About the Sentence Review Commissioners

The Secretariat

The Secretariat for the Sentence Review Commissioners is based in:

Laganside Court
Mezzanine
1st Floor
Oxford Street
BELFAST
BT1 3LL

The Commissioners

The Sentence Review Commissioners are an independent body made up of a Chairperson and five other Commissioners  appointed by the Secretary of State. The following Commissioners are currently serving as Sentence Review Commissioners.

CommissionersBackground

Ms Clodach McGrory BL

(Chairperson)

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 was a member of the Prison Review Team which was appointed by the Minister for Justice in June 2011 to conduct a comprehensive review of the Northern Ireland Prison Service which reported in October 2012. Ms McGrory is currently a Legally Qualified Member of Social Security Appeal Tribunals and she served as a Life Sentence Review Commissioner/Parole Commissioner from 2001 - 2019. Ms McGrory was appointed Chairperson of the Sentence Review Commissioners on the 21st January 2013.
Dr Adrian GroundsDr Grounds was 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 until retiring in 2010. He is now an honorary research fellow at the Institute of Criminology. He is also a Parole Commissioner for Northern Ireland and a Medical Member of the First-Tier Tribunal (Mental Health) in England.
Prof John JacksonProfessor John Jackson is a Professor of Law at the University of Nottingham and a qualified barrister. He was previously Dean of the School of Law at University College Dublin and has taught at several other universities including Queen's University Belfast, the University of Sheffield, the City University, London and University College Cardiff. Prof Jackson 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 Femand Braudel Senior Fellow at the European University Institute in 2007-2008. From 1988 to 2000 he was an Independent Assessor for the Northern Ireland Criminal Justice Review and he has been a Life Sentence Review Commissioner/Parole Commissioner since 2002.
Mr Timothy ThorneMr Timothy Thorne qualified as a barrister in 1987. He practiced mainly in the fields of criminal defence and prosecution. He was a Deputy Assistant Judge Advocate General sitting in Courts Martial and is a fee-paid judge in the First-tier Tribunal sitting in the Immigration and Asylum Chamber and the Care Standards Tribunal. Mr Thorne was also a Deputy Chairperson of the National Health Service Tribunal and a consultant trainer to the Inns of Court School of Law in London. Tim is presently a non-Executive Director of a legal training company, and a Parole Commissioner for Northern Ireland.
Ms Anne GrimesQualified as a solicitor in 1990. Anne worked at Law Centre(NI) for 12 years. She was appointed as an Immigration Judge of the First-TierTribunal in 2002 and also as a Deputy Judge in the Upper Tribunal in 2010. She is a Legally Qualified Member of Social Security Appeals Tribunals in Northern Ireland. Anne was a Parole Commissioner for Northern Ireland until 2019.
Dr Micaela GreenwoodIs an independent business psychologist and management consultant. Dr Greenwood's previous positions include Principal Occupational Psychologist at the Police Service of Northern Ireland and Associate Director of the MSc in Occupational Psychology at Queen's University of Belfast. She is also a Parole Commissioner for Northern Ireland.