Oct 31, 2007, 12:30 GMT
A photographer sold exclusive pictures of Britain's dying Princess Diana for £300,000, a court heard yesterday (30.10.07).
Romuald Rat - one of the paparazzi who pursued the princess and her lover Dodi Fayed before their car crashed in Paris' Pont d'Alma tunnel on August 31, 1997, killing them both - sent Britain's The Sun newspaper photos of Diana in the crumpled Mercedes.
The jury at the inquest into the princess' death at London's High Court was then told how Rat tried to stop other photographers getting near the crashed car in order to protect his exclusivity deal.
Stephane Darmon, who worked as Rat's motorcycle rider at the time of the crash, told the court Rat had tried to "do something positive" for the victims of the crash by moving other photographers away from the wreckage.
But Richard Keen QC - counsel for the family of Diana's driver Henri Paul, who was also killed in the crash - questioned his evidence.
He asked: "What Mr Rat was protecting was not the victims of this crash, but the £300,000 exclusive that he had just telephoned into The Sun from the tunnel, is that not the case?"
Giving evidence via videolink from Paris, the witness replied: "I don't know what to say to that."
The images taken by Rat that night - which included one of the princess slumped in the back of the car with blood trickling down her face and another of a doctor tending to her with an oxygen mask - have already been shown to the jury.
The jury also heard part of an interview given by the then picture editor of The Sun, Ken Lennox, to Channel 4 for a documentary about the night of the crash.
He said: "The French-speaking photographer Romuald Rat said he had got photographs of Diana being involved in a car crash and I could have them exclusively for the UK for £300,000.
"He said it was a serious crash. Dodi looked to be very badly injured. Diana looked to be very lightly injured, did not look too severely hurt at all.
"And he would get the photographs over to my electronic picture desk right now. I didn't waste time. I had to see these pictures, but in principle I said yes to buying them."
The pictures were never printed by The Sun, which cancelled its agreement with Rat when Diana's death was announced.
(C) BANG Media International
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