Professor of Criminal Law

My research examines the relationship between criminal law and society, with a particular focus on the ways in which legal regulation affects vulnerable and marginalised groups. I am among a relatively small number of legal scholars with expertise in both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Over the past decade, I have established a strong publication record in leading international journals, alongside producing impactful commissioned research and securing 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 the regulation of public space through the criminal law. It builds on my earlier work on the control of anti-social behaviour and examines contemporary trends in law reform across the UK and comparable jurisdictions. In particular, I analyse the increasing use of criminal and quasi-criminal measures to regulate public space in the context of gentrification, consumerism, and urban crime control. A central concern of this work is how the law mediates competing rights and interests in public space, including the rights of housed and unhoused individuals, businesses, local communities, and the state.

In 2025, I was invited to provide oral evidence to the Northern Ireland Assembly Committee for Justice on the reform of vagrancy legislation.

2) Older Victims of Crime

This research focuses on crimes affecting older people and the response of the criminal justice system to older victims. A core theme is unequal access to justice, including structural, procedural, and attitudinal barriers faced by older victims of crime. This work has included commissioned research for the Commissioner for Older People for Northern Ireland. It also encompasses normative and policy-focused research advocating for the inclusion of age as a protected characteristic within hate crime legislation.

3) Hate Crime

My hate crime research intersects closely with my work on public space and vulnerability. 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 cross-border public attitudes to hate crime on the island of Ireland.

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 and Society. I have presented on my work both nationally and internationally to academic and practitioner 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, 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)