Board Members
Portia Ragnauth - Chief Crown Prosecutor - Chair
Portia Ragnauth joined the CPS in the 1980`s having completed her pupillage at the Bar where she worked at a variety of Inner London Branches including Camberwell, Bow Street and Horseferry Road. At Camberwell Green she was in charge of cases from the Brixton Area.
Portia then moved to Croydon CPS where she became involved in the setting up of specialist domestic violence courts for the area.
On promotion to Chief Crown Prosecutor, Portia then moved to Durham and worked there for three and a half years.
At Durham and with the backing of the Local Criminal Justice Board, the Area set up the first “Hate Crimes Court” in the country. This was established in January 2005.
Her present position is that of Chief Crown Prosecutor for Surrey.
Karen Page, Chief Probation Officer - Vice Chair
Karen was appointed Chief Officer of Surrey Probation Area in April 2004. She joined the Probation Service after obtaining an MA in Social Policy at the University of Hull and has held a number of posts both in the community and in prisons. More recently she has worked as an Inspector at Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Probation in London and as an Assistant Chief Officer with Kent Probation Area.
Toby Wells, Head of Youth Justice
Toby Wells is Head of Youth Justice for Surrey with responsibility for management of young offenders following sentence. Qualifying as a teacher in the early 80’s, Toby has worked in the field of community safety and youth justice for 20 years.
Colin McConnell, South Central Area Manager HM Prisons
Colin joined HMPS in 1992 from the Scottish Prison Service. Colin has a wide range of experience gained in a number of posts in both the operational and HQ environments, both north and south of the border. He was appointed to manage the Surrey & Sussex Area of the Prison Service in November 2004.
Julia Eeles - HMCS Area Director for Surrey & Sussex
Julia Eeles is a solicitor by profession, having qualified in private practice in Birkenhead in 1982. She joined the Magistrates’ Courts Service as a legal advisor in Ipswich and in due course moved on to Nottingham, Southend-on-Sea and finally to Cheltenham. In 1993 Julia joined HM Magistrates’ Courts Service Inspectorate as a Senior Inspector. In 1998 she was appointed as Justices’ Chief Executive for Cleveland and in 2001 took up the same post in Cheshire. Julia was appointed as Area Director for Cheshire in 2005 and was recently appointed as Area Director for Surrey and Sussex in November 2006.
Mark Rowley- Temporary Chief Constable
Mark Rowley began his policing career in West Midlands, having graduated from St. Catharines College, Cambridge. After a broad uniformed and detective career in Birmingham, he moved to the National Criminal Investigation Service. Here, as Detective Superintendent, he led on the national deployment of covert techniques to combat organised crime such as telephone interception and tasking of the intelligence agencies. He was a key member of the team that compiled the ‘National Intelligence Model’ that has since been implemented across the country.
On transferring to Surrey as Chief Superintendent in West Surrey, he oversaw major crime reductions and led several countywide initiatives, including Surrey's nationally acclaimed 'yellow card' Surrey Street Standards anti-robbery campaign and the reduction of drugs deaths in the area.
Mark was appointed Assistant Chief Constable from November 2003. He helped generate the ‘National Reassurance Policing Project’. This work included the establishment of "neighbourhood panels" where local people vote on what they want local officers and themselves to tackle in the subsequent month. Mark then took responsibility for ‘Specialist Operations’ in the county. He has led several nationally high profile critical incidents such as the attempt murder of Abigail Witchalls and is leading the South-East Regional Collaboration work on Protective Services. He supported the ACPO development work on ‘Workforce Modernisation’ in this role and continues to do so since taking responsibilities as Deputy Chief Constable in December 2007. He is currently Temporary Chief Constable.