E.coli family's manslaughter call

Five-year-old Mason Jones died from E.coli poisoning

The family of a five-year-old boy who died in an E.coli outbreak two years ago want a case of manslaughter to be reconsidered against a jailed butcher.

Mason Jones, from Bargoed in Caerphilly county, died and 157 others became ill.

William Tudor, the butcher who supplied the contaminated meat, was jailed for a year for food safety offences.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided in February there was insufficient evidence to bring a manslaughter case.

The CPS has said the evidence did not provide a realistic prospect of a conviction.

Mason's family have instructed their solicitor to write to the CPS, asking it to reconsider its decision on the manslaughter charge.

They believe evidence submitted to Tudor's hearing at Cardiff Crown Court last Friday meant police should also re-examine the case.

"Missing ingredient"

Speaking on Radio Wales, Andrew Davies, the solicitor acting on behalf of Mason's family said that in the very least they were hoping the CPS would be able to explain their decision again in the light of what was heard last week.

"When we attended a meeting in February with the CPS they stressed that there was an ingredient that was missing from this case to enable them to bring a prosecution," he said.

"The missing ingredient was that Mr Tudor would not have been aware that there was a serious and obvious risk of death occurring in this case."

The court heard that Tudor was a butcher of great experience who had been on several courses which would have told him about the dangers of E.coli.

Sharon Mills, Mason's mother, admitted that while more legal proceedings would be tough on the family, they were keen to push for them.

"We were absolutely appalled about what we heard in court on Friday," she said.

"After 30 years of experience he should have known what he was doing, that there would have been a high risk of cross contamination."

The CPS said it had not yet received the letter from the family.

William Tudor of John Tudor and Son of Bridgend at court

Tudor, 54, was jailed for 12 months after the court heard that a vacuum-packing machine, "wrongly-used" for both raw and cooked meats, was the source of contaminated meat to schools.

Mason Jones died after eating ham and turkey during school lunch. The cooked meat came from Tudor's premises in Bridgend.

The subsequent E.coli 0157 strain outbreak, which affected 44 schools, was the largest ever in Wales, the second biggest of its kind in the UK and the sixth largest worldwide.

Earlier this week a report was published which was written in the wake of the incident by the outbreak control team made nine recommendations, including the establishment of a national minimum standard of good hygiene in schools.

The report will be handed to Professor Hugh Pennington, who is holding a public inquiry into the outbreak next year.