London Mirror | May 6, 2004
By Steve Dennis

PAUL Burrell yesterday told police of an MI5 link to the chilling letter in which Princess Diana predicted she would be killed in a car crash.

The ex-royal butler was quizzed for three hours by detectives probing Diana’s death in 1997.

Mr Burrell, 46, said: “It was a delicate and sensitive meeting and I helped the officers as much as I could.” He talked about a secret friendship which the princess had struck up with a former MI5 intelligence officer.

The man’s warning prompted Diana to write her fears in a letter that she would die in a car accident - 10 months before the Paris crash.

Two officers quizzed Mr Burrell at his solicitor’s office in Chester about the letter’s authenticity and context. Asked if he had talked about the MI5 link Mr Burrell added: “I mentioned everything which I believed was relevant.”

Diana believed she was being watched by the security services.

Coroner Michael Burgess ordered an investigation into her death before a full inquest next spring.

Police said: ” The meeting was not a formal police interview.”