13 year old boy pushed into a river and drowned. No prosecution. AIBU to think this was not a ‘prank’,

[RopeyRuby]

Just seen this and remember the story.

The culprit knew he couldn’t swim and was old enough to understand the consequences IMO. One of the reasons for not prosecuting was it harming his ‘life chances’! What about poor Christopher who lost his? No trial so no closure for his mother.

www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-60104439.amp

AIBU to think this is not right or just?

Horrific to think of the fear Christopher went through.

Oh Christ, what a tragedy. What a sweet face Christopher had. What a horrible waste of life. His poor family and his poor poor mum.

That is heartbreaking. But I don't think the intention was to harm him, they were just messing around.

If anything it drives home the importance of making sure your child can swim from as young as possible. I think swimming lessons should be paid for by the government and before school.

It’s totally tragic
I also went whoah when I read he was black in a
mainly white area
But then you read he was with friends , playing , his friends tried to save him etc
It doesn’t sound like malicious intent or bullying

Terrible

Used to live there. There were some particularly rough groups of kids always congregating and messing around. Many incidents of physical violence and threats of it. I'm sure this was a very, very ill thought out action by the pusher. But he still caused this to happen.

Was so glad when I was able to move four miles down the road. Made a massive difference.

I can remember when ds was around that age telling me about similar horseplay with his friends and how much fun they all had, thankfully it didn't end tragedy. He got a good talking too and other parents were told what they had been up to so they could do the same. It could have very easily been very different and my heart goes out to everyone impacted by young Christophers death.

@Hugasauras

It just seems like a really sad story.

Christopher Kapessa river death: No prosecution decision upheld www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-53475504

This article says he was standing in swimming trunks on the edge and had taken his shoes off. He'd apparently made comments about really wanting to go in, as well as comments to others about not being able to swim. A boy pushed him in as he stood on the rocks beside him. The same boy was one of the group who then tried to rescue him when it became clear he was in trouble.

I don't know how much would be achieved criminalising the boy responsible. I imagine the guilt has already made a massive impact on how his life will unfold. Obviously it shouldn't have happened but I'm not there was any suggestion it was malicious or premeditated, or that the boy who did it did so with the aim of harming him. Ruining another life doesn't really seem the answer.

I don’t know if this is the case, but it may be.

I think you’d have to look more deeply into the case OP before you decide the decision was unfair. Similarly the poster who suggested it’s a racially motivated attack would need to look at it more closely.

Life is not straightforward. Teenagers do stupid things without thinking, for all we know the boy who pushed Christopher has been scarred for life - that’s nothing to loosing your life of course, but if it was also an accident it may well be right that no further action is taken.

So tragic. When I read the headline I was ready to say that the pusher should face the full might of the law. But on consideration, I don't think it was malicious or racially motivated. I feel desperately sorry for his family.

Well surely if it is as everyone says "horseplay gone wrong" then the young man will be declared innocent by the court but a day in court is what this family deserves. To completely deny them that is unfair. Actions have consequences. Funny how the thought of how prosecution will harm someone's life and bring zero benefit is only trotted about when it applies to certain demographics of the population, others will have the book thrown at them and have it follow them for the rest of their lives for infractions and crimes far less serious, let alone actions that meant someone lost their lives. Very different narrative would be at play.

I don't believe the report - all hearsay unless there's video evidence of what exactly happened. In other words, all they have is what the group said happened.

On a different note: Pushing someone into the river is malicious behaviour, bullying and dangerous especially when you know the person couldn't swim well or couldn't swim at all (splitting hairs unnecessary), no matter how anyone tries to spin it.

Not long ago, an 8 year old Black boy got in the way of Palace guards and was nearly trampled. It was said his brother probably pushed him. Cue posters raining personal attacks on both the 8 year old, the brother and the mum because they should all have known better.

Now a Black boy has been pushed into the river when 'his friends' knew he couldn't swim, resulting in the boys death. Cue posters "Oh but..."

Surprise surprise! Double standards strikes again.🙄

Poor family! Not knowing what really happened to their boy or getting true justice must hurt so much.

(Please don't @ me with any stupid 'explanations' or 'rebuttals'. Unless you have concrete evidence to the contrary, then I wrote what I wrote).

Agree with previous posters. Horrible tragic death, but if the young boy was standing around with a swimming costume on, a teenage friend would assume that yes, he was capable of swimming. I think this is very different to a situation where someone hurled in a clothed kid who wasn't looking to go into the water at all.

I really wish that TPTB could somehow ensure that EVERYONE learns to swim. Sadly, school swimming lessons are largely useless and schools simply don't have the time to do everything. And swimming instruction will have gone backwards over this pandemic. I wonder if we will see a rise in deaths like this.

And people should be talking to their teens about the dangers of unsupervised wild swimming, for people of ANY age. I did some wild swimming in a lake last year, but it was in a well-mapped out lake that safely hosts wild swimming all the time, and was with a big group of people which included excellent swimmers, and we were still very careful.

I have not seen or read any evidence of there being any malice aforethought nor any suggestion of any racist elements to this; yet many comments project that onto this sad story. These children will live with the memory of witnessing a drowning. One will know that their stupidity caused it. No one on here knows how those involved reacted to this awful event but feel free to second guess those who were privy to detailed information and interviews prosecuting someone for murder is not necessarily pursuing justice if that genuinely was not their intent and that logic applies to manslaughter too

especially when you know the person couldn't swim well or couldn't swim at all

No. The article says "the suspect admitted he knew Christopher was not good at swimming." Frankly, that can mean all kinds of things. If someone was standing around in a swimming cozzie but had said previously "I'm not great at swimming," a lot of teens would foolishly assume that the boy in question had probably not done as many swimming badges as they had. Pushing him is was still incredibly stupid, but then unsupervised wild swimming by teens is dodgy anyway, like I said.

It's embarrassing for a teenage boy to admit that "I can't swim," which is presumably why poor Christopher couldn't quite say it out loud, and wound up in a swimming costume on the edge of the lake wondering how to get out of this situation.

I hate the fact that the law in the UK is often on the side of the person or group who committed the crime and ignores the plight of the victim. Should have gone to court and let the jury decide if crime commited or not. At 13 children know right from wrong. They need to know their actions have consequences.

The kid was in his swimming costume and debating getting in. We don't know the race of the child who pushed him in and they were all a group of friends having fun so I don't understand why people are bringing up race.

I helped out a few times at my kids school swimming lessons and those who hadn't taken swimming lessons outside of school were in the small pool and there is no way that they would have been able to swim properly by the time they left primary school. And all the kids were white. So nothing to do with race and more to do with the fact that swimming lessons are expensive and I took my kids to swimming lessons from the age of 1 and it took until they were about 7 or 8 until they could swim really well. Many families cannot afford that. White, black, asian, doesn't matter. Plus the actual time to take them.

The poor boy is not here and we just have the words of the perpetrators who are defending their actions.
Shame on the High Court judge. Race definitely is a factor. If it was a white girl being pushed in and drowning by a black girl/ boy, the outcome would be very different

The suspect was 14 at the time and 17 now. Just to add that fact. I agree with you caringcarer on the rest.

OTOH, seems people are happy to speculate on what may have happened in favour of the suspect and the group but God forbid anyone says anything in favour of the actual victim and their family. Not paying attention to the noise at this point.

No. The article says "the suspect admitted he knew Christopher was not good at swimming."

You seriously think there's any difference between this and "can't swim very well"?

If you so want to quote the article, where in the article did you get your all your speculations about what the boy must have been doing to warrant being pushed? Why is what you think it can mean more valid than what I think it means?

@Ohdearthatwasntgreatwasit

It’s not common knowledge as far as I’m concerned. As a teacher who takes classes swimming, in my experience whether children can swim or not is usually down to socio- economic status. The link you’ve given is an old study completed in the US. Which I’m unable to access as I’m not a student! So doesn’t actually allow me to read the findings.
@LowlyTheWorm your quote is interesting, and one which I will explore further. I do think it’s not useful to group all non -white people as BAME though, as they are not a homogenous group, as indeed white people are Lao not an homogenous group.
So claiming that ‘it’s very unusual for white boys of this age to not be able to swim but it’s very common in BAME communities’ actually just muddies the waters.

Wow this thread just brings home the saying 'boys will be boys' and how that is used as an excuse for all sorts of unacceptable (white) boy behaviour. It's not a prank or a joke or horseplay to push someone that can't swim very well into a river. The boy was obviously extremely anxious to be standing there dithering, it's not up to some other boy to decide 'oh all he needs is a good push'.

If he'd got in his dad's car 'for a laugh' and accidentally hit his friend with it would that just be a prank gone wrong? What if he'd had some alcohol? What if he was joy riding a stranger's car? Where exactly is the line that putting someone's else life in danger stops becoming a prank and starts becoming your responsibility?

It was teenage kids behaving impulsively that went tragically wrong. From what I've read I can see why the CPS wouldn't pursue it, as a jury member I wouldn't say guilty of manslaughter either.

Very similar to a case in Bury NW.

www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/jul/04/girl-who-drowned-in-bury-river-bullied-at-school-say-family

@OniferousWasp

Do you know what OP? If not heard the story but as soon as I read your OP, I knew the victim would be from some sort of BAME background and the perpetrator, white. People will come along and justify it in all sorts of ways but it is what it is.

His poor mother.

I completely agree.

@Ohdearthatwasntgreatwasit

What benefit do you think there would be in bringing a prosecution?

We have to look to what would be the right outcome for society as a whole, not just the grieving family.

For a crime to have been committed, there needs to be the appropriate mens rea which isn’t present in this case.

So how is anyone ever prosecuted if reckless endangerment? There's no mens rea there either

Yanbu - the child that pushed him is responsible for causing his death and there should be some accountability for that regardless whether it was intentional or not. It’s such a sad case.