Trevor Rees-Jones (also known as Trevor Rees; born 1968) is the former bodyguard for Dodi Al-Fayed. He was badly injured in the car accident that killed Diana, Princess of Wales, Dodi Al-Fayed and the driver Henri Paul. Because he suffered a head injury in the crash, Rees-Jones does not recall particulars of the accident. He allegedly survived because he was wearing a seatbelt.[1] However, a December 2006 Operation Paget technical examination said that none of the occupants of the car was wearing a seat belt at the time of the collision. Rees-Jones suffered serious head injuries in the crash. His face was literally flattened: numerous bones were broken or crushed. His face was reconstructed from family photographs by a world-class maxillofacial surgeon, Luc Chikhani, using about 150 pieces of titanium to hold the bones together and recreate the original shape. Within a year, his face was nearly back to normal. Some, but not all of the expenses for the surgery and hospital care were borne by Mohamed al-Fayed, Rees-Jones's employer at the time of the crash. The rest were paid for by the British National Health Service (NHS). Following recovery from the injuries sustained in the crash, Rees-Jones moved to north Shropshire, and for some time worked in a small family-run sportswear shop in the town of Oswestry, on the Welsh border. Rees-Jones wrote a book (ISBN 0-446-61004-6) about his experiences, with the help of a ghost-writer, Moira Johnston. The book was reconstructed from Rees-Jones' partial memories and those of his family and friends. He decided to write the book because many bizarre stories had circulated about the fatal crash and because Rees-Jones' former employer, Mohamed al-Fayed, had accused him of not doing his job properly. Among the misdeeds he was accused of was wearing a seatbelt: in theory, a bodyguard is supposed to put the safety of the "principal" first, so much so that he ignores his own safety. In other words, he is expendable. In practice, the personal-security profession has many interpretations of this rule.
References
- ^ "Bodyguard put on seat belt just before Diana car crash. CNN.com September 21, 1997.
