Diana's stepbrother found dead

Princess Diana's stepbrother has died from a suspected drugs overdose in a run-down travellers' hostel in Cambodia.

Adam Shand Kydd, 49, was staying in the red-light district of Phnom Penh when he was found dead yesterday, according to police sources.

The death of Mr Shand Kydd, who has a history of drug addiction and has been treated in clinics in Britain, will come as a further devastating blow to his stepmother, Frances Shand Kydd, 67.

She has recently been hospitalised with a debilitating brain disease and had to cope with the news last week that an American TV channel had broadcast pictures of her daughter Diana dying in the wake of her car crash in Paris.

Adam was the son of Peter Shand Kydd from his marriage to his first wife, Janet.

Peter left his wife and three children to marry Diana's mother after an affair which saw her leave her family, when Diana was only seven, for the millionaire.

Diana never became close to her stepfather and remained with her father, Earl Spencer, at their Althorp home.

Her mother divorced Mr Shand Kydd, who made his money from wallpaper manufacturing, in 1988.

However the couple remained close and she will be devastated at the death of her former husband's son.

Ambulance driver Yim Mongul said: 'When I picked up the body I saw blue bruises on his arms and on his whole body. I assumed he overdosed on drugs.'

Eyewitnesses said a representative from the British Embassy went to the scene as well as local forensic police.

It is thought that Mr Shand Kydd's passport was found in the room.

No statement has been issued by the British Embassy.

A police chief at Psar Thmei police post confirmed the incident and said the man was a tourist.

In the 1980s Adam Shand Kydd was a regular on the London social scene and he became a writer. His first novel, Happy Trials, came out in August 1984.

The comedy is about two gay men who live peacefully in East Anglia until they are drawn into plots of religious fanaticism. It received mixed reviews.

Mr Shand Kydd is said to have begun drinking when he failed to get his second novel, State of Siege, a comedy about fringe theatre, published.

In 1988 he was admitted to a specialist dependency unit, Broadreach House in Plymouth, where he was believed to be battling a long-term drink problem.

During the course of treatment which cost £5,000, he helped with household duties, including cleaning toilets, washing dishes and vacuuming.

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