Sky News reported during the night a new ‘revelation’ involving the death of the late Princess Diana. If we consider the clinical part, then it makes every bit of sense that the police do not throw information away at a moment’s notice. Yet, here I think the time has now come to take a critical look at certain events.
What pushed these events to come forward now? It is time that certain individuals are held accountable for acts they undertake and the time has come to hold certain choices accountable for prosecution.
I would even go as far as to make this now a mandatory actionable situation for both MI-5 and MI-6, taking this beyond the scope of normal parties like the Metropolitan police (or their special units) and those involved in operation Paget.
The article at http://news.sky.com/story/1129902/dianas-death-police-passed-new-information states “It was passed to the police by the former parents-in-law of a former soldier, according to Sky sources.” Operation Paget had taken 3 years and costed 3 million pounds. Personally, I think that the 3 million pounds are not the issue, the fact that in those days, the press was so happy to get every nut job with a new conspiracy theory their 15 minutes in the spotlights to fuel more and more publications. I believe that family and friends of Miss Diana Spencer have suffered for far too long and as such I hope that the following happens.
If the information is strong enough, then the parties involved MUST be prosecuted for perverting the course of Justice.
The elements are:
- does an act (a positive act or series of acts is required; mere inaction is insufficient)
- which has a tendency to pervert and
- which is intended to pervert the course of public justice.
For the UK the precedence is Murray (1982) 75 Cr. App. R. 58
The allegation gives weight that a member of the British military was involved in the killing of a former member of the Royal family, which means that the accusation alone brings shame to members of the military forces and even a wider group of other parties.
Do these in-laws realise that if proven intentionally brought wrongly that their act holds a possible life sentence in prison?
considering the case Cotter [2002] 2 Cr. App. R. 762, where at [10] was stated “How could the jury infer, in particular, that what the defendants embarked upon was likely to lead to any sort of criminal proceedings or investigation which would have a tendency to pervert and bring about an injustice?”
I believe that there should be in addition the investigation whether the press had ANY involvement in this. The simple truth is that this is no longer about ‘freedom of the press‘, this could now become an issue regarding ‘conspiring with another to pervert the course of justice‘, if any member of the press would be found involved then this becomes an entirely new deck of cards to deal with.
There are others who would have a case if the information is proven to be fabricated.
There are the family members of Sir David Rolland Spedding who passed away in 2001. Sir David was running MI6 at that time and in view of the importance of the deceased, MI6 would have had to have investigated this for the reason that if the event was not an accident, then it stood to reason that there could have been a danger to the Royal family.
The three year investigation through Operation Paget led by Lord Stevens of Kirkwhelpington as well as a truckload of members of Scotland Yard, all working hard to find out what had happened. Even though I reckon that they wasted months and months disproving hundreds of fabricated stories that fuelled the press. The fact that this is happening again should be unacceptable to anyone connected to the United Kingdom in any way.
All these persons could have a case of defamation under the UK Defamation act 1996.
If the information is genuine then it must be investigated, if proven that the allegations were false, there must be a prosecution. I personally belief that the CPS has no option to ignore this, consider that under common law ‘perverting the course of Justice’ has the attached label of a maximum life in prison means that this is a crime as seriously regarded as murder. This circus has gone on long enough and in the end it is important that a clear message is given.
The message is “Enough is enough!“
Lawrence van Rijn - Law Lord to be 