‘Driver’ of speedboat that killed Fairytale of New York singer Kirsty MacColl opens up about singer's death

The singer, who died a week before Christmas in 2000, was surfacing from a scuba dive off the coast of Mexico with her two sons when a speedboat hit her, killing her instantly.

Jose Cen Yam, just 26 at the time, was found to have been behind the wheel of the vessel.

Now, speaking 25 years on from the singer’s death, Yam has said he feels “no shame” over the tragic incident.

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Yam told The Mail On Sunday: “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.

“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.”

Yam said the moment he turned the boat around and saw the singer, he knew she was dead.

He added: “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.”

However, Yam hit back at suggestions he was part of a cover-up for Mexican billionaire Guillermo González Nova - who allegedly owned the boat.

He said: “No, it was me. That’s the truth.

“The family [of Nova] never put pressure on me to admit to anything I didn’t do. I have always told the truth about this.”

It comes after MacColl’s ex-husband cast further doubt over the circumstances of her death ahead of the release of a new version of Fairytale of New York.

Steve Lillywhite, 70, told the Sun: “They said that it was a young kid driving, but no one believes that.

“I think they just didn’t want to have an enormous lawsuit because he was one of the richest guys in Mexico.

MacColl’s family have been vocally critical of the verdict, calling Yam a "fall guy" and saying "no one was really held accountable for what happened".

They referred to eyewitness statements which contradicted Yam's claim of being at the helm, and claimed the boat had been driven much faster than admitted.

The singer was at the peak of her career when she died, following the release of her acclaimed album, Tropical Brainstorm.