Eight years of theorising, and partial representation of the facts by conspiracy fans, have identified some minor gaps and anomalies in the twoyear-long French judicial investigation.

Nonetheless, the overwhelming burden of evidence still points to the fact that Diana, Dodi al-Fayed and their driver, Henri Paul, died in a road accident in an underpass in Paris in the first few minutes of 31 August 1997.

French officials believe that the British investigation may help to clear up one or two anomalies. They continue to dismiss suggestions . . .

advanced by Mohammed alFayed and the parents of Henri Paul . . . that there was some kind of high-level conspiracy or cover-up.

The Scotland Yard report, they say, is unlikely to disturb the basic findings of the French investigation in 1999: that Diana and Dodi died because Henri Paul, the unqualified driver of a Mercedes, pressed into use at the last moment, had been drinking heavily and taking anti-depressant drugs.

Two years ago, a senior French police source said . . .contrary to the official version and the statements of her friends . . . that Diana was pregnant when she died.

According to the source, evidence to this effect is to be found among the 60,000 pages of evidence from the initial French investigation. Suggestions that Diana was pregnant at the time of her death have since been rejected by close friends and by the doctor who performed an autopsy when her body was returned to Britain.

The police source in France, now retired, stands by his original statement on Diana's pregnancy but also adamantly rejects suggestions that there was a wider conspiracy or cover-up surrounding her death.

He argues . . . like other French officials . . . that the basic, unchallenged facts of what happened that night cannot support the notion of a plot to murder Diana.