Serge Benhamou - who was following the princess' car taking pictures when it collided into pillar 13 of Paris' d'Alma tunnel on August 31st 1997 - said driver Paul had been behaving very oddly when he was behind the wheel of Diana's car.
Henri Paul drunkenly goaded the paparazzi the night Britain's Princess Diana died, her inquest heard yesterday (10.03.08).
Serge Benhamou - who was following the princess' car taking pictures when it collided into pillar 13 of Paris' d'Alma tunnel on August 31st 1997 - said driver Paul had been behaving very oddly when he was behind the wheel of Diana's car.
He claimed Paul - who also died in the crash along with Diana's lover Dodi Fayed - was cheerful, thumbing his nose at photographers and smiling.
He told the jury at London's High Court in a written statement: "He saw us and laughed. I would add that that man had never behaved like that before. Usually he ignored us.
"All his reactions led me to believe that he had been drinking."
Benhamou - one of the photographers questioned by police after the crash - also admitted he took pictures of the princess dying in the car wreckage.
He said: "I took my shots of the car and the occupants when I was approximately three metres from the scene.
"People told us to move as they did not like us taking photographs. They found it horrible for people to take photographs when other people had been involved in an accident."
He claimed to have been acting on instinct but suffered sleepless nights over his actions.
The original inquest by Lord Stevens had ruled the crash was caused because Paul was over the drink-driving limit and was a tragic accident.
However, Dodi's father Mohamed Al Fayed has always insisted the couple were killed by the British establishment as they were about to announce their engagement and Diana was pregnant.
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