I Believe The Mexican Fined For Killing Kirsty Was A Fall Guy; Almost

Sunday Herald, The, Aug 22, 2004 by Vicky Allan

ON the Mexican island of Cozumel many of the locals are wary of speaking about Guillermo Gonzalez Nova. Jean MacColl recalls the words of one anonymous man: "Oh, he's the don. His name is law around here. I have to be careful. I have a family to keep."

Despite this, MacColl is undaunted. For the past few years she has been trying to meet "the don", has visited Mexico and has written him a letter, which she knows he received. "I mean here I am," she says, "a grandmother, and he daren't face me. I've been asking to see him for a long time, but he's hiding. Come out, come out, wherever you are".

Gonzalez Nova is ranked among the top seven wealthiest men in Mexico, owner of 170 supermarkets and many restaurants, and notorious for being at the centre of a dispute surrounding the building of some of his warehouses on the historic site of Casino de la Selva, a 1930s hotel and arts centre which was once a retreat for Mexican intellectuals. He is also the man Jean MacColl believes is responsible for the death of her daughter, the singer-songwriter Kirsty MacColl.

At first it seemed like a simple accident of negligence. When, in 2003, Jose Cen Yam, an inexperienced and unlicensed seaman, was found guilty of culpable homicide, it seemed a sadly depressing endnote to what had been an admirable life. While on holiday, in December 2000, MacColl had taken her two sons Jamie, 15, and Louis, 14, on their first diving expedition. Rising from their dive, she had turned to Louis and smiled. "Wow," he said. "Great," she replied. But within seconds, she became aware of a 31ft powerboat, the Percolita, bearing down on them at speed. The boat belonged to Gonzalez Nova, who was on board at the time with his family. MacColl pushed her eldest son, Jamie, aside, but was caught by the propeller. Her body was almost severed in two and was carried some distance through the water. Her sons were left "swimming in blood".

The coroner's report at the time said that Kirsty was sliced open from the back of the neck to her waist. Paramedics at the scene were reported to have vomited. Jose Cen Yam, who said he was at the helm of the Percolita, was allowed to walk free, after paying a fine of (pounds) 61 in lieu of going to jail.

Even now, Kirsty seems the major resident of MacColl's small Ealing flat: photographs crammed across the mantelpiece, framed discs over the wall, boxes of protest leaflets on the floor, and her voice in the air as a new CD box-set plays over the stereo. She talks of the injustice of that paltry (pounds) 61, of how their last words to each other had been, "I love you mum", "Love you too".

For the last few years "justice for Kirsty" has been MacColl's preoccupation - and by this she means, she stresses, "criminal justice, not compensation", the conviction of the man who really killed her daughter. MacColl believes that Cen Yam is a fall guy, protecting someone else from facing criminal charges. "He couldn't," MacColl says, "even show the basic seaman's book, the little logbook that they have. He didn't know what a knot was in nautical terms. He had never driven a powerboat before".

Currently, the case is under consideration by the federal prosecutor in Mexico for a fresh inquiry. Research, MacColl says, done by a New York private investigator she had hired and a BBC television crew who visited Mexico with her this year, has brought to light new evidence which she believes will lead to a recognition of the true culprit.

Already they have accumulated a mesh of witness testimonies. Ivan Diaz, the divemaster in charge of the expedition, and who was also in the water as the boat hit Kirsty, claimed from the very start that Cen Yam was not the driver of the boat, and that he had seen him at the back of the Percolita, leaping forward to help. Local newspapers reported that, straight after the accident, on stepping ashore Gonzalez Nova allegedly admitted to being at the helm, and he was seen on TV being taken away in a police car for questioning.

Cen Yam, however, has disappeared. "We do know that a witness saw Cen Yam a day or so after the accident," says MacColl. "He had got very drunk in the pub and was celebrating, and he said that his boss had asked him to take responsibility for the accident and if he did he would give him a good lot of money. So he was going to buy himself a new house. I don't know if he's bought a new house because I can't find him."

MacColl's picture of the accident is a fragmented one, a collection of often contradictory viewpoints. Initially those on the Percolita claimed that the boat was moving slowly, but her grandson Louis maintains that it was going so fast the bow was high out of the water.

There were claims too that the dive was taking place outside the restricted area of the National Maritime Park, but new evidence handed to the federal prosecutor disputes this. Moreover, MacColl insists her daughter wouldn't have endangered her sons by taking them into the wrong area.