A manslaughter trial was to start today after a Banbury couple's long fight for justice after their son was fatally injured at work.

Dutch-owned Euromin Limited faces trial at the Old Bailey accused of manslaughter, by gross negligence, of 24-year-old student Simon Jones, who died in April 1998.

Mr Jones was killed while working for the firm at Shoreham Docks, in East Sussex.

At first the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to seek convictions because of previous difficulties involved in bringing corporate manslaughter charges.

But following a campaign by Mr Jones' parents, Christopher and Ann, both 53, of Timms Road, Banbury, and his brother, Timothy, 23, a wildlife surveyor from Sheffield, the High Court overruled the CPS decision and ordered a full trial.

The trial is unique in British legal history as it is the first time judicial review proceedings have been brought in a case of alleged corporate manslaughter charges.

Company manager Richard Martell, of Aldingbourne Drive, Crocker Hill, Chichester, Sussex, who was in charge of the unloading operation at Shoreham on the day of the tragedy, has denied manslaughter.

Mr Jones was working in the hold of a ship helping to unload bags of cobblestones. He was struck by a grab crane and died later from multiple injuries.

Mr Jones was taking a year out from Sussex University and got the job in the docks through an agency, Personnel Selection.

Previously Euromin has denied manslaughter as well as six counts of failure to comply with Health and Safety regulations.