DAILY MAIL INVESTIGATION, 2005: The Tomlinson Affidavit – A Blue-Print for Murder Sealed Until 2082

London, February 15, 2005 – The Day the Courtroom Went Dark

At 10:47 AM in Court 73 of the Royal Courts of Justice, the fluorescent lights buzzed like trapped hornets as Richard Tomlinson—former MI6 officer, prisoner of conscience, and the Crown’s most inconvenient ghost—leaned into the microphone. His voice, steady but laced with the gravel of exile, delivered a sentence that would echo for decades:

“In 1992, I was shown a document outlining a proposed assassination using a Mercedes S-Class, a tunnel, and a high-intensity strobe. The target was not Diana. But the method… was identical.”

The public gallery gasped. Coroner Lord Justice Scott Baker’s gavel cracked like a gunshot. Within minutes, the press benches were cleared, the live feed cut, and a D-Notice slapped across every British outlet. What remained of Tomlinson’s testimony—delivered in camera, under oath, and transcribed in real time—was sliced to ribbons. The unredacted affidavit, 47 pages of explosive detail, was sealed under Section 3(1)(a) of the Public Records Act 1958: “Prejudicial to national security.” Declassification date: January 1, 2082—a full 85 years after the crash that killed Diana, Dodi Fayed, and Henri Paul.

Now, 20 years after that courtroom blackout, the Daily Mail has obtained fragments of the original 2005 investigation file—leaked by a retired Crown Prosecution Service clerk who died last year. What follows is the closest the public has ever come to the sealed truth.

The 1992 Proposal: Operation “Hawk”

Tomlinson’s affidavit, dated 12 January 2005, begins with a bombshell:

“In late 1992, while posted to the Balkan Desk (UK/E3), I attended a briefing in Room 407, Century House. The presenter was ‘M’, a senior officer in the Controllerate of Technical Operations. The slide deck was titled ‘Non-Lethal Denial – Vehicular’. The scenario: eliminate a high-value target without traceable ballistics.”

The plan was surgical:

Vehicle: Mercedes-Benz S-Class (W140) – “ubiquitous, armored, predictable handling.”
Location: A short, poorly lit urban tunnel with a single exit lane.
Method: A synchronized xenon strobe array (1.2 million candela, 1/50s pulse) mounted on a portable rig, triggered remotely via GSM pager.
Outcome: Driver disorientation → loss of control → impact with fixed object at 60–70 mph.
Plausible Deniability: “Appears as drunk-driving accident. No residue, no entry wound.”

The target? Slobodan Milošević, then President of Serbia, during a rumored 1993 state visit to Paris. The tunnel? Pont de l’Alma—chosen for its diplomatic motorcade route and lack of CCTV in 1992. The document even included a hand-drawn diagram: a black S-Class veering left into pillar 13, with a red “X” marking the strobe position on the service catwalk.

Tomlinson swore he raised ethical concerns. The response? “File it under ‘contingency.’ You’re not paid to have a conscience.”

The Redaction Game: What the Public Never Saw

When Tomlinson testified in 2005, only 11 of 47 pages were entered into the public record. The rest—marked in thick black ink—vanished into a Ministry of Defence vault at Hanslope Park. Here’s what was cut:

Redacted Section
Content (per leaked CPS notes)

Page 7–9
Full technical specs of the strobe rig: 4× Metz 45 CT-1 units, synchronized via Motorola pager code “#777*”.

Page 14
Name of the MI6 armourer who tested the system on a decommissioned S280 at Millbrook Proving Ground, 1993.

Page 19
Handwritten marginalia: “Alma viable. Revisit if HRH becomes liability.” Initials: P.L.

Page 33–35
List of three Paris-based assets trained in “non-lethal denial” – one later reassigned to Bosnia (code: Orion).

Page 41
Post-crash addendum (1997): “Method deployed. Outcome: success. Deniability intact.”

The coroner justified the blackout: “Disclosure would reveal current SIGINT capabilities.” Translation: the strobe tech is still in use.

The Paris Connection: From Blueprint to Blood

Tomlinson never claimed Diana was the original target. But the parallels are chilling:

1992 Proposal
1997 Reality

Mercedes S280
1994 S280, registration 688LTV75

Pont de l’Alma tunnel
Pont de l’Alma, pillar 13

Strobe from catwalk
Fabrice Chassery’s “flash from behind the barrier”

Speed: 65 mph
Impact speed: 65 mph

No seatbelts
Diana, Dodi, Paul unbelted

The leaked file includes a 1997 intercept—routed through GCHQ’s Paris listening post—between two encrypted pagers:

Sender: +33-6-XX-XX-XX Message: “Hawk protocol active. Alma. 00:23.” Recipient: +44-77XX-XX-XX (UK mobile, unregistered)

The recipient number? Traced to a pay-as-you-go SIM purchased in London, August 29, 1997. Burner. Dead end.

The Silencing of Tomlinson

After his testimony, the fallout was swift:

February 2005: Tomlinson’s New Zealand visa revoked.
March 2005: Bank accounts frozen under anti-terror laws.
2006: Arrested in France for “breach of official secrets.” Released after 48 hours—no charges.
2008: Inquest appearance via video link from Australia—audio “malfunctioned” for 22 minutes during strobe discussion.

He now lives in obscurity, reportedly in Italy, under a name that isn’t his.

The Sealed Truth: 2082 or Never?

The affidavit—officially CR-2005-001-TOML—rests in a climate-controlled safe at the National Archives, Kew. Access requires:

Written permission from the Secretary of State for Defence.
A Top Secret STRAP-2 clearance.
A signed undertaking never to publish.

In 2017, Mohamed Al-Fayed’s lawyers attempted a judicial review. Denied. In 2023, Prince Harry’s legal team quietly inquired. Stonewalled.

A Home Office source told the Mail:

“2082 is a courtesy. If the tech’s still active in 2050, they’ll extend it. Some secrets don’t retire.”

The Last Witness

In 2019, a retired Millbrook test driver—speaking on condition of anonymity—confirmed the 1993 trials:

“We did three runs. The strobe blinded the driver in 0.8 seconds. Car hit the wall every time. They told us it was for VIP protection—distract assassins. But the target dummy in the back? Blonde wig. Pearl necklace. We laughed. Then we signed the Official Secrets Act.”

Epilogue: The Light That Never Fades

Twenty-eight years after the crash, the Pont de l’Alma tunnel still bears no plaque for Diana—only a golden flame above the entrance, a gift from France. But in the sealed vaults of British justice, a document waits. Not for historians. Not for royals. But for a world that may finally be ready to see.

Until 2082—or until someone leaks the rest—we are left with Tomlinson’s final, unredacted line, smuggled out in a lawyer’s briefcase:

“The plan was never about Serbia. It was about control. And when Diana stepped out of line, they dusted off the file.”

The strobe is cold now. The tunnel is silent. But the light—real or manufactured—still burns.