After university, I was a prison psychologist for 19 years before moving to
the central Home Office, which was then in Queen Anne’s Gate, for another 19 years, and working on:
- animal welfare (scientific procedures, dangerous dogs, seals, badgers etc)
- child protection
- the probation service
- the introduction of electronic tagging
- charities and the voluntary sector
As Head of the Home Office’s Criminal Policy Strategy Unit,
I dealt with (amongst other things):
- race equality and race crime;
- violence against women; and
- implementating the Human Rights Act 1998 in the
Criminal Justice System
before becoming the first Home Office Regional Director for the
South East of England, sometimes called Crime Reduction Director.
I remain passionate about crime issues. In particular, I am concerned about the extreme danger to which women (and their children) are exposed as soon as they indicate that they wish to end a relationship – for that is when they are murdered. The world would become a safer place if that single, simple fact were more widely appreciated. Several of my speeches bang on about this.
I have included as well a think-piece I gave in March 2014 about the future of Salcombe Harbour (last on the list). It is quite fun to read that now, over 10 years on.
However, in these days of AI I must make it absolutely clear that I do not consent in any way to generative AI systems ‘scraping’ or copying any material or other information on this site, as I would regard this as a litigable breach of copyright.