UON in the news – 28 June-4 July

Helen Poole, Research Centre Lead for the Reduction of Firearms Crime, Trafficking and Terrorism, was on ITV Anglia on Wednesday evening. Helen, pictured, explained how gun crime has changed over the years, after an initiative from Northamptonshire Police to reduce firearms crime was launched.

Northampton charity The Lowdown – which provides free counselling and sexual health services for young people in the county – celebrated its 30th birthday and received The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Services. The Chronicle and Echo reports that many of the volunteers there have qualified with counselling-related courses at the University.

BBC Radio Northampton invited our Head of History, Drew Gray, and graduate, Andy Wise, into the studio on Wednesday to talk about their Jack the Ripper book (starts 38m).

Photography student, Sienna McCollin, had her photos which highlight the issue of plastic pollution in our oceans featured on the Sky News channel at the weekend. You can see them on the FYI children’s news show (starts 6m). They were also featured on the BBC News website and in the First News children’s newspaper, plus the Northants Chamber website.

Senior Lecturer in Journalism, Kate Ironside, spoke to BBC Radio Coventry & Warwickshire on Tuesday about the Liberal Democrat leadership race (starts 1h 36m).

Kate was also on BBC Radio Northampton on Tuesday, talking about the shelf life of our European MEPs (starts 1h 11m).

On Saturday, Kate was on BBC Radio 3 Counties explaining where the phenomenon of fake news came from (starts 1h 44m).

Product Design student, Danny O’Beirne, was in the Chronicle & Echo and Business MK after devising a concept to help rail travellers with impaired vision.

He also went on BBC Radio Northampton on Tuesday to explain how it works (starts 10m).