£12.5 million cost of investigations into Diana death

Published on Tuesday 15 April 2008 22:14

THE cost of investigating the death of Princess Diana has jumped to more than £12.5 million, it was confirmed yesterday.

Figures show the bill for the long-running Diana inquest now stands at 4.5 million, with the cost of the hearing's last few days yet to be included.

After the hearing ended last week, the Metropolitan Police said it had spent 8 million on services arising from the inquest and the Operation Paget investigation from 2004-6.

The inquest into the deaths of Diana and her lover, Dodi Fayed, who were fatally injured in a Paris car crash in 1997, lasted more than 90 days and heard evidence from about 250 witnesses. The jury returned a verdict that the couple had been unlawfully killed.

The figures revealed that taxpayers shelled out 1.85 million for "external legal services", or lawyers' fees, between 1 July last year and 31 March.

Running costs were 768,000, video-conferencing and special visits totalled 703,000, the bill for IT was 677,000 and staffing cost 234,000.

In one case, funds were used to fly an official to Los Angeles to collect a tape of a telephone conversation involving Mr Fayed and a former girlfriend, Kelly Fisher.