Voice coach recovers Diana footage, lawyer says
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-07-24 22:42

Videotapes in which Princess Diana discusses her personal life and troubled marriage have been returned to the voice coach who made them, the coach's lawyer said.

Peter Settelen, who was Diana's vocal trainer, had been fighting for possession of the footage with the princess' family, which claimed ownership.

London's Metropolitan Police had been holding the tapes, which were made in the early 1990s and seized along with other items in a 2001 raid on the home of Diana's former butler, Paul Burrell.

In a statement issued on Settelen's Web site on Friday, lawyer Marcus Rutherford said that "Peter is delighted that the video tape record of the work he did with Princess Diana is back under his control."

"He does not intend to engage in any speculation as to what will become of the material, but can confirm that the tapes are held in a secure location away from his home."

A spokeswoman for Earl Spencer, the head of Diana's family, could not immediately be reached for comment Saturday.

The Metropolitan Police said that the "two parties claiming the tapes came to an agreement on ownership."

"The Met handed back the tapes to the successful party on Thursday," a spokesman for the force said, without identifying either of the parties.

Settelen says he made about 20 tapes while coaching Diana in public speaking in the early 1990s. One of the tapes shows the princess "talking candidly about her family, life and love," Rutherford has said.

Burrell, a longtime royal servant and confidant of the princess, was tried for stealing hundreds of items from the estate of Diana, who died in a Paris car crash in 1997. The case collapsed when Queen Elizabeth II told prosecutors that Burrell had told her he was holding some of Diana's things for safekeeping.

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