Professor of Criminal Law

My research examines criminal law, legal reform and society, with a particular focus on Northern Ireland criminal law reform in comparative context. I analyse how criminal law is developed, justified and applied, and how reform debates can be informed by comparative legal analysis, socio-legal evidence and principled normative reasoning. Across my work, I am particularly interested in how criminal law balances public order, community safety, individual rights, proportionality and the need for workable legal reform.

 Over the past decade, I have established a strong publication record in leading international journals, produced impactful commissioned research, contributed directly to legislative and policy reform processes, and secured external research funding.

My current research is structured around three interrelated themes:

1. Public Space and the Criminal Law

This strand of my research explores how criminal law is used to regulate public space. It builds on my earlier work on anti-social behaviour and examines contemporary trends in law reform across the UK, Ireland and comparable jurisdictions. In particular, I analyse the use of criminal and quasi-criminal measures to address issues such as street homelessness, begging, anti-social behaviour, public order, urban crime control and the regulation of shared civic spaces.

A central concern of this work is how the law balances competing rights and interests in public space. These include the interests of housed and unhoused individuals, local residents, businesses, public authorities and wider communities. Rather than assuming that criminal law is either inherently necessary or inherently illegitimate in this context, my work examines questions of proportionality, effectiveness, legality and fairness, with particular attention to the practical consequences of enforcement and the need for legally workable reform.

This strand has informed live legislative reform in Northern Ireland. In 2025, I was invited to provide oral evidence to the Northern Ireland Assembly Committee for Justice on the reform of vagrancy legislation. My evidence, written submissions and proposed amendments contributed to the development of a legislative compromise on vagrancy repeal, helping to shape a legally workable approach that addressed concerns around homelessness, begging, exploitation and public order. This work is one of the clearest examples of my research informing criminal justice reform in Northern Ireland.

My work in this area also includes engagement with reform of the law on anti-social behaviour and the regulation of public space more broadly, including current work on anti-social behaviour orders and related civil/criminal hybrid measures in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

2. Victims, Vulnerability and Access to Justice

A second strand of my research examines victims’ experiences of crime and of the criminal justice system, with a particular focus on vulnerability, institutional responses and access to justice. This work explores how structural, procedural and attitudinal barriers shape whether victims are recognised, protected and able to participate meaningfully in criminal justice processes.

Within this broader strand, I have developed a particular sub-specialism in relation to older victims of crime. This research focuses on crimes affecting older people and the response of the criminal justice system to older victims, including barriers in reporting, investigation, prosecution and support. It has included commissioned research for the Commissioner for Older People for Northern Ireland and policy-focused work advocating for the inclusion of age as a protected characteristic within hate crime legislation.

My recent work has also examined the institutional architecture of victims’ rights, including the role of victims’ commissioners, questions of independence, oversight, complaints mechanisms and access to justice. This work connects doctrinal analysis of victims’ rights with broader questions about institutional design, accountability and the practical implementation of legal protections.

3. Hate Crime, Sentencing and Criminal Justice Reform

My hate crime research intersects closely with my work on public space, vulnerability and victimisation. It examines both the doctrinal framework of hate crime law and its broader social and institutional implications. I was an expert panel member on the Independent Review of Hate Crime Legislation in Northern Ireland. I have also undertaken commissioned research for the European Commission on the potential development of EU-level hate crime legislation, and conducted funded collaborative research with colleagues at the University of Limerick examining public attitudes to hate crime on the island of Ireland.

This strand also connects with my work on older victims, particularly in relation to whether age should be recognised as a protected characteristic in hate crime law.

More broadly, I contribute to debates on sentencing and criminal justice reform in Northern Ireland. I have responded to consultations on sentencing reform and have advised on issues concerning the purposes of sentencing, recognition of harm, denunciation, proportionality, public confidence and the structure of sentencing law. This work reflects a wider interest in how criminal justice reform can be principled, evidence-informed and attentive to the experiences of victims, defendants and affected communities.

My work has been published in leading international edited collections and academic journals, including Legal Studies, the Journal of Law and Society, the Criminal Law Review and Punishment & Society. I have presented nationally and internationally to academic, practitioner and policy audiences.

I have been awarded funding from the ESRC, EPSRC and other funding bodies. I am a member of the ESRC Peer Review College.

Prior to taking up my position at Queen’s University Belfast, I was a lecturer at Newcastle University and an associate lecturer at the University of Manchester. I have also held research assistant positions at the University of Manchester and the University of Aberdeen. I have been a visiting scholar at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto and Fordham Law School in New York City.

Leadership Role

UG School of Law Admissions Co-ordinator (2025-2028) 

Personal Tutor

Previous Administrative Roles 

Director of Internationalisation (2021-2024) 

Co-Chair of the Brickfields Asia College-UK Universities Consortium (2023-24)

LLB (Senior Status) Programme Convenor (2017-2022)

LLB Programmes Director (2017-2020)

Law School Ethics Committee Member (2014-2017)

Director of Internationalisation (2016-2017)

UG Admissions Officer (2015-2016)

Advisor of Studies (Year 3 LLB) (2014-2015)

Director of the Newcastle Forum for Human Rights and Social Justice (2013-2014)

Deputy Admissions Selector for the LLB (2013-2014)

Co-ordinator of the Newcastle Law School External Advisory Board (2011-2014)

Staff Co-ordinator of the Student-Staff Relations Committee (2010-2012)

Staff Co-ordinator of the Client Interviewing and Client Negotiation Competitions (2009-2012)

Co-ordinator of Engagement and Alumni Relations (2009-2012)

I am an award-winning educator whose excellence in teaching, educational innovation and leadership has been recognised at the institutional and national level.  I have been awarded the Sustained Excellence in Teaching Award by QUB and was a finalist in the UK-wide Oxford University Press Law Teacher of the Year Award 2018. QUB also nominated me for a National Teaching Fellowship in 2018, with feedback describing me as a gifted, innovative and student-centred practitioner of legal education. I designed and implemented the LLB (Senior Status) programme at QUB, which has become one of the most successful international programmes at the university.

Current Teaching

Criminal Liability (UG LLB) (Module co-ordinator)

Criminal Law (UG LLB) 

Sentencing (UG LLB)

UG and PGT Dissertation Supervisions 

Previous Teaching

Criminal Justice (UG; LLM)

Criminal Law (UG LLB) (Module co-ordinator)

Crime, Justice and Society (LLM) (Module co-ordinator)

Employability and Clinical Skills (UG LLB) (Module co-ordinator)

Evidence Law (UG LLB)

Legal and Regulatory Aspects of Money Laundering and Financial Crime (LLM)

Legal Methods and Systems (UG)

Public Law (UG)

The Construction of Crime (UG)

Criminal Justice Processes (LLM)

External Examiner Appointments

University of Southampton (2022-2026) 

Open University (2018-2022)

University of Glasgow (2018-2022)

Lancaster University (2014-2017)

Sunderland University (2011-2015)

External Appointments

Chair of the Department of Justice's Expert Advisory Working Group on Reform of ASBOs in N. Ireland (2024-25) 

President of the Irish Association of Law Teachers (2021-2022)

Lay Member of the Lady Chief Justice's Sentencing Group (2018-2023)

Academic member of the Ministry of Justice's Evidence and Partnerships Hub Academic Network (2021-)

Academic Member of the Working Group on the Non-jury trial provisions in the Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Act 2007 (2021-2022)

Expert Panel Member of the Independent Review of Hate Crime Legislation in Northern Ireland (2019-2020)

Treasurer of the Irish Association of Law Teachers (2019-2021)

Secretary of the Socio-Legal Studies Association (2015-2017) 

Prizes

Finalist in the Oxford University Press UK-wide Law Teacher of the Year Award (2018)

Winner of the Sustained Excellence in Teaching Award by Queen's University Belfast (2017)