Princess Diana's brother says Martin Bashir 'groomed' him to get Panorama interview

Earl Spencer wants the police to investigate Martin Bashir over allegations that the latter groomed him to get to his sister Princess Diana.

The disgraced journalist had acquired his exclusive 1995 Panorama interview with the late princess illegally. He showed her brother forged bank statements that suggested her staff were paid to spy and tell on her. He also lied and said that Prince Charles had impregnated Prince William and Prince Harry's nanny and she aborted the baby.

The BBC have since apologised to the brothers and to their former nanny, Tiggy Legge-Bourke, for the "false and malicious" allegations Bashir made. She also received around £200,000 in damages.

However, Earl Spencer has urged the Metropolitan Police to "reconsider their responsibilities" and open an investigation into the scandal. The force had said that it had "not identified evidence of activity that constituted a criminal offence and will therefore be taking no further action."

In his piece for the Mail on Sunday, he wrote, "The question I am repeatedly asked by concerned members of the public, furious at what my sister was put through, is why have the police not prosecuted those involved for what various senior lawyers have told me is clearly unlawful and criminal behaviour?"

The 58-year-old added, "I hope the police will reconsider their responsibilities in this matter. Only they have the power to get to the bottom of this terrible scandal, which led Diana to feel even more exposed and alone, and deceived her into forgoing those who cared for her and would have protected her."

The earl admitted that he felt that he was "groomed" by Bashir to get close to Princess Diana. He wrote, "I was told of underhand payments, of spying, and of appalling deception. But, all along I was the one being deceived in order for Mr. Bashir to get to my late sister."

Earl Spencer even linked Bashir's interview to Princess Diana's death. The lies she was told by the BBC before the interview allegedly "ensured that she came into that Panorama interview with a very skewed and false view of the situation she was in, having been lied to repeatedly." This reportedly "led to her speaking in a way that set her on a course where she was without due protection when she needed it most." He insisted that "all those responsible must be held to account."