Christopher Kapessa inquest: Teen admitted pushing drowned boy

A teen admitted pushing a boy into a river who then drowned, an inquest has heard.

Christopher Kapessa, 13, died after the incident at the River Cynon in Fernhill, Rhondda Cynon Taf, in 2019.

Killian Haslam, 18, told the inquest he was one of the children who jumped in to try and save Christopher.

Mr Haslam claims another teenager, then 14, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was stood behind Christopher and asked "Shall I push him?".

Mr Haslam said he remembered Christopher, who was "joking around with his friends", taking off his clothes but being unsure whether he wanted to enter the water.

"He was saying he couldn't swim and then he was saying he was a great swimmer," he told South Wales Central Coroner's Court in Pontypridd.

Mr Haslam added that he did not believe the unnamed teen's pushing comment was made in a serious way.

"It was more a jokey way... I just carried on getting changed, it was freezing, I didn't take much notice," he said.

Mr Haslam told the court he was getting changed when he heard lots of noise and returned to the river and was then one of the children who jumped in to help Christopher but he could not be saved. 

The court heard that another teenager remembered Christopher's last words as "Killian, save me".  

Killian Haslam also told the court that, about a week after Christopher's death, he met the teenager who cannot be named in a local park.

"He asked me what I put in my statement and I said I was going off what I heard, that he tripped," he said.

"He thanked me and I was taken aback that he was thankful and that's when he told me he pushed him."

The court has heard from other teenagers who said they saw Christopher being pushed into the water.

Millie Morgan, 18, told the inquest she also jumped in to help him after she realised he was in trouble.

She said his head was "going in and out" of the water and that she "could see he was giving up".

"I tried to find him but the water was too black and muddy," she told the court.

"You couldn't see anything at all underneath the water.

"I looked for him for a while but I couldn't see him, and that's when the police came."

Ms Morgan also told the court that she was with a group of friends who met with the boy who allegedly pushed Christopher, after the incident.

"A couple of weeks after we went to his garage and he said something along the lines of he pushed him, he didn't slip," she added.

Barristers representing the alleged pusher have told the court that the teenager stumbled and fell into the boy.  

The inquest continues.