Princess Diana's ex-bodyguard escapes to Iraq

Trevor Rees Jones, Diana's former bodyguard, who survived the Paris car crash in which the Princess of Wales was killed alongside her boyfriend Dodi Al-Fayed, has escaped to Iraq to get away from the inquest into her death.

Jones, a key witness to the car crash, has taken a private security job in the war-torn country to avoid appearing at the inquest which opened this month, the Sunday Mirror reported here.

"That Trevor is in Iraq is a measure of how much he wants to be out of the way. He doesn't want to be involved in the inquest at all -- he'd rather be dodging bullets," one of Jones' friends said. "Trevor thinks enough has been said about what happened to Diana, and I think he's right. He went through a terrible experience and doesn't like to talk about it. It has scarred him for life."

The 38-year-old is likely to be called to give evidence at the inquest in London's High Court in January.

But his 37-year-old wife Ann said, "He doesn't want anything to do with the inquest. All he wants is to forget and get on with his life. It was a long time ago and he doesn't like to think about it."