A PILOT held in an African prison for nearly six weeks has been charged on suspicion of mass murder.

The charges against David Simpson, from Gillamoor, on the North York Moors, relate to the discovery of 13 bodies in the Central African Republic, where he has worked for the past two years.

However, the move has led to renewed hope for him and his family that he could soon be on the way home to Britain again.

The 24-year-old claims he stumbled across the bodies – initially it was said there were 18 – while working in the bush for Cawa Safari, which runs hunting trips on its own reserve in the area.

Many of the bodies had machete wounds, others has been beaten to death and some had been scalded with boiling water.

It is believed by many that the murders were the work of the Lord’s Resistance Army, a notorious terrorist group thought to be responsible for hundreds of atrocities.

However Mr Simpson was arrested in the country’s capital, Bangui, along with his Swedish boss Erik Mararv, after six hours of interrogation when they voluntarily went to report the massacre in the remote south-east of the country.

Both have now been charged, and 13 of their local staff stand accused alongside them.

But yesterday, Mr Simpson’s brother, Paul, who works on the family game farm at Gillamoor, said his brother was remarkably upbeat about the move.

“It is some kind of progression at last,” he said.

“It means things will now finally move forward and, as there is no evidence against him, that gives all of us hope that he could be coming home.

“He was last here in September and when he went back over there he bought a return ticket. That is dated May 21 and we obviously still want him to use it.”

It is understood a special judge will be appointed to assess the evidence and will then recommend the next course of action – and options include progressing to a full trial A spokesman for the Foreign Office said: “We are providing consular assistance to Mr Simpson and are in contact with the Central African Republic authorities. We are continuing to monitor the situation closely.”