Coroner’s Jury Blames Driver, Paparazzi in Death of Princess Di

A coroner’s jury has ruled that paparazzi and the driver of a car that tried to escape them share the blame for the car crash that caused the death of Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed.

The driver, Henri Paul, also died in the 1997 crash. The jury heard evidence that Paul had been drinking and exceeding the speed limit, the Press Association reports. Jurors also found that the photographers and their drivers were racing with Paul’s car and drove too close to the vehicle. Neither Diana nor Fayed were wearing seat belts, a fact that contributed to their deaths, the jurors said.

The jurors returned joint verdicts of gross negligence manslaughter, AFP reports. The story says coroner, Judge Scott Baker, rejected assertions that a conspiracy played a role in the deaths, saying there was “not a shred of evidence” to support the theory.