DIANA’S BEDROOM WAS BEING BUGGED

Mr Harding believed it might have been a device detecting speech. But when he went back a day or so later, there was no trace of the device.

The jury also heard that the Princess, who dispensed with police protection from December 1993 because she feared detectives were spying on her, was convinced that a British security services team was monitoring her.

On October 18, 1994, she met Deputy Assistant Commissioner David Meynell, the then head of Scotland Yard’s royal protection department, to voice her concerns.

The jury was read extracts of his record of the meeting in which Diana said friends had told her that five people from an unnamed organisation had been assigned to keep track of her every move.

Diana also said that the well-placed friends, whom she could not name because they would lose their jobs, had told her the same organisation carried out the same task in Parliament.

Michael Mansfield, QC for Dodi’s father Mohamed Al Fayed, told the court: “What I want to suggest is she is, without naming them, suggesting that the security services have been assigned this task and that’s she’s been told.”

At the same meeting Diana told Mr Meynell, who is now retired, that she had set four traps to establish that her phone was being bugged. She was also sure that a tracking device had been placed on her car.

“Even when no one knows where I’m going in my car, there are people waiting for me at the other end,” she said.

In court, Chief Superintendent Colin Haywood-Trimming, head of Charles and Diana’s police protection team, was asked what happened as a result of the fears the Princess had expressed.

He was met with incredulity from Mr Mansfield when he admitted he had no idea what actions were taken to deal with Diana’s complaints.

Diana’s relationship with another protection officer, Barry Mannakee – named in court as one of Diana’s seven lovers – was also aired at the hearing.

The inquest had previously heard that the Princess believed Sgt Mannakee, who died in a motorbike accident in 1987, had been “bumped off” because of their relationship.

All sides, however, now accept that there was nothing suspicious about his death.

Under pressure, Mr Haywood-Trimming confirmed it was his decision to move Sgt Mannakee to another post in 1986 because the handsome detective had got too close to Diana.

He said: “I  recognised that his relationship with the Princess of Wales was inappropriate because he had become over-familiar.”

The inquest, which is examining claims that Diana and Dodi were murdered by British spies on the orders of Prince Philip, is expected to last six months. It will resume tomorrow.