Inquiry told impossible to say if Diana pregnant

updated 8:26 p.m. ET Oct. 3, 2007

LONDON - The coroner conducting the inquest into the death of Princess Diana said Wednesday the inquiry is unlikely to reach a scientific conclusion on whether she was pregnant at the time she died — a possibility that is key to the allegation she was murdered.

Lord Justice Scott Baker, on his second day of laying out the background of the death of the princess and her companion Dodi Fayed on Aug. 31, 1997, said Diana had not given any indication to her doctor, family, friends or associates that she was pregnant.

The jury, made up of six women and five men, has been told to expect up to six months of wide-ranging testimony before making up their minds on whether it was an accident or murder.

Fayed's father, Mohammed al Fayed, has alleged that Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth II's husband, directed British secret service agents in a conspiracy to murder the couple — in part because she was carrying Fayed's child.

Baker told jurors that no pregnancy tests were conducted on the princess's body although two British pathologists concluded there were no visible signs of a pregnancy. However, at an early stage of a pregnancy there might be no visible signs, he added.

"It is likely pregnancy is not a matter that can be proved one way or the other in scientific terms," Baker said.

Illegally embalmed?
Baker also spoke of al Fayed's claims that the princess's body was illegally embalmed in Paris to cover up the pregnancy.

Baker noted that none of Diana's relatives authorized the embalming, as one should have done, but it was approved by a Paris police official and British officials.

Baker also discussed al Fayed's claim that his son had purchased an engagement ring, saying that there is conflicting evidence about the purchase and the intention behind it. He quoted al Fayed's spokesman, Michael Cole, as once saying: "What the ring meant we shall probably never know."

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