Teenager has university place withdrawn due to spent conviction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.

ithink if he followed the process of the law then - he did the crime - and the punishment and life goes on

i would hate to think that my children had a moment of complete wankerishness such as this then hve a potential brilliant career thwarted becuase of it.

when a (current) doctor commits an offence, they are supposed to notify the gmc, but its not automatically deemed 'unfit to practice', so i don't see that a med student would automatically not be fit to practice

Hasn't he atoned in any way by not turning into a career burglar but trying really hard to turn things around instead?

He must have had excellent grades and interviewed really well to be offered a place at all. He was good enough for Imperial at that point

i don't think its particularly good to have it all over the papers, which surely will tell kids with a caution or conviction 'well, thats it, your life's fucked'

will it stop thugs committing crimes? - don't think so

all that's happened is that he's not got into ONE uni. it's not the end of the world. and certainly not the end of his career.

consequences are meaningless at 15?! jesus wept. my grandmother had been working for three years by then.

Our children have not been raised the same way as our grandmothers, aitch.

Apparently he had a fitness to practice interview after the CRB check. You have to wonder what's asked in a fitness to practice interview that doesn't come up in a standard med school interview.

evidently not.

do you really think 15 year olds don't understand consequences, ww? i blame the parents.

Quite ww, it makes a complete mockery of the concept of rehabilitation

But a 15 year old should be capable of understanding that actions have consequences.

And I do not believe that most youths do something like this but just don't get caught. You don't just find yourself burgling someone's house - it does take some thinking about.

It is, TBH, about time that some young people (and some older ones too) started to take responsibilities for their actions, even if it means they don't get their first choice place at a univeristy.

quite right hula

surely rehab doesn't erase the crime? it merely deals with the law-breaking element. it's a spent conviction, it's still one he has to disclose. why, if it's not relevant to anything?

Hmm...Aitch, now that his life story has been splashed across the headlines, I think we can safely say that it is the end of his career.

I do feel sorry for him, all kids do stupid things, as do all adults. We don't know the circumstances of his crime (at least, I don't), nor what he's done since to turn his life around - though he's clearly worked bloody hard to get into one of the world's top 5 universities, so he can't be a complete waster.

I think it's thoughtless to apply blanket rules to these situations, and in this case it's negated all the hard work he's put in since his monumental muppetry as a failed burglar. A lesser person would go say 'f* society, I'll go off and become a drug dealer.' I sincerely hope he doesn't.

I disagree that it makes a mockery of rehabilitation. This person simply has been rejected from ther first place university - a highly competitive university for a highly competitive course. The university want the best all round candidiate and they can afford to be picky, as they have a whole host of andidiates waiting for each plae. Of course they will chose someone without a conviction over one with a conviction - that's life surely?

i thought the point was that he did have to disclose it, on his disclosure form?

Consequences don't cross the average 15-yr-old's mind IME. I have 2 fairly bright boys and they have both, at this age, done unbelievably stupid (luckily not criminal) things because the consequences didn't occur to them. They are not adults yet, in many ways they are still young children, but with a large pinch of adolescent hormonal arrogance thrown in.

If this boy had offended at 18 & then applied & been turned down at 21, it would make a little more sense, but only a little.

At that age you take exams, the results of which will affect the rest of your life. So you would imagine that they realise that all their actions will affect the rest of their lives, especially criminal activities.