Dame Vera Baird: Are we now achieving Justice for Women and Girls?

In a short series of conversations, The High Sheriff of Essex, Nicholas Alston CBE DL is exploring current justice issues with leading experts.

Dame Vera Baird, the Victims Commissioner for England and Wales, between 2019-2022 has had a distinguished career as a criminal law Barrister, as a Labour Party politician, where she became Solicitor General for England and Wales from 2007-2010, and as the first Police and Crime Commissioner for Northumbria from 2012-2019. She has for many years championed working to address violence and against women and girls, in particular addressing shortcomings in the criminal justice system, a cause that continues to demand our attention.

Nick Alston, the current High Sheriff of Essex, is a former senior civil servant. He was elected as the first Police and Crime Commissioner for Essex from 2012-2016 after which he helped establish the Policing Institute for the Eastern Region here at ARU. Appointed a CBE in 1997 and DL in 2016, he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws by ARU in 2021.

Dame Vera Baird and Nick Alston are joined by Dr Theresa Redmond who is a subject specialist in child sexual abuse and exploitation (CSAE), as a specific form of gendered violence, with a particularly focus on the experiences of victims and survivors. Dr Redmond has extensive frontline practise-based experience in social care and in education working with vulnerable groups of people. Before joining PIER, Dr Redmond was a researcher for the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse and an Assistant Facilitator in the Inquiry’s Truth Project.

This event is open to all, and questions and discussion are welcomed.