The man who was driving the speedboat that killed Kirsty MacColl has spoken out for the first time.
It’s been 25 years since the ‘Fairytale of New York’ singer was struck while diving in Mexico with her sons, Jamie and Louis.
They were just surfacing from the water in what was said to be a watercraft-restricted zone when the speedboat raced towards them, with MacColl pushing her children out of the way. Both Jamie and her were struck by the propeller but he only suffered minor injuries with his oxygen tank taking most of the blow. However, MacColl suffered serious injuries to her head and chest, almost instantly killing her.
Jose Cen Yam claimed to be driving the speedboat owned by the late Mexican billionaire Guillermo Gonzalez Nova while her ex-husband, music producer Steve Lillywhite, claims it was a ‘cover up’.
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The former deckhand has now told the Mail on Sunday that the ‘truth’ is that it was him who was driving the boat, sticking to his police statement from 2000.
“The family [of Gonzalez Nova] never put pressure on me to admit to anything I didn't do. I have always told the truth about this,” Cen Yam said.
He said Gonzalez Nova was ‘absolutely not’ the man at the helm of the speedboat, as there have been claims over the year the billionaire paid the deckhand to lie.
The outlet add that Cen Yam now lives a ‘simple life’ as a handyman and does not show any ‘of the outward trappings of wealth or comfort’.
He claims that he was going ‘at about five miles an hour’ and ‘didn’t see anyone in the water’.
“But then I heard a propeller make a very strange noise,” he continued. “It was really weird, a whirring like something hit it. There was no bang in the boat, just the noise of a propeller doing this weird stuff.
“I thought, 'I've gone over something'. So I slowed and went to the back of the boat and I saw her there.”
Cen Yam said that there ‘was nothing’ he could do to save MacColl’s life.
He remained at the scene, ensuring her body did not float away while he waited for authorities.
“I don't feel shame over this. It was an accident. I don't feel it was my fault,” the man added.
Cen Yam was found guilty of culpable homicide in 2003 and sentenced to just under three years in prison but instead paid the equivalent of $90 (approximately £60 in 2000) in fines.
Despite what the former deckhand has said, Lillywhite claims ‘no one believes’ that he was actually the one driving the boat.
"I think they just didn’t want to have an enormous lawsuit because he was one of the richest guys in Mexico,” he said. Campaigns were organised for justice but Gonzales Nova died in 2009.
Jess Battison