by Spider Stacy Fri Dec 11, 2009 6:41 pm
Kirsty MacColl's mother ends campaign for justice after nine years
On anniversary of singer's death, her mother abandons bid to bring to justice the man she believes killed her daughter
* Caroline Davies and Jo Tuckman in Mexico City
* guardian.co.uk, Friday 11 December 2009 17.31 GMT
Kirsty Maccoll
The anniversary next week of her daughter's untimely death will find Jean MacColl at the Brixton Academy, south London, watching The Pogues belt out the Christmas classic Fairytale of New York.
"And when I hear those words: 'You scumbag, you maggot', I'll think of that man," she said.
Nine years after the death of acclaimed singer-songwriter Kirsty MacColl, whose distinctive voice is immortalised on this famous song, her 86-year-old mother's determination to uncover "the truth" is undiminished.
Kirsty was just 41 and at the peak of her career when she was mown down by the speedboat Percalito as she and her sons, Jamie, 15, and Louis, 13, scuba-dived on the spectacular Chankanaab reef at Cozumel island off Mexico's Yucatán peninsula on 18 December 2000.
But this week, having finally exhausted all legal avenues to bring to justice the man she believes is responsible for the death, Guillermo González Nova, one of Mexico's wealthiest businessmen, Jean has abandoned the Justice for Kirsty campaign which has sustained her through intense grief.
The campaign raised funds through "the most wonderful fans" to pay for the costly expenses of Jean's legal battle. "But it felt dishonest to go on, to keep asking for money, when we don't feel we've got a chance," she said.
In the summer she visited Mexico with Louis – his first visit since the traumatic day he and his terrified brother found themselves "swimming in Mummy's blood". They were informed the case was to be closed. Demetrio Guerra, the family's lawyer, told the Guardian he expected this to be confirmed in a final resolution from Mexico City in the New Year. There is no prospect of further appeal.
"But that does not mean I am giving up," said Jean. "If anything turned up, I'd be there like a shot. Any chink in his armour."
Questions have shadowed the case since the 2003 conviction of Cem Yam, the 28-year-old deckhand who claimed he was at the controls, and who was sentenced to two years and 10 months' imprisonment for culpable homicide, immediately transmuted to a £61 fine.
On board at the time was González Nova, president of Comercial Mexicana, the third largest supermarket chain in Mexico, two of his sons, his daughter-in-law and 11-month-old granddaughter.
The family told police that the boat was travelling at one knot in open water outside the area where vessels are restricted.
But the Justice for Kirsty campaign alleges Yam had drunkenly told friends he took the rap having been promised money and a house on Cozumel, where González Nova still reportedly has a holiday home, and where Yam was said to live in a small breeze-block building.
It claims witnesses, including Ivan Diaz, the dive instructor with Kirsty and her sons, overheard González Nova admitting to police and harbour officials he had been at the helm. Diaz, who is also alleged to have claimed that he saw Yam run from the back to the front of the boat after the collision, has now left Mexico for the US.
Other witnesses, it says, saw his two sons nearest the wheel at the time, prompting suspicions he was protecting one of them. But nothing could be proven.
Whether Kirsty was inside or outside the restricted area has been contested. Her horrific injuries, however, would appear to attest the boat was not travelling at one knot but closer to the 18-20 knots some witnesses reported.
Jean holds González Nova responsible because he was the boat's owner, and, she said, the only person on board with a licence to drive it.
"There have been lots of suspicious and dubious things about the case," Guerra said, "but we have no proof that González Nova used his influence to get decisions that favoured him."
Jean's ground-floor flat in Ealing, west London, and just minutes from her daughter's home, is a shrine to the singer's success. Record awards cover the living room walls, while photographs fill the mantlepiece. Since news of the campaign's closure – any remaining money is being donated to two of Kirsty's favourite charities – fans have inundated her mother with emails of support, which brought her to tears. The campaign, she admitted, "has been the main thing in my life for the past nine years". She has documented the case in her biography of Kirsty, Sun on the Water.
"Kirsty's last instinctive action was to protect her children, to push them out of the path of that boat," she said. The campaign had been her way, as a mother, of doing the same ."We haven't achieved our ambition," she said, sadly, "but we have done our absolute best."
She claims González Nova "believes I just want his money. But all I ever wanted was the truth and an apology. I never got the truth. I've never had an apology. And it's too late for that now."
Jean will continue to champion Kirsty's cause through a World Health Organisation campaign to raise international awareness of health and safety.
But first her plan is for a memorial, a stone carving in the shape of a bird, at the spot where Kirsty's body was bought ashore.
"It would say 'Kirsty MacColl, who was killed by the speedboat Percalito' and with the date of her death. And every time that man goes by, he should remember. I hope the local people would be kind enough to put some flowers on it. I think the mothers would, hopefully, do that for me."
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Zuzana, It's difficult to see how anybody could be more pogues related than Kirsty. If she was still alive she would be with us now. Spider
Kirsty MacColl's mother ends campaign for justice after nine years
On anniversary of singer's death, her mother abandons bid to bring to justice the man she believes killed her daughter
* Caroline Davies and Jo Tuckman in Mexico City
* guardian.co.uk, Friday 11 December 2009 17.31 GMT
Kirsty Maccoll
The anniversary next week of her daughter's untimely death will find Jean MacColl at the Brixton Academy, south London, watching The Pogues belt out the Christmas classic Fairytale of New York.
"And when I hear those words: 'You scumbag, you maggot', I'll think of that man," she said.
Nine years after the death of acclaimed singer-songwriter Kirsty MacColl, whose distinctive voice is immortalised on this famous song, her 86-year-old mother's determination to uncover "the truth" is undiminished.
Kirsty was just 41 and at the peak of her career when she was mown down by the speedboat Percalito as she and her sons, Jamie, 15, and Louis, 13, scuba-dived on the spectacular Chankanaab reef at Cozumel island off Mexico's Yucatán peninsula on 18 December 2000.
But this week, having finally exhausted all legal avenues to bring to justice the man she believes is responsible for the death, Guillermo González Nova, one of Mexico's wealthiest businessmen, Jean has abandoned the Justice for Kirsty campaign which has sustained her through intense grief.
The campaign raised funds through "the most wonderful fans" to pay for the costly expenses of Jean's legal battle. "But it felt dishonest to go on, to keep asking for money, when we don't feel we've got a chance," she said.
In the summer she visited Mexico with Louis – his first visit since the traumatic day he and his terrified brother found themselves "swimming in Mummy's blood". They were informed the case was to be closed. Demetrio Guerra, the family's lawyer, told the Guardian he expected this to be confirmed in a final resolution from Mexico City in the New Year. There is no prospect of further appeal.
"But that does not mean I am giving up," said Jean. "If anything turned up, I'd be there like a shot. Any chink in his armour."
Questions have shadowed the case since the 2003 conviction of Cem Yam, the 28-year-old deckhand who claimed he was at the controls, and who was sentenced to two years and 10 months' imprisonment for culpable homicide, immediately transmuted to a £61 fine.
On board at the time was González Nova, president of Comercial Mexicana, the third largest supermarket chain in Mexico, two of his sons, his daughter-in-law and 11-month-old granddaughter.
The family told police that the boat was travelling at one knot in open water outside the area where vessels are restricted.
But the Justice for Kirsty campaign alleges Yam had drunkenly told friends he took the rap having been promised money and a house on Cozumel, where González Nova still reportedly has a holiday home, and where Yam was said to live in a small breeze-block building.
It claims witnesses, including Ivan Diaz, the dive instructor with Kirsty and her sons, overheard González Nova admitting to police and harbour officials he had been at the helm. Diaz, who is also alleged to have claimed that he saw Yam run from the back to the front of the boat after the collision, has now left Mexico for the US.
Other witnesses, it says, saw his two sons nearest the wheel at the time, prompting suspicions he was protecting one of them. But nothing could be proven.
Whether Kirsty was inside or outside the restricted area has been contested. Her horrific injuries, however, would appear to attest the boat was not travelling at one knot but closer to the 18-20 knots some witnesses reported.
Jean holds González Nova responsible because he was the boat's owner, and, she said, the only person on board with a licence to drive it.
"There have been lots of suspicious and dubious things about the case," Guerra said, "but we have no proof that González Nova used his influence to get decisions that favoured him."
Jean's ground-floor flat in Ealing, west London, and just minutes from her daughter's home, is a shrine to the singer's success. Record awards cover the living room walls, while photographs fill the mantlepiece. Since news of the campaign's closure – any remaining money is being donated to two of Kirsty's favourite charities – fans have inundated her mother with emails of support, which brought her to tears. The campaign, she admitted, "has been the main thing in my life for the past nine years". She has documented the case in her biography of Kirsty, Sun on the Water.
"Kirsty's last instinctive action was to protect her children, to push them out of the path of that boat," she said. The campaign had been her way, as a mother, of doing the same ."We haven't achieved our ambition," she said, sadly, "but we have done our absolute best."
She claims González Nova "believes I just want his money. But all I ever wanted was the truth and an apology. I never got the truth. I've never had an apology. And it's too late for that now."
Jean will continue to champion Kirsty's cause through a World Health Organisation campaign to raise international awareness of health and safety.
But first her plan is for a memorial, a stone carving in the shape of a bird, at the spot where Kirsty's body was bought ashore.
"It would say 'Kirsty MacColl, who was killed by the speedboat Percalito' and with the date of her death. And every time that man goes by, he should remember. I hope the local people would be kind enough to put some flowers on it. I think the mothers would, hopefully, do that for me."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Zuzana, It's difficult to see how anybody could be more pogues related than Kirsty. If she was still alive she would be with us now. Spider
