R vs Paul Burrell ,................ the butler did it ?

From The Times

October 14, 2002

By Finian Davern

World focuses on Old Bailey trial of Diana's butler

 

PAUL BURRELL, the former butler to Diana, Princess of Wales, goes on trial today at the Old Bailey on three charges of stealing more than 300 items worth £6 million from her estate.

The trial has attracted enormous media interest overseas, with a number of the United States’ best-known reporters dispatched to cover the trial.

Mr Burrell, 44, described by the late Princess as “my rock”, will fight to clear his name of allegations that he stole personal photographs, CDs, jewellery, crockery, hats, cards and letters from Kensington Palace, the Princess’s London home after her divorce.

The case could, some believe, be one of the most sensational trials in the history of the British aristocracy if it rakes up mud on disputes in the aftermath of her death. During the next six weeks the court will hear from a list of witnesses that reads like a selected register of Windsor courtiers.

Among those likely to give evidence for the prosecution are Frances Shand Kydd, the Princess’s mother and executor of her estate, and Lady Sarah McCorquodale, her elder sister.

Those giving evidence for Mr Burrell are likely to include two of the Princess’s closest friends: Lady Annabel Goldsmith, widow of the billionaire financier Sir James, and Lucia Flecha de Lima, wife of the former Brazilian Ambassador to London, who broke the news to Mr Burrell the night the Princess died that she had been in a car accident.

The Old Bailey has reserved its showpiece court number one for the trial to accommodate the huge number of journalists expected there.

The extent of the onlookers’ fascination at the beginning of the trial will be matched only by the Royal Family’s dread at the potential for yet more lurid details of the Princess’s troubled private life being aired to the world.

Her own family will also be steeling itself for embarrassment, as it suspects that details will emerge of squabbles between factions in the days after her death five years ago.

The trial centres on 302 items, including letters to Prince William signed “Mummy”. They are alleged to have gone missing between January 1997 and June 1998.

The excitement about the trial is particularly acute in the United States, where the public finds the cocktail of English royalty, servility, tragedy and alleged deceit irresistible. Those covering it will include Dominick Dunne, the Vanity Fair writer who won awards for reports on the O. J. Simpson trial. Ginanne Brownell will be following the daily twists and turns for the US weekly magazine Newsweek.

“In the States, people are still fascinated by everything to do with Diana,” she said. “Diana is seen as intriguing, like a character from a Shakespearean tragedy. This trial will provide an intimate look into her extraordinary life.”

Mr Burrell knew the Princess for 17 years, and remained in her employment after the breakdown of her marriage. So far he has prided himself on refusing to cash in on her memory by publishing his own memoirs of his time with her. But that reverence for confidentiality might change in a trial where he is fighting for his reputation and his freedom.

He was for a while after the Princess’s death granted a public role by those controlling her estate. He raised funds for the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund, was honoured with the Royal Victorian Medal by the Queen, and was given £50,000 from her estate by the Spencers.

But his relationship with the trustees of her estate deteriorated and he left public life in 2000. He moved to Cheshire with his wife, Maria, and two teenage sons, and set up as a florist.

But he was reluctantly catapulted back into the headlines when he was arrested in January 2001 as a suspect in the theft of some of the Princess’s personal effects.

He was charged seven months later on three counts of theft and has been awaiting trial for more than a year.

Legal briefing

The judge: Mrs Justice Rafferty is one of the few senior women judges. Recently presided at the trial of two teenage cousins for the murder of 15-year-old Kaiser Osman. She was also one of two judges who fined a Sunday newspaper £75,000 for contempt of court for forcing the collapse of the first trial involving the Leeds United footballers Jonathan Woodgate and Lee Bowyer.

The prosecution: Lead counsel is William Boyce, QC, a former senior Treasury counsel and an experienced prosecutor at the Old Bailey. One of the leading barristers in the country. He has recently defended Gurbux Singh, the disgraced former Commission for Racial Equality chairman, when he was convicted of drunkenly assaulting two policemen after a cricket match at Lord’s.

The defence: Lead counsel is Lord Carlile of Berriew, QC. Former MP for Montgomery and leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats until 1997. He has chaired a report into child healthcare in the NHS.