Elish Angiolini, who chaired the inquiry into policing issues arising from the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving officer, has a history of chairing similarly high-profile reviews and has held some of the most senior legal roles in Scotland.
A Roman Catholic brought up in the old shipbuilding area of Govan, in Glasgow, Angiolini was inspired to enter the law after giving evidence in a burglary trial as a teenager, according to the Herald. She was struck by how little attention seemed to be given to the witnesses and the accused, who seemed “irrelevant”.
Angiolini was educated at Notre Dame high school and the University of Strathclyde and quickly rose through the ranks after qualifying as a lawyer. While a trainee, she was a passenger on a train that crashed at Polmont junction in 1984, killing nine people, including two sitting next to her, an experience that is said to have made her determined to make the most of every day that followed.
Angiolini served as a procurator fiscal (public prosecutor), before holding senior posts in the Crown Office, which oversees Scotland’s prosecution service. After serving as a regional prosecutor, she became the first woman to be appointed as Scotland’s solicitor general in 2001. Angiolini went on to become, in 2006, the first female to serve as lord advocate – similar to the role of attorney general in England – in the 500-year history of the role, serving two governments over 10 years.
In June 2011 she was appointed as chair of a new commission to examine the issue of how female offenders are dealt with in Scotland’s criminal justice system. Four years later Angiolini chaired a review into the crime of rape for the Metropolitan police.
She has led a government-commissioned review into deaths in police custody, published in 2017, which said that bereaved families had been failed by the system. Angiolini later said her recommendations for reform from that review had been “kicked into the long grass”.
More recently, Angiolini led a review into Scotland’s police complaints handling, investigations and misconduct, published in November 2020, which was ordered by ministers after the death in custody of Sheku Bayoh, who died after being forcibly restrained. Her recommendations included tougher powers and greater independence for Scotland’s police investigations body.
She has been principal of St Hugh’s College, Oxford, since 2012. Angiolini has two sons with her husband, who gave up his career as a hairdresser to stay at home to raise them. In her spare time she enjoys walking, picking wild mushrooms and cinema.
