Paul Burrell's humiliation at the Princess Diana inquest

Paul Burrell, the ex-butler to Diana Princess of Wales has made a fortune from being the ex-butler to Diana Princess of Wales.

But this month he has had to give evidence under oath to the inquest into Diana's death - and some of the evidence he has given has contradicted his earlier claims, made in his well-publicised books but not under oath.

Burrell had previously claimed that Queen Elizabeth had warned him of "dark forces" at work in Britain. Now who could the Queen have had in mind? MI5, MI6?

Burrell made the claim in his book, A Royal Duty. Yet under oath Burrell admitted that "the Queen never mentioned dark forces". He told Michael Mansfield QC at the inquest that this was "an error".

Burrell had ended his book with the claim that there was one big secret left, something which he could never reveal, something which would forever remain "between the princess and the butler".

But the Assistant Deputy Coroner, Lord Justice Scott Baker, wanted the secret to be disclosed. He ordered Burrell to go back to his home in Cheshire, retrieve the papers which contained this "final secret" and show it to him the next day in court.

He raced back up the motorway to his Cheshire home and then a tired Paul Burrell raced back down again to London.

So what was this "final secret"? Was she pregnant? The name of the father of her sons? No - Diana wanted to live abroad, preferably in America. Bah! We knew that all along.

Burrell left the inquest with any of his remaining reputation somewhat reduced. But the taxpayer will continue to foot the bill for the inquest as it runs into its fifth month. Pity the poor jurors having to sit through all this just to tell Lord Justice Scott Baker at the end of it all that Diana died in a *** driven by a ***** that ******* in *****. I'd better not fill in the blanks. I don't want to be in contempt of court.