Christopher Kapessa’s family call on CPS to review decision not to charge suspect

Christopher Kapessa’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. Photograph: Family Handout/PA

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.

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”.