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Man who registered Amy Winehouse charity name strikes back at family
Martin McCann, who bought the domain name AmyWinehouseFoundation.com, has condemned attempts to 'pressure' him into handing over website
The man who is standing in the way of Amy Winehouse's posthumous foundation has lashed out at the singer's father. Martin McCann registered a company called Amy Winehouse Foundation Ltd and bought the domain name AmyWinehouseFoundation.com, blocking the family's plan to do the same. Now he has condemned Mitch Winehouse's attempts to "pressure" him into handing over the website, demanding an apology before "comes to [any] arrangement".
McCann, who lives in west London, was tracked down this week by the Sun. Confronted at his home, he admitted paying £160 to register the Amy Winehouse Foundation name with Companies House on 2 August. He also bought AmyWinehouseFoundation.com, despite having never met the singer or her family. "Detach yourself from emotions and think business," McCann said. "I'm not exploiting anything yet. I've just bought some domain names. Anybody could have. It only takes the click of a mouse."
Last week, Mitch Winehouse revealed that due to a then-unnamed "dick head", the Winehouse family had been forced to return fan donations to a prospective Amy Winehouse charity. "All these donations that are coming in – we don't know what to do with them at the moment," he said. "We haven't got [a] bank [account] in that name." McCann was allegedly "offering to sell" the domain name, approaching Amy's ex-husband about a sale.
McCann has now lashed out against Amy's father. "I'm not the dickhead," he said. "The dickhead is sitting over there without the name in his possession." Besides, McCann claims, this doesn't have anything to do with the Rehab singer: he claims he registered the foundation to celebrate a different Amy Winehouse. "She's not the only Amy Winehouse in the world," he said. "I'm not ashamed or embarrassed."
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