Rhiannon Ingle
A man claiming to be the driver of the speedboat that killed beloved Irish singer Kirsty MacColl has spoken out for the first time 25 years after her tragic death.
The beloved 'Fairytale of New York' singer’s life was cut short in a holiday tragedy back in 2000, when she was smashed into by a speedboat in Mexico. The singer was out swimming with her sons, Jamie and Louis.
The family were just surfacing from the water in what was said to be a watercraft-restricted zone when the speedboat raced towards them, forcing MacColl to push her children out of the way.
While both Jamie and her were struck by the propeller, he only suffered minor injuries, with his oxygen tank taking most of the hit. MacColl, however, suffered serious injuries to her head and chest, almost instantly killing her.
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She was just 41 at the time.
Jose Cen Yam, the then 26-year-old deckhand on board the 31ft boat on the day, later took responsibility for the accident and was found guilty of culpable homicide.
Now, the speedboat was actually owned by the billionaire Mexican businessman Guillermo González Nova, who was onboard at the time.
Police discovered the boat was a luxury £127,000 motorboat called the Percalito, registered in Guernsey.
Cen Yam since stuck to his original police statement, telling the Mail on Sunday that the 'truth' is that it was he who was driving the boat, while MacColl's ex-husband, music producer Steve Lillywhite, claims this story was a 'cover-up'.
"The family [of González 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, claiming Gonzalez Nova was 'absolutely not' the man at the helm of the speedboat, following years of speculation that the billionaire paid the deckhand to lie.
Recalling that fateful day, he told the outlet: “I was going at about five miles an hour. I didn’t see anyone in the water, no one."
"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.
"She was just floating in the water all that time. I didn’t pull her body out of the water; we just had to let her be there until help came," he said.
MacColl's ex-husband, Lillywhite, revealed to The Sun that 'no one believes' Cen Yam was driving the boat, and that justice is yet to be served, claiming that he was simply the 'fall guy' for his powerful boss, who later died at the age of 92 in 2009.
Cen Yam, now a grandfather who lives a 'simple life' as a handyman and does not show any 'of the outward trappings of wealth or comfort' per the Mail, hit back at these accusations that he was paid to stay silent, telling the outlet: "No, it was me. That’s the truth.
"The family [of González Nova] never put pressure on me to admit to anything I didn’t do. I have always told the truth about this."
He also added that despite the memory of the tragic incident being etched into his mind, he doesn’t feel as though he should be blamed for MacColl's death.
"I don't feel shame over this. It was an accident. I don't feel it was my fault," the man said.
Cen Yam was found guilty of culpable homicide in 2003 and sentenced to just under three years in prison.
However, he instead paid the equivalent of $90 (approximately £60 in 2000) in fines.