British police have ruled there was no “credible evidence” to support a theory that the SAS, the UK’s equivalent to the Navy SEALs, were involved in the death of Diana, Princess of Wales and that the basis of the claim may have just been bragging by a soldier looking for acclaim.
Last August, an unrelated court martial of an SAS soldier heard evidence of an alleged conspiracy that posited that the SAS were involved in the deaths of Lady Diana, her partner Dodi Fayed and their driver in Paris on August 31, 1997.
As a result of widespread publicity, police announced a “scoping” exercise for the claims which the SAS had said were a smear on their members.
Today in a letter obtained by Sky News, it has been revealed that the scoping investigation was over and the wild claims which made international headlines appeared to be false.
“Whilst there is a possibility that the alleged comments in relation to the SAS’s involvement in the death may have been made, there is no credible or relevant evidence to support a theory that such claims had any basis in fact,” Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley declared.
“Having reviewed the exercise and its findings, I am satisfied there is no evidential basis upon which therefore to reopen any criminal homicide investigation or refer the matter back to the coroner.”
The letter concludes by confirming the Royal Household had been informed.
Seven detectives spent more than three months alongside Military Police and the Ministry of Defense going through various records to find the source of the claims but there was not any concrete evidence the claims had been genuine or made in the first place.
The claims stemmed from the high profile court martial of British SAS sniper Sergeant Danny Nightingale who was booted out of the regiment for illegally stashing a pistol he obtained while on tour in the Middle East in his home in the UK.
During the case there was a letter from Nightingale’s former housemate’s mother-in-law alleging that another sniper, identified only as “Sniper N”, had been sent to SAS headquarters in September 2011 making the Diana claim. The claim was known to Defense authorities but only came to Scotland Yard’s attention after widespread media coverage.
The police inquiry could not find any evidence one way or another to backup the story about “Sniper N.”
“It is however very clear that in the extraordinary publicity and conjecture that followed the deaths and the inquests there will have been those who, for whatever motivation, will have sought to demonstrate particular inside knowledge or to claim some form of kudos or recognition,” Assistant Commissioner Rowley said.
Police detailed the top secret defense files they went through and failed to find any relevant material.
“This has confirmed for the material time period, there was no relevant operation, assignment, intelligence gathering or deployment that had any links to Paris and no evidence to support a claim that there was any involvement of the Special Air Service in any plot to cause the deaths,” the final report states.
Other wild theories had the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip, involved in the deaths as he was keen for the Royal Family to not be further damaged by negative Diana-related publicity, and fears she was about to announce she was pregnant to her lover, as well as an orchestrated plot by unidentified MI6 officers.
On April 7, 2008 a jury returned a verdict of “unlawful killing” in the accident caused in part by the paparazzi pursuing her car and negligent driving by their driver Henri Paul.
This article originally appeared on News.com.au.