Teenager has university place withdrawn due to spent conviction

[melpomene]

Story here

I feel sorry for him. He must have been 15 or 16 when he committed the offence and it sounds as if it was an insolated offence and he got himself back on track.

While I think allowances need to be made for teenage stupidity, personally I think medicine is different. He will be entrusted with people's live, have unlimited access to drugs and be privy to people's most intimate details. I can just imagine the furore if something went wrong and it emerged a doctor had a previous criminal conviction.

no, it doesn't - it says 'he was advised' - but it doesn't say who gave this advice.The article is ambiguous. I found the whole article very biased and badly written anyway, all that tabloidesque stuff about the poor disadvantaged boy struggling through the odds to get good exam grades. Regarding the criminal offence is says ' he was arrested for burglary..and pleaded guilty', suggesting he didn't even do it. What a load of crap.

IMO the whole thing is a storm in a teacup. So he failed the interview process - big bloody deal.

exactly aitch - which proves that the university had good cause to turn this person down, just as they turned down another high flier who you personally know to be a wanker.

aitch, I think it is all about the spent conviction, if it wasn't, why did they offer him a place in the first place? It's not the same as having a place withdrawn because of grades, as almost all places are "conditional" on grades anyway.

I think it's very unfair. If it had been a violent offence, it would be a different thing, but some teenagers do go through phases of stealing, and biurglary can be a part of that.

I heard him on the radio last night and thought he sounded a bit arrogant tbh. Talking about his record of excelling ... then a bit of glossing over his crime ... I wouldn't have bought a used car from him, let's put it that way.

Please add me to the list of people who think that this is wrong.

This young man made a single mistake, and paid for it.

He should not have to keep paying for an error of judgement at age 15 for the rest of his life.

donnie, I don't think the bit about pleading guilty is intended to suggest he was innocent. It was intended to suggest he'd owned up to the crime. which he had.

it said so in the original BBC article, i'm sure, donnie.

i mean, i don't think we know all about the spent conviction SA. or he may just have acted like an arrogant little prick at the interview, and he's blaming it on the spent conviction. who knows? we don't. of course it seems like an odd decision if we only have his side of the story.

nonsense, turniphead, plenty of things he can do with his grades. if he were to turn back to criminality then he would be a prick.

Aitch
"and honestly, fuck this 'didn't you do anything stupid when you were young' argument"

Was this comment of yours in answer to my post regarding making mistakes? Because I am really not used to people speaking to me like this in real life. I was only voicing my opinion.

as I say, if he was an arrogant prick, why did they offer him a place?

yes but there is not always merit in pleading guilty senorapostrophe - if the evidence against you is overwhelming your barrister would advise it.

He described the decision as "totally unfair and unnecessary" and said he did not deserve the trouble he received.

Um Maybe it was unfair of him to go out breaking in to places in the first place.

Don't feel sorry for him in the least

because they hadn't interviewed him yet. that's the order that events took place, SA.

you were one of about fifty people to whom that was directed, tinysocks.... it's a tired old bollocks of a point imo. [accustomed to speaking this way]

He was rejected after the interview, as no doubt many other straight 'A' grade students were. There are more applicatats than places for medicine - admission tutors have to use various criteria for their decisions. The interview is an important part of the whole application process.

He is using the conviction as if it is the ONLY reason he was rejected....whi knows.

I don't buy this argument 'he would be a good example of how you can turn your life around'. He can still do this - go and study something else. There are plenty of other worthy examples of the disadvantaged done well.

hold on, so when he says he was offered a place but then they withdrew it.does he actually he mean he was offered an interview or he was offered a place pending an interview and then they declined to offer him the place?
is this exactly the same process everyone else goes through, i.e. offered place-->interviewed-->final decision?

if so he just sounds like he is trying to play the sympathy card when there could be a myriad of factors for them not offering him a place.

i think that's what happened in the first instance, yes. but it also seem to have gone to the gmc and he's not going to get in anywhere else because of it. apparently because he won't get a job at the end of it, despite haing what amounts to a job offer from a local hospital. that's why there's got to be more to it.

He was rejected after the interview; accepted before they had met and spoke with him/. We have no idea how he came across in the interview or how he approached it.

No idea who advised him, if it was UCAS or whoever. But regardless it was bad advice. Why is he not cross at those who gave him this bad advice?

I doubt he is doing himself any favours with other universities with all this media exposure either TBH. If he is serious about ecoming a doctor he needs to be focusing on that, not on becoming a celeb in papers and on the radio. More poor advice he is getting perhaps?

And yes - have made mistakes when growing up but no - never anything illegal, never anything remotely close! Neither did my friends. We knew it was wrong to do stuff like this. And before anyone uses the old middle class arguememnt - I grew up on a pretty dodgy council estate where there were people around us (although not my parents or close family) engaging in undoubtedly dodgy and criminal activity.

HermanMunster - that is what it sounds like from the media articles, yes.

wot hula said.

Once again.

You don't get offered a place at med school without an initial interview, at which he must have impressed. (And a lot of applicants don't even get that far...)

After the enhanced CRB check there was another interview - that's when they apparently changed their minds about him.

Can't believe how many people on this thread think that because they didn't make any mistakes when they were children, and 15 is a child, that their view applies to us all.

I made plenty.

And I'm from a privileged mc background.

Agree, Cam. (And me too re mistakes - I made some doozies )

What including burgling houses? I got drunk, fell over, etc etc but I drew the line at theft.

As I said before, with a criminal record he is probably better off finding a different profession as he will struggle to get a job. If he has 3 As at A level, he won't have any difficulty getting onto a good degree course.