A coroner is today delivering his findings after hearing evidence on the death of schoolboy Christopher Kapessa who drowned in a river on a summer's day.
Assistant coroner David Regan said he had concluded after hearing all the evidence that the 13-year-old Mountain Ash Comprehensive pupil had been deliberately pushed into the River Cynon, near Fernhill, on July 1, 2019, where a group of teenagers had spending time by a bridge known as the red bridgeMr Regan said he rejected the evidence of the boy accused of pushing him, who had said he slipped and knocked Christopher off the ledge accidentally.
He said: "(The boy) pushed Christopher into the water in a misplaced sense of fun, as a prank, and not with any malicious intent.” Read more: Mum details string of racist abuse incidents she says her family suffered when they moved to Wales In January 2022 the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided not to prosecute the teenager who was alleged to have pushed Christopher into the river, where he drowned.
The CPS said a prosecution was not in the public interest. Christopher's mother Alina Joseph later challenged that decision at a High Court hearing in London but two judges ruled against her.Ms Joseph has accused the police of institutional racism and of failing to properly investigate what had happened to the year eight pupil, claiming inquiries stopped after a day when it was decided her son's death had been an accident. Scroll down for live updates from the inquest hearing as it happens and a full recap of everything that's been heard so far.