Di's Driver Wasn't Drunk: Parents

Mother, father defend Paul at London inquest
By Caroline Zimmerman,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 4, 2008 12:35 PM CST
Di's Driver Wasn't Drunk: Parents
Diana, Princess of Wales, smiles at the United Cerebral Palsy's annual dinner at the New York Hilton in this Dec. 11, 1995 file photo. Rodney Turner, a car dealer and long-standing friend of Diana's family, said Monday, Jan. 7, 2008, that Princess Diana had described her relationship with Dodi Fayed...   (Associated Press)

Princess Diana's French driver wasn't drunk on the night of the crash that took both their lives, Henri Paul's parents told the London inquest today. Police concluded that Paul was intoxicated based on blood samples taken after he died in the accident. But experts have questioned the origin of the samples—and Paul's parents said authorities denied their request for independent tests.

Paul was rumored to be an alcoholic. But the aging couple, speaking to the jury by video link from Paris, said they had never seen their son under the influence, Reuters reports. The Pauls weren't notified when French police searched his Paris home shortly after the crash, either. "We have been looking for the truth for a long time," they said through an interpreter. (More Diana inquest stories.)

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