Suzanne Ost is a professor of law at Lancaster University. She has written numerous socio-legal journal articles and book chapters on child abusive images and child sexual exploitation and a book: Child Pornography and Sexual Grooming: Legal and Societal Responses (Cambridge University Press, 2009). She also publishes in the field of healthcare law and bioethics, with her most recent publication in this area being her book: Exploitation, Ethics and Law: Violating the Ethos of the Doctor-Patient Relationship (Routledge, 2021). She was an expert adviser to the Citizens’ Jury on Assisted Dying in Jersey during 2021 and was the Editor in Chief of the Medical Law Review between 2011-2020.
Alisdair Gillespie is Professor of Criminal Law and Justice at Lancaster University. His research focuses primarily on cybercrime, particularly in respect of child sexual abuse and exploitation. He has several publications on this subject, including his texts ‘Child Pornography: Law and Policy’ and ‘Cybercrime: Key Issues and Debates’. Alisdair was a founder member of the Home Secretary’s Internet Task Force on Child Protection which was responsible for several legislative developments, including criminalising sexual solicitation (Sexual Offences Act 2003, s.15). He has acted as an expert advisor to governments on behalf of both the European Union and the Council of Europe. He has also advised the Home Office, Ministry of Justice, National Police Chiefs Council (and its predecessor, the Association of Chief Police Officers) on these matters. He has previously undertaken training for national and local law enforcement, the Crown Prosecution Service and the Criminal Bar Association. He has also developed training sessions for the judiciary, both within the UK and across Europe. He is a Justice of the Peace and sits on the Lancashire Bench.
Monique Mehmi is currently a research assistant at the School of Law, Keele University on the ‘COVID-19 and Adult Social Care and Adult Safeguarding: A Large-Scale Mixed Methods Study’ project funded by The Health Foundation. Before this she was a student at the School of Law, Keele University on the LLB Law programme, followed by the MA in Child Care Law and Practice. Her interests lie mainly in child law, human rights, and transnational crimes. More specifically, children’s rights, human trafficking, modern slavery, and exploitation. Monique has recently started on a new project at Edge Hill University as a research project coordinator on the project ‘Exploring International Law Enforcement Information Exchange’ funded by the UKRI. The project will explore information sharing between international law enforcement agencies in the context of serious organised crimes.
External partners
Prof Ethel Quayle C.B.E, Personal Chair of Forensic Clinical Psychology, University of Edinburgh. Ethel is an academic recognised as being one of the leading clinical psychologists on child sexual exploitation in the UK, who has worked with both sex offenders and their victims. For over 20 years she has researched technology-mediated crimes against children, collaborating internationally with government and non-government agencies in the context of research, policy and practice. Her recent EU-funded research examined the function of coercive and non-coercive self-produced sexual images by adolescents and NSPCC-funded research on deterrence of possession of images.
Ms Tink Palmer, M.B.E., is an acknowledged professional expert in child sexual abuse, a former social worker and the former Chief Executive of the Marie Collins Foundation. Tink first began working with children abused via the ‘new technologies’ in 1999 and has since developed a professional interest and expertise in this area. Tink has written widely on the issue of harm to children online. She is an experienced clinical and forensic practitioner, manager, trainer, policy maker and strategist.
The Global Protection Online Network (GPN)
Developed by the Marie Collins Foundation, the GPN platform offers a space for researchers to come together with contemporaries from around the world to share research, learn ‘what works’, and contribute to a tangible and meaningful change in child safeguarding practice.