Squidgygate tapes could be played to the Diana inquest

The recordings, which feature her talking affectionately on the telephone to a male friend at the height of her marriage problems, could be played at the hearing next month.

It also emerged yesterday that the inquest jury will be taken to the scene of the fatal crash in Paris to retrace Diana and her boyfriend Dodi Fayed's last journey ten years ago.

The site visit is expected to take place shortly after the inquest starts.

At the last preliminary hearing before the case begins on October 2, Michael Mansfield QC insisted in the High Court that the tapes should be examined in full as evidence of Diana's state of mind.

The "Squidgygate" conversation took place on December 31, 1989, when she called her close friend James Gilbey on his mobile while staying at Sandringham.

Gilbey, 45, an Old Etonian bachelor, was a confidant of Diana's from before her marriage in 1981.

During the conversation, he referred to the Princess as "darling" and "Squidgy", and spoke about wrapping 'warm protective arms around you in a couple of days".

She criticised the Royal Family and described her life with Prince Charles as "torture".

Later she claimed the tapes were made by members of the security services and leaked in order to discredit her.

Her account was backed by her former Scotland Yard bodyguard, Ken Wharfe, who said intelligence organisations routinely bugged her calls.

Mr Mansfield, who is representing Harrods owner Mohamed al Fayed, father of Dodi, claimed doubt had been cast on the official explanation that the tapes were made by an amateur radio enthusiast.

Mr Mansfield said a potential expert witness, John Nelson, had examined one of them and suggested that a lone "radio ham" could not have been responsible.

"The significance to the case of what she (Diana) believed throughout the 1990s is that she was being monitored... by the security services," he said.

Mr Mansfield also called for further investigation into the role of Diana's sister, Lady Sarah McCorquodale, who, it is claimed, had been in possession of a box of letters to the princess from senior royals including Prince Phillip, which later disappeared.

Barrister Ian Burnett QC, counsel for the inquest, suggested, however, that the tapes were "peripheral" to the case, a view echoed by Coroner Lord Justice Scott Baker.

The High Court heard that Diana's former butler, Paul Burrell, was at the top of a list of 68 witnesses that Mr Al Fayed and his team wished to call.

A spokesman for Mr Burrell told the Mail that he and his lawyers had not heard from anyone connected with the inquest.

A list of witnesses about whom further additional preparatory notes are wanted as a priority was also outlined in court.

They were:

:: Diana's former butler Paul Burrell;

:: French witnesses Francoise and Josephine Dard;

:: Former British ambassador in Paris, Sir Michael Jay;

:: Jeweller Alberto Repossi, who is said to have made a ring for Dodi;

:: Former agent Richard Tomlinson, who claimed that Henri Paul was an MI6 spy;

:: Bodyguard Kes Wingfield;

:: Daily Mail journalist Richard Kay, who was in contact with Diana shortly before her death.

DOSSIER "MISLAID"

French officials mislaid the entire 6,000-page French legal dossier into the death of Diana, a Paris lawyer has revealed.

The yard-high mass of documents --compiled during the three-year police inquiry in the French capital --was stored at the Palais de Justice.

But when lawyer Jean-Louis Pelletier asked to view the file he was told it had disappeared. It finally turned up a month later.

Mr Pelletier said: "I know files go missing from time to time. But bearing in mind the size and importance of this one, it is extraordinary."

The incident will do little to quell conspiracy theories, repeatedly voiced by Mohamed Al Fayed, that the Princess and his son Dodi were murdered in an Establishment plot.

Mr Pelletier represents Fabrice Chassery, a paparazzo who took pictures of the dying Diana, and claims Channel 4 "stole" a photo for use in a TV documentary.

A justice official said: "We have traced the original file."