Paul Burrell - the rock is on the rocks after perjury allegations and gay exposee

The News of the World didn't shy from its headline as it ran its front page exposee of Paul Burrell. He may have been Diana's self-styled rock but according to todays exposee his attentions were far more devoted to something else rhyming with rock.

The former royal butler who has made millions out of touting his version of life as confidante to Diana, Princess of Wales seems to be coming unstuck - or is he merely the victim of a nasty tabloid stitch-up? The confidence of today's headlines back the view that he may be the author of his own destiny and that the Paul Burrell roadshow may be about to hit the rails. The case against him - other than his performance on 'I'm a Celebrity get me out of here' - is that he threw the coroner in the current Diana inquest a couple of 'red herrings' and, according to today's reports, he is driven by his gay urges. While there is nothing wrong with him being gay, there is a great deal wrong with (1) lying to a coroner's inquest (2) bragging about doing so (3) deceiving and lying to his family and public (4) trading off Diana's life and untimely demise.

It will be surprising if there is not some sabre rattling by Burrell's lawyers and a threat to sue the News of the World and the Sun over their allegations but the confidence of the pieces in both papers suggest that, should Burrell decide to litigate, it could be a close contest. He has put so much of himself in the public domain that he will be hard pressed to argue he has much privacy left and having been caught bragging on camera about his red herrings and other matters he will be hard pressed to claim that the basis of these horrible things being said about him are untrue.

Last time Burrell was up against it and in the dock (having been accused of obtaining and being in possession of several of Diana's belongings) the Queen (probably indirectly) came to his rescue and the case was conveniently dropped. This time the case against him is a public one about his credibility and his own actions. It is likely the papers calculated this before releasing their headlines.

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