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

Surely anyone applying for any university post is subject to a DBS check

We’re not because students are (almost all) 18+

But that doesn’t mean a man with a criminal record of sexual violence should have ANY role in the pastoral care of undergrads.

I wonder if this will turn out to be like the male 'period officer' in Scotland, and that he's a friend of someone involved in recruitment.

Or maybe someone who appointed him is terribly woke and decided the job would help his rehabilitation. Note to recruiters - vulnerable young people don't exist as a prop to someone else's needs.

I am absolutely in favour of rehabilitation for criminals, I support giving them help to find work/accomodation/attempt to not re-offend, whatever... .
But, I'm shocked that a person (or more likely, panel of people who had loads of meetings about this at tax payer expense,) have come to the decision that a university environment, full of young women, is the most suitable job role for him!- out of ALL the jobs in the country, this is what they've come up with.
The mind bloody boggles

Fuck off Cardiff University.

Unbelievably, that has happened. A nursery owner who was convicted of possession of images of child abuse was allowed to continue in his role so long as he promised not to work alone with the children. Spoiler: he did not keep his promise.

What. The. Hell.

Is the university students Union aware? I wouldn't have thought they'd accept it (or can they not get involved)?

Resident advisors are - because of the role they're in.

Doesn't matter than students are over 18 (although can have 16-17 year olds too) - you're still in loco parentis and get confidential info about students identified as vulnerable.

It also says he declared his conviction so presumably they did do a DBS.

So he declared he strangled a woman very recently but they overlooked that because before that lapse in judgement, he was a head teacher at a private school? Jesus wept

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

Except they hardly need to hide any more, because there's always some useful idiot - IME academia's a hotbed for them - whose mind is so open that their brains have fallen out

The only thing that surprises me with this is that people are surprised

Not in the UK, I should add, but still, absolutely horrific.

Ohhh.......... a former private school head teacher. Plenty used to being in a position of total power over staff and young children (and their parents!!!). He then went out to get himself a job dealing with vulnerable, distressed young female students, barely out of girlhood. Dodgy as fuck. Fucking disgraceful but depressingly unsurprising. Male privilege and entitledness supported by female handmaidens. Sexism in action. I hope heads will role.

As a previous posers said: fox in the henhouse.

Judge Jenkins told Hughes it would be in his "long-term best interest" to seek psychiatric help.

It takes a lot of rage to strangle someone. Pent up rage. Red mists descending rage. Not a little bit pissed off or slightly drunk but primal rage. It seems the judge thought so too. Wonder if he did seek help or if he views a crimology course as self-help.

Where the hell is the parole board in all this?

My 19 year old dd is living in halls for the first time this year (not Cardiff though), this is extremely worrying! Are maintenance operatives that work in the halls DBS checked does anyone know? Thank you!

The strangler?

Absolutely disgusting what are Cardiff thinking of??

No. For working with adults, DBS checks are only required where healthcare or personal care are involved.

Wait a minute... presumably this is reasonably sought after, as it secures accommodation and reduced rent?

So more than one person applied and this abusive man was the best candidate?

Aye Aye?

Students Unions are full of woke misogynists who think safeguarding is bigotry.

What are you going on about? My response was to a poster that said he should not even be allowed to be a student at the University. No regular student who is just attending their courses is on call for anything.

My DDs is at Cardiff Uni, first year. And I absolutely will be making my views clear to them.

I’ve only just seen this thread, not in or near Wales so hadn’t seen the report. My DD doesn’t live in halls, she’s in private. She does, however, often have to walk via Cathays Park, late on after class or societies etc, often alone. I’ll be making sure she knows exactly who this person is.

What does that have to do with my post? I was responding to a poster who said he should not even be allowed to be a student at any University except the Open University. This has nothing to do calling for help…

It’s not “minimising” to clarify the facts of the assault fgs. No one is saying it is all ok at all either.

Yes but he isn't a regular student - he's a) on a course which normally requires a DBS check due to contact with vulnerable populations, and b) he's in a live in resident advisor position

It seems a little disengenous to ignore these two things & swerve onto some seperate point @Discovereads

Minimising and normalising a horrific crime. I’ve got to the age of 57 with no convictions for assault!! That’s normal