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Diana Witness Slams Paul's Driving

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Dec 19, 2007 9:46 am US/Central

Diana Witness Slams Paul's Driving

PARIS (AP) ― A second witness on Wednesday told the inquest into the deaths of Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed about "fast and furious" driving by Henri Paul, who later drove the couple into a fatal Paris car crash.

Deborah Gribble, who worked as a stewardess on Fayed's yacht, spoke of what she said was a "very hairy drive" through Paris in a Range Rover driven by Paul the day before the crash that killed him along with Fayed and Diana.

"It was fast and furious," Gribble told jurors by video link from New Zealand. "I recall some swerving, changing lanes and that sort of thing."

British and French police inquiries found Paul responsible for the Aug. 31, 1997 crash. They found evidence that his blood-alcohol level was over the legal limit and that he was speeding.

Fayed's father, Mohamed Al Fayed, contends that the couple were the targets of a secret service plot orchestrated by Prince Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II.

On Tuesday, a witness described Paul, the acting head of security at the Ritz Hotel, as "driving like a maniac" on the trip from airport.

"Henri Paul almost killed us, honest to God," said Myriah Daniels, a holistic healer and masseuse who was on the staff of Fayed's yacht. "He was driving way too fast and recklessly, and I was saying 'Slow down, slow down,' but nobody's listening and nobody's doing anything."

Gribble also testified Wednesday that she saw an opened packet of contraceptive pills among Diana's belongings in the weeks before she died.

Several witnesses have dismissed claims by Mohamed Al Fayed that Diana was pregnant when she died, and that Dodi and the princess had decided to marry.

Inquests are required by British law when someone dies unexpectedly, violently or of unknown causes. This inquest, which began in October and is due to last into the new year, had been delayed for 10 years because of the two exhaustive investigations by French and British police.

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