Witty rejoinder
Sir: Being attacked by Mohamed Fayed comes with the territory of attempting to establish evidence of how Princess Diana died on the Fayed watch (Letters, 3 November). He has spoken only two words to me since Diana died and they have both been identical — 'bastard'. I would hope, however, that no Spectator reader would believe the statement of his press officer, Katharine Witty, that I have 'rarely appeared at the inquest'.
I attended all eight day-long preinquest hearings this year. Since the inquests themselves started on 2 October, I have missed only a handful of sessions.
(Of 22 days sitting with the jury present I have been present on 16 occasions.) Witty's former colleagues on Sky News, for whom I now work as the channel's inquests expert, would confirm this. On my few days' absence in October I was writing for The Spectator and the Independent on Sunday. This leads Witty to characterise my empirical quest as a 'fanatical obsession' with criticising her boss, Mohammed. I would describe my work as scrutinising Fayed's self-exculpatory 'conspiracy theories'. Rest assured that if Planet Fayed should ever produce any credible evidence that Prince Philip organised the murder of his grandsons' mother, I will report it.
I have attended more London sittings of the inquest than either Katharine Witty or her boss. When the court was in session in Paris on 9 October, I was in Paris broadcasting live on Sky News from outside the Ritz with Sarah Hughes, Witty's successor as Sky News' royal correspondent. Hovering uninvited behind our camera and appearing to be listening intently was one Ms Witty. Her eyes and ears must both have deceived her if she failed to detect my presence. Or perhaps my suspicion that a full-frontal journalistic lobotomy is a necessary requirement for recruitment to Planet Fayed is correct?
Marlyn Gregory Ballymore, Ireland
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