Simon Jones was killed just hours after starting new job

Simon Jones, from Banbury, Oxfordshire, was killed when his head was crushed by a mechanical claw just hours after he began a casual job unloading stones from a cargo ship at Shoreham docks, west Sussex, in May 1998.

The company in charge of the operation, Euromin Ltd, was fined �50,000 for safety breaches, but an Old Bailey jury cleared the firm and its general manager, Richard Martell, of manslaughter.

The jury was told that the claw had closed at the wrong time after the clothing of the man operating it got caught on the joystick lever which controlled the claw.

Long overdue

The 24-year-old Sussex University student's mother, Anne Jones, believes the introduction of a new corporate manslaughter offence is long overdue.

"My son was a fit and healthy young man, and when someone goes off to work whose fit and healthy you expect them to come home in the same condition.

"He did nothing wrong. He followed the instructions to the letter yet he was killed because the system that was set-up was unsafe.

"In our case, the company's lawyers successfully argued that the general manager could not have known what was happening.

"But that's not good enough, the management should have to know what's happening. They'd know about financial matters, so they should have to know about safety too.

We want to see individuals held personally responsible for the safety of their employees and the public Anne Jones

"If they had have been aware of the poor safety standards then you wouldn't have people like us mourning the loss of a son who goes off to work one morning and never comes back."

While welcoming the plans for a new law on corporate manslaughter, Mrs Jones said she would have to study exactly what the government intended to do before she could comment further.

"We've been campaigning for years for change. The government said they were going to do this when they first came to power but we're still waiting.

"We want to see individuals held personally responsible for the safety of their employees and the public.

Tragic irony

"We at least managed to have someone face manslaughter charges, but when it's big companies, like those involved in rail crashes and deaths in the construction industry, no person, or persons, will ever be held to account under the current system.

"And the fines they hand out are derisory, it should be a percentage of the company's annual turnover.

Then they would make sure safety was top priority as they would be facing millions in fines."

Mrs Jones said there was a tragic irony about her son's death as one of the many causes he had supported was that of the Liverpool dockers, who were against the use of casual labour on Mersey docks.