Princess Diana’s death photos led to new cover-up claims
The paparazzo who sent gory photos of Princess Diana’s dying moments feared spies were trying to blow him and his office to smithereens to erase evidence of their involvement in her death.
RadarOnline.com can reveal that Darryn Lyons – nicknamed ‘Mr Paparazzi’ when he ran London agency Big Pictures in the 1990s – is convinced ‘someone else’ was involved in the eradication of the wide-eyed royal.
He told us his office in the capital was targeted by officers almost immediately after her death, in what he believed was a burglary and bomb attack.
On September 2, 1997, the petrified Lyons voluntarily handed over copies of Diana’s death photos to a police officer at Islington Police Station – and was left feeling “lucky not to have died in all the cloak and dagger fuss” in the aftermath of Di’s crash.
Speaking from his home in Australia, Lyons said: “The night she died, I had the world exclusively at my feet. I got the photos from the scene literally minutes after the accident. They were extraordinary and very moving.
“But when we found out that Diana had died, those photos had to be taken off the market. I made the decision that these were photos that the world should not see.
“The next night I remember unlocking the door to Big Pictures and the alarm wasn’t set… and all of a sudden I heard a ‘tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.’ Then I saw a shadowy character with my own eyes. I just shouted, ‘Go away!’
“I thought to myself, ‘Is there a bomb here?’ As time passed, we could hear other voices on the phone lines. We heard tapping on the phones. We were certainly listened to.
“I have no doubt that we were under extreme surveillance… I had an enormous amount of fear. I think there was an intelligence operation going on to try to get what we had and download it. We started receiving death threats at our office. Every day, non-stop.
“Even though we’ve had investigation after investigation into Diana’s death, I still believe someone was involved in the accident.”
Meanwhile, one of Diana’s last bodyguards also told us he fears he may have been placed under surveillance after her death.
Lee Sansum – who was killed by a heart attack last year aged 63 – said he saw mysterious figures when he returned to Britain after her impact in Paris.
The British martial artist said: “Whether it was just two men in a black car, I don’t know.
“But if you were in the middle of a British security operation at that level, they would know where every one of us was.”
Lee, dubbed ‘Rambo’ by Di when he was part of her team of security guards during her last sunny holiday in St Tropez with Dodi Al-Fayed, added that he and his colleague Martin had also seen a man from the ’14 Company Special Reconnaissance Unit’ near Al-Fayed’s home in Oxted before the team left with the royal family for her infamous boat trip with the playboy.
If Diana had survived her crash in Paris on August 31, 1997, she would have celebrated her 65th birthday today – July 1.
Instead, she was pronounced dead at 4 a.m. on a bloodied operating table at Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital.
A rupture in the left pulmonary vein of Diana’s heart was the fatal injury that ended her short and tortured life.
She survived the moment her black Mercedes S280 – registration number 688 LTV 75 – crashed into the thirteenth pillar of the 200-metre high Pont de l’Alma underpass in Paris at a devastating speed of 200 km/h.
But she suffered two heart attacks and on the way to the hospital she was so distressed that she ripped out the IV, pumping drugs eighty times more powerful than morphine into her veins, mumbling garbled last words.
Theorists highlight how she apparently had enemies ranging from scorned ex-lovers to international arms dealers over her landmine campaign – and the royal family itself.
Some believe that the flash seen in the tunnel was a light gun used to blind the driver, while others believe that the fact that Diana’s shattered body was embalmed just hours after her tragic death is proof that she was pregnant with Dodi.
Many believe she was rejected because ‘The Firm’ did not want his descendants to be part of the royal family.
Others believe the CIA conspired with the royal family to deceive her by drugging the driver.
Dodi’s father Mohamed Al-Fayed spent an estimated $14.6 million investigating 175 separate conspiracy theories surrounding Diana and his son’s death.
The Harrods sex predator died believing the royal family was one of the parties involved in plotting the deaths to prevent Diana marrying his Muslim son.
In October 1996, Diana shared her belief that she would be killed in a car accident in a now infamous letter.
It read: “This particular stage in my life is the most dangerous. My husband is planning an ‘accident’ in my car, failing brakes and serious head injuries to clear the way for him to get married.”
