Diana wouldn't have died if she'd had police protection, says former top cop
18 August 2022, 08:23
Lord Stevens: Diana would not have died if she'd had police protection
Princess Diana would not have died in the 1997 car crash had she had police protection, a former Met boss has told LBC.
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Lord John Stevens was Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police from 2000 to 2005 and led Operation Paget, the Met's three-year inquiry into the death of Princess Diana.
Diana died after a car crash in France that also killed her companion, Dodi Fayed, and driver Henri Paul in 1997.
After her refusal to use police protection, officers only accompanied Diana when she travelled with Prince William and Prince Harry.
Speaking to LBC's Nick Ferrari at Breakfast, he said if the Princess of Wales' refusal to have protection had been ignored it is likely the tragedy would not have happened.
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"I think that's a very good point," Lord Stevens said when asked if someone should have flagged that the level of protection she had was not enough.
"I've come to a conclusion, like a lot of people have, if she'd had the protection of the police... this would not have happened."
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Nick asked whether a member of his Met police team would have allowed her to get in the car.
"No, [they] certainly would not," he said.
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He also said a police protection officer would have made sure she and her companion Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul were wearing seatbelts.
"The other part of it, of course, is the survey of the recent construction of the crash [showed] that if they'd have worn seatbelts, which the protection officer would have demanded, they would have survived that accident," he said.
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Lord Stevens shot down any suggestion of foul play, saying the crash was an "accident".
"What happened that night was an accident," he said.
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"The car was being chased by the paparazzi, it was being driven at 75 miles an hour in an underpass... the speed limit there was 40 miles an hour, it lost control... and that was the case.
"We looked at 104 allegations of conspiracy to murder and we bottomed every single allegation in the report."
He urged anyone still not convinced to watch the new documentary into her death "with an open mind".
