Mrs Juliet Holder-Allen is now officially the Chief Magistrate. She received a letter yesterday morning from the Judicial Service Commission confirming her appointment almost three years after she had been named to the position in an acting capacity.

Holder-Allen, who has been a magistrate for nearly fourteen years, was appointed on August 1, 2001. The Judicial Service Commission was only recently reconstituted after a two-year lapse because of the political impasse.

She currently oversees Court 2 which deals with first-call matters among other cases.

"I am very relieved, because being the Chief Magistrate will set me on a firm footing for the advancement of my career position", she told Stabroek News yesterday. Holder-Allen was educated at St. Aidan's Anglican School and later gained a place at the Mackenzie High School. After graduating, she joined the law programme at the University of Guyana (UG) then went on to the University of the West Indies and the Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad where she completed parts two and three of her law studies. Holder-Allen tried several other careers before she ventured off into becoming a magistrate. She was a schoolteacher, she once worked in the bauxite industry in research and development and she was also an Industrial Relations Officer. She is married and has a daughter attending Queen's College.

Prosecutor Gordon Peters was also recently promoted to Chief Inspector of Police.