Dumped Driver Dies With Ex After Speeding Into Freezing Canal

Mar 23 2008 By Jim Lawson And Alan Dow

A SPURNED lover and his ex-girlfriend drowned after he sped his van into an icy canal yesterday.

Calum MacInnes had been dumped by mum-of-four Christina Cameron, 45, before the 20ft plunge into the water.

Divorcee Christina's long-term partner Alastair MacKenzie, 54, accused MacInnes of murdering his former lover in a jealous fury after making a suicide threat.

He said: "He is nothing better than a cold-blooded killer.

"If he wanted to kill himself, fair enough but to take Christina with him was the action of a coward and a murderer.

"As well as loving me, Christina loved her children and two grand-children. She had everything to live for. She was the love of my life.

"I feel absolutely devastated, and have no family to help comfort me. I feel terribly lonely already, and Christina has only been dead a few hours."

A police source revealed officers had earlier chased the white van but it failed to stop.

They then had a tip-off that it was parked beside the Caledonian Canal at Banavie in Lochaber, Inverness-shire.

But when two officers approached the vehicle at 3.30am yesterday, it suddenly shot forward and plunged 20ft into the freezing water.

Inspector Dougie Allan, of Northern Constabulary, said: "We received an anonymous phone call saying the car was parked by the canal. It was not involved in a pursuit at the time."

Deep tyre marks in the grass suggested the van had been revved up before the double death plunge into 12ft-deep water.

MacInnes, in his 50s, died despite escaping from the vehicle which plunged into the water at Neptune's Staircase. He was found close to a ladder leading out of the water.

But his ex-love was trapped inside the vehicle and her body was recovered yesterday afternoon by Strathclyde Police divers.

Landfill worker Alastair, of Corpach, spoke with Christina by phone just hours before her death.

He said: "Like any couple, we had our ups and downs.

"I had to go away from home for five weeks at the beginning of the year. And when I came back, I discovered Christina had taken up with MacInnes.

"But only on Friday we agreed to get back together and said we loved each other.

"She had been up in Inverness seeing her daughter Claire earlier in the day and I picked her up at her daughter Colette's house in Caol at about 7pm and took her shopping at Morrison's in Fort William, then we returned to my house.

"Later on Friday night she phoned MacInnes and told him she and I were getting back together.

"He then made the suicide threat, saying: 'Do you want my two children to be left without a father? If you leave me, I won't be here tomorrow'. I don't think either of us took the threat seriously at the time. If only we had known."

Later Christina and Colette went to the house of MacInnes's twin brother Alastair and his wife.

Mr MacKenzie added: "Colette went home and MacInnes later turned up drunk in his van at the twin brother's house.

"To try to prevent MacInnes committing suicide, Christina went off in the van with him. The cowardly b****** was found in the water out of the van so it seems he made an attempt to escape, leaving Christina to drown inside the van."

Mr MacKenzie said he had spoken to Christina at 12.45am on the phone while she was at the brother's house and she said she was fine.

He added: "This is the saddest, most heartbreaking day of my life. I went up to the canal and they were pulling the van out of the water."

MacInnes was separated from his district nurse wife Jacqueline, 45, who was last week fined s200 and banned for a year at Fort William Sheriff Court for drink driving.

The double death has shocked the close-knit Highland communities of Banavie, Caol and Fort William.

Post-mortems will be carried out on the bodies in Fort William tomorrow and a report will be sent to the procurator fiscal.