Parole Commissioners for Northern Ireland

as from 30 November 2009

Chief Commissioner

Mr. Peter Smith CBE QC is a QC who retired from practice in 2001 after over 30 years' experience at the Bar of Northern Ireland. He remains a Judge of the Courts of Appeal of Jersey and Guernsey and until recently was a Deputy Judge of the High Court of Justice in Northern Ireland. Between 1998 and 1999 he was a member of the Independent Commission on Policing. He was appointed CBE in 2008.

Deputy Chief Commissioner 

Mrs Elsbeth Rea OBE is a registered social worker and self employed consultant. She has previously worked as both a Senior Probation Officer with the Probation Board for Northern Ireland and as a lecturer in Social Work at Queen's University Belfast. She is a Lay Magistrate and has held public appointments with the Ulster Community and Hospitals Trust, the Police Authority for Northern Ireland and the Eastern Health and Social Services Council.

Commissioners from a Legal Background

Justice Teresa Doherty CBE was a barrister. She was formerly a member of the Lord Chancellor's Advisory Committee of JP's, is a part-time Chairperson of the Social Security Appeals Tribunal and also held the positions of Principal Magistrate and Judge of the National and Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea and of the Court of Appeal and High Court of Sierra Leone. In January 2005 she was appointed by the United Nations as a judge of the 2nd trial chamber of the Special Court for Sierra Leone (the international war crimes tribunal for Sierra Leone ).

Mrs Anne Fenton has been a qualified solicitor since 1978. She was appointed Director of the Institute of Professional Legal Studies at Queen's University, Belfast in 1998. She is currently a part-time legal member of the Mental Health Review Tribunal and has previously held appointments as part-time Chairperson to both the Child Support and Disability Appeal Tribunals.

Mr Brian Garrett qualified as a solicitor in 1962 and is a consultant with Elliott Duffy Garrett (Solicitors, Belfast ). He has been a Deputy County Court Judge and is Chairman of the Northern Ireland Teachers' Salaries and Conditions of Service Committee and a qualified arbitrator. He has previously held appointments as Deputy Chairman of the Northern Ireland Independent Commission for Police Complaints and was a member of the Standing Advisory Commission on Human Rights and the Department of Trade and Industry Arbitration Law Committee (Chairman Lord Saville).

Mr John Leckey qualified as a solicitor in 1974 and is presently the Senior Coroner for Northern Ireland . From 1996 to 2001, he served as a member of the Criminal Cases Review Commission, which considers allegations of miscarriage of justice in England , Wales and Northern Ireland .

Mr Donal McFerran is a qualified solicitor who practised as partner in a litigation firm in Belfast . He has served as a Deputy Resident Magistrate, and was appointed a Deputy County Court Judge in 1990 and is a legal member of the Mental Health Tribunal. Since 2001, he has also served as a Sentence Review Commissioner.

Ms Clodach McGrory practiced at the Bar in Northern Ireland from 1990 to 1995 and subsequently worked at the Law Centre (NI). She was a member of the Standing Advisory Commission on Human Rights from 1998 to 1999 and served a term of office on the Irish Human Rights Commission from December 2000 until August 2006. She is currently a part-time Chairperson of Social Security Appeal Tribunals and has been a Sentence Review Commissioner since 1998.

Judge Derek Rodgers qualified as a solicitor in 1973 and was appointed as a District Judge in 1989 and a County Court Judge in 1997. He is a member of the Legal Advisory Committee of the Church of Ireland and Chancellor of the Diocese of Connor. He holds positions with a number of voluntary organisations.

Professor John Jackson is Dean of the School of Law at University College Dublin and a qualified barrister. He was previously Professor of Law at Queen's University Belfast and has taught at University College Cardiff, the City University , London and the University of Sheffield . He has held visiting professorships at Hastings College of the Law, University of California and the Faculty of Law, University of New South Wales and was a Fernand Braudel Senior Fellow at the European University Institute in 2007 – 2008. From 1998 to 2000 he was an Independent Assessor for the Northern Ireland Criminal Justice Review.

Professor Herbert Wallace OBE is a legal academic and Professor Emeritus at the Queen's University of Belfast . He was formerly Vice-Chairman of the Police Authority for Northern Ireland and since 2002 has served as a statutory adjudicator on the Criminal Injuries Compensation Appeals Panel for Northern Ireland .

Sir Ben Stephens was called to the Bar of Northern Ireland in 1977 and took silk in 1996. He was appointed as a deputy County Court judge in 1998 and a High Court Judge in 2007. He has been a senior member of the Government Civil Panel of Counsel since 2004 and a member of the Panel of Arbitrators of the Motor Insurers' Bureau since 2005. He has held several other positions including Member of the Direct Professional Access Committee of the Bar of Northern Ireland and Assistant Editor of the Northern Ireland Law Reports.

Judge Patrick Lynch QC was called to the Bar of Northern Ireland in 1975 and made Queens Counsel in 2000. In 2004 he was appointed as a County Court Judge.

Judge Kevin Finnegan QC was called to the Bar of Northern Ireland in 1973 and took Silk in 1986. He has been Emeritus Bencher of The Inn of Court of Northern Ireland since 1995 and was appointed as a County Court Judge in 2001.

Ms Christine Glenn qualified as a barrister in 1980. She was the Justices' Chief Executive in the Inner London Magistrates' Courts Service until 2001 and Chief Executive of the Parole Board for England and Wales from 2001 until March 2009. She is an Immigration Judge and a Parking and Traffic Adjudicator. She is a member of the Thames Valley Courts Board and Deputy Chair of the London and Royal Courts of Justice Audit and Risk Committee. She is also a trustee of a national employment charity, Tomorrow's People.

Mr Paul Mageean qualified as a solicitor in 1991 and was originally in private practice. In 1995 he joined the Committee on the Administration of Justice as their Legal Officer during which time he successfully brought a number of cases to the European Court of Human Rights.  He was Head of the Criminal Justice Secretariat of the Court Service from 2004, and joined the Criminal Justice Inspection Northern Ireland in 2005 before taking up his current post as Director of the Graduate School for Professional Legal Education at the University of Ulster in 2008.

Jeremy Mills qualified as a solicitor in 1990. He spent 15 years with a corporate firm in Belfast and was a partner for 10 years. In 2007 Jeremy was appointed a part time Legal Chairman of the Northern Ireland Valuation Tribunal and in 2008 he was also appointed to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development's Independent Review of Decisions Panel. He joined the Board of Bryson Charitable Group in 2008 as a non executive Director. In 2009 he was appointed to Roads Service's panel of Public Inquiry Inspectors.

Commissioners from a Psychiatry and Psychology Background

Dr Ruth Elliott is a retired Consultant Clinical Psychologist. She was Clinical Psychology Services Manager at Belfast City Hospital and served on the Mental Health Commission for over seven years, latterly as Vice-Chairman. She is a Chartered Clinical Psychologist, an associate fellow of the British Psychological Society, and a member of the Northern Ireland Division of Clinical Psychology.

Dr Adrian Grounds is a University senior lecturer in forensic psychiatry at the Institute of Criminology , University of Cambridge , and an honorary consultant forensic psychiatrist in the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust. He has also been a Sentence Review Commissioner since 1998.

Professor Peter Hepper is a Professor of Psychology, and currently is the Head of the School of Psychology , Queen's University Belfast.  He is Chair of the Irish Football Associations Appeal Committee.  He is a Chartered Psychologist and a Fellow of the British Psychological Society and has been Visiting Professor at Kyushu University , Japan , and University New South Wales , Australia .

Dr Damien McCullagh is a Consultant Clinical & Forensic Psychologist within the Mental Health and Learning Disability Directorate of the Southern Trust (2000-present). He is an Chartered member of the British Psychological Society He has previously worked as a Principal Psychologist with the Northern Ireland Prison Service where he had primary responsibility for providing psychological risk assessments on Life Sentence Prisoners to the Life Sentence Review Board (1997-2000). He previously held posts in Adult and Child Psychology Services in the Republic of Ireland and with Sperrin Lakeland Health and Social Services in Omagh (1989-1997). Dr McCullagh is an Honorary Lecturer in Forensic Risk Assessment at Queen's University, Belfast . He is also an Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) accredited Behavioural Investigative Advisor. He has previously been the Chairman of the Board of Governors of Drumragh Integrated College in Omagh from 1995-2005.

Dr Oliver Shanks is a retired Consultant Psychiatrist in Learning Disability who specialised in forensic psychiatry. He is a member of the Royal College of Physicians, a fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and was a member of The Mental Health Commission from 1996 until 2005. He was an Honorary Clinical Lecturer in Mental Health at Queen's University, Belfast and is currently a member of the Boards of EXTERN and PRAXIS.

Dr Micaela McGinley is an independent business psychologist and management consultant. Her previous positions include Principal Occupational Psychologist at the Police Service of Northern Ireland and Associate Director of the MSc in Occupational Psychology at the Queen's University of Belfast .

Mrs Deborah McQueirns is a Registered Psychologist, Chartered Forensic Psychologist and Chartered Scientist in HMPS High Security Estate. She is also a visiting Consultant Psychologist with Priory Health Care and an associate fellow of the British Psychological Society, Division of Forensic Psychology. 

Mr Emmet Murray is a Chartered Forensic Clinical Psychologist currently working in the area of Mental Health. He was previously a Principal Psychologist with the Northern Ireland Prison Service and has also worked as a Behavioural Investigative Advisor with Centrex, now the National Policing Improvement Agency.

Dr Shelagh-Mary Rea is a Consultant Psychiatrist with the Western Health and Social Care Trust in Northern Ireland . She has worked as the Old Age Psychiatrist for the Northern Sector of the Trust for the past twenty-two years. She also has specialist status in General Adult Psychiatry and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. She is currently a medical member of the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority.

Dr Adrian East is the Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist to the Southern Health and Social Care Trust. He is a fully registered medical practitioner and a member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. He specialises in the assessment and management of mentally disordered offenders.

Commissioners from Other Backgrounds

Professor Andrew Sanders will be Professor of Criminal Law and Criminology at the University of Birmingham from 1/1/2010, having previously held a similar post at the  University of Manchester . Prior to that, he held the post of Deputy Director of the Centre for Criminological Research at the University of Oxford . His current research is focused on the role of victims in the criminal justice process and he is the author of several criminal justice publications. He was a member of the Parole Board for England and Wales for several years.

Mr Nigel Stone has been Senior Lecturer in Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of East Anglia since 1979. Until 1997 he also served in the Probation Service for 24 years, holding a joint appointment as Probation Officer and Head of Home Office sponsored training programme for probation students at East Anglia . He was a criminologist member of the Parole Board for England and Wales 1997-2007 and continues to serve as an appraiser for the Board.

Mr Stephen Murphy CBE  is a former Director General of the National Probation Service for England and Wales, prior to which he was Chief Probation Officer first in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight and then in Northumbria. He was a member of the Parole Board for England and Wales from 1995 to 2005, and is a former member of the Local Review Committee at HMP Wandsworth. He was made a CBE in the 2004 New Year's Honours List for services to the probation service. On retiring from the Civil Service in June 2008, he has been working internationally as a consultant in criminal justice and home affairs, and as Chair of the Board of Your Homes Newcastle Ltd, which runs and develops the council housing stock for the city of Newcastle upon Tyne .

Mrs Elaine Peel is a former Assistant Chief Probation Officer with the Probation Board for Northern Ireland and in that capacity acted as Chairperson of the Criminal Justice sub-committee on Domestic Violence and Director of the National Community Justice Training Organisation .

Mrs Alexandra Delimata is a self-employed consultant who works primarily with community groups, enterprises and small businesses in North West Ireland. Until 2004, she was Corporate Secretary of The Travel Partnership Corporation, an international consortium of travel associations. Prior to relocating to Ireland in 2001, she was Assistant Director, Corporate Development, for the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in Geneva .

Mrs Ruth Laird has over 20 years experience in human resource management and organisational development in the public, private and voluntary sectors. She was formerly Director of the National Trust NI, Head of Personnel for BBC (NI) and a Fair Employment Commissioner. She is currently a member of the NI Judicial Appointments Commission; a Civil Service Commissioner for NI, a member of the HPSS Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority and a non-executive Director of the NI Transport Holding Company. She is also a Board Member of Business in the Community.

Mr Stephen Leach CB is a retired senior civil servant. He was Director of Criminal Justice in the Northern Ireland Office and Chair of the Northern Ireland Criminal Justice Board from August 2000 until the start of 2009. Before that he held a range of other posts in the NIO and other Departments. He has been a Non-Executive Director of the Northern Ireland Health and Social Care Board since April 2009.  

Ms Mollie Weatheritt was until recently a member of the Parole Board for England and Wales, where she previously also served as Director of Quality and Standards. She has a background in research on criminal justice, focussing on policing. She is currently a member of the Conduct and Competence Committee of the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

Mr Thomas Craig is a retired Assistant Chief Constable with over 35 years experience of policing experience in Northern Ireland . Latterly he was appointed Regional Commander of South Region in 1998 and had previous experience in a number of headquarter support roles.

Dr Duncan Morrow is Chief Executive of the Community Relations Council.  The Council has responsibility for supporting and developing inter-community and inter-cultural engagement in Northern Ireland and also supports work in the rest of Ireland in conjunction with Border Action, the European Union and the International Fund for Ireland .  Since 2002 CRC has also taken a lead role to support Victims and Survivors of violence of the troubles.  Dr Morrow was previously a lecturer in Politics at the University of Ulster , a Director of the Future Ways Programme and a Sentence Review Commissioner.  A native of Belfast , he is married with three teenage children.

Dr Patrick McGrath retired in 2002 from the NHS after 30 years service as a General Practitioner and now continues in regular clinical practice as a Forensic Physician in Antrim. He teaches Medical Ethics and Law at the University of Ulster as a visiting Professor. In addition, Dr McGrath serves as Chairman of the Northern Ireland Association of Forensic Medical Officers and in 2006 was elected a Foundation Fellow of the Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians.

Miss Linda McHugh is a Management Consultant and Vice-Chair of Community Housing Association.  She is also a Trustee of a number of voluntary sector organisations including Nacro, the crime reduction charity. She was an Independent Member of the Parole Board for England and Wales from 2002 until 2009 and was a non-executive member of its Management Board and Chairman of its Audit and Risk Management Committee.