Jailed former councillor’s ex slams sentence

The former partner of an ex-Dudley councillor jailed for sex offences involving children says his sentence is not enough.

Adrian Hughes admitted four charges and was sentenced to 32 months in prison at Preston Crown Court on April 24.

The former Labour councillor, aged 36, had previously pleaded guilty to attempting to initiate non-penetrative sexual activity with a girl under 13 and a similar charge relating to a girl aged 13 to 15.

He also admitted charges of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child aged under 13 and with a child aged 13 to 15.

Hughes was snared in an online sting by police officers posing as youngsters.

He asked them for pictures and sent explicit images of himself.

During his sentencing hearing, Miss Recorder A Siddiqi said: “You thought you were messaging 12 and 13-year-olds, you could have done a great deal of harm, unacceptable does not capture how appalling your behaviour was; immediate custody was inevitable.”

His ex-partner, who had three and asked to remain anonymous, said: “It is definitely not long enough for what he did, what I heard in that court, what he has done and what he sent, and he has got children not much younger than that is disgusting.

“It’s absolutely sickening and he should have got a hell of a lot longer.”

Hughes, of Marsh Lane, Preston, was a member of Dudley Council between 2022 and 2024 for the Upper Gornal and Woodsetton ward.

He sat on the council’s Children and Young Person’s Scrutiny Committee from May 2022 to May 2023 and also the Children’s Corporate Parenting Board from May 2022 to May 2023.

His ex-partner said: “I don’t think he did anything to a child when he was a councillor, he was never in contact with any other children so it wasn’t anything like that.

“He made decisions, he wasn’t around kids so I have got no concerns in respect of that.”

The twisted former councillor was arrested in June 2025 after sending explicit online messages to two girls he believed were aged 12 and 13 in May and June of the same year but in reality his victims were fictitious decoys created by law enforcement officers who traced the messages to him.

He was suspended by Labour in October 2023 following a complaint about his behaviour but said he was going to continue as an independent member of the authority.

In May 2024 he was thrown out of the council for not attending any meetings for six months.

Despite the trauma of seeing her former partner jailed for sexual offences, his ex said she would not allow the situation to hurt her family.

She said: “It’s not going to affect me and my kids, we will carry on living our lives.

“We will be happy, it’s not going to affect us in the slightest.”