Daily Mail | September 5, 2007

The disappearance of the files will fuel conspiracy theories surrounding Diana's death
The entire 6,000-page French legal dossier into the death of Princess Diana has vanished from the court archives in Paris, a lawyer claimed last night.

The mass of official documents - which stand one metre tall - was stored at the Palais de Justice central court building in the French capital.

It was compiled over three years during the official investigation in crash by French investigating magistrate Judge Herve Stephan.

But lawyer Jean-Louis Pelletier - who represents Paris paparazzi Fabrice Chassery - said when he asked to view the dossier, he was told it had disappeared.

Even a search of the court documents archives below the court building failed to uncover the hundreds of missing files.

The bizarre disappearance will fuel conspiracy theories that the highly sensitive dossier has been stolen because it contains information that Diana's death was more than a simple accident.

Another possibility is that bungling French court workers have simply "lost" the mountain of paperwork.

Other copies of the dossier still exist however. One has been sent to Lord Stevens, who is heading the British investigation into Paris accident, and another made for Lord Justice Scott Baker, the coroner at the inquest into Diana's death in London this October.

The disappearance of the Paris dossier now raises the near comic prospect of the British having to give the French back a copy of their own missing paperwork, which they sent Britain in 2005.

In Paris, Mr Pelletier said he needed to view the dossier because his client Mr Chassery, who arrived at the crash scene on the night Diana died on August 31, 1997, was still being pursued for manslaughter over the crash.

He said: "When I went in to the court to ask to see the files, I was told they weren't there.

"I know files go missing from time to time, but bearing in mind the size and importance of this particular one, it is extraordinary."

The original dossier contains thousands of pages of witness statements, the results of forensic tests on drunk chauffeur Henri Paul, photos of the crash scene and of those who died, and crucial interviews with all those involved in one of the biggest investigations in French legal history.

Copies of the dossier that were made only contained photocopies of signed documents and many did not include any photographs of the victims or the crash scene, Mr Pelletier said.

He added: "I went to every different part of the court building, thinking perhaps it had been moved from the high court archives to the criminal court or the appeal court, but no one could find it.

"A search on the computer to try to locate also revealed nothing.

"I am amazed that something like this could simply vanish."

Mr Pelletier said he needed to view parts of the dossier to defend his client against an ongoing prosecution by Mohamed Al Fayed that the French photographers who followed Diana's car on the night she died had caused the crash.

A spokesman for the Palais de Justice said: "Several requests have been made by those connected to the Diana crash investigation to view the dossier, but the paperwork is not immediately available."

It is the second time this year that elements of the dossier have vanished.

Mr Pelletier said when he viewed the dossier last May, he found photos of Diana and Dodi taken at the crash scene had gone.

He said: "It was odd. One week the photo was there and the next it was gone.

"It was a photo taken by my client Mr Chassery and at the time I believed it had been stolen. But now it is much worse. The entire dossier has gone missing."