‘Family suffered racist abuse’ before teens death, mother tells inquest

‘Family suffered racist abuse’ before teens death, mother tells inquest

THE FAMILY of a teenage boy who drowned after being pushed into a river, received vile racist abuse before his death, an inquest had heard.

Christopher Kapessa, 13, was pushed into the River Cynon in the South Welsh town of Rhondda Cynon Taf in July 2019.

A teenage boy, aged 14 at the time, was seen pushing Christopher into the water.

But in 2020 the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided not to charge the boy in connection with Christopher’s death.

In 2022, Christopher’s mother, Alina Joseph, launched an appeal to prosecute the teenager who was seen pushing her son into the river, but her appeal was thrown out by the High Court.

‘Beaten and urinated on’

At the inquest into her son’s death, Joseph said her family had received extensive “negative and horrific treatment” since moving to Wales from London in 2011.

The family lived in the village of Hirwaun between 2012 and 2018.

“While living in Hirwaun the children especially experienced so much negative and horrific treatment from other members of the community and at times we all felt very isolated because of such treatments,” Joseph said in a written statement read to the court.

She said the family had also received “racial hate letters” in the post and had racist language written outside their family home.

The inquest in Pontypridd also heard one of Jospeh’s other sons, Daniel, was also run over by a motorist and her other children were allegedly beaten and urinated on.

Jospeh said she reported incidents to the police, but told the inquest, the police said “there was not much they could do for me.”

She said: “The family ceased to make complaints to the police regarding their experience with racist abuse because they were dissatisfied with their response on every prior occasion.”

Witness

One teenager, told the inquest her saw another boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, push Christopher into the water.

He said: “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 Christopher was one of those who jumped in to try and help.

Christopher’s family is being represented by barrister Michael Mansfield KC.

In 2020, Joseph said the decision not to prosecute was at odds with justice.

“The decision taken by the CPS not to prosecute those responsible for the death of my son goes against all the principles of equality and justice and the inequality that many campaigners have fought to eradicate for many years,” Joseph said.

The inquest continues.