Disgraced interviewer Martin Bashir will not be prosecuted for tricking Princess Diana into her bombshell 1995 interview with the BBC, British police announced this week.
London’s Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) said in a statement Wednesday that “specialist detectives” had looked closely at the damning Lord Dyson report into the case, which ruled in May that Bashir’s BBC crew used “deceitful behavior” to land the explosive tell-all.
The squad “looked carefully at the law, once again obtaining independent legal advice from Treasury Counsel as well as consulting the Crown Prosecution Service,” the force said.
However, “the MPS has not identified evidence of activity that constituted a criminal offense,” the Met said.
“The Metropolitan Police Service determined it was not appropriate to begin a criminal investigation,” the force said, confirming that it “will therefore be taking no further action.”
Bashir used fake bank documents and lied about Lady Di being bugged by security services to get the 1995 interview that was watched by more than 23 million people.
It proved to be the biggest blow to the monarchy in years as Diana discussed how “there were three of us in this marriage,” referring to husband Prince Charles and his now-wife, Camilla Parker-Bowles.
Diana’s sons, Princes William and Harry, and her brother, Charles Spencer, have all insisted that the fallout from the interview played a part in leading to her death in a Paris car crash in August 1997.
Bashir stepped down from his role as BBC religion editor hours before the Dyson report was published, citing ill health.
“I never wanted to harm Diana in any way and I don’t believe we did,” Bashir later told the Sunday Times of London. “My family and I loved her.”
The BBC has issued what it described as a “full and unconditional apology” for the way the interview was obtained.
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