Diana's bodyguard: 'I cannot recall very much, but Dodi was to blame for using crash car'

12 April 2012

Somewhere in the darkest recesses of his mind, he must have held the key to what happened.

Trevor Rees Jones was at Diana and Dodi's side for virtually every moment of their last hours together, and was the only one to survive that horrific crash.

In the virtually unrecognisable wreckage of the Mercedes, he lay smashed, bleeding and twisted beside them as their lives slipped away.

How different things might have turned out - if only he could remember.

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Scarred: Trevor Rees leaves the inquest at the High Court yesterday saying he had little recollection of the night Diana died

There would be so much less mystery, far fewer questions. No ten-year wait, no £10million inquest.

He recalled enough to say that Dodi Fayed had been to blame for using the crash car - but even that is unlikely to demolish all those conspiracy theories.

But a few minutes in the witness box yesterday was all it took to establish that Dodi's 39-year-old former bodyguard, who suffered near-death injuries and long-term amnesia in the high-speed crash, had "no clear recollection" of so many potentially crucial events that night.

It was a phrase he used repeatedly - so much so that the sole reason for continuing to ask him seemed designed to ensure his answers went on the record.

But he was clear enough in his own mind to reject utterly accusations by Mohamed Al Fayed that he was part of an MI6 conspiracy to cover up the couple's murder and was acting on orders to keep quiet.

A couple of yards away, Mr Al Fayed sat with his arms folded and one leg stretched out in front of him, looking unimpressed.

The ex-paratrooper was also clear where the blame really lay - on Dodi's plan to dodge photographers by slipping out of the back of the Paris Ritz in a car driven by Henri Paul.

It is the first time that Mr Rees, who still bears scars from the crash, has spoken in court about the tragedy in the Alma tunnel.

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Driving to their death:Trevor Rees advised against the plan to leave from the back of the hotel

Mr Rees (he dropped the Jones after his marriage broke up) wore a plain grey suit and a slightly tormented expression throughout his evidence, delivered quietly and with much understatement.

He admitted he has almost no recollection of anything after he set foot in the Mercedes with the Princess, her lover and hotel security manager Mr Paul.

In the ten years since the crash he has, with the help of psychiatrists, been able to dredge only two brief, unreliable "flashbacks" of the night in question, he told the High Court.

He said: "The new memory that I have is of the traffic lights, which can only be the ones at the Place de la Concorde.

"At that point I turned round to look out of the window behind us. I saw that a motorcycle had arrived on the right-hand side of the car and had stopped. When our vehicle moved off, there were lots of flashes - from photographers, I presume."

He added: "The other memory is very vague. I remember being seated in the car when the accident must already have taken place. I do not remember the pain but in my head there was a lot of confusion.

"I remember having heard somebody moaning and the name 'Dodi' was uttered, but I do not know if it was once or several times.

"I should like to add that these memories are vague and sometimes I myself doubt them."

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Trevor Rees said at the inquest that the plan was to use a decoy car while Dodi and Di 'slipped out the rear' of the hotel

Mr Rees gave few details about Dodi and Diana's holiday in the South of France in August 1997 except to deny claims they had visited a jewellers in Monte Carlo to choose an engagement ring.

He said their decision to extend the holiday and fly to Paris was a last minute one and Dodi was irritated by the paparazzi from the moment their private jet arrived in the capital.

Mr Rees said he and fellow bodyguard Kes Wingfield met Mr Paul at the Ritz and insisted the Frenchman didn't appear to be drunk. He maintained he would have refused to let him drive the Mercedes had he known he was drunk.

Turning to the plan to fool the paparazzi, he said a decoy car was to leave from the front of the hotel while Dodi and the Princess slipped out of the rear and drove to an apartment off the Champs Elysees.

"I was not happy as Dodi was separating the two security officers, but I went along with the arrangement. It was also Dodi who decided that Paul would be driving the car," he said.

Under cross examination by Michael Mansfield QC, for Mr Al Fayed, he conceded it must have been Mr Paul who gave him details of the plan but insisted that it was still Dodi's idea.

"Dodi would not listen to my reasoning," he added.

Mr Rees was shown a letter written by Mr Fayed to Lord Stevens, who conducted an inquiry into the crash, in 2004.

In it, he described his former employee as "deceitful" and accused him of pretending to have lost his memory after been "paid off" by the security services to "suppress the truth" about the accident.

Mr Rees said: "I am not part of a conspiracy to suppress the truth at all.

"All I have ever done is given the truth as I see it."

The coroner, Lord Justice Scott Baker, demanded to know why Mr Al Fayed had not withdrawn his clearly unsubstantiated remarks, saying: "Because they are grave allegations I would have thought a man with any decency who was not going to pursue them would have withdrawn them."

Mr Mansfield was forced to admit that he had no evidence to back the allegations.

• Paparazzi Jacques Langevin and Nickolai Arsov told ITV's News at Ten last night they would not be giving evidence. Both men, who were arrested on suspicion of manslaughter after the crash but later freed without charge, were expected to testify by video link but said they had changed their minds.

• Mohamed Al Fayed's security chief ordered an employee to get into Trevor Rees's hospital bedroom to ensure that he was "briefed" before he spoke to police, the inquest heard.

Ben Murrell also claimed he was told to tell journalists that Dodi and Diana had planned to live in the former home of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor in Paris with their "new baby".

Mr Murrell, who was giving evidence via video-link from Nigeria, said he refused.

Mr Al Fayed's barrister denied claims that the Harrods tycoon was part of a "conspiracy to pervert the truth".

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