Riddle of who sold images of dying Diana

IT WAS unclear last night who or what was the source of pictures showing Diana, Princess of Wales, as she laying dying in the wreckage of the Paris car crash, which were shown in an American television documentary and which attracted near universal condemnation.

Although similar pictures have been offered to British newspapers in the past - and turned down - speculation was mounting about how the photographs came into the public domain six years after the accident.

On air for ten seconds on the CBS News programme 48 Hours Investigates, the images clearly showed Diana’s face - with her eyes closed - shoulders and upper torso as she was being treated by a doctor moments after the crash in August 1997.

The grainy black-and-white pictures were photocopies of photographs taken by paparazzi who were following the car when it crashed, causing the deaths of Diana, Dodi Fayed and the driver, Henri Paul.

They were confiscated by the French authorities and CBS said the images had been obtained from an official report into the crash. It did not say how it received a copy.

It was estimated that the picture would have been worth 100,000 - to a media outlet willing to publish it. It was the first time such a photograph had been shown in public.

A brief statement released by the Althorp estate yesterday read: "Lord Spencer and his family are shocked and sickened by CBS’s actions."

Asked about the matter at his monthly press conference, the Prime Minister told reporters: "I think everyone finds it distasteful that there are pictures that can cause distress to the family."

The New York Daily News, a tabloid, registered its dismay at the "shocking decision".

It said: "The Daily News is refusing to publish the ghoulish images in keeping with a previous near-unanimous media blackout on pictures of the dying princess.

"The shocking decision to show the images marks the first crack in the worldwide media blackout on pictures of the mortally injured Diana."

The wife of Jacques Langevin, one of the photographers present at the accident scene, was shocked.

Refusing to give her name, she told The Scotsman: "It’s unbelievable. My husband handed over all his pictures to the French justice system. I cannot believe they have shown them on television.

"It’s incredible, I can hardly believe it."

It was not clear last night if the pictures shown on CBS were taken by Mr Langevin. The publicist Max Clifford said no British newspaper or other media outlet would dare publish them "because of the backlash and condemnation". He added that he would refuse to work with anyone trying to sell such images.

While such pictures would be "difficult to sell" they would be worth about 100,000 - although a poor negotiator might have received as little as 5,000, he added.

Mr Fayed’s father, Mohamed al-Fayed, the owner of Harrods, had made a last-ditch attempt to persuade CBS not to publish the photographs through his lawyer, Frederic Gaines.

A letter, addressed to Andrew Heyward, the CBS president, said broadcasting the images would cause "substantial and grievous emotional impact" for Mr Fayed and his family.

It read: "I am writing to you ... to implore you, as a person of sensitivity and sound judgment, to cause the editing of this programme, including its narrative, in a manner which ensures that the survivors of the innocent people who were killed in this tragedy are not exposed to heart-wrenching photographs and descriptions."

Mr Gaines referred to the "self-restraint" shown by the media over the last six and a half years for not publishing the photographs.

"We cannot imagine that CBS News would want to be the first enterprise to breach the collective understanding of the media, based upon good taste, propriety, decency and sympathy."

A former spokesman for Buckingham Palace, Dickie Arbiter, said: "It’s going to be painful for William and Harry. They’re going to have to live with it for the rest of their lives."

In a statement, CBS confirmed the photographs had come from the French investigation report. The network said: "A report from 48 Hours Investigates on Princess Diana’s death will include photocopied images, none of them remotely graphic, that had previously not been seen and are part of a 4,000-page French government report."

The programme concluded Diana’s death was an accident. It reported the finding of the French authorities: that Mr Paul was over the legal alcohol limit to drive and had taken a number of prescription drugs.

But it also revealed he had received tens of thousands of pounds in payments in the nine months before the accident.

Despite a search of his home and office, and the questioning of his friends and associates, the investigators were unable to find the source of the payments.

Meanwhile, it emerged yesterday that the crash will be the subject of a French film, focusing on a fictionalised account of the driver of a Fiat Uno believed to have clipped Diana’s Mercedes before the crash.