A teenager left paralysed by a skiing accident on a trip with his Suffolk school will not be compensated, the Court of Appeal has ruled.

The teacher in charge of the outing and Woodbridge School have been cleared of all blame for Simon Chittock's accident.

On Wednesday, the school successfully appealed against a High Court ruling last year, that it did not sufficiently protect Mr Chittock, then 17.

In 2001, High Court judge Mr Justice Leveson, said that the school was 50% to blame for the accident.

Mr Chittock was "off-piste" when he was injured

However, the Court of Appeal disagreed and ruled the judge had wrongly held that the school was in breach of duty.

Mr Chittock, now 23, of Clapham, south London, was paralysed when he fell on his back while skiing off-piste at Kuhtai in Austria in April 1996.

Mr Justice Leveson said the accident was primarily caused because Mr Chittock was skiing too fast and not paying enough attention.

However, he said the school was also to blame because of its failure to respond adequately when Mr Chittock skied off-piste, the day before the accident.

'Reasonable response'

Teacher Andrew Jackson had already reprimanded Mr Chittock and two friends for the infringement, but did not remove their ski passes because staff were trying to treat them as adults.

Mr Justice Leveson told the court Mr Jackson and the school had failed in his "duty of care"

But on Wednesday Lord Justice Auld, sitting with Lord Justice Carnwath and Sir Swinton Thomas, rejected the finding and said Mr Jackson's decision was a "reasonable response" for a teacher.

"If [the boys'] behaviour had been such as to suggest a risk they would not continue to ski responsibly on-piste, then it might be Mr Jackson would have failed in his duty by not stopping them from skiing or not insisting on supervision, but that is not this case," the judges ruled.