Kate Aubrey-Johnson OBE has been appointed to the independent panel of experts supporting Professor David Ormerod CBE, KC (Hon) in a major review of the future of criminal courts for children in England and Wales.
Read: Future of criminal courts for children: Terms of reference
The terms of the review recognise that children who appear before the courts are increasingly likely to face more serious charges and have complex underlying needs and vulnerabilities, even though the way the criminal courts deal with children has changed very little over the past 30 years.
The review will examine:
- Whether the current criminal court system adequately recognises children’s rights, developmental needs, and capacity for rehabilitation
- How children are treated and supported within the system, and the impact on outcomes and reoffending
- Inequalities affecting children from ethnic minority backgrounds, those with special educational needs and disabilities, and care-experienced children
- Youth sentencing, including whether it should be more clearly separated from the adult sentencing framework
Kate is an award-winning children’s rights barrister and mediator at Garden Court Chambers, as well as an expert advisor on youth justice.
Kate’s current roles and recent publications include:
- Co-chair of the Ministry of Justice’s Youth Justice Quality of Advocacy Working Group to develop specialist training requirements for lawyers representing children
- Executive Director of Child Rights and Youth Justice (CRYJ)
- Co-founder and trustee of Lawyers Who Care, a mentoring charity supporting aspiring lawyers with care experience
- Co-author of the leading textbook Youth Justice Law and Practice (LAG, 2019)
- Co-author of the Justice for Children with SEND and Neurodivergence report (Sieff Foundation, April 2025) and Reviewing the Minimum Age of Criminal Responsibility report (Bar Council, June 2026).
- Contributor to Piloting a Child First approach in police custody (MOPAC/MPS/Nuffield, May 2026).
- In 2014, Kate joined Just for Kids Law to set up the Youth Justice Legal Centre (YJLC), where she was Director until 2019. She was responsible for developing their website, advice line and contributed to their legal guides and training programme.
- In June 2026, Kate was awarded an OBE for services to children and the youth justice system.
