PA One of Princess Diana’s former bodyguards has revealed that he believes her death was completely avoidable and blames her new security team for her death.
Ken Wharfe helped to protect Diana for six years but retired from service in 1993, four years before she died in a car crash in a while driving through the Pont de l’Alma road tunnel in Paris, France, The Sun reports.
In his recently updated memoirs Wharfe claims that the years that he spent with Diana meant he knew exactly how to protect her, while her latest security team had only been with her for six weeks and this inexperience killed her.
PA He wrote:
So, on behalf of all the professional men and women of the Met’s protection squad, let me say that neither Rees-Jones nor any of the other bodyguards who attended Diana in the two months preceding her death were from our department.
I am still angry beyond words that this team of ‘bodyguards’ let her come to harm. Our department had the care of her personal safety for some 15 years: Fayed’s crew were in charge of her security for just eight weeks before she died.
One specific target for his vitriol is Trevor Rees-Jones – a guard who survived the crash – who Wharfe believes wasn’t given adequate training in how to protect a royal.
PAHe blames the former soldier for being ‘overawed’ by Diana and doing things to please her, which conflicted with his duty in protecting the princess.
Wharfe also seems to consider himself somewhat to blame for the crash as well, debating whether he was right to retire from Diana’s service.
WikimediaHe wrote:
There have been times, since I left Diana’s side in 1993, when I have questioned whether I was right to resign. This awful moment was the most poignant. The Princess, whom I had guarded for so many years, lay dead in a Paris hospital.
My mind kept returning to the same questions: Could anything have been done to save her? And how could this have happened?
Wharfe also dismissed any lingering conspiracy theories around Diana’s death, saying that she wasn’t the victim of shadowy figures but of her boyfriend’s behaviour and her bodyguard’s mistakes.
More of a concept than a journalist, Tom Percival was forged in the bowels of Salford University from which he emerged grasping a Masters in journalism.
Since then his rise has been described by himself as ‘meteoric’ rising to the esteemed rank of Social Editor at UNILAD as well as working at the BBC, Manchester Evening News, and ITV.
He credits his success to three core techniques, name repetition, personality mirroring, and never breaking off a handshake.