The parents of a boy scout killed on a scouting expedition on Snowdon have called on the Scouting Association to be held responsible for the tragedy.

Their call comes on the morning that Peter Finlay, the scout leader in charge of the expedition, is due to be charged with the manslaughter of their 10-year-old son Jonathan Attwell.

Jonathan died on 16 October 1999 falling from the East Ridge of the mountain. He had been walking at the back of the group, while Finlay and the other three adults on the expedition were at the front.

Finlay is set to be charged at 8 am this morning at Caernarfon police station. Although Jonathan's parents Martyn and Lynn are relieved that this is happening, they say that the Scout Association must be made to bear responsibility for not checking that the children on the expedition would be safe. The association failed to check where Finlay was taking the group and whether he was qualified to take it.

Finlay had not passed the leadership exams to take groups on to the more difficult mountain ranges and his first aid certificate had run out.

"We are very angry with the Scout Association which has so far failed to admit that its lack of checks caused the death of our son," the Attwells said. "We believe it had a duty to ensure that our son would be safe and we would obviously never have let him go on the expedition if we had known that the necessary checks had not been made."