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http://www.scottbaker-inquests.gov.uk/hearing_transcripts/030308am.htm
Diane Inquest, Secret Service questions remain unanswered ???. The usual censorship of the press continued in Britain on the Diane inquest. Commoners in Britain suffered another day of a news blackout, of startling new revelations at the inquest, into the cause of her death and questions that remain, regarding the involvement of British secret services.
Mr. Darren Lyons had told police, he was convinced that British secret service agents had raided his office in London, searched and/or planted audio and video surveillance devices there.
Mr Lyons was cross-examined on the dark subject of secret service involvement, by Mr. Nicholas Hilliard QC.
Hilliard: Right. The next incident I want to ask you about, please, Mr Lyons, is the early hours of 5th September 1997. So we are moving on three days or so from the Tuesday, all right?
Lyons: Yes, sir, yes.
Hilliard: We have - and again perhaps we will hear about this later - a police computer print-out that deals with a call, I think at 00.52, so 8 minutes to 1 in the morning of 5th September 1997.
Lyons: That is correct, sir.
Hilliard: When the police were called and came to the premises.
Lyons: Yes, sir.
Hilliard: Now, I think you had gone out, is this right, to dinner with staff that evening?
Lyons: That is right, sir.
Hilliard: Can you help us, please, with what happened when you came back to the offices?
Lyons: Yes, sir. As we came back, I noticed, walking back towards the office, that the whole of Clerkenwell Road was lit up, except for my office, which I found obviously strange, and there was not a light on in the building. As I approached over to the building, I unlocked the door, the alarm was not on, there was no power to the building. As I entered, I saw a faint light or something behind it with a - to describe it to you, sir, there was a wall between the front and back office computer room that was all bricked glass, so it was diffused. I walked in and saw this, found it odd and - it seemed like some kind of a flashlight or - there was certainly a fuzzy light and then I heard a ticking noise. Now, obviously, as you can imagine at the time, with what was going on around us, the first thing that registered in my brain was a degree of panic as I felt that this could be - came from the earlier threat that had been made to our offices and other threats throughout this particular time. I immediately ran from the office and dialled the emergency services and several police cars arrived within four to five minutes, I think. I cannot be specific on the time, but pretty much immediately. The police offers told me, when they arrived, not to panic, entered the building, and they could find at the time, sir, no visible force of entry into my premises. From what I have said before, nothing seemed to have been stolen, so ...
Hilliard: Right, but if we take it bit by bit, they found nobody on the premises, is that right?
Lyons: That is correct, sir.
Hilliard: Although you heard the ticking sound and no doubt because of what somebody had said in the phone call earlier in the week, they were going to blow the building up, you were concerned about that, but no ticking bomb was found, is this right, in the premises?
Lyons: No, it was not, sir, indeed, but you can understand the worry at the time with that kind of sound.
Hilliard: I quite understand because, as I say, of the call that you had had earlier in the week.
Lyons: Indeed.
Hilliard: In the police computer print-out for that night, at 18 minutes past 1 in the morning, there is an entry that says that the ticking sound was clocks ticking in the newsroom.
Lyons: If that is what the police statement says, that could well be the case, sir. There certainly were several clocks up on the newsroom wall, behind quite a solid glass panel, from all our country destinations and offices round the world, whether it be Sydney, Los Angeles, New York, London and Tokyo.
Hilliard: The light that you had seen, the kind of flashlight, did that transpire to have come from a computer screen that was still on?
Lyons: The police - that is exactly what the policeman said to me. The strange thing was that the power was completely cut out.
Hilliard: Right. Just one other part of this topic.
Lyons: Yes, sir.
Hilliard: You have expressed, I think, in the past, the opinion that the security services were in your offices that night.
Lyons: Sir, I think that comes from a situation where certainly there had been - on the street and talk between the photographers at the time, there had been another break-in to another French gentleman, I think it was Lionel Cherrault's home or office.
Hilliard: We heard all about that yesterday.
Lyons: Okay.
Hilliard: So we know what what you are talking about.
Lyons: Okay. I think that - the talk that came back to my office at the time was that people had been saying that the security services broke into his situation and stole computers. I think the assessment at that stage, sir, was made on why would two picture agencies have people break in at the same time. So it was another situation of - I suppose one would say "assumption". I have no evidence of who was in my office that particular night at all. I got out of there as quickly as I could.
Hilliard: I suppose we have to add if anyone was actually in your office that night.
Lyons: Point taken, sir, yes.
Hilliard: In due course, did you make a statement - I asked you about this earlier - to somebody who was acting on behalf of Mohamed Al Fayed? Did you talk about the events that you have been telling us about?
Lyons: Yes, I did. I recall - I think it was a Mr Macnamara at the time.
Hilliard: How did that contact come about? What was the first contact?
Lyons: It was a telephone conversation. He phoned me and was extremely polite and asked me could he come - I cannot remember the time or date this took place or the time after the incident, but he asked if he could come down and meet me privately to discuss the situation. Mr Fayed had felt that my thoughts on the subject of what happened and those particular nights surrounding that time would be helpful, and also to get some photographs of the last days of his son that were taken with the Princess of Wales in the South of France, which I packaged up and sent over to his office as a gift.
Hilliard: So, what, there had been some initial contact after which you had sent some photographs?
Lyons: That is correct, sir, and then a meeting was arranged. Mr Macnamara came over and met me in a bar in Clerkenwell, a bar called "1920". We sat down and had a frank discussion. I think he asked me would I make a statement and of course - I said of course I would. In these circumstances, I would be willing to help Mr Fayed in every way I could.
Hilliard: Were you paid any money for the photographs that you had provided?
Lyons: No, sir, I was not. I was offered, for my time and expenses, an envelope, which I refused to take, but thanked him anyway.
Hilliard: Did you know what was in the envelope?
Lyons: No. I assumed it was money because I was told at the time, "Mr Fayed would like you to have this for your time and expenses", sir.
Hilliard: In any event, you had provided, is this right, photographs of them on the holiday in the South of France by this time? You had already provided those?
Lyons: That is right, as a gift. Yes, sir, I sent them over because they were wonderful pictures of the two of them together and I felt that it was a nice thing to do in the circumstances, and he was very - I also received a call back from Mr Macnamara after that, that Mr Fayed was extremely appreciative of this.
Mr. Lyons has maintained over the last ten years that secret service agents raided his office. The puzzling thing about the incident is that on a very busy London street, this was the only office that suffered a power cut and no other building was affected.
Questions remain unanswered: Who broke into the Big Pictures office and what were they after ? What about the the raid on Mr. Cherrault's office at the same time ???
