Princess Diana's chauffeur taunted paparazzi and showed tell-tale signs of being an alcoholic, an inquest into her death was told on Monday.
Stephane Darmon, who was riding a motorcycle for paparazzi pursuing Diana on the night she died in August, 1997, said of her chauffeur Henri Paul: "He was playing a game with the photographers."
"He seemed to be very joyful," Darmon said.
Major investigations by French and British police have concluded the deaths of Diana and her lover Dodi al-Fayed were caused by an inebriated Paul who was driving too fast.
"On a very personal note, I've got to say, my father was an alcoholic. When I saw Mr Paul, he reminded me of my father, his eyes, the way he acted, that's what I thought," Darmon told jurors by videolink from Paris.
"Paul was very jolly and smiling. He was saying that Lady Di will be arriving in a quarter of an hour, in 10 minutes, trying to create a certain pressure, an atmosphere of anticipation. I had the impression he wanted to be centre stage," Darmon said.
Diana, 36, al-Fayed, 42, and Paul died in the early hours of August 31 after their limousine crashed in a Paris road tunnel as they sped away from the Ritz hotel, pursued by paparazzi.
Dodi's father Mohamed al-Fayed says that the couple were engaged and that Diana was pregnant. ( Reuters )