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Diana's brother rejects 'lies'
LONDON, England -- The embarrassing public revelations following the collapse of the trial of Princess Diana's butler continues as her brother condemned "yet more hurtful lies." In his first public statement since Paul Burrell sold his story to a national tabloid newspaper, Earl Spencer condemned allegations that a rift with the royal family prompted him to remove the Royal standard from Diana's coffin and replace it with a Spencer flag. In a statement released on Friday, he said: "The Queen's standard was removed as part of the ceremony by her own officer in a dignified and pre-agreed manner. Mr. Burrell's allegations are yet more hurtful lies." Burrell -- whom Diana is credited as describing as her "rock" -- told the Daily Mirror that the standard had been removed in an "inappropriate and disrespectful" manner. He says that on the day of her funeral, her brother switched the coffin's cover in front of the Prince of Wales, Prince William and Prince Harry, and then said: "She is a Spencer now." Burrell told the newspaper: "I knew it was not what Diana would have wanted. "With that act, her brother was depriving the princess of her proper status in life -- a status of which she was proud. "It seemed it had more to do with his Spencer vs Windsor war than doing what Diana would have wanted. "After his anti-monarchy speech from the pulpit at Westminster Abbey, this was the Earl's final insult at the worst of times. It was inappropriate and disrespectful." Burrell's comments were the second attack on the Spencer family in 24 hours. On Thursday, he accused Earl Spencer of being a "hypocrite" and said his "stomach churned" as he listened to the Earl's eulogy at Diana's 1997 funeral in Westminster Abbey. And in a clear reference to Earl Spencer's decision to charge the public to visit Diana's childhood home at Althorp, near Northampton, England, where she is buried in a grave on an island in a lake, he added: "And I for one would never have paraded her life before a museum and charged £10.50 ($16.5) a time." Burrell had been accused of stealing from the princess but his trial at the Old Bailey, in London, collapsed last week ago after prosecuting lawyers discovered that the queen knew he was keeping items belonging to the princess. In the days since the trial collapsed, Burrell has said the queen warned him his close relationship with Princess Diana could put him in danger and that the two women wrote to each other right up until the princess's death. He also told how he smuggled Diana's lovers into Kensington Palace in his car boot, that the princess even wanted to marry one of them -- heart surgeon Hasnat Khan -- and that she would drive around Paddington station giving money to prostitutes. Gay rape denialIn a separate development, on Friday the Prince of Wales's office gave the first detailed response to the allegation during the trial that Princess Diana had been keeping a cassette tape locked in a chest which is understood to have been a secret recording she made of a former royal employee who alleged male rape against an aide to her former husband. A palace statement said the rape accusation was "completely denied." A spokeswoman told the Press Association: "An incident is alleged to have taken place in 1989 and the allegation resurfaced for the first time in 1996, seven years later. "The matter was investigated internally but not reported to the police because no evidence was forthcoming and the person concerned did not want to pursue the matter further. "The allegation resurfaced in 2001 and was subject to a full police investigation between October 2001 and February 2002. "During this process, not only the allegation but also the events themselves were completely denied with contemporary evidence provided in support of the denial. "After a thorough review by the police, the Crown Prosecution Service and the Director of Public Prosecutions, the investigation was confirmed as completed and no proceedings were brought." She added: "It has been suggested that the same allegation was secretly recorded in 1996. At no stage have the police produced any such tape or any such witnesses who have heard the tape and we have no evidence of the existence of any such tape."
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