Prosecution in Simon Jones case

The family of Simon Jones and safety campaigners won a significant victory when the Director of Public Prosecutions announced last December that dock owner Euromin and its general manager Richard Martell are to be prosecuted for the manslaughter of Simon Jones.

Jones was killed in April 1998 within two hours of starting work inside the hold of a ship at Shoreham Docks. Since his death, the Simon Jones Memorial Campaign has fought for the circumstances surrounding it to be the subject of court action so that those responsible could be brought to account.

In a judicial review last year, two high court judges held that the Crown Prosecution Service should reconsider its decision not to prosecute Euromin or its general manager.

The government is proposing to bring in an offence of corporate killing with the intention of ensuring that more employers are brought to account for workplace deaths. However safety campaigners have long argued that prosecuting authorities are more lenient towards workplace deaths than others.