Sharon Mills, the mother of five-year-old Mason Jones, said she will campaign for a change in the law after William John Tudor, the butcher who caused the Wales E. coli O157 outbreak that killed Mason, was jailed for 12 months, adding it "sends a strong message that a change in the law is needed."

Mills told Western Mail that the jail term was a “joke”, adding,

“Mason was a five-year-old with the rest of his life ahead of him. This person will spend just six months behind bars. It seems the law is a joke.”

Mills told the South Wales Echo that,

“What Mason went through was horrific and six months is a joke really. Six months is just not enough for what he did. William Tudor will be back with his family in six months’ time. Mason will never return to ours.”

Despite working as a butcher since he was 16 and completing an advanced food hygiene course, the presiding judge said that Tudor had a “careless and make-do approach” towards food safety and cleanliness at his factory.

Tudor, 55, allowed cooked ham, turkey and lamb, which he supplied to schools across the South Wales valleys, to become contaminated with E. coli at his factory, specifically a vacuum-packaging machine which was used for both cooked and raw meats.

A prosecuting lawyer said, "In the defendant’s own words, it was not uncommon for pieces of raw meat to get into the chamber of the vacuum packer."

At one time Tudor had two of these machines, which can cost from as little as £1,300, but one was not replaced when it broke.

When inspectors visited the factory on September 19, after the E.coli outbreak had been declared, they found congealed blood, dead insects and cobwebs in the machine.