‘Time unanswered questions were finally put to bed’

HER funeral took place in the exquisite gothic surrounds of Westminster Abbey with the great and the good in attendance.

More than six years later, under scudding clouds, in rain and in weak winter sunshine, Diana's inquest was getting underway across the road.

These were altogether different circumstances the bleak glass-and-concrete block of the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre would serve now to establish exactly how she died.

Outside on a patch of muddy grass, cameramen and photographers were scrambling and slipping as they tried to find the best vantage points while television reporters broadcast live across the world.

Beneath flapping flag poles outside the centre, a small number of members of the public, mainly devoted royal watchers, were gathered while passers-by stopped to gawk at the media circus. One member of the public, Andrew Edwards, revealed he had arrived at 6am to get the best viewpoint of the proceedings.

Mr Edwards, 40, from Salisbury, Wiltshire, and a veteran of the Hutton Inquiry, said it was time unanswered questions about Diana's death were "put to bed".

"I think the coroner will deal with all the issues and conspiracy theories in a systematic way that will allow the British public to arrive at its own conclusions," he said.

"What we don't want is an issue that lingers for years, like Marilyn Monroe or John F Kennedy."

Inside the makeshift coroner's court room the giant windowless Fleming Room, on the third floor of the conference centre the media and the public gathered in silence for the start of the inquest.

The hall was so big that it was only half-filled.

The presence of Mohamed Al Fayed, father of Dodi, and Lady Sarah McCorquodale, Diana's sister sitting at the front but on opposite sides of the room was a reminder of the human tragedy which prompted the hearing.

Coroner Michael Burgess's statement contained one surprise. The Metropolitan Police Commissioner has been asked to examine speculation that the relatively straightforward road traffic accident was actually more than it seemed.