Meet the Team

Meet the Team

IfJ is made up of a diverse and dynamic team of dedicated trustees and staff, consistently striving to raise awareness on the vital role of intermediaries.

Our trustees bring invaluable skills, experience and knowledge to the board.

Our Trustees

Catherine O'Neill - Chair

As chair and a founder member of Intermediaries for Justice I have a firm belief in equality of access to justice for all.

I am a registered intermediary in the justice system, a Speech and Language Therapist and an Arts Psychological Therapist. As a therapist I have worked with adults and children with communication needs and mental health issues, in a variety of settings including palliative care, acute mental health wards and day hospitals, schools and clinics.

I am a visiting lecturer on the Wellbeing Practitioner course at University of East London and have written for Jessica Kingsley publishers and Childsplay International on subjects related to mental health.

As chair and a founder member of Intermediaries for Justice I have a firm belief in equality of access to justice for all.

Alongside other IfJ trustees I have run conferences and seminars on subjects ranging from: Working with Defendants; Trauma in the CJS; Joined up working in CJS; Abuse and its many faces in the CJS and Vulnerability and Justice.

I have chaired and contributed to the writing of many Toolkits for The Advocates Gateway and currently run trainings for the police on communication to Achieve Best Evidence and on Trauma Informed Practice.

Francesca Castellano - Secretary

After working for many years in television and film production, I retrained and gained a degree in psychology and a masters in Forensic Psychology.

Since 2018 I have worked as an intermediary with defendants and witnesses and specialise in working with people who have communication difficulties associated with autism, learning difficulties, drug & alcohol addictions, ADHD, OCD, depression and anxiety.

I bring the skills of organisation and dedication to the role of IfJ secretary. I speak fluent French and bilingual Italian.

I believe that the work intermediaries do is an essential part of upholding the concept that the Justice system should be open and accessible to everyone in a way that is meaningful to them.

Robert Thomas

I am an independent intermediary assisting defendants in the justice systems, criminal and family, having previously worked as a registered intermediary.

I served on RIRT for two years on behalf of the South West Group and am a fluent Welsh speaker.

I am a retired teacher having taught in the maintained and independent sectors both in this country and overseas for thirty five years. I have worked as a teacher and senior manager both in schools, sixth form college and in Further Education. The last ten years of my career were spent as senior manager in a medium sized mixed comprehensive school in the West Midlands, following which I took early retirement to return home to South Wales. In that capacity I served on a number of governing bodies and as trustee of an educational charity.

My main teaching subject was English and I have spent my career asking students throughout the ability range questions they can understand, which has been an outstanding preparation for my intermediary role.

One of the formative experiences of my early intermediary career was at the ‘Trauma’ conference in Wyboston where it was immediately clear that IfJ was making an invaluable contribution to our professional development.

I became an IfJ trustee in part because of the current and on-going great support that it gives to intermediaries. My early involvement as a trustee coincided with the release of the Victims’ Commissioner’s Review which gave me an insight into the work that needs to be done for intermediaries to develop as a profession.

It is a very exciting and important time to be involved, and, whilst time consuming, it is one of the most satisfying experiences I have had in a long career.

Rochelle Cowan

My background is as a Speech and Language Therapist and I have worked for over 25 years with both adults and children in a wide variety of settings, including schools, clinics, colleges, hospitals and adult education, often as part of a multi disciplinary team. I specialised in the areas of Disorders of Fluency and Learning Difficulties/Disability.

I have been a Registered Intermediary (RI) since 2007 and have seen at first hand, how the work of intermediaries has helped vulnerable people to give their best evidence in the Criminal Justice System. I have also seen the impact that this group has had in courtrooms and understand the need for raising awareness and understanding of the work. I have contributed to the Tool Kits on the Advocate's Gateway, and to Joyce Plotnikoff and Richard Wolfson's book 'Intermediaries in the Criminal Justice System'.

I have worked closely with the Ministry of Justice and the Witness Intermediary Team to run Conferences about Special Measures. These are a series of provisions that help vulnerable and intimidated witnesses give their best evidence in court. Intermediaries are one of these provisions. I worked with the same teams to provide a number of conferences for Registered Intermediaries, as part of Continuing Professional Development and I have worked on training courses for the Police on achieving best evidence with vulnerable witnesses. I have also worked on RI training courses to induct new RIs.

I am a member, and have also acted as chair, of the London Intermediary Group, and have been a member of RIRT (Registered Intermediary Reference Team) which acts as a liaison group between RIs and the MoJ.

I have watched IfJ grow out of the dedication and hard work of Intermediaries who understand the needs of vulnerable people and what it takes to have their voices heard in the Criminal Justice System. The charity has grown in strength and stature and has become an important voice for those who work with them. I am a new Trustee and am proud to join IfJ and contribute to its development as the charity moves forward at a time of great change in the CJS.

Susan Stewart

I am a Speech and Language Therapist (SLT) and qualified as a Registered Intermediary in 2016.

I am a Speech and Language Therapist (SLT) and qualified as a Registered Intermediary in 2016. I’ve specialised in working with young people with Developmental Language Disorder, ASD, ADHD, learning disabilities and/or social emotional and mental health needs (SEMH). I also frequently assist those who sadly have no descriptor for their complex communication difficulties; having not had their needs understand as they fell through services.

I spent 3 years working as an SLT within County Durham Youth Offending Service. Whilst there I had amazing experiences co-authoring the ClearCut Communication resources, delivering training and working with young people who offend.

As an intermediary I currently work with vulnerable people aged 9 upwards. I’ve created communication friendly resources using local judiciary authorised court photos (funded by Durham Police Crime and Victims’ Commissioner) to explain the process of giving evidence at crown and magistrates’ courts and assist witnesses provide a victim personal statement. These are gifted to be available on IfJ’s website here.

I regularly deliver training to 2 local police forces and co-created and delivered the assessment course for IfJ. I am keen to assist with CPD development for IfJ.

I have a strong sense of fairness, and seek to ensure people can get their voice heard and also understand what people say to them. This means I resonate with IfJ’s mission to bring fair access to justice for all.

Catherine Chamberlain

I have been a Registered Intermediary since 2014 and work with children of all ages particularly the very young.

I feel that everyone in society has a voice and I am pleased to bring my 35 years of experience as a paediatric speech and language therapist to enable the voice of the child to be heard.

I think that developing a strong, supportive network for intermediaries is essential in order to develop and share best practice and in doing so, support the people we work with to access justice.

I am particularly keen to support IfJ with their CPD programme for both Intermediaries and other professionals within the criminal justice system.

Paul Redfern - Treasurer

My roles have all highlighted the importance of support for vulnerable people who whether through minimal language skills, or have disabilities, find it hard to understand how our society works, particularly in court.

I am currently working part-time as a general secretary for the British Society for Mental Health and Deafness, as a Community Business Manager for Action Deafness and as a facilitator for the Truth Project, part of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. I previously worked for the British Deaf Association as Senior Community Development Manager.

I worked as a qualified social worker many years ago and attended court on a few occasions and saw for myself how the system can so easily disadvantage people who don't have the skills or knowledge to challenge what is happening to them in the Justice system.

I have acted as a Trustee or Committee member for five different charities, holding the posts of Chair, Vice-chair, Secretary and Treasurer so have knowledge and experience of charitable work - both governance and management.

I am a new Trustee and I am hoping that my experience not only in the UK but also abroad - having worked in Swaziland and France - will contribute to IfJ to ensure that it continues to support Intermediaries out in the field who are in the frontline working with some of society's most disadvantaged people.

Our Staff

Maya Levin Schtulberg - Operations Manager

As administrator I undertake a wide range of tasks, including overseeing the website and online communication, maintenance and development of administrative systems, supporting IfJ’s activities & events and assisting the Board of Trustees in their subcommittee projects.

I have a professional background in anthropology, working in research and the charity sectory with health and wellbeing as the primary focus. I am currently in training to become a psychotherapist.

I enjoy the interpersonal aspect of the work which includes communicating with end-users, professionals in the justice system and intermediaries.

External Advisers

Dame Joyce Plotnikoff

The communication skills of intermediaries help make the justice system fairer and more appropriate to the needs of children and vulnerable adults. I am proud to support Intermediaries for Justice in raising awareness of the intermediary’s contribution to increasing access to justice.

I trained as a social worker in the UK, then was admitted to the Bar in the US. However, much of my career has been as a researcher and co-director of Lexicon Limited with Richard Woolfson. Our Ministry of Justice report recommending rollout of the pilot intermediary scheme was published in 2007. Our book about the scheme ‘Intermediaries in the criminal justice system’ - based on registered intermediaries’ first-hand accounts - was published in 2015. We have drawn on the experience of intermediaries in several articles and in guidance including Advocates’ Gateway toolkits, Criminal Practice Directions and the Equal Treatment Bench Book.

Dr Richard Woolfson

It has been a privilege to support the work of intermediaries since their introduction in 2004 and to assist Intermediaries for Justice in promoting their work.

I am a mathematician and management consultant. Joyce and I have worked together for almost 30 years: our involvement with the intermediary scheme has been the most rewarding of our careers. In addition to promoting the benefits brought about by intermediaries in England and Wales, we have spoken about the scheme in Northern Ireland, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. However, in England and Wales the role is underfunded, unevenly available, insufficiently well-known and is still often misunderstood.

Our Volunteers

Sharon Richardson

During my working life I had a variety of opportunities to support vulnerable children, young people and adults participate in the best ways they could, in a wide range of educational and home-base

During my working life I had a variety of opportunities to support vulnerable children, young people and adults participate in the best ways they could, in a wide range of educational and home-based settings. These experiences enabled me to become a Registered Intermediary in 2008.

I have been a member of IfJ since it's inception and have always endorsed and promoted the core belief of equality of access to justice for all.

I acted as IfJ Secretary, supporting trustees and members establish IfJ as a charity, promoting the needs of all vulnerable people throughout the Justice System.

Following a number of years in this role I took a break and then, missing the IfJ buzz, I volunteered to become IfJ's Membership Coordinator, an enjoyable role liaising with colleagues within the UK and as far away as Australia and New Zealand.

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Our Trustees

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