Channel 4 bosses defy Princes' pleas over Diana crash photos

Channel 4 today snubbed appeals from Princess Diana's sons not to show images of her dying moments.

Bosses at the broadcaster said they would go ahead with a controversial documentary about Diana's last hours in spite of Princes William and Harry saying it would cause them "acute distress".

Kevin Lygo, Channel 4's director of television and content, said it was in the "public interest" to show the pictures.

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He wrote to Clarence House after receiving a letter from the princes' aides, which said the documentary was "intruding on the privacy and dignity of the princess's last minutes". This afternoon, Mr Lygo ruled out pulling the pictures, which show Diana receiving medical treatment at the crash scene in Paris.

Mr Lygo said: "We unequivocally regret that distress has been caused to the princes by the press coverage and that the very broadcast of this simply, if it were your mother or my mother dying in that tunnel would we want the scene broadcast to the nation? Indeed, would the nation want it?"

But today Channel 4 insisted it will air the documentary Diana: The Witnesses In The Tunnel uncut.

Julian Bellamy, head of Channel 4, said today: "We have weighed the princes' concerns against the legitimate public interest we believe there is in the subject of this documentary and in the still photography it includes."

He stressed that the photos and interviews provided the "most detailed and credible eyewitness account yet delivered" of the 1997 crash.

"No images of the victims of the crash are shown in this film because we made a clear decision from the outset to uphold the consensus quite properly reached by the British media not to use any images that depict the occupantsof the car after the crash," Mr Bellamy added.

Today the Conservative Party attacked Channel 4. David Cameron said: "Channel 4 should take a long hard look at their responsibility. Are they making a serious programme or is it just prurient? Is this in the public interest or is this prurient? If they conclude it's prurient - and I rather suspect it is - they should pull it."

Shadow secretary of state for culture, media and sport, Hugo Swire, said: "This is an unprecedented intervention from the royal family and illustrates just how distressing the princes find Channel 4's use of these images."

Today Princess Diana's former personal protection officer Inspector Ken Wharfe, who has seen the film, backed the princes' plea. But he insisted the documentary was credible and should be shown.

In one picture, taken in the back of the crashed Mercedes, a French doctor is seen trying to fit an oxygen mask to the, unseen, princess's face just minutes after the crash.

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In his letter Mr Lowther-Pinkerton wrote: "I must ask you not to broadcast those photographs that depict the crashed car whilst the princes' mother lies dying in its wreckage.

"These photographs, regardless of the fact that they do not actually show the Princess's features, are redolent with the atmosphere and tragedy of the closing moments of her life.

"As such, they will cause the princes acute distress if they are shown to a public audience, not just for themselves, but also on their mother's behalf, in the sense of intruding upon the privacy and dignity of her last minutes."

Clarence House said William and Harry felt they had no choice but to make their feelings public.

A spokesman said: "In publishing the letter, the princes reluctantly feel that they have been left no choice but to make it clear publicly that they believe the broadcast of these photographs to be wholly inappropriate, deeply distressing to them and to the relatives of the others who died that night, and a gross disrespect to their mother's memory."

Lt-Col Lowther-Pinkerton and another Clarence House official had seen the documentary at the princes' request. When he reported its contents to them, they authorised the letter.

The princes had protested previously when an Italian magazine used the images.

But today Channel 4 has said it is airing the programme, part of the run-up to the 10th anniversary of Diana's death in August, to set the record straight on what happened in the aftermath of the crash.

Channel 4 said it had weighed the Princes' concerns against the legitimate public interest and would still be broadcasting the images.

Mr Bellamy insisted the show would be broadcast.

"Those images that are included have been selected with due consideration for the feelings of the relatives of those involved.

"We believe, in this context, the photographs and the assembled interviewees provide the most detailed and credible eyewitness account yet delivered of an event of international importance that for 10 years has been obscured by claim and counter-claim.

"They support the first-hand testimony of passers-by and the photographers at the scene who have been publicly criticised and condemned for their behaviour that night."

He said the programme went no further visually or in tone than many previous British TV and newspaper reports.

A programme debating Channel 4's decision to show the documentary has been scheduled for later on tomorrow.