to believe that this man should not be allowed to live at Student Halls?

[Sep200024]

At Cardiff University, one of the largest Halls of Residence, housing mostly first year students, is called Talybont.

At Talybont this year, a man (Sean Hughes) who has recently been released from prison for strangling a woman, has been given a live-in safeguarding role at the Halls.

His crime was to attack and strangle a young woman, and he is currently out on license after being released from prison in May of this year.

His role at the university is to live in the Halls of Residence as a ‘life assistant’, where his role is to “support vulnerable students and manage crisis situations”.

AIBU to think that this should not be allowed? How on earth have the application and vetting procedures at Cardiff University allowed this to happen?

Newspaper article here

Where the hell is the parole board in all this?

Burbling nonsense probably, and rehearsing their "lessons will be learned" mantra - just as they so often do, in the certain knowledge they'll never be held accountable for any outcome

I wonder if there's anyone left who seriously believes "public protection" to be their real priority any more?

He's a former teacher who has made it to the age of 40 with one conviction for assault

Who's a clever boy, then? Him? You?

Is only one conviction for assault by the age of 40 supposed to be some sort of achievement? What is the expected number?

The post involves working with vulnerable students who may be in crisis situations so why was there no DBS check?
Or was there, and he bypassed it?

KPSS have documented how easy it is for convicted offenders to bypass DBS checks.
kpssinfo.org/dbs-checks-and-identity-verification-pdf/

WTAF! I said from the start:
1- he should not have this job
2- he should not be allowed to live on campus
3- whoever hired him should also be sacked as he disclosed this conviction and so they are hugely at fault for hiring him

The post you are querying was my response to a poster that said he should not even be a regular student. That is it. I have not “swerved into a separate point”, I was responding to another posters point that I did not agree with.

You are completely misunderstanding the exchange of posts that you are commenting on.

This man was a Head of 6th form - someone used to interacting with teenage girls - which he no doubt sold as a plus in an interview a reason why he could be allowed into their residential accommodation to find more victims support them when they're vulnerable, mentally fragile , drunk etc.

The inability of organisations to stand up to some men - especially those with a track record of harming women - wanting access to the vulnerable is at times unbelievable.

I think they have made an I'll advised decision here but we don't know all the facts do we?

He's a former teacher who has made it to the age of 40 with one conviction for assault.

His mother must be proud 🤔

Sadly not fake.

www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/man-who-strangled-woman-given-25319459

30 years ago at university it came out that a man in the same role in one of the halls had been in prison for molesting a very young child. The university’s position was that he had served his time. students who complained were accused of homophobia. This was the same university who kicked students out of halls for minor infractions including having mental health difficulties, which often meant students were effectively forced to leave school for lack of housing in the area.

Predators have always been protected.

Exactly.

There are enough people out there with clean records that could do the job.
Having employed a strangler in the role of protecting vulnerable women is extremely negligent.

''Homophobic''?
Gay men aren't paedophiles.

The paedophile was a paedophile..Nothing to do with being Gay.
Could the University not see that?
Astonishing.

I agree the Uni are mainly at fault for hiring him as he disclosed it on his form. However, I do also feel as others have said he should have had the decency not to apply for such a role! Even if we go down the road of saying it's 'just' one conviction for assault (yikes!) the fact that it was so recent would tell him and any other reasonably reflective person that he still needs time to prove to himself and others he is no longer a risk.

He was sentenced in December so presumably was in jail Dec- April. He hasn't even spent one full year out of prison yet.

A Cardiff University spokesman said it is important not to "pre-judge or pre-empt" the outcome of its investigation into Hughes. “It should be noted that a criminal conviction is not an automatic bar to university study," he added.

They're deliberately confusing the argument by saying a conviction doesn't necessarily exclude someone from being a student. It's one thing being a student and another thing being in some kind of residential caretaker role! I'm sure a lot of the students and their parents are horrified by this. Doesn't exactly inspire confidence in the University staff - makes me wonder who else do they have on their books with an unsavoury past?

That's awful.

I don't want to go all conspiracy theory/tin foil hat, but I believe that a lot of the powerful people in society and decision-makers, including those within the criminal justice system, are would- be paedophiles/rapists. They may not have carried out those acts, but they would certainly like to and sympathise greatly with perpetrators of these heinous acts. Their extreme compassion for sex offenders while being harsh with others suggests they have a particular slant when it comes to the former.

I believe Saville etc was the tip of the iceberg and in years to come we will hear a lot more revelations regarding high profile people and those around who turned a blind eye.

There are so many violent perverts in UK that we need to go back to female-only university halls with female-only staff. Female-only hospitals and care homes would be good too, given the amount of sexual assualt in those places.

There’s only one reason a man who has a history of strangling women takes a live-in job safeguarding teenagers. 🤢😭

The statement from the university is pathetic. Yeah we know we hired a woman-strangler, if he assaults you, call the police. Thanks a bunch. Given police behaviour in recent years, they’d probably just arrest the assault victim for hurting the man’s feelings.

Seen the conviction rate for sex attacks? No wonder perverts aren’t afraid to attack women.

Absolutely!

And the fact that he did try to kill a woman should mean there's not a chance he's given this job. Shame on Cardiff University!

I do despair of this country and the fucking awful way that women are viewed and treated.

We live near Cardiff and my DD was probably going to apply to go there. She has ASD and so is vulnerable. There's not a snowball's chance in hell that she's going there now.
Even if they remove this dangerous man, it seems the uni is run by people stupid enough to have employed him in the first place, so I still wouldn't trust them to look after vulnerable young people. I will be contacting them too to tell them, too; not that they'll care.

Dbs check?? This is the reason they were brought in!

Thank you MN for reinstating this thread.

It’s an important issue to be brought to light.

Welcome back, everyone 🙂

Probably giving him a couple of hours to pack his bags

Glad it’s back!

@MandyMotherOfBrian I don't blame you in making your views crystal clear to Cardiff uni. My DD is 2nd year at a different uni and whilst she is sensible I do worry about her getting home from a night out. It was easier in year 1 as most accommodation was on campus, this year the students are more spread out in the city.

Also apologies for my spelling I obviously didn't have my glasses on this morning!

I am speechless

Can those of you who have DC considering Cardiff write and tell Cardiff senior Management team that your DC is having 2nd thoughts because of this? (if that is the case, of course ) Because they won't listen to academic staff on this - only the "student/customer."

I was a hall warden for a year when dong my PhD (only lasted a year !!) - it was a very good way of living very cheaply. But it's a job which requires close working with & living with young undergrads. This man should be NOWHERE near students in these circumstances.