The coroner overseeing the inquest into the death of the Princess has appealed against a court ruling that threatens to restrict his power to use evidence from photographers who were at the scene of the fatal crash.

Lord Justice Scott Baker’s lawyer told the Court of Appeal that last week’s decision challenging the validity of accepting evidence from photographers who refused to be cross-examined risked seriously disrupting current and future inquests into overseas deaths.

Ian Burnett, QC, for the coroner, said that banning the use of documentary or taped evidence from witnesses who refused and could not be compelled to attend inquests would have “illogical consequences”.

It would make coroners’ courts subject to stricter rules than applied in the civil or criminal courts and could be “very disruptive indeed”, Mr Burnett said.

Lord Scott Baker is appealing after the High Court allowed a judicial review into his decision to admit pre-recorded evidence from members of the paparazzi.

All but one of the photographers who were in or around the Pont de l’Alma Tunnel in Paris on August 31, 1997 have refused to attend or address the inquest, even by a video link from France. Since the coroner cannot force them to attend the hearing and the French Government has refused to intervene Lord Scott Baker decided their evidence could be read out in court.

But lawyers for the parents of Henri Paul, the Princess’s driver — supported by the Paris Ritz Hotel, which is owned by Mohamed Al Fayed — objected on the grounds that reading the statements without witnesses to cross-examine would deny them the chance to challenge the evidence.

They said the coroner’s decision was against rule 37 of the 1984 Coroners’ Rules, which allows such documentary evidence to be admitted only where it is “unlikely to be disputed” and not objected to by the official “interested persons” in the case.

Last week two High Court judges sided with the Pails ruling that such evidence could only be admitted if a "witness" was called — although they did not specify that this must necessarily be the photographers themselves.

In a strongly-worded judgment, Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Aikens questioned the “fitness for purpose” of the Coroners' Rules and said the issue of reluctant uncooperative witnesses should have been addressed before the inquest got under way.

They add that the case underlined the need for “urgent” reform of the system.

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