Former Dudley councillor jailed for child sex offences
Police sting created fake girls aged 12 and 13
A former Dudley councillor has been jailed for 32 months after he admitted four sexual offences involving children.
Adrian Hughes, aged 36, from Marsh Lane, Preston, was caught by a police sting operation online where officers impersonated two girls, one aged 12 the other 13.
Despite the offences involving no real victims, at his sentencing on April 24 the judge at Preston Crown Court told Hughes he did not know his lewd messages were not being seen by real victims.
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.”
Hughes 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.
The offences took place during May and June 2025 when law enforcement officers created the characters of Lucy, aged 13, and Molly, aged 12, on the online platforms IB and Kick.
Prosecutor James Cooper told the court Hughes, who was a Labour councillor in Dudley from 2022 until 2024, first made contact with ‘Lucy’.
Despite ‘Lucy’ telling Hughes she was 13 he asked for pictures of her, said she had an ‘amazing body’ and sent her sexually explicit messages.
Hughes then started a chat with ‘Molly’ and again asked for pictures, officers sent a fake image of a fully-clothed girl and Hughes responded by asking her to remove her hoodie.
He said she was too young for him and broke off contact but then messaged her again on six more occasions.
After talking about ‘grown ups’ having sex Hughes sent ‘Molly’ images of him in his underwear and of his genitals.
Eventually police identified Hughes and he was arrested on June 23, 2025.
Georgia Faulke, for the defence, told the court Hughes was of previous good character and the offending took place over a short time when her client, who grew up with parents who misused alcohol, was suffering mental health problems.
Miss Faulke said: “It was a period of isolation, he wanted support from someone, someone to talk to.
“It stems from mental health difficulties he was going through at the time.”
The court also heard, during the offending, Hughes was self-medicating with cocaine, cannabis and alcohol but was now free from drugs and had dramatically reduced his drinking.
Miss Faulke added Hughes, who showed no emotion in the dock, had not re-offended since his arrest and was experiencing remorse for his actions.
Recorder Siddiqi sentenced Hughes to 32 months in jail for attempting to incite a child into sexual activity and terms of 12, 15 and 12 months to run concurrently for the other three offences.
He was given credit for admitting his crimes at the first opportunity but was told he tried to conceal evidence by deleting some of the chats from his phone, which was an aggravating feature.
He was also made the subject of an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order and ordered to inform police of his address and any change of name, also for an indefinite period.