Bodyguard denies lying

Shropshire bodyguard Trevor Rees today denied being a "bare-faced" liar by claiming he could not remember the crash which killed Diana, Princess of Wales.

Mr Rees, 38, sole survivor of the crash, this morning took to the witness box at the inquests at the High Court in London on the princess and Dodi al Fayed.

The inquest heard that Dodi's father Mohamed al Fayed had written in February 2006 to Lord Stevens, the former Metropolitan Police Commissioner, who produced the Paget report into the fatal Paris crash.

Ian Burnett QC, for coroner Lord Justice Scott Baker, said in the letter Mr al Fayed was "making a very clear allegation".

He said: "When you say you have lost your memory, you are telling a bare-faced lie, Mr Rees, are you?"

Mr Rees replied: "No, sir. I have no memory after leaving the back of the (Ritz) hotel, that's my last true memory."

He added: "I believe at the time I had two memories, two flashbacks."

He said he remembered sitting at traffic lights at the Place de la Concorde, with paparazzi on motorbikes beside the Mercedes.

Then in the immediate aftermath of the crash, he recalled hearing a woman's voice saying the name Dodi.

Mr Burnett recalled that psychiatrist Dr Maurice Lipsedge had said Mr Rees's memories about the crash ended when the car left the Ritz and anything after that could be false memories.

Mr Rees agreed.

Earlier he denied a claim by Mr al Fayed that he followed secret service instructions to cover up the truth about the accident.

By Kirsty Marston at the High Court