Word: mansfield
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Today it wasn't just Michael Mansfield, lawyer for Dodi's father, Harrods boss Mohamed Al-Fayed, that Burrell had to answer to. Richard Keen - the lawyer for the parents of Henri Paul, the driver who also died in the 1997 crash in Paris - and Ian Croxford, representing the Ritz Hotel, Paris, the starting point for Diana and Dodi's fateful journey, also got in on the act. Questioning him one after the other, they all seemed to be trying to prove the same thing: there are three sides to every story - Paul Burrell's, Paul Burrell...
...feelings on Diana's relationship with Dodi. On the first day of his testimony, Burrell had told the court that nobody minded them being a couple, a statement that takes a bite out of Mohamed Al-Fayed's claim that they were assassinated to stop them getting married. But Mansfield opened to a page in Burrell's 2003 book A Royal Duty, and read out a passage that indicated some people did mind - including the former butler himself. In the book, Burrell describes a conversation he once had with Diana's good friend Rosa Monckton about Dodi. "We must...
...holiday snapshots from trips their families had taken together, and a lavender-colored spiral notebook in which he had jotted down descriptions of people and events and that "as far as I can see, adds nothing to the inquiry," Baker said as he admitted it all into evidence. Michael Mansfield, who represents Dodi's father, Harrods owner Mohamed Al-Fayed, wasn't so sure: "It may be what it doesn't disclose is more important than what it does...
There was a 20-minute break, to give the legal teams time to look over the new evidence. When proceedings started up again, there was only an hour left - just enough time for Mansfield to pick apart everything Burrell had said the day before. Why had Burrell claimed that the letter was at his house in Cheshire when it was really in Florida? Why had he told the court there was one secret, when he knew there were two? And why was he even saying they were secrets when he had published at least one of them in a book...
...about to get worse. The day rounded off with Mansfield using Burrell's own words against him, pointing out discrepancies between what Burrell had said in his testimony and what he had written about the same things in his books. The lawyer turned to a note that Diana had written to Burrell - over time it's been creatively nicknamed "The Burrell Note" - in which she said she was convinced Prince Charles was planning for her to have an accident in her car, "brake failure and serious head injury." Earlier, Burrell had said he'd found the note propped...