Memorial fund set up in memory of Princess Diana hijacked by conspiracy theorists

The name of the foundation set up to continue Princess Diana’s humanitarian work has been hijacked by a group of ghoulish conspiracy theorists.

Sick individuals have set up a page which appears to be the official The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund website.

They have filled it with hurtful claims about her death and pictures of the mangled wreckage of the car in which she lay fatally injured.

There are even published theories propagated by former BBC sports presenter David Icke, who believes the world is controlled by a secret society of extraterrestrial reptilian humanoids.

The Fund is no longer operational and never had an online presence. Last night, Palace aides dismissed it as a ‘spoof’ and said they would be taking urgent action to get it removed from the internet.

The site is the first page on Google to which anyone searching for information on the Diana Fund will be directed.

Established within days of her death in 1997, the Fund raised more than £100 million for good causes, with much of the money donated by her admirers. Wound up in 2012, it was taken over by The Royal Foundation, the charity run by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and until earlier this year, by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

Established within days of her death in 1997, the Fund raised more than £100 million for good causes, with much of the money donated by her admirers

At the time, William and Harry vowed to ‘ensure both the Fund’s name is safeguarded and any future income donated… is able to be spent on charitable causes’.

Diana died in Paris after the Mercedes in which she was being driven at high speed crashed into a pillar in a tunnel near the Alma Bridge. Her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, 42, son of former Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed, and driver Henri Paul, died at the scene. Her bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones survived. In April 2008, the jury at an inquest at the Royal Courts of Justice in London returned verdicts of unlawful killing for both the Princess and Dodi – the equivalent of manslaughter in a criminal court.

They said that the paparazzi who pursued the Princess’s car, and driver Mr Paul, were both to blame for the fatal crash because of their gross negligence.

The jury also concluded that the couple might have lived had they worn seatbelts. Despite the verdicts, conspiracy theories about the tragedy have continued to swirl.

That they have now found their way on to what appears to be the Fund’s website is likely to greatly upset the Royal Family.