Diana bodyguard says he still can't recall fatal crash

The lone survivor of the car crash that killed Diana has testified that he has no memory of the 1997 crash in a Paris tunnel.

The CBC's Nancy Durham, reporting from London, said it is ironic that the one person who might be able to answer questions about an event surrounded by recriminations and conspiracy theories does not seem to remember anything useful.

Ex-bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones, who changed his name to Trevor Rees after the crash, told a British inquest Wednesday that the last thing he recalls is getting into a Mercedes with the late Princess of Wales, her companion, Dodi Al Fayed, and their driver as they tried to dodge news photographers at the Ritz Hotel.

He said he has never lied about not remembering what happened at the time of the crash and denied being part of any plot to suppress the truth.

The Al Fayed family alleges the crash was no accident and their son was murdered to prevent him from marrying Diana, who retained her title after her 1996 divorce from Prince Charles.

The truth as he sees it

Rees was badly hurt in the crash. A psychiatrist has said his chances of recovering his memory are slim.

"I am not part of any conspiracy to suppress the truth at all," Rees testified. "All I have ever done is give the truth as I see it."
 
He said he has had flashbacks of hearing a woman say "Dodi," apparently just after the crash, but remembers little else.

"I have no memory of — after leaving the back of the hotel. That's my last true memory," he said.

Al Fayed's father, Mohamed, an Egyptian billionaire, contends that Diana and his son were victims of a plot directed by the Queen's husband, Prince Philip. He has accused Rees of being influenced by British security services.

In a statement to British investigators, Rees said he urged Dodi Al Fayed to abandon his plan to try to sneak out of the rear entrance to the Ritz with the princess, the Associated Press reported.

"Although neither Kes [Wingfield, another bodyguard] nor I had a problem with Henri Paul driving, I strongly advised Dodi that we should leave from the front where the usual driver ... was waiting.

"Dodi would not listen to my reasoning and was having none of it. I told him that if he insisted on this plan of leaving from the rear that I would also insist that I should at least travel with him so that he had some security," Rees said.