Drowned boy's family call on CPS to review decision not to charge suspect

The family of a black boy who drowned in a Welsh river has called on the Crown Prosecution Service to take action against an older white boy after a coroner ruled he had deliberately pushed the younger teenager into the water.

- Steven Morris

Relatives of Christopher Kapessa said their four-and-a-half year campaign for justice had been vindicated by the assistant coroner David Regan’s conclusion that the 13-year-old was pushed into the river as a “dangerous prank”.

The CPS found in 2020 there was evidence to support a prosecution for manslaughter but decided it was not in the public interest to charge the suspect – who was 14 at the time, and can be named for the first time as Jayden Pugh – taking into consideration factors such as his age and his good character.

Christopher’s relatives and anti-racism campaigners say if a black child had pushed a white child into the river with fatal consequences, the CPS would have prosecuted. They have accused the CPS and South Wales police, who at first treated Christopher’s death as a pure accident, of institutional racism.

Speaking outside the coroner’s court in Pontypridd, south Wales, after the inquest, Christopher’s mother, Alina Joseph, said: “I am haunted by the injustice our family endured throughout the police investigation into Christopher’s death. From the outset they had made their decisions on what had happened to Christopher. They had a biased view of me as a black single mother living in the valleys.

“I was a victim of the institutional racist practices of South Wales police. I deserve better. Christopher deserves better. The decision not to prosecute despite sufficient evidence is something I wouldn’t wish on any mother or any family. The coroner’s conclusion has confirmed today what I have always suspected and now know was actually clear right from the beginning: Christopher was pushed to his death without any warning.”