Backup request denied, bodyguard tells Diana inquest

A bodyguard for Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed said Tuesday that he and a colleague requested extra help days before the couple died in a Paris car crash but were turned down.

Kieran Wingfield told an inquest investigating Diana and Fayed's deaths that only he and colleague Trevor Rees guarded the couple during a Mediterranean cruise on the yacht of Fayed's father, Mohamed Al Fayed, after the Harrods owner refused his requests for more manpower.

"I suggested to Mr. Fayed that was not enough to provide adequate cover," Wingfield said. "His words to me were: 'I want this to be low-key. It's only going to be for two or three days.' "

Wingfield, a former Royal Marine, said his duties were made more difficult because Dodi Fayed would only tell him at the last minute when he and Diana were leaving the ship, the Jonikal.

An eight-man team was needed to properly assess and cover the places that the couple planned to visit when they were off the boat, he said.

Last week, Rees said he also tried to persuade Dodi Al Fayed that he was not taking adequate security precautions on the night of the crash when he planned to leave Paris' Ritz Hotel without a bodyguard or a backup car. Rees said he accepted a compromise in which he went with the couple in their car.

He was the only occupant of the car to survive the crash, but sustained severe injuries.

The inquest began in October and is aimed at determining, among other things, how the couple died on Aug. 31, 1997. It follows two exhaustive police investigations in Britain and France and is expected to last several months.

Police investigators found that chauffeur Henri Paul was drunk when the speeding Mercedes Diana and Al Fayed were riding in struck a pillar at the Pont d'Alma tunnel.

At the time of the crash, Diana, 36, and Al Fayed, 42, were being chased by paparazzi seeking photographs of the princess.

Fayed's father maintains that the couple were victims of a conspiracy led by the British establishment, including the Queen's husband, Prince Philip, and security services.