The Links Group

PO Box 5816, MILTON KEYNES, MK10 1DB

Violence at Home: The Links between Child Abuse, Animal Abuse and Domestic Violence

Jonathan joined the RSPCA as an Inspector in 1972 having previously worked in Wildlife Parks and Deer Parks. He was initially posted to Bristol, but in 1978 was promoted to Chief Inspector and moved to the Headquarters in Horsham, West Sussex where he was later promoted to Superintendent. The RSPCA was regionalised in 1989 and Jonathan became the first Regional Manager based at Exeter covering the South West.

Jonathan’s first involvement with the Links was attending the joint NSPCC/RSPCA ‘Making the Links’ Conference in February 2001. Following this conference, local women’s refuges approached him to set up a pet fostering scheme in the South West. Pet Retreat now covers the South and Southwest and is starting to rollout into Wales and the West Midlands.

Jonathan has also been involved in setting up cross agency reporting protocols between the RSPCA and Social Services and RSPCA and Police. He was a member of the inaugural meeting of the Links Group in December 2001 and became Chairman in February 2006.

Christopher James Laurence QVRM TD BVSc MRCVS, Links Group Treasurer

Chris Laurence qualified as a veterinary surgeon from Bristol University in 1968 and went straight into mixed practice in Somerset. In 1969 he moved to Chippenham in Wiltshire to take up small animal work and remained there until 1998, joining the partnership in 1972.

Chris joined the RSPCA in 1998 as Assistant Chief Veterinary Officer and was promoted to Chief Veterinary Officer in 1999. His duties covered the operational work of the RSPCA in veterinary clinics, the inspectorate and re-homing centres, and representing the Society in situations where animal welfare across all species was being discussed.

Chris left the RSPCA in 2003 to take up the post of Veterinary Director for Dogs Trust (the new name for the National Canine Defence League). Although this primarily focuses his work on dogs he retains an interest in other species and is a Trustee of the Feline Advisory Bureau and a member of the British Veterinary Association’s Veterinary Policy Group.

Chris is married to Sheila with two married children, who are both engineers, and three grandchildren. He was an officer in the Territorial Army for almost 38 years and retired in 2002 with the rank of Colonel. He was awarded the Queens Volunteer Reserves Medal in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2002.

Simon’s work in relation to child maltreatment is internationally known. With Helen Masson, he has recently completed a two year research project into the state of policy, theoretical approaches, service responses and user perspectives in relation to young people who have sexually abused others across the UK and Republic of Ireland. He was previously a Programme Director of G-MAP, a leading UK community based specialist service for young people. Simon is the author of three books and a wide variety of other book chapters and journal articles relating to child welfare issue, including the (2004) Barnardo's publication ‘What works for children and young people with harmful sexual behaviours?’ Simon is Editor of the Journal of Sexual Aggression.

Susan is currently a co-director of the Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions and Crime; a prospective longitudinal study of youth offending based which has been running since 1998. Susan is also network leader for the CJ-Quest network of the recently established Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research, a collaborative initiative involving all of the major Scottish Universities in developing a new programme of criminological research. Susan’s interests include longitudinal methods in the study of youth crime, deviance and substance use; criminal careers through the life-course; systems of justice, including transitions from juvenile to adult criminal justice systems; and the relationship between neighbourhood and offending. She is currently working on a series of articles looking at trends and trajectories in offending behaviour amongst young people. This includes a recently completed report for the RSPCA entitled ‘Animal abuse amongst young people aged 13 to 17: trends trajectories and links with other offending’, which she hopes to publish in the near future.

Mike joined the Aberdeen School of Law from the University of East Anglia in September 2000. His interests focus on law and the exercise of power in two distinct areas: government and public administration; and the treatment of animals. He is presently a Council member of the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare; an academic adviser to the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons; a committee member of the Animal Science, Ethics and Law Veterinary Association; and a member of the Companion Animal Welfare Council. He has written widely on aspects of animal welfare law and lectured extensively on the subject both in the UK and abroad. Mike's book 'Animal Welfare Law in Britain' was recently published by the Oxford University Press. He is currently engaged on a research project funded by the RSPCA and the revision of the 'Animals' section of Halsburys Laws of England.

Sue’s post is designed to maximise the contribution the NSPCC can make to safeguarding children through its membership on LSCB’s throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland. A key part of the role is to collate and analyse the NSPCC’s experience as the only voluntary sector agency to sit on Boards across the three nations and to share this learning with colleagues both internally and externally.

Prior to this role, Sue was worked as a Public Policy Adviser for the NSPCC, working to raise the awareness and capacity of a variety of audiences to contribute to safeguarding children. This included politicians, professionals, the public and children and young people themselves.

Sue qualified as a nurse at St James’s Hospital in Leeds and later trained as a social worker, working for local authority Social Services in child protection with children under the age of 10, before joining the NSPCC in 1999.

Paula graduated from the Royal Veterinary College, University of London in 1992 after which she worked in mixed practices in Oxfordshire and Devon. After a period of travelling she returned to work in Oxfordshire in 1997. Paula began working in 100% small animal practice in 1998 where she developed her interest in internal medicine.

She joined Intervet UK in 2003 as a veterinary adviser, and since 2005 has been in a practice development role. This involves training both within and outside the company whilst maintaining responsibility for some small animal products. Paula is the co-ordinator for Intervet Connect, maintaining relationships with the veterinary colleges and is responsible for Forging the Link, Intervet’s commitment to ‘the Link’.

Chris Simpson has been with the RSPCA for over 20 years and works in the Gloucestershire/Warwickshire RSPCA group of Inspectors with a mix of rural and urban calls. Before joining the RSPCA he worked as an Instructor at an Outdoor Activity Centre based in Yorkshire.

Chris is a member of the Regional Rope Rescue Team and an NVQ Assessor. He is a Child Protection Officer for my local Parish and as a Governor of my local First School have a specific responsibility for Child Protection Issues.

Chris also delivers training to RSPCA students on the RSPCA Child Cruelty Reporting Procedure in conjunction with the NSPCC.

Outside of work Chris’ main interests are rock climbing, running, reading and astronomy. He is married with two young children.

Simon joined the RSPCA in 1990, following a successful career in Agriculture from school age. He was initially posted as a newly qualified Inspector to the Leicester Group, serving in the group for 9 years. Simon was then promoted to Chief Inspector and posted to take over the Nottingham Group in 1999 which remains his current position. He has, however, taken a temporary secondment to the Chief Officers Office, seconded to Superintendent Hogg (Projects). This role will last a minimum of 6 months; Simon will be responsible for assisting the Society roll out a new communications system called Airwaves- a radiotelephone used by all emergency services.

In his 17 years as an RSPCA officer, Simon has been awarded 6 commendations, 3 certificates of merit, Bronze Gallantry Animal Life Saving Medal, RSPCA Disaster Medal, and a long service award. He is also an NVQ Level 3 Assessor and Verifier in Animal Welfare and Management.

Simon is married with a one-year-old son. When not working he collects second hand books, walking and gardening plus spending time with his family.

Phil Arkow, Chair of the Animal Abuse and Family Violence Prevention Project, The Latham Foundation, Interim Director, Human-Animal Bond Programs, the American Humane Association

Internationally acclaimed lecturer, author and humane educator Phil Arkow is Interim Director for Human-Animal Bond Programs at the American Humane Association, the nation’s oldest federation of child and animal protection organisations. He also chairs the Latham Foundation’s Animal Abuse and Family Violence Prevention Project. He lectures internationally to cross-train employees of animal shelters, child protection agencies, domestic violence prevention programs, and veterinarians to recognise and report family violence. He teaches a distance-education certificate course in Animal-Assisted Therapy & Activities through Harcum College and a similar campus course at Camden County College. He has authored or edited numerous articles and nine key reference books on the human-animal bond, humane education, animal-assisted therapy, violence prevention, and animal shelter management. He has served with the American Veterinary Medical Association, the Delta Society, the National Animal Control Association, and the American Association of Human-Animal Bond Veterinarians.

Jan Salihi, Senior Policy Advisor, Domestic Violence team in Her Majesty’s Court Service Family Justice Division

Jan joined the then Lord Chancellors Department in 1987. Since 2001 she has worked in the Domestic Violence Branch, with responsibility for advising Ministry of Justice ministers on departmental domestic violence policy and reporting on targets of the National Delivery Plan.

Jan’s responsibilities have included involvement in a number of initiatives including:

· Domestic Violence Court (SDVC) Programme & expansion of Independent Domestic Violence Advisers (IDVAs) services

Angie Austin joined Surrey Police in 1994, and has a strong operational policing background. Between 1997 and 1999 she was a Domestic Violence Officer and played a key role in the employment of the first Surrey Domestic Violence Outreach Worker. Between 2000 and 2001 she worked in the Metropolitan Police Service as an operational Sergeant on a very busy Borough Command Unit. After transferring back to Surrey Police she now works as a Staff Officer to DCC Brian Moore, who is the ACPO Lead on Domestic Abuse (previously referred to as Domestic Violence). She is engaged on his national portfolios, primarily focusing on the progression of the national policing response to domestic abuse

On graduation from the University of Glasgow in 1975 was appointed to post of Small Animal House Physician, and managed the university’s inner city charity clinic until 1978. During this period became attuned to the importance of the human-companion animal bond (H/CAB) and its particular value for people with special needs. Elizabeth and her husband Edward, a veterinary pathologist, have a bond-centred practice in Lancashire.

As a Churchill Fellow she visited outstanding H/CAB programmes throughout the USA. She has helped to introduce a variety of community and institutionally based H/CAB programmes in the UK. She is co-founder of Canine Partners, the assistance dog programme and is the current chair of The Society for Companion Animal Studies (SCAS).