Images of Dianas last smile screened in court

Heartrending images of Princess Diana smiling for the last time were screened for the jury hearing at the inquest into her death.

London, Oct 4 : Heartrending images of Princess Diana smiling for the last time were screened for the jury hearing at the inquest into her death.

The previously unreleased footage was captured by security cameras in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Paris on Aug. 30, 1997, just hours before Diana and boyfriend Dodi Fayed commenced their final journey.

In one of the video sequences, Diana is shown escorted across the marble floor of the Ritz lobby by Dodi after arriving at the rear entrance of the hotel in the Rue Cambon.

The 36-year-old princess, wearing casual a light gray pants suit with her sunglasses pushed on top of her head, looked comfortable and happy.

At one point, she looks up at the security camera and flashes the smile, indicating the state of both, her happiness as well as her relationship with Dodi.

The video, assembled from 43 hotel cameras, also shows paparazzi gathering outside the Ritz-Carlton.

A horde of photographers was chasing the couple when their car slammed into a tunnel wall, killing Diana, Fayed and driver Henri Paul.

Earlier in the inquest, the coroner told the 11-member jury they would hear "intimate" details of the princess's life as part of an exhaustive look at the last hours of her life.

Lord Justice Scott Baker opened Day 2 of the inquest in London's High Court by telling jurors that Diana was taking contraceptive pills at the time of her death - making it highly unlikely she was pregnant.

Though Baker said it was probably not possible to prove or disprove the pregnancy claims scientifically, he said the question was relevant because it "is said to have provided the motive or part of the motive for killing Diana.

ANI