Miss Avril McAlees is a highly skilled and experienced forensic psychologist who has worked in health, as well as criminal justice settings. She provides expert evdience in criminal, civil and family proceedings.
Instructing Miss Avril McAlees
If you want to instruct Miss McAlees or if you want to discuss using Miss McAlees for your case, please contact us.
Profile
Miss Avril McAlees is a Principal Forensic Psychologist with over twenty years’ experience of conducting assessments and delivering therapeutic interventions to both individuals and groups. She has worked across the age range, and with both males and females, and in a wide variety of settings, including both low and medium secure units, secure adolescent units, secure training centres, prisons, community-based settings including CAMHS and the National Probation Service, and acute admission wards. She has worked in specialist (ASD) autism spectrum disorder and learning disability (LD) services, and has worked collaboratively with the Fire and Rescue Service and the NSPCC, acting as a consultant to them, in relation to fire setting behaviours in children, child protection issues, supporting non-abusive parents, and running treatment groups.
Miss McAlees has extensive experience of delivering reflective practice, and of delivering training to staff groups. In her role as a principal, she has been responsible for the direct supervision of junior staff and has played an important role in the local review of therapeutic interventions including the sex offender treatment group and in implementing new treatment groups such as a DBT-informed coping skills group. She is a committed and able practitioner who is conscientious, well-considered and thorough in her practice.
Experience of giving evidence
Miss McAlees has vast experience of giving oral evidence. She has appeared many times in the family courts and in the youth court. She has given evidence at oral hearings of the Parole Board. Although less frequently, she has direct experience of giving evidence in the criminal courts. In her hospital career, Miss McAlees is familiar with giving evidence before the Health, Education and Social Care Chamber of the First-tier tribunal for mental health. She is comfortable in her ability to speak in public. She speaks persuasively and confidently and is measured in her delivery.
Case undertaken
Miss McAlees is regularly instructed to provide her expert opinion to the family and criminal courts as well as the Parole Board.
Her work for the criminal courts and the Parole Board typically involve assessments of:
- Sexual offending
- Violent behaviour offending
- Arson
- Stalking
She is experienced in giving opinions about the link between intellectual/personality functioning and offending behaviour, and about risk.
Her work for the family courts includes:
- Carrying out psychological assessments to provide an understanding about problem parenting, capacity, ability/readiness for change, and ability/willingness to engage with professional agencies
- Conducting cognitive assessments and commenting on the effect of intellectual disability on parenting
Specialist assessments offered
Risk assessments
- HCR-20 to assess risk of violence
- SAVRY to assess violence risk in youth
- PCL-R to assess for psychopathy
- RSVP (Risk for Sexual Violence Protocol) to assess for risk of sexual violence
- Stalking Risk Profile (SRP) to assess and manage risk in stalking cases
Personality and clinical symptom assessments
- MACI (Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory) to assess for mental illness and disordered personality in adolescents
- MCMI-IV (Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory) to assess for clinical syndromes and personality disorder in adults
- IPDE (International Personality Disorder Examination) to assess for personality disorder in adults
Intellectual and cognitive assessments
- WAIS-IV (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale) to measure cognitive ability in adults
- WISC-V (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children) to measure cognitive ability in children
- WASI-II (Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence)
Other
- Gudjonsson Suggestibility and Compliance Scales
Publications
Bloxsom, C.A.J., McAlees, A., & Hollin, C.R. (September, 2008). The role of attachment and offending. Poster presented at the University of Leicester Forensic Research Centre Conference. Detecting More Crime With Forensic Science : A guide for forensic practitioners, police forces, & other law enforcement agencies, Leicester, U.K
Availability
As an experienced psychologist, Miss McAlees has developed her expert witness work over several years. In addition to supervising clinical staff in an innovative criminal justice project, she now dedicates several days of her working week to her medicolegal practice. This means that she has good availability to accept instructions and to provide oral evidence.
Qualifications & Professional memberships
Qualifications:
- BSc(Hons) in Psychology
- MSc in Clinical Criminology
Professional memberships:
- HCPC registered
- Member of British Psychological Society
- Member of Division of Forensic Psychology
- Member of NOTA
You can request to view the CV of any of our experts or contact us to discuss your requirements.