LONDON — The 1997 Paris car crash that killed Princess Diana and her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, was an accident, not a murder plot hatched by the royal family, according to a British police investigation made public Thursday.
"There was no conspiracy to murder any of the occupants of the car. This was a tragic accident," said John Stevens, former chief of the Metropolitan Police who led the three-year investigation.
The inquiry's 832-page report also concluded that Princess Diana was not pregnant at the time of her death, nor did she have any intention of marrying Fayed even though he had purchased an engagement ring on the day of their death.
The inquiry confirmed the previous findings of the French investigation into the cause of the crash: The couple's chauffeur, Henri Paul, was drunk and driving at twice the legal speed limit in an attempt to elude a posse of paparazzi when he lost control of the car and crashed. Paul also was killed.
Fayed's father, Mohammed Fayed, immediately lambasted the inquiry's findings, calling the report "garbage" and a "cover-up."
Fayed, the wealthy owner of Harrods department store in London, has long insisted that Diana and his son were the victims of a plot initiated by members of the royal family intent on preventing Diana, who was then divorced from Prince Charles, from marrying a Muslim.
According to Fayed, the fatal crash was a carefully executed murder carried out by British intelligence agents at the behest of Prince Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II.
The British police inquiry, which was commissioned in January 2004 to address Fayed's allegations, interviewed more than 300 witnesses, including Prince Philip and Prince Charles, and examined some 600 exhibits.
Stevens said investigators used computer modeling and high-tech forensic photography to collect data from 186 million points and reproduce the scene of the crash and surrounding area to within an accuracy of one centimeter.
He also said that he and two senior investigators were given "unprecedented access" to the files of MI5 and MI6, Britain's domestic and international intelligence agencies, and that both the CIA and the U.S. National Security Agency cooperated in the investigation.
According to the report, NSA acknowledged that it had files from eavesdropping operations containing "short references" to Diana but said these shed no light on the circumstances of her death.
"I am satisfied that no attempt has been made to hold back information," Stevens said.
The three-year investigation cost $7.2 million. Fayed also has spent lavishly on his own team of experts and says he will continue to challenge the official findings.
At Thursday's news conference, Stevens, who retired as head of Scotland Yard in February 2005, retraced the familiar timeline of Diana's and Fayed's final hours:
At 7 p.m., the couple left the Ritz Hotel to go to Fayed's apartment at Rue Arsene Houssaye. They had no intention of returning to the Ritz that evening, Stevens said.
At 9:40 p.m., the couple left the apartment and were being driven to a local restaurant, but because of the relentless attention of the paparazzi en route, Fayed instructed the driver to go to the Ritz, where they would dine instead. The hotel is owned by Fayed's father.
When they arrived at the hotel, about 10 minutes later, the chauffeur Paul, who had been off duty since 7 p.m., was summoned back to the hotel. He had two drinks at the hotel bar while waiting for Diana and Fayed to finish their meal.
At one point during this part of the evening, Fayed telephoned his father and told him that he had purchased an engagement ring for Diana and that he planned to present it to her later that night.
"I do not know whether Dodi was going to ask her to marry him that night. I cannot say what the Princess of Wales' response would have been," Stevens said.
"However, we have spoken to many of her family and closest friends, and none of them has indicated to us that she was either about to or wished to get engaged. Her last conversations with friends and confidantes were to the contrary," he said.
At 12:20 a.m., after finishing their meal, the couple left the hotel through the rear service exit, but the paparazzi were not fooled for long and were soon in hot pursuit.
Paul, whose blood alcohol level would later be tested at 1.74 grams per liter, three times the French legal limit, accelerated to 61 to 63 mph as the road dipped at the Pont d'Alma underpass. The posted speed limit is 30 mph. The vehicle struck the curb and spun out of control.
Because of the couple's changing plans that evening, Stevens said, it would have been impossible to stage an accident to cover up a murder. He also discounted the significance of a white Fiat Uno that was apparently sideswiped by Diana and Fayed's Mercedes-Benz moments before the crash. The Fiat and its owner have never been found.
"There was no conspiracy and no coverup," Stevens said. "I have seen nothing that would justify further inquiries with any member of the royal family."
The completion of Stevens' investigation will allow the formal inquest into Diana's death to proceed. Preliminary hearings, which were suspended in 2004, are scheduled for next month.
Fayed, at his own news conference Thursday, said Stevens' decision to go public with the inquiry's findings ahead of the formal inquest was "one hundred percent proof that this is a plan for a coverup."
Stevens said he was not disturbed by Fayed's allegations of a coverup.
"He is a grieving parent, he's entitled to say what he has. I make no comment on it," Stevens said.