London: Both Princess Diana's butler and a photographer accused of helping to stage the car crash that killed her lied, but neither is key to discovering how she and boyfriend Dodi Fayed died, a coroner said today.

Lord Justice Scott Baker, summing up the six-month inquest into their deaths for a second day, said it was "blindingly obvious" that butler Paul Burrell, who was more concerned with exploiting his connection to Diana, "hadn't told the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth" during three days of testimony.

Baker also said there was strong evidence that James Andanson, a paparazzi photographer who claimed he had been in Paris trailing Diana the night of the crash, had lied about his whereabouts that night. Andanson has since died.

Diana, Fayed and driver Henri Paul died in a Paris car accident in 1997 while trailed by photographers, a crash Fayed s father, Mohamed Al Fayed, claims was part of a plot directed by Queen Elizabeth II's husband, Prince Philip, and carried out by British secret agents.

Fayed had accused Andanson of being a secret agent who helped set up the accident.

However, Baker told jurors yesterday that there is no shred of evidence to implicate the queen's husband, the secret intelligence service or any other government agency in their deaths.

Andanson apparently became identified as a suspect because he was a paparazzi photographer and owned a white Fiat Uno, the same type of car that sideswiped the Mercedes carrying Diana and Fayed in or near the Alma tunnel before their fatal crash.

Source : PTI