Charles Thomson has been named the UK's Weekly Reporter of the Year a record four times, and Crime and Investigative Reporter of the Year three times in a row (2024, 2025 & 2026).

He has won the Ray Fitzwalter Award for Investigative Journalism, received four commendations at the Media Freedom Awards and been shortlisted for both the Paul Foot Award and the Orwell Prize.

In 2021, after a three-year legal battle against police, he became the first UK journalist ever to unlock criminal records under the Freedom of Information Act.

His stories for Newsquest have gone on to make headlines in the Sun, the Mirror, the Daily Mail, the Guardian, the Independent, Private Eye, the New York Post, BBC London News and ITV National News.