Diana's bodyguard: 'Her death could've been avoided'

Almost 20 years after her death, Diana’s former bodyguard is still convinced she would be with us today had things been done differently.

In Australia to promote his new book Guarding Diana, Ken Wharfe told the Today Show, “The two inquests that were held both concluded that Diana died in a tragic accident, which in my view could and should have been avoided”.

During her stay in Paris in 1997, Diana was being protected by a team of bodyguards hired by her boyfriend Dodi Fayed’s family, rather than a team from British Metropolitan Police – a choice Burrell believes was a grave mistake.

“The security sadly didn't have the expertise that Scotland Yard had. There was some glaring errors in my judgement,” he said.

“The local police weren't involved, the British embassy was never contacted.

“They allowed a man that had a drink problem to drive the car. If all the seat-belts were put on, all the basic instruments of what protection is all about were just not adhered to.”

Wharfe made a similar point last year, saying, “I am still angry beyond words that this team of 'bodyguards' let her come to harm."

“On behalf of all the professional men and women of the Met's protection squad, let me say that neither [bodyguard Trevor] Rees-Jones nor any of the other bodyguards who attended Diana in the two months preceding her death were from our department”.

As a result, he said the bodyguard who was with her the night that she died – and the only sole survivor of the crash – Trevor Rees-Jones, misunderstood the relationship between Diana and the paparazzi, and according to Wharfe, was never briefed by British police.

Wharfe has also blamed the Queen for contributing to Diana's untimely death, saying, "There’s only one person that could – in my view – have insisted that she retain her security, and that would have been the Queen herself."

"If the queen had insisted that she retain that security then we wouldn’t be having this discussion because Diana, in my view, would have been alive today."

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