The Royal Courts of Justice has yet to confirm whether Big Pictures boss Darryn Lyons will be called on to testify at the inquest into the death of Princess Diana.
Lyons ? who is chairman of the celebrity photo agency ? is reported to have told Australian newspaper The Geelong Advertiser that he has been officially notified that he might be asked to testify.
He claims the Big Pictures office in London was broken into the day after Diana?s death in Paris on 31 August 1997.
Phillip Golding, head of corporate communications at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, told Amateur Photographer magazine: ?We are not able to confirm which individuals will or will not be called to give evidence more than a few days in advance.
Details are then placed on the website [www.scottbaker-inquests.gov.uk].’
Lyons – a former photographer for The Geelong Advertiser – told the newspaper that the power was cut at the Big Pictures office, there was a bomb threat and that he believed British intelligence was trying to track down 12 photos he received after the crash in which Diana died along with boyfriend Dodi Al Fayed and driver Henri Paul.
As we reported on 3 October, the coroner Lord Justice Scott Baker is expected to consider whether there was anything ‘sinister’ about ‘the disturbance at the Big Pictures agency’.
It is one of the 20 ?likely issues? to be addressed, listed by the coroner on the inquest website.
Big Pictures declined to comment on the matter at the time of writing.
In 2002, formal manslaughter charges against nine photographers were dropped following a French investigation into the cause of the crash.
A subsequent British inquiry, led by Lord Stevens, last year concluded that the crash was a ‘tragic accident’.
