The only survivor of the crash that killed Princess Diana slowly is recovering his memory, a newspaper reported Monday, and says he now recalls the dying Diana calling out the name of her dead lover.
For six months, bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones remembered little about the events immediately before and after the Aug. 31 car crash in Paris. With the help of a psychiatrist, he is piecing together recollections, he told The Mirror newspaper."I have had flashes of a female voice calling out in the back of the car. First, it's a groan. Then Dodi's name is called," Rees-Jones told the paper.
"It could only have been Princess Diana. I was conscious, and so was she," he said.
Rees-Jones' lawyers confirmed his statements to the newspaper, which were his most extensive public comments to date on the crash.
In November, Frederic Mailliez, the French doctor who treated Diana first, said she had been semiconscious and muttering and did not say "anything precise."
The British royal family, Diana's relatives and politicians have been skeptical of claims that she was aware of the crash, and they have criticized veiled allegations of conspiracy raised by Mohamed al Fayed, who was the father of Diana's companion, Dodi Fayed, and the employer of Rees-Jones.
Rees-Jones, who was sitting in the car's front passenger seat, told The Mirror he was conscious immediately after the Mercedes hit the side of the Pont de L'Alma tunnel.
"As far as I consider, there were only two people conscious in the vehicle," Rees-Jones said. "Princess Diana was the other one who was conscious. Unfortunately, the other two people were dead."
Diana died later in Paris' Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital.
Rees-Jones also said that chauffeur Henri Paul did not appear to have been drinking. Blood tests later showed Paul was intoxicated.
"People can come up with all sorts of theories and opinions after the event. But I know exactly what happened because I was there. I can state quite categorically that he was not a hopeless drunk as some have tried to suggest," Rees-Jones said. "If he had shown any signs of being drunk, I would never have let him near our car."
Rees-Jones told the paper he remembers two cars and a motorbike chasing the Mercedes after it left the Ritz Hotel in Paris.
One of the cars was a white hatchback. The paper said that was similar to a Fiat thought to have been involved in the crash.
Rees-Jones was seriously injured. For several months he remembered nothing about the crash, but said that under psychiatric treatment, his memory improved.
"To start with I couldn't remember a thing, and doctors weren't sure if I would ever remember. I had amnesia; everything was just a blank," he said. "I am starting to remember more and more."
Herve Stephan, the French judge investigating the crash, will question Rees-Jones in Paris in the coming weeks in the hope that he might shed new light on the accident, the bodyguard's lawyer, Christian Curtil, said Monday.
In September, Britain's editors introduced a new code of conduct, reacting to the uproar over press intrusion into Diana's life.
The Mirror justified its story on grounds of public interest, although it is likely to bring complaints the newspaper is continuing to delve into Diana's life, regardless of the possible effect on Diana's relatives and her children.