Henri Paul was a 'maniac' driver

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Dodi Al Fayed's driver Henri Paul was a "maniac" behind the wheel, says a woman who was convinced she would die from his "reckless" driving through Paris.

Holistic healer Myriah Daniels said during one journey she had believed Mr Paul would overturn the car.

He was "driving crazily and I still don't understand what we were trying to outrun", she told the inquest into Mr Al Fayed's and Princess Diana's deaths.

The princess, Mr Al Fayed and Mr Paul died on a separate journey in 1997.

Ms Daniels was among staff on a yacht where Princess Diana holidayed with Mr Al Fayed in August 1997, days before they died.

Ms Daniels described her journey with Mr Paul, when Mr Al Fayed was in another vehicle.

'Minister of spiritualism'

"Henri Paul almost killed us, honest to God. He was driving way too fast and recklessly and I was saying 'slow down, slow down', but nobody's listening and nobody's doing anything," she told the London inquest.

Diana and Dodi Al Fayed holidayed on his yacht during summer 1997

"I'm like 'We're all going to get killed, Dodi's people all get killed'.

"We went down the freeway and he was still driving crazily and I still don't understand what we were trying to outrun - I couldn't see any motorcycles."

Richard Keen QC, for Mr Paul's parents, asked Ms Daniels: "Have you ever been accused of elaboration or exaggeration?"

"No," she replied.

Referring to a statement she had signed two years ago as "The Reverend Daniels", Mr Keen asked who had given her the title.

Ms Daniels said she was "a minister of natural spiritualism of the real world", and when asked if she gave herself the title, she said: "I think basically life gave me the title."

Ms Daniels also told the jury how Mr Al Fayed and Diana ignored security measures during their Mediterranean holiday by leaving the yacht without bodyguards.

'God is calling'

She said she had spoken to Mr Al Fayed about security, which she described as "overburdening" for just two bodyguards.

"I would say to Dodi: 'You cannot take off without your bodyguards. They are here to look after Diana'.

"He looked at me as if to say that he did not understand that there could be any danger."

Ms Daniels also said that when Mr Al Fayed's father Mohamed called the yacht "Diana would say 'God is calling' and they would giggle".

Jonathan Hough, for the coroner, noted: "That was evidently something of a joke."