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

It's all part of the new university ethos for young women. Courses on being a sex worker to pay your fees, confide your worries with the convicted strangler - and remember to be available (ideally undressed) whenever your presence is required to validate any random male who states he's a woman.

Our poor daughters,

This case - and the uni's decision - kind of reminds me of the old one (joke with a serious moral behind it, if you will) about the woman looking to hire a chauffeur. She interviews the four candidates about their driving skills and experience and asks how close they believe they could confidently drive to the cliff edge, if they were given the job.

The first one says "three feet"; the second says "one foot"; and the third boasts "three inches". She decides to hire the fourth candidate who says "I wouldn't go anywhere near there, Madam, why ever would you take the risk?!"

Who's saying that? All I've seen are a couple of posts clarifying that this was strangulation not murder.

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Just one more thing to confirm that the world has gone completely bonkers

Yep. Universities are now toxic places for women. It really wasn’t like this when I was a student in the 90s. We’ve gone backwards very quickly.

Not good. I would be moving my DC.

How crap were the other job candidates if he ended up getting the job?

They are ALWAYS studying criminology. That or psychology.

Begs the question of what the interview was like!
"Can you give us an example of how you always stay calm and under control in stressful circumstances?"

"...I got 9 months for ABH last year after trying to strangle a woman, but got let out early for good behaviour "
is NOT usually considered a good answer.

The whole system of resident tutors is an appalling and outdated one anyway. Students should not be put in such a role, especially not when there are now so many students with poor mental health that they are expected to support.

If a spotless DBS is not needed to take a role supporting teenagers away from home, it should be.

This is just utter madness!

This is why they ask if you have any prior convictions in the job application as if you have a violent past you cannot work with vulnerable people!

I person would be boycotting the uni until they sacked him.

Speechless.
What on earth is wrong with our society.
So many depraved people hiding amongst us.

The university I used to work at don’t even dbs check lecturers anymore. They used to but have stopped. I’m assuming as it’s not required for working with adults then it’s a cost saving measure?

This is unfair sweeping statement, lots of universities take their responsibilities on safeguarding seriously.

I dunno, university was pretty toxic for women from what I remember in the 90s.

Rape by any man you had slept with once before wasn’t rape
Groping at parties was not considered sexual assault and constant.
Upskirting was legal and rife.
One woman in my hall accidentally left her door unlocked due to coming home drunk. A male student just went along the hall trying doors, opened her door, went in and raped her. But it was declared “not rape” because she’d begged him to use a condom due to the AIDS epidemic. So it was ruled she had consented to sex….
Male professor announced the first day of a course that “all the women here are looking for husbands because women just can’t do this career field (high paying STEM field)” and despite all of we women marching directly to the registrar and university presidents office to lodge formal complaints….no action was taken and we had to sit in that man’s course and suffer more and more sexist comments along these lines, along with being graded lower for being female.
I was sexually assaulted by a Uni security guard and punched him in the face in defence…I was put on academic probation and nothing happened to him because he denied it and was believed over me.

I could go on, and am not saying Unis were worse then, just that I don’t think we have had a time yet where Unis were not toxic to women?

WTAF

What awful country has this become?

That's horrific. I worked in this role when I was doing my PhD and it required an interview and enhanced DBS.

We were encouraged to mix with the students & attend social events. One girl in the role actually slept with a student, after lots of alcohol had been consumed. In the end there weren't any consequences as she was 21 and he was 19 (not sure if I agree but anyway) - but it's just completely unfathomable that someone like that could get into the position.

As for him studying there at all - yes he should be allowed to access further education, not sure how I feel about criminology and criminal justice though - aren't there requirements for that course just like there are medicine?

Appointing him was an act of pure misogyny. No one but a half wit would class him as suitable for any work which brought him into contact with young women. His 'difficult past' might rear up at any time.

It is - and lots of checks on you as a character, monthly meetings with the warden. At my university anyway.

Well he has served his time and hopefully our excellent prison system has rehabilitated him.

Just shockingly awful that they thought it appropriate to give him this role, or to allow him to live in mixed-sex halls. What the absolute fuck. Safeguarding includes vulnerable adults. The role is about support vulnerable students. How could they have employed him?

Where do we complain against this? This should not be allowed. As a parent of a child in uni I am horrified!!!

MrsOvertonsWindow Yep. The people who really control university are not working class women that's for sure. Outing but I worked in a low role in what was and still is considered a prestigious university and hand on heart it was the most misogynistic and racist place I have ever worked by far and I have several decades of work in quite a few different roles including poor very male dominated environment's. I also find it interesting that area's of the country that were not known to be bastions of the average persons rights especially women's have now embraced woke dogma whole heartedly.