Charlotte Shaw was a fourteen-year-old British schoolgirl who drowned while crossing a swollen stream on Dartmoor during training for Ten Tors in 2007.

Her death, the first to occur in connection with Ten Tors or one of its training expeditions, made national news headlines in the United Kingdom.

She was located 20 minutes later by a Royal Navy search and rescue helicopter and airlifted to Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, where she died in the early hours of the next morning.

The investigation was later criticised by the coroner, who adjourned the inquest and recommended that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) reconsider the possibility of criminal charges.

After hearing testimony from eyewitnesses, including other members of Shaw's group, the inquest concluded with a narrative verdict in October 2010.

[2] Participants start from the British Army training camp at Okehampton and are required to carry all their supplies for the trek and spend one night in a tent on the moor.

All team managers undergo compulsory training, run by the Army and the Dartmoor Rescue Group, which involves trekking the route themselves.

[1] There had been heavy rain in the 12 hours prior to the accident, causing rivers and streams on Dartmoor to swell much higher than their normal levels.

Another member of the group got into difficulties crossing the stream, which, due to heavy rain, had swollen to approximately five times its normal size.

[citation needed] Shaw was found by the Royal Navy helicopter, approximately 20 minutes after the alarm was raised, 150 metres downstream from where she had fallen in.

"[4] The helicopter, from RNAS Culdrose, airlifted Shaw to Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, but she died in the early of hours of 5 March.

The inquest heard evidence in late 2009, among which was eyewitness testimony that the team manager, a teacher from Edgehill College, had met with the group the morning of Shaw's death.

[11] The inquest was adjourned in December 2010, as the coroner, Elizabeth Earland, recommended that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) reconsider criminal charges in the case.

She went on to say that "It would be a tragedy if [Ten Tors] was to stop but the public need to be satisfied it is as safe as it reasonably can be, bearing in mind it is what it says, a challenge, not a survival exercise."

The judgement given on 28 June 2012 found that the teacher had given clear instructions that the group should not attempt to cross Walla Brook but should instead go round it.

It further found that the intervention of a passerby, who suggested that the group could cross the brook, had meant that the school could not be held responsible for the accident.