Parents of Diana driver 'were told he wasn't drunk'

They said Lord Stevens, the former Metropolitan Police commissioner who investigated the 1997 Paris crash which killed Diana, Dodi Al Fayed and Mr Paul, had assured them he had not been drunk.

But a month later in his official report into the tragedy Lord Stevens said Mr Paul had been three times over the French drink-drive limit when his Mercedes crashed.

At a preliminary hearing of Diana's inquest in London on Friday, the Paul family's lawyer called for Lord Stevens to be asked to explain the "gross discrepancy".

There have been persistent reports since the crash that the accident was caused by Mr Paul's drunken driving at speed.

His father Jean, 76, told how he and his 75-year-old wife Gisele had met with Lord Stevens.

"He was very polite and understanding," he said. "It took place in Paris and there was an interpreter present.

"He said to us at one moment that he believed that Henri was not drunk. We told him we have known all along that he was not drunk.

"We told our British lawyer what he had said and then we heard that he [Stevens] had concluded that Henri was drunk. There is something not right here.

Speaking at his home in Lorient, Brittany, he added: "There was something in his manner which was sort of apologetic.

"The way he looked at us and the feeling we got was that his hands were tied. As though he regretted what he was having to do.

"He asked us about Henri and we told him that the stories about him being a drunk were all untrue."

Mr Paul said he was puzzled by why a third coroner had now been appointed to handle the inquest, expected to begin in October.

"Didn't the first two fit the bill?" he asked. "Is there one legal system for the Royal Family and another for the ordinary people?"

Mrs Paul said: "The pain and the grief will not go away until we learn the truth and the whole truth. We have felt very alone over the years.

"Diana's two boys live with grief too. Every day they think of their mother. Every day I think of my son."

Mr Paul added: "We are getting old. I'm 76 and my eyesight is failing. I don't know whether I'll live long enough to know the whole truth about the accident in Paris."