Gifted Oxford student died after end of term bridge jump swimming celebration

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A talented student drowned after jumping into a river at a beauty spot - alongside 200 others as onlookers filmed the celebration ritual on their mobile phones.

Gifted teenager Wesley Akum-Ojong, who studied at Oxford, took part in the practice on June 21 this year to commemorate the end of his first-year exams.

It is part of a tradition called 'trashing' and took place at Port Meadow - a meadow and nature reserve in Oxford. The 19-year-old was studying politics, philosophy and economics.

The Mirror reports an inquest heard he was filmed leaping from the bridge with others and footage shows him resurfacing but he did not make it back to shore.

It wasn’t until 45 minutes later that friends realised he was missing and called 999. Mr Akum-Ojong, a former pupil of Watford Grammar School for Boys, jumped from the bridge at 6.52pm.

The emergency services were called at 7.29pm. Firefighters recovered the teenager's body from the bottom of the River Thames at 8.10pm and medics spent an hour and 20 minutes trying to revive the teen, the court heard.

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Tragically Wesley Akum-Ojong, from Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, was pronounced dead at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital at 9.43pm.

The longstanding tradition of trashing sees Oxford students covered with food, confetti and alcohol by their peers upon completing their finals.

Coroner Nicholas Graham heard Mr Akum-Ojong was wearing "heavy clothes" at the time of the incident and a video of the event shows him appearing to be "struggling" in the water.

But one of the attending police officers said "nobody seems to have realised". A witness, known as Student A, told police how “lots of students” walked to Port Meadow following their final exams covered in “confetti and powder”.

They then jumped into the river to “wash it all off” as part of the tradition. After the group jumped in together she told police that she had seen Mr Akum-Ojong resurface and assumed he would swim to the bank with the rest.

It wasn't until she found his phone still on the bank that she realised he had never made it out the alarm was raised. Another witness, Student B, said she had been swimming at the site for an hour.

He said he “found it hard to understand how someone could've missed Wesley being in distress in the water.” A pathologist recorded the cause of death as drowning.

Mr Graham, Area Coroner for Oxfordshire, recorded a verdict of accidental death adding that Mr Akum-Ojong's death after the incident at the 'popular wild swimming area' was a 'tragedy'.

The student's mother, Patience Akum-Ojong and other relatives challenged the pathologist’s finding, had queried why more blood than water had been found in the teenager's lungs.

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