Michael Burgess saw the broken body of Diana, Princess of Wales, on the day she died. He was in the air-conditioned autopsy room as a pathologist examined Diana's corpse, hours after the car crash that had killed her. Six years later, Mr Burgess is the coroner poised to open inquests into the deaths of Diana and her companion, Dodi Fayed.

The senior member of the Royal family who Princess Diana believed was plotting to kill her in a car crash has been named.

Diana's allegation was made in a letter written 10 months before she died in a Paris car crash in 1997, and was included in a book by her former butler Paul Burrell last year.

Penguin, the book's publishers, and the Daily Mirror, which serialised A Royal Duty, blanked out the name at the time. The relevant passage read: "** ******* is planning 'an accident' in my car, brake failure and serious head injury..."

But the Daily Mirror has revealed what it claims is the identity of the person named by Diana in the letter. The newspaper said Mr Burrell is prepared to hand over the letter to Royal coroner Michael Burgess, who is opening inquests into the deaths of Diana and Dodi Fayed.

The newspaper said it had "decided to publish the blanked out name because it will inevitably appear in the public domain".

The inquests are the first official public hearings in Britain into the deaths of the couple in the Pont d'Alma underpass in Paris. They are being formally opened at separate venues today before being adjourned. The full hearings are not expected to take place for several months.

It is hoped the inquests could eventually shed light on the flurry of conspiracy theories surrounding the events of August 31, 1997. Speculation that the couple were murdered by MI6 has circulated for years with Dodi's father, Mohammed al Fayed, insisting they were assassinated by the British secret service.

Conspiracy theories have grown up around the dead Princess like the thorns around Sleeping Beauty's castle, and it remains to be seen whether the memory of what he saw late on 31 August 2025 will inspire Mr Burgess to hack through them.

Coroners are not allowed to lay blame, but one of the few people who saw Diana's injuries now has a unique opportunity to draw up a definitive statement about her death. Presiding over the first British public hearings into the tragedy, he has access to all 6,000 pages of evidence uncovered by French investigators and the power to compel British witnesses to attend. He can also ask French doctors, the paparazzi or anyone else to take the stand - but the Coroner of the Queen's Household may prefer to not to call anybody. London Independent Story on Diana