Nov 27, 2007 10:15 am US/Pacific
Paparazzo Won't Testify In Diana Inquest
French Photographer Refuses To Appear In Court "Either Today Or Any Day"
LONDON (CBS) ―
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Princess Diana died on August 21, 1997. (File)
Paul Vicente/AFP/Getty Images
A French photographer has refused to testify at the inquest into the death of Princess Diana.
The coroner, Lord Justice Scott Baker, said Romuald Rat had received a summons to give evidence by video link from Paris. The inquest was told Tuesday that Rat responded, saying he would not appear "either today or any day."
Baker was prepared to allow the jury to hear previous statements made by Rat and other paparazzi who pursued Diana and her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, in Paris before their fatal August 1997 car crash.
But on Monday, the Court of Appeal sided with a lower court in ruling that those statements could not be presented without giving attorneys representing various parties the opportunity to question the witnesses.
Kenneth Lennox, former picture editor of The Sun, had told the inquest he was telephoned by someone offering pictures of the crash for 300,000 pounds - then the equivalent of $484,000 - and identified the caller as Rat.
On Tuesday, however, Lennox told the inquest he has accepted that Rat and other photographers were already in police custody at the time of the call.
In an e-mail to Martyn Gregory, author of a book about Diana's last days, Rat denounced Lennox's earlier story as defamatory, according to Britain's Press Association news agency.
The e-mail was not read to the inquest jury. Diana died on August 21, 1997.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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