The High Court in London ordered magistrates to reconsider Ian Charlson’s request to bring a prosecution for “causing death by dangerous driving” against the motorist.

Mr Justice Silber described how Mr Charlson, from Guildford, Surrey, fought to bring a private prosecution after his son Harry was killed by a car driven by Victoria Walsh on the A3 Farnham Road on August 19, 2004. The Crown Prosecution Service started proceedings against Miss Walsh, but in May last year, after the boy’s inquest, it discontinued them. Mr Charlson’s solicitors then applied to Guildford magistrates to bring a private prosecution but were denied in light of the CPS decision.

Mr Justice Silber said that magistrates had wrongly taken the view that there had to be “special circumstances” for a private prosecution to be mounted after the CPS had discontinued proceedings. He added that such prosecutions were meant to be an “effective safeguard against improper inaction by the prosecuting authority”.

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