| Henri Paul | |
|---|---|
| Born | 3 July 1956 Lorient, Brittany, France |
| Died | 31 August 1997 (aged 41) Pont de l'Alma, Paris |
| Nationality | French |
| Education | Baccalaureat in mathematics and science at the Lyon St. Louis; prizes in classical piano |
| Occupation | Deputy Head of Security at Hôtel Ritz Paris |
| Employer | Hôtel Ritz Paris (owned by Mohamed Al-Fayed) |
| Known for | Death of Diana, Princess of Wales |
Henri Paul (3 July 1956 – 31 August 1997) was the Deputy Head of Security at the Hôtel Ritz Paris. He was the driver at the time of the car accident at the Pont de l'Alma tunnel in Paris that killed him and along with Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi Fayed on 31 August 1997. Bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones was the sole survivor of the crash. Subsequent official investigations conducted by French and British police concluded that the cause of the crash was Paul, who was intoxicated with alcohol and driving recklessly at high speed.[1]
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Paul had worked for the Fayed family for eleven years. He received his private pilot's licence in June 1974 and was said to enjoy hiring aircraft to fly over to Lorient. On 28 August 1997, three days before the crash, he successfully passed his annual pilot's physical examination. The examination includes a certification which tests for any alcohol problems (including a blood and liver test). His parents claim that this test would have shown if Paul had problems with alcoholism.[2] The original document Certificat D'Aptitude Physique et Mentale was shown on Diana - Geheimnisse der Todesnacht German-Television ZDF in 1998.
However, the Operation Paget Inquiry received Europe-wide standards for pilots' medicals that were in force in 1997 from the Civil Aviation Authority that suggest no specific medical test for alcoholism was undertaken and a self-certification of alcohol problems was required from individual pilots. Paul made no certification of alcohol problems and none were externally apparent to the doctor who examined him.[3] As part of security training, Paul was known to have been to Stuttgart, Germany, two times on specialist courses run by Mercedes-Benz on how to handle their cars; these included anti-terrorist and anti-kidnapping evasion techniques.[4]
On the night of 31 August 1997, Paul was under the influence of alcohol and trying to elude paparazzi photographers at high speed (estimated at over double the 50-km/h speed limit) when the Mercedes S280 he was driving crashed into a column supporting the Pont de l'Alma tunnel in Paris, France. His blood alcohol content level was subsequently found to be between 1.73 g/L and 1.75 g/L (~>0.17% mass/vol.), a figure over twice the legal limit in most geographic jurisdictions within the United States and more than three times the threshold for drunk driving as defined under French law. Paul's parents Jean and Giselle dispute the authenticity and the accuracy of the test results,[5] as does Dodi's father Mohamed Al Fayed.[6]
Allegations have been made about Henri Paul in the years following his death concerning his fitness to drive on the night of the accident and his alleged involvement with Security Services in France, and possibly the UK. The claims were investigated by the Metropolitan Police in Operation Paget headed by Lord Stevens over the course of three years. Chapter four of the investigative report is entirely given to the allegations about Henri Paul.
The conclusions of the 2006 Operation Paget investigation were that Paul's involvement with the Security Services was limited to low level co-operation with the French DST when high profile guests stayed at the Ritz Hotel and he received no payment for this in line with French Government policy. It further noted such involvement with national security services is common among senior security staff at upmarket hotels in major world cities.
It was found after Paul's death that he was in possession of a large sum of money on his person and had a large personal fortune that far surpassed his expected income held in fifteen separate bank accounts. It was alleged this could only have been as a result of payment from an illicit source, supposedly a national security service.
According to his best friend, Claude Garrec, the large quantity of cash found in his pockets, FF12,565 (approximately equivalent to £1,250 or US$2,500) could be attributed to a requirement of his job to run errands for wealthy guests at the Ritz Hotel when required. A large quantity of cash would need to be on hand to perform errands at short notice as wealthy people are known to often not carry cash. Paul also received large tips for performing these errands. His mother told of an occasion when Paul received FF5,000 (£500 or US$1,000) as a tip from a relative of an Arab Prince for shopping for some luxury textiles for her. Such four-figure tips were not a rare occurrence for him during his eleven years at the Paris Ritz.
Operation Paget concluded that the cash and the money in his bank accounts was unlikely to have come from any national security service as there was no evidence in his bank accounts of attempts to disguise money coming from a clandestine source and there was no opportunity for him to begin to implement any plan instructed to him in return for payment on the night of the accident. Furthermore, he was a 41 year old single man with no dependents who had worked all his adult life and owned property which he let out to tenants and this was a possible explanation for the FF1,700,000 (approximately £170,000 or US$340,000) that made up his personal wealth at the time of his death. The large number of bank accounts he had his money deposited in is not uncommon in France, where banks will routinely open several accounts for different purposes, all to serve one customer.[7]
Friends of Henri Paul testified in statements to the French police that he did not have a remarkably high tolerance for alcohol and was never seen on social occasions to drink for several hours while showing obvious signs of drunkenness.[8] In her statement to French police, his medical doctor Dominique Mélo, who was also a friend, explained: "Henry (sic) drank like everyone else, but not to excess". ... "He did not have the clinical stigmata or the behaviour of a chronic alcoholic."
Henri Paul's doctor testified that in the two years leading up to his death he had depressive episodes about the break-up of a long term relationship, and had sometimes taken to drinking at home outside a social context. She believed he was not alcohol-dependent but she was worried that he might become so, and in about June 1996, she prescribed him the anti-depressant Prozac (fluoxetine), and an anti-alcoholism medication, Aotal (Acamprosate), which causes a dislike of alcohol. Dr Mélo said that sometimes he would not take his anti-alcoholism medication so that he could drink in reasonable quantities. An empty packet of Aotal tablets was found in the waste paper basket of Henri Paul's office at the Ritz Hotel. If the blood samples analysed were his, then the absence in them of Aotal means that he could not have taken any for at least a few days or traces of it would have shown up. No traces of the drug were found in any of the samples said to have come from Henri Paul after his death. Traces of the anti-depressants were found in post-mortem examinations of his blood. The inquest revealed that the autopsy also found Henri Paul's liver to be normal with no indicating signs of a problem with alcoholism.[9]
Operation Paget investigated the reliability of the post-mortem examinations using DNA comparison of the disputed blood sample by comparing a DNA profile from it with Henri Paul's mother's DNA profile. The test produced a result that there was maternal relationship between the two profiles to a probability of 99.9997%. The very high level of carbon monoxide in this blood sample was attributed to the area of the body it was taken from and to his living in a built up urban area and smoking of small cigars in the hours leading up to his death.[10]
It was disclosed that in November 2006 Lord Stevens had a meeting with Henri Paul's parents and told them that their son was not drunk, and was found to have indisputably had two alcoholic drinks (this was verified by bodyguards Trevor Rees-Jones and Kieran Wingfield, two barmen in the bar, till records from the hotel bar and a drink bill ). Five weeks later the report stated that Henri Paul was twice over the British drink-drive limit and three times over the French limit. An expert cited in the report estimated that Paul had drunk the equivalent of ten small glasses of Ricard, his favourite anise-flavoured French aperitif, before driving. This contradicted Lord Stevens's previous comments.[11][12]
An unexplained prescription only drug called albendazole (or Zentel) used to treat worm infestations was also found in hair samples from Henri Paul; this drug is said to be commonly given to homeless people living on the streets. Henri Paul's doctor denies prescribing this drug to Henri Paul.[13]
Another issue raised in court by Lord Justice Scott Baker was the level of carbon monoxide found in one blood sample, which if true would have shown Henri Paul noticeably unwell. He told the jury: "You may conclude that there are some unsatisfactory features about aspects of the sampling and recording procedures". ... "Some of the results are puzzling."[14]
There is also evidence that the Mercedes Henri Paul was driving that night was clipped by another car. The mystery car left paint scratches on the side of the Mercedes along with shards of plastic glass on the road. This was later identified as coming from a Fiat Uno. Despite searches by French police this car was not found. Mohamed Al Fayed alleges that the owner of the Fiat Uno was Jean-Paul 'James' Andanson, a French photojournalist. He had been one of the paparazzi photographing Diana and Dodi earlier in the summer, and Al Fayed claims he was working for the British secret service. Andanson, who had an alibi for the night of the crash, sold the Fiat Uno in November 1997.[15] He committed suicide in May 2000; his body was found in a black, burnt-out BMW in a forest in the south of France.[16] An official investigation concluded that he had committed suicide. Lord Baker said there was no evidence linking Andanson with the secret service.[15]
Henri Paul was featured in the 2007 television docudrama Diana: Last Days of a Princess.
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