Public cannot be trusted with Diana inquest verdict

Since Diana's death there have been widespread suspicions that she may have been murdered due to many unanswered questions about her death. These suspicions were later inflamed by the revelation that she had claimed that she would be killed in a car crash.

The authorities of course have always denied foul play.

Having seen the inquest delayed until nearly 10 years after her death, and with an attempt made to hold the inquest in private, those believing in a conspiracy always suggested that an unbiased inquest would never take place. Their suspicion was that the jury would be a fixed jury (by using the coroner's powers to appoint a jury of members of the royal household).

Instead the coroner, Lady Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, has removed any reason for a bent jury - by deciding she alone will decide whether Diana was murdered by a government conspiracy. No jury required.

ThroneOut takes no position on whether Diana was murdered. Its entirely possible that her death was an accident, but then again many questions remain unanswered, and Diana herself claimed she would be murdered in a car crash.

But the move to exclude a jury will do absolutely nothing to dispel rumours of a conspiracy. Judges don't have a history of finding against "the establishment". Ask those who sat through Lord Hutton's investigation into the death of Dr David Kelly, and were stunned when he reached a verdict quite different from that which everyone else who sat through the hearings had expected.

The inquest verdict is of course a done deal. It seems inconceivable that the decision to exclude a jury could be made in a case of such great public interest. Instead the inquest has been turned into monumental waste of public money which will do absolutely nothing to dispel any rumours about a conspiracy.

More info
BBC News - Diana inquest to sit with no jury