Dame's decision to stand down...
Baroness Elizabeth Butler Sloss has announced that she is stepping down as Coroner into the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi Al Fayed.
April 2007
This comes as a shock to all involved, demonstrates a colossal waste of cost, time and effort and makes a mockery of the legal process. It visits further lengthy and unnecessary distress upon the families who lost their loved ones when they were killed on 31st August 1997.
The announcement that Lord Justice Scott Baker will inquire into the deaths means that he will now become the fourth Coroner to be appointed. This is a further indication of the Establishment’s intention to cover up the murders of two innocent people.
When Baroness Elizabeth Butler Sloss was appointed some seven months ago those making the appointment, and she herself must have been well aware of her level of experience in dealing with a jury. It was then very well known that Mr Al Fayed would not be satisfied with any Inquest which did not provide for there to be a jury.
In January this year there was a hearing at which the question of whether or not to empanel a jury was debated at length. On the 2nd March, the High Court determined that a jury must hear the Inquests. It is only today that her Ladyship has stated that: "These inquests now require a jury, and I do not have the degree of experience of jury cases that I feel is necessary and appropriate for presiding over inquests of this level of public interest." Why have two further months passed?
The decision to appoint Baroness Butler Sloss in the first place must raise questions about whether there was a predetermination by someone not to have a jury or an assumption that there would be no jury.
The newly appointed Coroner will now have a lot of catching up to do before he can realistically carry forward his appointment. Already much time has been lost in the process of making prompt and full disclosure of documents necessary for there to be a fair and rigorous inquest. It seems inevitable that there will now be duplication of hearings and arguments before him.
Throughout almost ten years of meticulous investigation Mr Al Fayed and his team have done everything in their power to search for the truth which has included providing every full stop and comma of evidence in their possession to Lord Stevens and the Paget team.
This latest decision is a shameful and unnecessary interruption in the long delayed process of having a fair, transparent and impartial jury inquest into each of these tragic deaths.
Mr Al Fayed said today, “It seems to me that once again the secret hand of the Establishment is at work. I cannot imagine why this lack of experience was not made public months ago and acted on then before time and effort was wasted. However I remain determined that the truth will be established after careful presentation to a jury of ordinary men and women.”
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