in 1997.

Fayed's lawyers believe they have a case for convincing the inquest's coroner, Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, that all the interviews and correspondence collected by the investigation team should be published when the inquest starts.

In a court of law all information has to be shared between both sides. Fayed's lawyers will argue that the same rules should apply in the inquest, given the public interest.

Publication of the documents is likely to embarrass the British royals. They include transcripts of interviews with Prince Charles in which he is asked by Stevens whether he plotted to murder his former wife.

Diana was convinced that Charles wanted to murder both her and Camilla Parker-Bowles so that he would be free to marry the royal nanny Tiggy Legge-Bourke.

Charles is likely to be angered by any attempt to make the documents public. Last month he won a legal victory against a newspaper which published extracts from his private diaries. The documents are also likely to provide further details of Stevens's attempts to interview Prince Philip, who refused to co-operate with the investigation and corresponded only by letter.

Fayed believes the inquest will be his last chance to expose what he alleges is a cover-up over Diana's death. Such allegations were robustly rejected by the 832-page Stevens report last month which said Diana and Dodi were not murdered.
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