[1]He was the silent of the storm that erupted after the violent death of Diana, Princess of Wales. The only survivor of the horrific crash in Paris, Trevor Rees-Jones would surely answer all the puzzling questions about that night in 1997. But apart from one tabloid interview that he instantly regretted, the 31-year-old bodyguard remained as enigmatic as the last fateful seconds locked irretrievably inside his head.
[2] The former paratrooper had suffered serious chest and head injuries, his face so badly disfigured that it was sewn back together after more than 20 metal splinters were removed. What hurt more, it seems, were the accusations about his role and the wild conspiracy theories made by his former employer, Mohamed al-Fayed, father of the deceased Dodi.
[3] Rees-Jones has now decided to break his silence by writing a book, The bodyguard's Story, which gives his unalloyed account of the events leading up to the final "shambles". It describes the bizarre Fayed menage. Crates of bottled water were taken to the family villa in St Tropez--the equivalent of coals to Newcastle. Fayed's private Gulfstream jet transported five sacks of sand to Finland to make a beach for the Fayed children, only to be swept away.
[4] Although adamant that he is not cashing in on Diana's death, Rees-Jones is submitting to a media hoopla because he is hard up. Denied compensation in France, facing legal bills and without long-term provision after his acrimonious parting from Fayed, the money has provided him with a two-bedroom house in Oswestry in Shropshire and some security.
[5] It has bought him no peace of mind. In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, he confesses he is plagued by the thought that Diana, Dodi and driver Henri Paul died _on my shift_ and that he would gladly have sacrificed his own life to save theirs. "If I could have died and those three survived, I could have done it,"_he says.
[6] Rees-Jones was one of 40 security men_ 16-stone nannies hired to guard the Fayed family and pander to their whims. A former squaddie with the Parachute Regiment in Northern Ireland, he was a useful rugby player whose tough looks and 6ft 2in frame belied a mild and stoical nature.
在威爾士王妃戴安娜遇難去世后的風暴里,特雷弗·里斯-瓊斯是平靜的風眼。他是那次恐怖的巴黎撞車事件的唯一幸存者,想必可以回答有關1997年那個夜晚的所有疑問。但是他只接受了一次小報的采訪,事后很快就后悔了,除此之外,這位31歲的保鏢一直是個謎,就像那災難的最后幾秒鐘被鎖在他大腦里無法取出一樣。
這位前傘兵的胸部和頭部受到了嚴重的傷害,臉部嚴重變形,以至于在取出20多塊金屬碎片以后才重新縫合在一起。但是對他傷害更大的,看來還是他的前雇主,死者多迪之父穆罕默德·阿-法耶德對他所起作用的譴責和離奇的陰謀說法。
現在里斯-瓊斯已決定寫一本書來打破自己的沉默,書名叫《保縹的故事》,書中對最終導致汽車撞成“一堆廢鐵”的各個事件進行了原原本本的敘述。它描述了古怪的法耶德家族。成箱的瓶裝水被運到他們在圣特羅佩茲的家庭別墅,這就像將煤運到紐卡斯爾一樣多余。法耶德的灣流型私人噴氣飛機將五袋沙子運到芬蘭以為他家的孩子們造一片沙灘,結果只是沙子被海水沖走。 雖然里斯-瓊斯堅稱他并非利用戴安娜之死來掙錢,實際他確是由于生活日益拮據而屈服于媒體的糾纏。他在法國得不到賠償,還要面對訴訟費的賬單,而在鬧翻了離開法耶德家后又失去了長期的生活來源,寫書所得的這筆錢已使他得以在英國什羅普郡的奧斯韋斯特里買了一套兩間臥室的房子,得到了一定的穩定生活的保證。 他并沒有得到心靈的安寧。在接受《每日電訊報》的采訪時,他承認由于戴安娜、多迪和司機亨利·保爾是死在他當班的時候,他的內心一直目經受著煎熬,他美愿意犧牲自己來換取這三人的生命。“如果我的死能夠救活他們,我一定會這樣做,”他說。
里斯-瓊斯是法耶德家雇來保護家人和迎合他們的突發奇想的40名保安人員--“體重128磅的保姆”之一。他原是駐北愛爾蘭傘兵團的一名士兵,曾是一名不錯的橄欖球手,剛毅的外表和六英尺二英寸的身高掩蓋了他溫和而能吃苦耐勞的性格。 這種性格在他與法耶德打交道不久后就遇到了考驗,他發現法耶德是個脾氣壞和吹毛求疵的老板。甚至為了一些小事,例如讓一個小法耶德坐一部沒有空調的車,這個埃及佬就會罵他:“蠢驢,你這個蠢驢。我付錢不是讓你這么干的。”