Charity role more than Line of Duty as former hostage negotiator becomes trustee of Sheffield charity City Hearts

Geoff Cheshire had a 32-year career with Merseyside Police, holding senior leadership roles, including spending 14 years of his service as a hostage negotiator. He completed a master’s degree in Critical and Major Incident Psychology at Liverpool University, focusing on hostage taking.

Geoff, 56, said: “After two years as chief officer of the volunteer Special Constabulary, I finally retired from the force to concentrate on managing and leading the emergency response and medical services of the British Red Cross initially in the North then in national operations.

"Translating my past experiences of supporting and helping those who are being held against their will into the charity sector, I developed a human trafficking response team in the North West of England. Drawing together partner agencies and professionals to train staff and volunteers, the team were then deployed into rescue centres, where survivors were received and supported in the initial hours following their liberation. I ensured that psycho-social experts were on hand to provide crucial help for both victims and their supporters affected by trauma.”

“Throughout the past 20 years, I have been involved in helping people in distress who have been held against their will. From first meeting City Hearts , I was inspired by their commitment and approach to supporting survivors of modern slavery and human trafficking. When the opportunity presented itself to join their board of Trustees, I jumped at the chance to work with this group of highly motivated and effective people with a proven track record of making a real difference to the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in the UK today.”

Geoff was invited to take the role by Ed Newton, chief executive of City Hearts.

Ed sais: “Through Geoff’s partnership work with us at the Red Cross, I have had the privilege of seeing at first hand his complete commitment to the incredibly vulnerable people we support. Geoff’s background and skills will strengthen our Trustee team enormously and we are delighted to welcome him on board.”

Outside of work, Geoff enjoys an outdoor life – touring the UK in his camper van or sailing the canals of Britain and Europe. His landscape and night-time photography has been published in the national media.