Board Member profiles
The SCJ Board consists of representatives from seven Agencies across Sussex:
Sarah Jane Gallagher, Chief Crown Prosecutor
Crown Prosecution Service
Chair of the Sussex Criminal Justice Board
Educated at Wycombe Abbey School for girls, Durham University and the College of Law, Chancery Lane. Called to the Bar 1976. Scholar of the Inner Temple.
Pupillage and first woman tenant at 3 King’s Bench Walk, Temple, practising at the Criminal Bar until marrying and starting a family.
Joined the Crown Prosecution Service at its inception in 1986, working in Devon and Cornwall, holding particular responsibility for prosecuting domestic violence and rape offences, and youth offenders.
Higher Court Advocate prosecuting regularly in the Plymouth Crown Court.
Took up post as Chief Crown Prosecutor for Sussex in December 2003.
Assisted the Director of Public Prosecutions with the last re-draft of the Code for Crown Prosecutors, and is a member of the Professional Standards and Ethics Group of the Crown Prosecution Service.
John Hawkins, Head of Youth Offending Services
East Sussex Youth Offending Team
John Hawkins has been Head of Youth Offending Services in East Sussex since 1999. After graduating from Sussex University in 1974, John trained in Scotland as a social worker. He returned to East Sussex in the late 1970s and specialised in child care work for many years. Since 1988 he has held a variety of management positions in East Sussex culminating in his appointment to the post of Head of Youth Offending Services.
In April 2006 John joined the Sussex Criminal Justice Board as the representative of the three Youth Offending Teams in the county.
In addition to his local responsibilities, John is also active at national level in the field of youth offending work. He is a founder member of the AYM (Association of Youth Offending Team Managers) and is currently Treasurer of the Association. He is the portfolio holder for Referral Orders, Restorative Justice and New Legislation and in this capacity represents the Association on a number of national working groups.
Eoin McLennan-Murray, Prison Governor
HM Prison Lewes
Eoin McLennan-Murray joined the Prison Service in 1978 having graduated from Queen Mary College, London with a BSc Honours in Biological Sciences.
He has served in ten prisons, two of which as Governing Governor, and had four years at Headquarters where he was Staff Officer to the Director General and then the manager responsible for developing and rolling out nationally, the cognitive skills and sex offender accredited programmes.
He also spent two years on secondment to the Adult Basic Skills Strategy Unit within the Department for Education and Skills, where as Head of Employer Initiatives, he was responsible for developing national strategies to improve levels of literacy and numeracy within the work force.
Eoin’s personal career high point was as Governor of HMP Blantyre House, a resettlement prison in Kent which consistently had the lowest re-conviction rates of any prison in the United Kingdom. Elements of the pioneering work at Blantyre House on resettlement have now been replicated in many prisons throughout the Service.
He took up his current post as governing Governor at HMP Lewes in October 2003.
Rob McCauley, Criminal Defence Manager
Criminal Defence Service
Julia Eeles, Area Director for Sussex and Surrey
Her Majesty's Court Service Chair of the SCJB Effective Case Management sub-group
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.
Robin Merritt, Assistant Chief Constable
Sussex Police Vice-Chair of the Sussex Criminal Justice Board and Chair of the SCJB Victims, Witnesses, Domestic Violence and Confidence sub- group
Joined Sussex Police as Assistant Chief Constable on 2 April 2007. His new role gives him responsibility for East Sussex Division, Brighton & Hove Division, Communications Department, Criminal Justice Department and Neighbourhood Policing.
Prior to joining Sussex served in the Metropolitan Police Service, both in uniform and as a detective and was the Borough Commander for Bexley in South East London. Whilst there he led one of the pilot sites for the national reassurance teams across London and neighbourhood policing nationally. He also led one of the Home Office modernisation pilot schemes, which examined how an entire command unit could be reconfigured.
Before taking on this command served as Staff Officer to the Director of HR in the MPS. In this role he had a great deal of contact with the MPS BPA and at a national level. He also mentored a number of officers who were active in the BPA.
Sonia Crozier, Chief Officer, Sussex Probation Area
Sonia Crozier was appointed chief officer of Sussex Probation Area in June 2008 and has a background of more than 20 years' probation experience.
Sonia began working as a probation officer in London in 1988 and has since gained extensive experience throughout the service, including working as a senior officer at Maidstone prison, managing unpaid work and serving as a district manager in Kent. For the last two years she has held a senior post at the Home Office and Ministry of Justice with a brief of improving the performance of probation areas throughout the England and Wales.
Also from Sussex Police:
Chief Supt Peter Coll, Head of Criminal Justice Department and leading on victim and witness service delivery
Also from CPS Sussex:
Tim Thompson, District Crown Prosecutor, Brighton Trials Unit, leading on criminal asset recovery.