(CNN) -- Mansour Daou is known as the "Black Box" of Moammar Gadhafi's regime -- like an aircraft's data recorder, he knows some of Libya's darkest secrets.





And as one of Gadhafi's top security officials, who remained at his side until the final hours, Daou has a unique insight into the astonishing downfall of Africa's longest-serving leader.





Now in an interview with CNN he describes how the dictator, who was once of the world's most feared leaders, was forced to scavenge for food and hide in abandoned houses in the coastal city of Sirte.





"He was very worried and erratic -- this could be because he was afraid," Daou said.





According to Daou, Gadhafi became desperate to travel to his birthplace, the village of Jaref, 20 kilometers west of Sirte, a journey that Daou feared was "suicide."





"He wanted to go to his village, maybe he wanted to die there or spend his last moments there," he said.





Finally, after NATO jets attacked his convoy, Gadhafi tried to escape on foot through drainage pipes, but was caught. He was later killed in circumstances that are still far from clear.





Gadhafi's autopsy reveals he was shot in head





Daou spoke as he awaited trial at a detention facility in the city of Misrata, which bore the brunt of the regime's most brutal assault during the conflict. The most significant charges he faces relate to his alleged role in the Abu Salim prison massacre in 1996, and his role in the alleged hiring of African mercenaries by the regime during the conflict. He told CNN he had no role in those events.





The interview was initially delayed by a few hours -- officials said Daou was being interrogated and asked CNN to return in the evening to speak to him.





The CNN crew was taken to the bottom floor of the building and led into a conference room where Daou sat at a long table with his interrogator -- a tall, tough-looking Libyan man.





Daou, in his late 50s, wore a traditional Arabic gray dishdasha robe and seemed to be in good health.





During the hour-long interview, Daou described how he had been in the same car as Gadhafi as they made their chaotic escape from the former leader's hometown of Sirte.





Gadhafi left Tripoli for Sirte on August 18, according to Daou -- just two days before fighters seeking to oust him entered the capital.





Daou said he remained in Tripoli until it became clear the city was no longer safe for the regime's top tier.





He then fled to the city of Bani Walid on August 22, along with Gadhafi's son, Saif al-Islam and intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi. He stayed with them for four days before joining the former dictator in Sirte.





Daou said their living conditions went from bad to worse as the rebels tightened their siege of the city. They moved around abandoned houses every three to four days, he said, surviving on the little food they could find. Towards the end, they had no power, water or communication with the outside world. "Our lives had turned by about 180 degrees."





Gadhafi spent his final days writing and reading books he had stacked in suitcases, Daou said, but his behavior became more unpredictable. As fighters surrounded Sirte, Gadhafi's group wanted to leave the city.





Daou said he and others knew that if they did not leave before the siege there would be no way out. But Gadhafi refused to leave -- until October 20 -- when he and his son Mutassem decided to make the move to the former dictator's birthplace.





Their group of about 350 men had dropped to fewer than 200, according to Daou. "It started dropping daily with some killed, others wounded and those who had left with their families," he said.





Daou described their force as a mostly undisciplined civilian one under the command of Mutassem. They had no plan -- not for fleeing and certainly not for fighting.





Their convoy of more than 40 vehicles was supposed to head out
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