Prince Philip is in the clear - and butler Paul Burrell's a liar.The coroner heading up the inquest into Princess Diana's death 10 years ago rejected Monday a conspiracy theory that her father-in-law - the Queen's husband - ordered she be killed.
"There is no evidence that the Duke of Edinburgh ordered Diana's execution and there is no evidence that the Secret Intelligence Service or any other government agency organized it," Lord Scott Baker told the jury.
Mohamed Al Fayed, who owns Harrods department story, has accused the royal family of killing Di and her lover - Al Fayed's son Dodi Fayed - in a spectacular car crash in Paris tunnel.Al Fayed was outraged.
"It is terrible," he said. "It's all biased.
After dealing that knockout blow to Al Fayed, Baker continued, telling the jury "a regrettable feature of this case has been the number of people that lied - lies in the witness box."
He specified that Burrell, Diana's loyal butler, was caught on video after his testimony admitting that he had fibbed.
"You will probably want to take with a pinch of salt many things that he said in evidence because of the inconsistencies and, you may think, lies in what he told you," Baker said.
Baker also raised sharp questions about the truthfulness of Al Fayed and his spokesman, Michael Cole - notably whether Diana was pregnant and planned to marry Dodi Fayed.
"The only evidence that Diana was pregnant comes from the mouth of Mohamed Al Fayed," he said. "There is a great deal of evidence that she was not pregnant."
Baker told the 11 jurors - who will begin deliberations - that they have five options to consider. Among them, they can return a verdict of accidental death, or they can decide the deaths were unlawful killings through gross negligence by chauffeur Henri Paul; by the paparazzi following Diana and Dodi's car; or by both Paul and the paparazzi.
French and British police have previously concluded the crash was an accident, and that driver Paul was drunk and speeding to avoid photographers.
Baker told the jury it cannot find it was an unlawful killing and a staged accident because of a lack of proof against Prince Philip, who is Prince Charles father and grandfather to Di's sons Princes William and Harry.
If jurors do believe the crash was staged, he told them, they can choose the fifth option - an open verdict.
The silver-haired coroner said the six-month inquest had been exhaustive and urged the jury to make a decision that puts rumors about Diana's death to rest.
