The procedures followed by French medical examiners to determine whether the driver in the crash that killed Princess Diana was drunk had "inconsistencies", the inquest into her death was told today.
Prof Robert Forrest
Important blood samples taken from Henri Paul were thought to have come from his heart but were later discovered to have been removed from his chest cavity, a less reliable source for testing.
Prof Robert Forrest, a retired consultant in clinical chemistry and forensic toxicology, has compiled his own study after examining the medical reports relating to Mr Paul, acting head of security at the Ritz Hotel in Paris.
There was also confusion over when the blood samples were collected from the driver, who was also killed in the crash, and the body numbering for Mr Paul and Dodi Fayed, Diana's partner, was mixed up at one stage, the inquest jury was told.
Prof Forrest told the inquest: "Bottom line is, the interpretation of the samples is only as good as the samples themselves.
"It doesn't matter how sophisticated the analysis is, if you don't have the good material to work with you have to qualify the interpretation of the data your laboratory generates."
The jury was told that a French document showed that five samples of blood were taken at the Institute of Forensic Medicine (IFM) in Paris during Mr Paul's autopsy, held a few hours after the crash on August 31st, 1997.
But pathologist Prof Dominique Lecomte has said she only took three during the postmortem and that two more were collected later by a colleague a few days later. Commenting on this Prof Forrest said: "There are unresolved incompatibilities - inconsistencies I should say."
A French police officer who was at the IFM at the time of the autopsy said there was a mix-up with the numbers given to the bodies of Mr Fayed and Mr Paul, the jury was told.
PA