UK Edition
Prominent QC Michael Mansfield agrees to represent family of Emiliano Sala
The family of Emiliano Sala has instructed one of the UK’s most prominent QCs in a bid to ensure anyone responsible for his tragic death is made to “pay”.
Michael Mansfield, who represented most of the victims’ families at the recent Hillsborough Inquests, has agreed to help Sala’s relatives secure what his mother last week described as “justice for Emiliano”.
Mansfield’s Nexus Chambers yesterday confirmed he had been instructed by the family of the striker, who was killed in a plane crash over the English Channel two days after Cardiff City announced his signing from Nantes.
Nexus declined to comment further on what it said was an “ongoing case” amid speculation Sala’s family could pursue a negligence claim over his January 21 death.
Mansfield’s chambers profile describes the QC as having tackled “some of the most controversial legal cases this country has seen”.
As well as representing the families in the 2014-16 inquests into the death of 96 people at the Hillsborough Disaster, he has represented Mohammed Al Fayed in his pursuit of the truth surrounding the death of his son, Dodi, and Princess Diana, the families of victims at the Bloody Sunday Inquiry, the Birmingham Six, the family of the murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence, and the family of Jean Charles de Menezes, shot by the Metropolitan Police in 2005.
He is currently representing survivors and relatives of victims at the Grenfell Tower Inquiry and survivors at the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse.
Confirmation of his instruction by Sala’s family comes less than a week after the player’s mother angrily accused Cardiff City of showing “disrespect towards my family” by withholding the striker’s £15 million transfer fee from Nantes.
Mercedes Taffarel also told L’Equipe she had heard nothing since his death from Willie McKay, who booked the flight on which Sala was killed.
She added: “All I’m saying is that I want justice for my son. I simply want the truth. Let justice determine if there has been negligence, if someone made a mistake, and make them pay.”
Cardiff and Nantes declined to comment on Mansfield’s appointment, while McKay did not respond to requests for comment.
Sources have told the Daily Telegraph the Welsh club are committed to ensuring Sala’s family are looked after, despite their withholding of his transfer fee from Nantes over an agreement they claim became “null and void” when he died.
McKay, who helped broker Sala’s move to Cardiff, previously said he was willing to meet the player’s mother.
The Metropolitan Police were yesterday still investigating the Scot following a complaint by Cardiff that he threatened to “burn” the Premier League club, to “kill everybody” there and to “shoot the lot of you”.
McKay has denied issuing threats to kill.