Jim Gamble

QPM
BornNovember 1959 (age 64)
Bangor, Northern Ireland
OccupationCEO of INEQE Safeguarding Group

James Gamble, QPM (born November 1959) is a British former police officer and head of Belfast region for the now disbanded RUC Special Branch.

Gamble was the head of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command (CEOP) Centre in the United Kingdom until 2010, and is now CEO of the INEQE Safeguarding Group.[1]

Career

RUC Special Branch

Gamble's father was in the Royal Air Force. Before joining the Royal Ulster Constabulary as a constable, Gamble served in the Royal Military Police.[2] Early in his career he was head of the controversial Royal Ulster Constabulary anti-terrorist intelligence unit in Belfast, then Deputy Director General (with the rank of deputy chief constable) of the National Crime Squad, which in April 2006, merged into the Serious Organised Crime Agency. He was also the head of the Belfast Region of the RUC Special Branch.[3]

National Criminal Intelligence Service

Gamble led the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) fight against child sex abuse. He also presided over Operation Ore.[4] He led the work to set up the National Crime Squad's specialist response cell – the Paedophile and Online Investigation Team (POLIT). He was awarded the Queen's Police Medal (QPM) in the 2008 New Year Honours.[5]

Application to lead PSNI

In 2009, Hugh Orde resigned as Police Service of Northern Ireland chief constable.[6] Gamble applied for the position but was unsuccessful with the position being filled by Matt Baggott, the former chief constable of Leicestershire who was the successful candidate.Gamble stated that he believed his background as an RUC Special Branch officer may have been a factor in why he was not selected for the role.[6]

Gamble was a co-author on the UK's first Domestic Homicide Review (Pemberton) and in 2010 was appointed by the then Home Secretary to lead the initial scoping review of the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.[7]

CEOP

Gamble resigned as CEO of CEOP in October 2010 after the Home Secretary Theresa May's decision to merge CEOP with SOCA and other bodies into a new National Crime Agency. Gamble wanted CEOP to remain independent.[8]

"I have resigned because I'm concerned about the direction of travel that CEOP is moving in. I am deeply concerned that it is not going to be best for children, because I believe you either begin from a position of what is best for policing or a position of what is best for children themselves. I am concerned that the advice that we have given from our mixed-economy multi-agency staff, through the response to the consultation, the responses from the Children's Commissioners, the NSPCC, the Association of Directors of Children's Services, ACPO and APA, that all of that is not being taken into account, as the NCA business case is being developed at speed and in a direction that I think is fundamentally wrong. I resigned to remove myself from the equation so that there could be no misperception that I have a vested self-interest in this, and I resigned in order that the issue that we focus upon would be what is best for child protection, not what is best for Jim Gamble or those within CEOP, but what is best for children."

— Jim Gamble, Home Affairs Committee, 12 OCTOBER 2010, https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmselect/cmhaff/510/10101202.htm

Gamble then created the 'Ineqe Safeguarding Group'. He is a frequent media commentator on issues related to protective services, best practice, the internet and child protection.

Labour Party membership

In 2015, Gamble joined the Labour Party in Northern Ireland. Gamble stated that he wanted Labour candidates to be allowed to stand in Northern Ireland, but that he would have no plans to run himself.[9]

Later that year Gamble voted for Yvette Cooper during the Labour Party leadership election. Cooper was defeated with 17% of the vote and the eventual winner would be Jeremy Corbyn.[9]

Gamble has been called to give evidence at the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse (IICSA) on two occasions. The first related to child abuse on the internet and the second to faith-based institutions.[10]

The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann

Gamble appeared in a 2019 documentary about the disappearance of Madeline McCann on Netflix.[11] [12]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Admin. "About". Ineqe Safeguarding Group. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
  2. ↑ "Jim Gamble: 'I was under threat but was more fearful for my family'". Belfasttelegraph – via belfasttelegraph.co.uk.
  3. ↑ "Crime agency block 'will hamper policing'". BBC News. 14 May 2014. Retrieved 14 May 2013.
  4. ↑ "Profile: Jim Gamble | BBC". BBC. 5 October 2010. Retrieved 30 November 2020.
  5. ↑ "Honours: Sundries (QPM, QSFM)". The Independent. 29 December 2007. Archived from the original on 8 June 2022.
  6. 1 2 "Police chief shortlist revealed", BBC News, 3 July 2000. Accessed 2009-06-03.
  7. ↑ "Madeleine McCann case development most significant in 15 years, says child safety expert Jim Gamble". Belfast Telegraph. 22 April 2022. Retrieved 23 September 2022.
  8. ↑ Israel, Simon (4 October 2010). "Online child protection boss Jim Gamble quits". Channel 4 News. Retrieved 14 May 2013.
  9. 1 2 Page, Chris (30 September 2015). "Jim Gamble: Ex-CEOP boss joins Labour Party in Northern Ireland". BBC News. Retrieved 14 May 2022.
  10. ↑ "Witness Statement of Jim Gamble QPM" (PDF). IICSA Website. 21 November 2019. Retrieved 23 September 2022.
  11. ↑ "We'll find out what happened to Madeleine, says Co Down cop Jim Gamble". The Belfast Telegraph. 14 March 2019. Retrieved 23 September 2022.
  12. ↑ "Jim Gamble". IMDB. Retrieved 23 September 2022.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.