Felicity Quevâtre-Malcic has been elected as a Jurat of the Royal Court and will take the seat of retiring Jurat, Niall McCathie. The election took place before the States meeting on Wednesday 26th February 2020.
In the second round of voting, 45 members of the States of Election – made up of Deputies, Jurats, Douzeniers and Rectors – voted for Felicity and 37 for College of FE lecturer, Anne Setters. Insurance professional, Jonathan Beck, had been eliminated in the initial round of voting.
Felicity was proposed by Deputy Heidi Soulsby and seconded by Deputy Peter Ferbrache. Deputy Soulsby explained that Felicity’s father’s family live in Guernsey and she spent all of her family holidays here. She has an aptitude for languages, studied German at university and is an enthusiastic supporter of Guernésiaise. She began her career as a successful journalist, initially for BBC Guernsey and then Radio 4, Channel 4 and ITV.
Felicity’s reporting on prisons, including Wormwood Scrubs, had a profound influence on her. She decided she wanted to help with people’s lives rather than just reporting on them and she retrained as a psychological counsellor. She has been in private practice for 20 years. For 17 of those years, she has volunteered as a counsellor for Safer, Guernsey’s domestic abuse charity.
Felicity will be sworn in at the Royal Court on Monday 9th March 2020. Guernsey will then have five female Jurats out of a total of sixteen. In addition, two of the five Jurés-Justiciers Suppléants (reserve bench) are women.
How does a Jurat get sworn in?
The role of Jurat of the Royal Court.
Photo courtesy of Nick Despres Photography
