The mother of a boy who died after allegedly being pushed into a river in Wales has told his inquest her family was the victim of a string of racist attacks in the years beforehand and claimed the police failed to protect them.
Christopher Kapessa, 13, an unconfident swimmer, died after plunging about 2.5 metres (8ft) from a ledge at a bridge over the River Cynon in the town of Ferndale, south Wales, in summer 2019.
Since then, Christopher’s family has campaigned for the boy who allegedly pushed him to be charged after the Crown Prosecution Service ruled it was not in the public interest to do so. Christopher’s family claim that if he had not been black the CPS would have taken the case more seriously.
On the first day of his inquest at Pontypridd coroner’s court, Christopher’s mother, Alina Joseph, described her son as “my treasure”. She said: “Christopher had so much going for him. He was at the beginning of his life. Christopher is not allowing me to just sit down and give up. I will continue to fight for justice for him. The love I have for him is everlasting.”
In a statement read out in court, Joseph said she moved to Wales from London with her family in 2011. While living in the town of Hirwaun, she said the family were exposed to “negative and horrific treatment” from the community. “At times we all felt very isolated,” she said.
They received hate letters and racist messages were daubed on their walls, Joseph said. Family members including Christopher were assaulted and one of his brothers was run over, she added.
After Christopher was assaulted she did not bother to report it because the police had done so little to help the family, she said. In May 2018 their house was set on fire and they moved to Ferndale. Joseph said Christopher established himself at school there and had a good group of friends but was sometimes called “horrible” names.
On 1 July 2019 he went to school as normal and in the late afternoon said he was going out to play football. Later there was a knock on the door and she was told Christopher had jumped off a bridge and could not be found. “There are no words to explain how I felt and there are no words to describe how this has left our family,” she said.
A teenager who was at the river that day told the inquest that about 10 children were there. Among them was one boy who was a year older than the rest. The teenager said it was this boy – who cannot be named for legal reasons – who placed his hands or forearms on Christopher’s back and pushed him in.
He continued: “Everybody didn’t know if he could swim. As soon as people realised he couldn’t swim and he was panicking, people jumped in to try to help him.” The witness, who also cannot be named, said the boy who pushed him was one of those who dived in.
Asked by the family’s barrister, Michael Mansfield KC, if the boy who allegedly pushed Christopher was “full of himself”, the witness said: “He was in the year above, he was older than us.”
David Hughes, who is representing the boy who allegedly pushed Christopher, told the inquest it was not accepted there had been a push.
The inquest continues.
