Bizarre new look of the man ‘whose car clipped Di’s before death crash’
... and he’s STILL refusing to tell police what really happened
HE is the man who may hold vital clues to the Paris car crash that claimed the life of Princess Diana.
Yet 20 years on, Le Van Thanh – who has undergone an astonishing transformation into a prize-winning bodybuilder – is still refusing to talk about what happened on the night of the tragedy.
The 42-year-old owned a white Fiat Uno identical to the one that struck Diana’s Mercedes moments before the smash in the Alma tunnel. In 2006 his own father claimed that Mr Thanh had resprayed his car red hours after the accident.
Mr Thanh is in a stand-off with the former head of Scotland Yard who led a three-year inquiry into Diana’s death. Ex-Metropolitan Police Commissioner Lord Stevens has twice written to him in the past year urging him to tell what he knows.
The Parisian taxi driver’s refusal has been a major disappointment for Lord Stevens, who hoped his testimony might help dispel lingering conspiracy theories.
Details of the impasse are revealed by Lord Stevens, speaking exclusively today to the Daily Mail, who states publicly for the first time that he believes Mr Thanh was the driver of the other vehicle involved in the crash.
And he says an appalling blunder by the French authorities fuelled rumours about the accident that killed Diana, her companion Dodi Fayed and his heavy drinking driver Henri Paul.
Mr Thanh has been a keen bodybuilder and keep-fit fanatic for more than a decade. The muscleman trains regularly at a central Paris fitness club, where he is a popular figure, and in the past year has competed successfully in regional and national championships for bodybuilding.
Conspiracy theorists have long argued that the Fiat Uno deliberately collided with the Mercedes to cause the crash that killed Diana.
They claim the Fiat was used by an assassin to force the Mercedes into the Alma tunnel, where a dazzling flash was used to blind the driver, Mr Paul, and make him lose control of the vehicle.
Eleven years ago an exhaustive inquiry by Lord Stevens demolished claims Diana and Dodi were killed in an Establishment conspiracy – but far-fetched allegations about the case still flourish.
To try to eradicate the myths, the ex-Yard chief has twice contacted Mr Thanh in the past year.
But he is adamant he will not speak, insisting through his solicitor he had nothing to do with the crash.
Lord Stevens says he believes that whoever was driving the Fiat fears they could be prosecuted for leaving the scene of an accident.
Mr Thanh’s stance has dealt a significant blow to Lord Stevens’ hopes of producing an updated version of his Operation Paget report into the deaths of Diana, Dodi and Mr Paul.
His £3.6million dossier published in 2006 said there was no evidence any member of the Royal Family, or the British or French secret services, conspired to murder her.
The 2008 inquest concluded they had been unlawfully killed by a combination of the driving of Mr Paul, who was under the influence of alcohol, and paparazzi photographers pursuing them in vehicles.
Mr Thanh refused to attend the inquest and was interviewed about the crash only by French police, in the presence of a Scotland Yard officer. In a statement given to the inquest, he denied being the driver of the Fiat who fled the scene.
But Mr Thanh, who was 22 at the time of the crash, is known to have been driving in central Paris on the night in question, the paint on his car matched traces found on the Mercedes and he owned a rottweiler, similar to a ‘large dog’ witnesses saw in the back of the Fiat.
Lord Stevens said: ‘We could not interview him before the inquest because the French authorities would not allow us to do so. Their reasoning was that he had been interviewed and ruled out.’
He said Mr Thanh – whom he did not name in his Paget report – should not have been dismissed as a witness so speedily.
Lord Stevens told the Mail: ‘What we have said to Mr Thanh is, “We believe you were the driver of the Fiat. Talk us through what happened”.
‘We don’t blame him for the accident. My Paget report said that a Fiat Uno was involved but was not the cause of the crash. We are still trying to interview him.’
Sources said delays in identifying Mr Thanh as the likely driver, together with errors by the French authorities who examined Mr Paul’s body, fuelled conspiracy theories. A sample of Mr Paul’s blood was taken from the chest cavity, instead of the heart or groin, and gave vastly inflated carbon monoxide readings. This prompted wild claims the blood samples had been switched and that the readings were not taken from Mr Paul’s body.
Lord Stevens said: ‘It was a very, very serious mistake. It took a long time to get an admission from the people who had taken a sample of blood from the body that it had not been taken from the heart.
‘Once we had sorted that out we were able to put that particular conspiracy theory to bed.’
Contacted by the Daily Mail, Mr Thanh declined to comment. His lawyer did not respond to a series of questions from the Mail.
‘We believe he was the driver’