Martin Bashir claims Princess Diana gave him key information for fake bank statements he used to gain her brother Earl Spencer’s trust and secure 1995 Panorama interview, inquiry is told
- Martin Bashir claimed Diana gave information contained in fake bank statements
- Ex-BBC journalist is accused of using them to secure 1995 Panorama interview
- Diana went on to make bombshell claims in interview about marriage to Charles
- Hoax statements are at heart of Lord Dyson’s inquiry into Bashir’s methods
Martin Bashir reportedly told an inquiry that Princess Diana gave him key information contained in fake bank statements which he used to gain her brother Earl Spencer’s trust and secure his famous 1995 Panorama interview.
The hoax bank statements are at the heart of an inquiry which was led by retired judge Lord Dyson into the conduct of former BBC religion editor Bashir in securing his world exclusive interview with the princess.
The statements showed fake payments from a newspaper and from an offshore company totalling £10,500 going into a bank account of a company owned by Earl Spencer’s former head of security, Alan Waller.
Bashir is accused of using them to gain Earl Spencer’s trust and persuade him to introduce him to his sister, who went on to make bombshell claims in the subsequent interview about her marriage to Prince Charles.
Diana, Princess of Wales, during her interview with Martin Bashir for the BBC in 1995
Martin Bashir who is stepping down as the BBC’s religion editor on the grounds of ill-health
In April 1996, Matt Wiessler, the graphics designer who mocked up the bank statements on Bashir’s orders, was made a scapegoat and sacked.
The report by Lord Dyson, former Master of the Rolls, is due to be published this week, and is expected to contain heavy criticism of Bashir, 58.
Bashir resigned as the BBC’s religion editor on grounds of ill-health, having suffered from coronavirus and undergone a quadruple heart bypass.
The Telegraph reports that Bashir defended the use of the mocked-up statements by insisting he only did it after being given the information by the princess.
He allegedly told Lord Dyson that Diana was the source of the claims that payments were being made into the account of Earl Spencer’s ex-head of security. She later withdrew claims about the payments, Bashir is said to have alleged.
Waller has denied ever receiving the payments and told the Telegraph last year: ‘This man [Bashir] has become a multi-millionaire by using me. I am the fall guy.
Bashir is accused of using the fake bank statements to gain Earl Spencer’s trust
Lord Dyson is investigating whether the statements and other methods deployed by Bashir were instrumental in securing the 1995 interview
‘Bashir has effectively stolen my identity; stolen my banking information and then used it to frame me as the fall guy. That is exactly what he has done. He has framed me thinking I would never find out. It has had a devastating effect on me.’
The former BBC religion editor is also understood to have told the retired judge that he mocked up the statements because it was common for Panorama journalists to do so at the time. He allegedly said they were useful to keep in a file for any future probe by the broadcaster’s flagship news programme.
It is unlikely that all the information came from Diana, as one of the companies which allegedly made payments to Waller was an offshore business that Bashir became familiar with following a Panorama investigation.
Lord Dyson is investigating whether the statements and other methods deployed by Bashir were instrumental in securing the 1995 interview, in which Diana rocked the Royal Family by saying ‘there were three of us in this marriage’ – a reference to Camilla Parker-Bowles, who became the Duchess of Cornwall.
Diana divorced Prince Charles the following summer and died in Paris in 1997.
Lord Dyson has interviewed all the key players, including Lord Hall, who was head of news at the time and went on to become director-general until he stood down in August last year. He was also given access to BBC archives.