Setback for Diana inquest as second coroner steps down

BARONESS Butler-Sloss is to step down as coroner for the Princess Diana inquest, it was announced yesterday.

The announcement will be seen as a major setback for the inquest, which also deals with the death of Diana’s lover Dodi Fayed.

She will quit the role in June when Lord Justice Scott Baker will take over.

He will be the third person to take charge of the inquest, which has yet to start in full nearly 10 years after the princess was killed in a Paris car crash.

Lady Butler-Sloss said she had come to the decision after a great deal of thought and she lacked the experience required to deal with an inquest with a jury.

Lady Butler-Sloss said in a statement: “This was a decision I took in the interests of the inquests after a great deal of thought and reflection.

“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.

“I must stress this does not require a fresh start for the inquests — I will continue to preside over pre-inquest hearings until Lord Justice Scott Baker takes up the appointment in June.”

In July last year, the then royal coroner Michael Burgess quit the inquests, blaming a “heavy and constant” workload.

Two months later, Lady Butler-Sloss, Britain’s former top woman judge, took on the role.

In December, she backed down on holding the inquests’ preliminary hearings in private. She suffered a significant setback last month when Dodi’s father Mohamed al Fayed won a judicial review against her decision to sit alone on the high profile case and not to appoint a jury.

Lord Justice Scott Baker will have to get to grips with thousands of pages of documentation in just over a month.