Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
DIANA TV ROW FILES ‘STOLEN’
Graphic designer’s home ‘was targeted’
EVIDENCE in the Princess Diana Panorama interview row was stolen in a burglary, it has been claimed.
Two floppy disks containing “dangerous evidence” were said to have been taken from the home of Matt Wiessler, a graphic designer who mocked up bank statements on behalf of BBC reporter Martin Bashir.
The burglary is alleged to have happened on the night of the Panorama Christmas party in December 1995, soon after Mr Wiessler had turned whistleblower.
Charles Spencer, the late Princess of Wales’s brother, has accused Bashir of spinning a “web of deceit” to clinch his sensational scoop.
The Earl says the faked bank statements helped convince him two palace staff were being paid by security services for information on Diana.
He has said: “If it were not for me seeing these statements, I would not have i ntroduced Bashir to my sister.”
On the night of the burglary, Mr Wiessler was reportedly invited out for a pre-party drink. But a source told the Daily Mail: “He sat there alone, and no one showed up... somebody had wanted to be sure he wasn’t at home.”
The next morning, Mr Wiessler claims he discovered two floppy disks had been stolen from his London home – but nothing else had been taken.
Th e g ra p h i c d e si g n e r is understood to have previously expressed concern about his is role in helping Bashir fake the documents and says he had flagged concerns to BBC managers.
There have been claims several staff in the BBC current affairs department were also hit by burglaries following Diana’s explosive confessions.
This week, Earl Spencer further accused the corporation of “sheer dishonesty”.
He also demanded a ful l apology over its methods in obtainingg obtaining the interview with his sister. The BBC has apologised for the faked statements but said a note from the princess, which has since gone missing, states she did not see them.
It also said that Mr Bashir was too ill with Covid-19 to be contacted.
Diana’s revealing Panorama chat attracted 23 million television viewers and was hailed as the greatest tell-all scoop of the 20th century.
Meanwhile, former TV executive Stewart Purvis has said Diana told him i n the 1980s that she wanted to do a Panorama interview.
Speaking on Radio 4’s s Today, he said: “When I heard a decade l later ater that sh e’d finally appeared on Panorama, I suppose, in a sense, it i t was wa s a mission accomplished.”