BLOOD CONFUSIONS
Diana's driver had too much carbon
monoxide in him. Nicholas Farrell
wonders why
Mohamed Al Fayed cannot accept that the deaths of his son Dodi, of Diana, Princess of Wales, and of their chauffeur were caused by anything as mundane as a drink- drive car crash. He must blame someone. Sometimes it is the paparazzi, sometimes MI5. In February, for example, he told the Mirror he was '99.9 per cent' certain that the crash was the work of assassins. He Provided no evidence at all. Now he has been at it again — this time on television — blaming, it would seem, both paparazzi and MI5. I have seen this at first hand.
For two months I had a minor role as Paris researcher for the documentary about the crash shown on ITV this week. The programme-makers used any witness they could find whose testimony, however shaky, might support the idea either of death by MIS or death by paparazzi — or, Who knows, possibly by both. Mr Al Fayed was given hefty air time to run viewers through all this. What gives a conspiracy theory clout is that you cannot disprove it. You cannot prove MIS did not do it. Nor, until the examining magistrate Herve Stephan completes his inquiry, will we know just how close the paparazzi were to the Mercedes as it plunged into the tunnel under the Place de l'Alma. So millions of People will continue to believe in the con- spiracy theory come what may. Never md. The programme provided these mil- lions with just what they wanted. And it made excellent television, of course. But the programme also highlighted something extremely interesting and up till now virtually unnoticed, something which for once is not a theory but a fact. Henri Paul, the driver of the Mercedes and act- ing head of security at the Paris Ritz, had an extremely high level of carbon monox- ide in his blood when he died. According to the autopsy done on him in Paris on 31 August 1997 — the day he died — M. Paul had 20.7 per cent carboxyhaemoglobin sat- uration of his blood. This means that 20.7 Per cent of the iron-carrying pigment in his blood had combined with carbon monox- ide to form carboxyhaemoglobin. There are four standard sources of con- tamination by carbon monoxide: faulty gas fires, fires, vehicle exhausts and cigarettes. A 40-a-day smoker, for example, would have a level of about 10 per cent. A fatal dose is about 50 per cent. So Henri Paul was seriously dosed up. You would nor- mally find such levels only in two situa- tions: in someone who had been trapped in a house fire and escaped, or someone in a car with the engine running with a hose through the window connected to the exhaust pipe, who had been saved from suicide in the nick of time.
This means that not only had M. Paul drunk more than three times the French drink-drive limit and taken antidepressants when he got behind the wheel of the Mer- cedes, he was also halfway dead from car- bon monoxide poisoning for good measure.
The physical symptoms of such poison- ing would vary from person to person. In some people it would make them feel very tired and lethargic. In others it would give them a very bad headache. Under normal circumstances the level of carbon monox- ide poison drops by about a half every four to five hours. So, if the level was 40 per cent, say, four to five hours before M. Paul died, it would have been 20 per cent at the time of his death, and two hours before his death about 30 per cent.
'You find that sort of level in living fire victims. You can find it in dead people who have been in a fire if they have a poor heart. You normally expect to find it in people exposed to a lot of smoke. If the test came back with 20.7 per cent carboxy- haemoglobin my hackles would rise. It would make me turn round and say, "How on earth did he get it?",' said Ian Hill, con- sultant in forensic medicine at Guy's Hos- pital, London.
So just where did M. Paul get gassed? On the night of his death he left the Ritz in the Place Vendome at about 7 p.m. and drove home in his black Mini to his flat in the Rue des Petits Champs — a five- minute drive. He parked the car in the Rue Chabanais near the flat. The barman at Le Bourgogne, a bar next to the entrance to the building where his flat is, recalls having a quick chat with him. M. Paul did not, says the barman, have a drink. (We can be pret- ty sure he went home at some point as pho- tographers' pictures of him at the airport earlier that day show him wearing one type of jacket and security video pictures of him at the Ritz later show him wearing anoth- er.) The next time he is seen is just before 10 p.m. — some three hours later. The owner of a lesbian club, the Champmesle,
The braised cardboard - is that recycled or cardboard from sustainable sources?' in the Rue Chabanais, saw him coming to pick up his car which was parked outside. He waved at her, she says, but did not stop for a drink. He drove off and went straight to the Ritz. Security cameras there record- ed his arrival at 10.07. He then spent the next two and a half hours or so at the hotel before getting into the Mercedes at 12.20 and driving himself, Dodi and Diana to their deaths. For part of the time he was in the hotel's bar Venchime. We know that he had two Ricards there because a barman has told police this. This is the only time, as far as we know, he is seen drinking on the evening of his death.
It is possible but most unlikely that a 20.7 per cent level of carbon monoxide poisoning would be due to low-level con- tamination over a long period of time. It is the sort of level that is much more likely to result from high-level exposure over a short period of time — a house fire or a suicide attempt. Furthermore, the source of exposure would have to be in an enclosed space — a car or a room. This was August and very hot. M. Paul would not have had a gas fire on in his flat to keep warm. Was it a faulty exhaust on his Mini? No, that would not have affected the driver. Anyway, after his death his best friend, Claude Garrec, sold the Mini. Prior to the sale he had an MoT test done on the car which showed there to be nothing wrong with its exhaust system.
What about the Ritz then? Again, most unlikely. The Ritz declines to comment about anything to do with the crash, so we cannot be sure, but it seems unlikely that there was a source of contamination in M. Paul's basement office.
What about the Mercedes itself? Again, virtually impossible. It is true that when the Mercedes crashed there was a lot of smoke, and it was inside a tunnel. But M. Paul died instantly. You have to be able to breathe carbon monoxide to be poisoned by it. Any- way, Dodi's autopsy showed him not to have any carbon monoxide poisoning.
What then are we left with? It is possible that M. Paul was attempting suicide and was interrupted by the call from Dodi to return to the Ritz. He was, after all, taking antidepressants. But if so he was not attempting it in his Mini. The owner of the Champmesle says that his car was parked outside her bar throughout the three-hour period that he was away from the Ritz that night. And M. Paul, as evidenced by the Ritz security video footage released by Mr Al Fayed to the press, looks happy. He is seen joking with photographers. He is seen smiling.
So if M. Paul was not trying to kill him- self there are only two alternatives: either the French doctors who conducted the autopsy got the wrong answers when they tested his blood, or else they tested the wrong blood. The implications of this are enormous. If it was not M. Paul's blood which was tested, then it means we do not know if he was drunk and had been taking antidepressants. This will be music to the ears of Mr Al Fayed for one, not to men- tion the Ritz, which faces massive dam- ages claims over its part in supplying its acting head of security to drive the Mer- cedes, and M. Paul's family and friends. And if the wrong blood was tested, was it a genuine mistake by the doctors or did someone, MIS or whoever, switch the samples? Le cock-up or le complot? I do not believe in conspiracy theories, but it makes me wonder.
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