East Midlands
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is the main prosecuting authority in England and Wales. In our daily operations we work in partnership with all agencies in the criminal justice system. We work especially closely with the police, although we are independent of them.
The CPS has 14 Areas across England and Wales - the CPS East Midlands Area serves the counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire and Nottinghamshire, including the cities of Nottingham, Derby and Leicester and the county of Rutland.
Janine McKinney, Chief Crown Prosecutor
Janine was admitted as a solicitor in 1989 following articles in Leicester. After a year in private practice, Janine joined Nottinghamshire CPS as a Crown Prosecutor in January 1991 and two years later became a Senior Crown Prosecutor.
In 2003 she was promoted to District Crown Prosecutor with responsibility for one of the Magistrates’ Court teams and then in 2009 took on responsibility for the whole of the Magistrates’ Court team. Janine was named Nottinghamshire Law Society ‘Solicitor of the Year’ in 2012 for her work to improve performance across the criminal justice system in the Magistrates' Courts.
Janine moved to Derbyshire as Senior District Crown Prosecutor and became SDCP for the Magistrates’ Court in 2012. Appointed Deputy CCP in July 2013, she was also champion for hate crime, victims and custody time limits.
She became Chief Crown Prosecutor for the Area in October 2015. She is also the national CCP lead for road traffic offences.
Karen Thompson, Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor (Magistrates Court)
Karen has built her career in the CPS starting out as an administrator when the CPS was first established in 1986. She qualified as a solicitor in the early 1990s and has moved around the East Midlands in different management roles, including managing the team serving Lincolnshire.
In November 2013, she set up and led a Proceeds of Crime team at the request of the Chief Executive and has led the Area’s work in relation to the abolition of committals, the implementation of Better Case Management and the Crown Court standard operating practices. She has been the Area legal lead, custody time limits champion, violence against women and girls lead and led the systems and processes work streams during the Area restructure for the Crown Court.
She became temporary Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor in 2015 and took on leadership of the Magistrates' Court in May 2017. She also leads the Rape and Serious Sexual Offences unit.
Samantha Shallow, Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor
Samantha leads the East Midlands Crown Court, Crown Advocacy and Complex Casework Units. Samantha rejoined the Area in September 2022 as head of the complex casework unit after roles in the CPS international and specialist fraud divisions and a term as head of UK desk at Eurojust. She was appointed as Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor in 2024. She leads the Crown Court and and Complex Casework units.
Samantha established her career as a prosecutor in our complex casework unit, where she led some notable cases including the prosecution of Mick and Mairead Philpott and one of the first organised child grooming operations.
Adele Clarke, Area Business Manager
Adele joined the CPS in 1987, after working for the Finance and Rates Department of Chesterfield Borough Council. During her CPS career she has held various specialist roles, including finance and estates management. She has been an Area Business Manager since 1999, in Derbyshire and Northumbria.
She joined the East Midlands in 2007. She was the national lead for a review of our business centres.
Our Magistrates’ Court Unit prosecute offences of domestic violence, assaults, criminal damage, minor public disorder incidents, all but the most serious traffic offences, possession of drugs, dangerous dog offences, offences of dishonesty and commercial burglaries.
The list is not exhaustive but generally comprises of any offence where the maximum permitted sentence for each offence does not exceed six months imprisonment or one year if two or more relevant offences are to be considered.
The Crown Court Unit deals with cases such as murder, robberies, serious assaults, dwelling house burglaries, complex fraud, the supply and trafficking of drugs, and the most serious road traffic offences especially those that result in a fatality.
The Complex Casework Unit prosecutes cases that are particularly sensitive or high profile. They tackle the Area’s most serious and complex crimes and criminality that spans across borders. The unit enables CPS East Midlands to deal with complex cases more effectively by employing experienced lawyers, paralegals and administrators in one team, so that these cases can have the most appropriate resources allocated to them.
The team’s caseload includes serious organised crime; historical cases, complex frauds and cases that are particularly sensitive to their local communities. Prosecutors work very closely with more specialist police departments and are able to become involved with investigations early on.
The Rape and Serious Sexual Offences Unit is a dedicated and specialised team who prosecutes cases such as rape, serious sexual offences, child abuse and child sexual exploitation.
The staff on the unit all have a great deal of understanding of the sensitivities of prosecuting cases of this nature and how difficult and harrowing it can be for a victim from the first step of making a complaint to the police, through to giving evidence in a trial.
Working with you
CPS East Midlands continues to engage with the diverse communities that we serve in order to ensure that we make this region a safer place to live, work and visit. We are committed to listening to members of the public and involving people in the community in improving the way we work.
We provide a service to members of the public in the East Midlands, so the community is at the very heart of what we do. We have well-established scrutiny and community involvement panels to help us with our work on hate crimes and violence against women and girls and to establish a dialogue with the public.
Our aim is to listen to the views of the community and invite feedback on the way we work. The feedback we receive from these panels and other activities in the community is used to improve the way we work and ensure our services are more relevant to the people we serve.
Victims and Witnesses
We are committed to dealing with Victims and Witnesses with respect. We understand being a victim and or witness of crime can be difficult and we are sensitive to how vulnerable some may feel due to their experiences.
We will ensure that they are dealt with in a professional and courteous manner. We will listen to their needs and support them through the process so that they can give their best evidence at court.
CPS East Midlands is committed to ensuring that we are renowned for our professionalism, and that we are delivering justice to all members of our communities. We want communities to continue to have confidence in their local justice system, to believe their interests are fairly represented and justice is seen to be done.
Victims’ Right to Review
The VRR scheme makes it easier for victims to seek a review of a CPS decision not to bring charges or to terminate proceedings.
If you are a victim seeking to exercise your right to request a review of a CPS decision not to bring charges, discontinue proceedings or offer no evidence in a case please first see our Victims Right to Review page for more information.
For VRR enquiries and applications, please use the Contact page on this website in the first instance.
East Midlands contact point for Victims' Right to Review enquiries:
Email: [email protected]
Telephone: 0115 852 3300 – select option 4