World newsMother fights to find killer of singer
TV film claims employee took blame for magnate's familyAlmost everything is conspiring against Jean MacColl's campaign for justice, four years after her daughter, the singer-songwriter Kirsty, was mown down by a motorboat while diving in Mexico.
The man who was convicted of wrongful killing, a young employee of a Mexican supermarket magnate, was probably not behind the wheel of the speedboat at the time.
At any rate he avoided prison by paying one peso for each day of his two years and 10 months term - which amounted to a £61 fine and damages of £1,250. Local authorities closed the case last year, and a federal prosecutor rejected Mrs MacColl's request to bring it under federal jurisdiction.
The 81-year-old former dancer and choreographer admits the odds are not in her favour. "It's one step forward, two steps back. We are going to carry on fighting until we win," Mrs MacColl said in London. "We are fighting impunity and corruption."
The Justice for Kirsty campaign is pinning its hopes on new evidence it claims to have found that will be revealed in a documentary to be shown in the Edinburgh TV festival today.
At the time of her death Kirsty MacColl, best known for the 80s hits There's a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis and her gritty duet Fairytale of New York with Shane MacGowan, was enjoying critical acclaim for her Latin-inspired new album Tropical Brainstorm.
She was on holiday on the island of Cozumel, just off Mexico's Yucatan's peninsula, with her two teenage sons after completing a radio series on Cuban music.
The 41-year-old singer set out at midday on December 18, 2000 for a part of the Chankanaab reef favoured by local diving instructors as an easy and spectacular introduction for novice divers like her children.
Ivan Diaz, their experienced dive master, said they had just surfaced when the speedboat Percalito bore down on the group.
"Out of the corner of my eye I saw the boat coming directly towards us very fast. I realised that it wasn't going to change course and was going to run us over," Mr. Diaz said. "I heard a thump and a crack and then I saw the stain of blood spreading out in the water. It was Kirsty's blood."
MacColl was almost sliced in two by Percalito's propeller, dying instantly, after pushing her eldest son Jaime out of the way. He suffered minor injuries. Mr Diaz got himself and her youngest son Louis to safety unhurt.
The Mexican supermarket chain owner Guillermo Gonzalez Nova, two sons, a daughter-in-law, her baby and a young employee called Juan Jose Cem Yam were on the boat. Mr Gonzalez Nova is the chairman of Mexico's second-largest retailing group.
Cem Yam confessed to being behind the wheel despite having no licence or boating experience. In March 2003 he was convicted of wrongful killing and sentenced to two years and 10 months, which he avoided by buying himself out of jail. The fine he paid was set low because of his clean record and low salary.
Mrs McColl hired a private investigator, and according to the documentary he discovered that Percalito was travelling at several times the speed limit in a restricted area of the marine park, and that Cem Yam was not at the controls.
If this is true, either Mr Gonzalez Nova or a member of his family was at the wheel. In addition the family's claim that the boat was in open water and travelling at only four knots must have been false.
The divemaster Mr Diaz said he saw Cem Yam at the back of the boat. The documentary claims that other potential witnesses were either not called to court or were too frightened of giving evidence against a powerful family with a holiday home on the island.
If Cem Yam is innocent, it would not be the first time in Mexico that the poor and powerless have been held responsible for actions of others.
"It is very common for an employee to be made a scapegoat in a case involving an important family, particularly in the provinces," said Rafael Ruiz Harrell, a criminologist who added that the rise of human rights groups has begun to attack this phenomenon.
Mrs MacColl's Mexican lawyer, Demetrio Guerra, insists there is no question but that the investigation was plagued by negligence. The only hope of a retrial, he says, is to get the case admitted to federal jurisdiction on the grounds that the accident took place in federal waters.
None of this deters Mrs MacColl. "Kirsty was not a pop star in the sense of all the razzmatazz that usually goes with that," she said. "She was so honest and open and down to earth and generous of heart. She fought injustice in her way and that's what I am trying to do for her."
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