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

The fact he even chose to apply for this type of job in the first place would suggest that, at the very least, he has a staggering lack of self-awareness or remorse and at the worst he deliberately wanted to enter a role where he had access to women as potential future victims. Either way, the university needs to decide if women are important to them at all.

Bit over the top to be scared of him. I read a Walesonline article on this. He's a former teacher who has made it to the age of 40 with one conviction for assault, it's not like this is some sort of ongoing hobby.

You aren't likely to be calling on their help when you are in an anxious or vulnerable state though, possibly late at might if something has happened.

Oh silly us, that’s ok then. Just the one conviction for strangling a woman is ok I guess.

My friend's daughter has deferred her place at Cardiff for a gap year. I'm going to have to tell her about this aren't I?

In my experience, older men who choose to be in halls of residence are always creepy as fuck. It's hugely inappropriate them being in this kind of role, even if they haven't recently nearly killed a woman.

@Sep200024
Please report this to University !
Maybe even go to Press with this terrible story.
Talk about fox in a hen roost.
Appalling!
I’m fuming 😡

I've often thought we need a sarcastic font.

Like you, I've posted remarks that people have taken seriously.

There’s no real case to bar a convict from common student areas at a University

You are on-call to deal with any kinds of crises - sexual assault, drunk/intoxicated, mental health @Discovereads

the amount of students I helped get into bed and hung around until I was sure they were safe to sleep it off...

Oh - that's all right then.

Nothing to see here, folks. Move on.

Are you sure it’s the same person?Not someone else who happens to have the same name.

There was a case a few years ago where I live. A male carer sexually assaulted a woman in a care home. A completely innocent young man who has the same name got all sorts of abuse graffiti on house window put through etc. He had nothing to do with the incident. I know it wasn’t him because he is a friend of mine’s nephew. He’s never even stepped foot in the care home never mind worked there. Just people thinking they know it all and taking the law into they’re own hands.

Are you an apologist for a strangler, and a vile attacker of women ?
There’s always one.

He declared his conviction @Mumandcarer

He literally declared his conviction!

Why do people always seem to bend over backwards to find excuses for this.

Most of us get through our entire lives without assaulting anyone, so he's not doing brilliantly to have even one conviction.

Not every first-year is 18 years old, some are still 17... Surprised that there aren't enhanced safeguarding criteria for employees working in student accommodation? Unless all still-17 year olds are housed separately?

Presumably you’d say the exact same on one of those threads where someone is considering rehoming a dog who has bitten their child? ‘Oh it’s 5 and has only mauled one baby, bit OTT to be scared of it.’

Men who have gone to jail for violently attacking women are a reasonable and understandable object of fear for women. If you aren’t afraid of men who violently attack women then you’re a bit stupid.

No -he shouldn't be in hall at all and CERTAINLY not in a 'safeguarding' role.

Sexnotgender Could be younger than 17 even. One very gifted student was 16 when I was there.

Don't think he's actually eligible for a DBS check for this role. But still you would expect references.

University trying to be woke.

Their role is to educate not rehabilitate !

Bit over the top to be scared of him. I read a Walesonline article on this. He's a former teacher who has made it to the age of 40 with one conviction for assault, it's not like this is some sort of ongoing hobby.

For some reason, and I appreciate this may be some strange quirk of mine, I tend to feel just a little safer when I'm around people who haven't assaulted and/or throttled anyone than when I'm around a person who has.

Its sus to have a 40 year old bloke applying for this position anyway. It was always 3rd/4th years when I was at uni, so only just a few years older than everyone else but with the experience and knowledge of where to go and who to contact in different situations.

ODFOD

I said the same to DH - he's made it to 76 without assaulting anyone (and he's married to me, so has had plenty of provocation 😄) so I think he should get an award.

Also- this was a vicious assault - it wasn't a "mere" slap or whatever. It's well known that offenders start off in a minor way and then become increasingly aggressive as they gain confidence, and also because the "buzz" they get needs extra stimulation - in the same way that drug addicts need higher and higher fixes. First conviction isn't necessarily first offence.

This conviction might have been the first one he was taken to court for, but it wouldn't surprise me to learn that he had got away with many less violent assaults in the past. Perhaps this is the only one he has been caught and prosecuted for.

* ... men who strangle are the most dangerous offenders. If a victim is strangled even one time, studies show she is 750% more likely to be killed by her abuser. (Glass, 2008). Stranglers have been linked to domestic violence homicides, mass and school shootings and officers killed in the line of duty (Gwinn, Strack, 2014). Strangulation is also a gendered-crime. The vast majority of stranglers are men (Strack, Hawley, 2001). Strangulation communicates a clear intent/willingness to kill (Gwinn, Strack, 2014).*

www.contracostaalliance.org/calendar/understanding-the-rage-and-lethality-of-men-who-strangle

You'd think that Cardiff would know that, given they run a course in criminology.

Strangulation is now a crime in its own right www.gov.uk/government/news/new-non-fatal-strangulation-offence-comes-into-force but it wasn't last year