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

@WindyHedges my DD was going to apply to Cardiff next year.
I may write to them and tell them that this will not happen while they employ such a person.

It would be interesting to find out who gave him the job. Would it be head of HR, the Dean (do they exist outside of Morse?), a committee?

Hells bells... I lived at Talybont in the mid '90s in my first year. In fairness, we didn't see the students reps much apart from the middle of the night when the fire alarm went off and they would come round to make sure we were all a)out of the building, and b) vaguely ok. I would imagine their role has become more significant since then given the whole emphasis on student welfare, and there is NO WAY I would have wanted that dude around as a rather innocent first year.

I don't see how he passed his DBS anyway -- convictions with prison sentences (suspended or not) are automatically disclosed, so the uni should know about him!! A mature (and THAT mature) male student wanting to 'work' with (female) undergrads would raise my suspicions anyway - clean criminal record or not...

The fact that he sought out this role is worrying in itself.

One key aspect of the role is to help first year students with finding their way around university life.

On the Support Team web page, he introduces himself with these words: “Welcome and enjoy your time here. Get one life, make the most of it. If you ever need help, just ask. You’re never on your own!”

The rest of the team are 2nd, 3rd, 4th year, and post-grad students.

I don’t know how he or anyone else thought he was going to provide this service as a first year student himself.

I don’t know how he even had the opportunity to apply when as a first year, he would only just have been going through the application to study there at all.

The fact that he is local to Cardiff and has previously worked in education in Cardiff is beginning to ring alarm bells as to his connections.

Only just seen this. Can't add anything coherent except another WTF!

Well, Boris has gone, and this thread has been reinstated. There is hope.

😂

The tide is turning.

Why did it get deleted? My message just said it contained information or something? But surely any thread contains information about the people it’s about?

Crikey! I'm incredibly passionate about supporting offenders to get back to work and be treated with compassion and access to appropriate employment. I'm very pro- helping offenders and reducing stigma in relation to time spent in custody.

But even I think this is completely crazy!! What on earth were the uni thinking?

Have a look at this thread @Kanaloa and the comment from MNHQ:

www.mumsnet.com/talk/site_stuff/4661574-mnhq-why-was-this-thread-deleted?

Don’t know if allowed to post this, but
This man is the full-time employed Student Engagement Officer at Cardiff University, with responsibility for providing training on aspects of student engagement.

Link to University webpage

I agree OP, I think it must be something to do with his education connections like with the Scottish periods bloke, it’s not a first year role. Absolutely shocking.

@Sep200024 I spoke to my DS earlier, he is in Talybont. He tells me his female housemates want answers. I only hope it's not the man you've linked to who hears their complaint - disgraceful

I don’t think it’s fair to post that person’s details. Their role is not related to residential life or pastoral care. Their remit has to do with engaging students with academic departments and policies.

That makes me feel sick, can’t imagine how I’d feel as a parent in that situation or a young student in Halls.

Ah thank you, I didn’t see that. What an odd mistake.

I disagree. Current and prospective students and parents should know when attitudes and behaviours fall this short. He has chosen to post what he did. He has chosen to go public. Nobody made him. And he makes it clear where he works. It is bringing the university into disrepute, not that they need any help on that front.

Oh sorry! I missed the Tweet. I thought you’d just linked to his webpage to suggest people contact him to complain about the strangler.

Ignore me!

What a lovely place Cardiff university must be for women . . .

OK, Cardiff is DEFINITELY off DDs list now!

Please don't tell me such people work at Swansea, too 😞

What a lovely place Cardiff university must be for women . . .
And for vulnerable young men too.

And what role models they are providing!

I suppose they do provide real life study examples in the criminology course. You know how some creative writing courses have authors come to give talks, some science courses might have well regarded scientists come to give lectures… and at Cardiff uni they have an actual convicted strangler in your criminology seminar.

Many of us will assume this is a role like the wardens when we were at university. People you hardly saw unless you did something wrong. That's not the case - students now are given more support and these resident assistants are there running events, offering guidance, providing support etc. This is true at every university so it makes it even more important that the right people are chosen for these roles. I've worked in universities for 25 years and I've never known a 1st year get one of these roles - so appointing this man was a deliberate choice by someone

Yes indeed, @Chrysanthemum5 . It's bizarre that a first year got the job at all, never mind one that's a violent criminal.
I speculated on the site stuff thread that this guy must have had a friend who works at Cardiff uni.
That's the only explanation I can think of for this nonsensical appointment.

Just to clear up one more thing about DBS checks. There is no pass and fail.

What happens is that the DBS will issue the certificate as a statement of fact - these are the convictions/cautions which we think are relevant to the position this person is applying for. It is then up to the employer to decide whether they wish to go ahead and employ - taking into account not just the DBS check but references, interview, qualifications etc etc. It's part of the process, it's not ALL of the process.

It would be unfair for someone who was sentenced to 4 years in prison aged 18 or 19 and for whom the length of sentence is such it will never be "spent", to spend the next 35 years being a reformed character and never getting as much as a speeding ticket, to be unilaterally blocked from ever working in positions which need a DBS check.

So as I said earlier there are two possibilities: either they never did a basic DBS check in the first place, or did do a DBS check and employed him anyway.

When I was doing a degree I had to do a enhanced DBS check for placements as well as suitably for the job as DBS was always going to be required. One man in his younger days had a conviction with violence and it had to go to a panel to look at. Time since offence, life since, whether he was a risk etc. At least a decade had past since the offence.

I agree that Cardiff either didn’t do the DBS or the panel that did it haven’t been robust in their decision making. Too short a period of time since the offence on this and regardless of the offender management/rehabilitation not enough time has past to indicate if ongoing risk.

Past behaviour is the best predictor of future behaviour/risk.

So as I said earlier there are two possibilities: either they never did a basic DBS check in the first place, or did do a DBS check and employed him anyway.

Both of which are equally alarming in a job which involves supporting vulnerable students.