A MOTHER from Woodford Green has hit out at conspiracy theorists who have accused her daughter of colluding with MI6 in a plot to assassinate a former bodyguard of Princess Diana.

Business consultant Joy Chopp told the Guardian her family is still being hounded by Diana enthusiasts more than two decades after daughter Nicola was involved in a fatal crash which killed the princess's former security worker Barry Mannakee in 1987.

Some have speculated Mr Mannakee, who was killed after being thrown from a motorbike as it swerved to avoid Nicola's car in South Woodford High Road, was actually murdered by the ruling elites because of the embarrassment caused by his supposed affair with the princess.

A secretly recorded tape of Diana, released in 2004, revealed the princess also thought her bodyguard may have been “bumped off”.

However no evidence has ever emerged to suggest Mr Mannakee's death was nothing more than a tragic crash on a notorious stretch of road, with successive investigations and inquests also coming to the same conclusion.

Nicola, who was 17 at the time of the smash, has since found a new life in Carolina in the USA, where she is married and works for the Red Cross.

But Ms Chopp said her daughter, who is now 40, was still struggling to leave the past behind her.

She said: “When it happened it was just horrendous – both for her and our family. She had only been driving a few weeks and then there was the crash.

“There's been so much rubbish written about it. It was just an accident, but she's been accused of all kinds of things, working for MI6, and helping them in their conspiracy.

“She was quoted as having doubts about it, I think she was persuaded into saying some of those things.

“For us, the story is about what has happened since then. She's like a mini-celebrity in America. She gets called up by all the TV stations and newspapers. Fox News paid her just for a two minute interview a few years ago. She even has her own agent to cope with it all.

“At first I think she was OK with it, but now we just want to put it behind us."

The case was thrown into the national spotlight again in 2008 during the six-month inquest into Diana's death, which also examined the conspiracy theories surrounding the deaths of people she knew.

Ms Chopp found herself part of the story when a national newspaper printed a front page detailing her “doubts” about whether the crash was an accident. She said she had been misquoted.

She said: “It's just so easy to come up with a conspiracy theory. There were some things that were strange, like why no-one was breathalysed at the scene, but that doesn't mean it was a conspiracy.

“I suppose a lot of people are interested about it, but for us we all just want to get on with our lives and move on.”