Paedophile ex-Labour councillor jailed for 'appalling' online child sex crimes

A former Labour councillor in the West Midlands has been jailed for a series of "appalling" online child sex offences.

Former Dudley councillor Adrian Hughes, 36, was sentenced for 32 months after he sent explicit messages to two accounts he believed were girls aged 12 and 13 between May and June 2025.

Both accounts were decoy profiles created by police.

Hughes pleaded guilty to charges of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child under 13 and with a child aged 13 to 15.

He previously admitted four offences including attempting to initiate non-penetrative sexual activity with a girl under 13.

Police had created the characters of 13-year-old "Lucy" and 12-year-old "Molly" online.

Hughes told the undercover officer posing as Lucy she had an "amazing body" - despite the account admitting she was 13.

Miss Recorder A Siddiqi told Friday's sentencing hearing: "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."

Georgia Faulke, for the defence, told the court Hughes was of previous good character and that Hughes was having mental health difficulties at the time of the crime.

The court also heard how he was self-medicating with drugs including cocaine, cannabis, and alcohol at the time of the offense, but had now reduced his drinking and was experiencing remorse for his actions.

Hughes tried to conceal evidence of his crimes by deleting some of the chats from his phone, but was given credit for admitting his crimes at the first opportunity.

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Hughes was a member of Dudley Council between 2022 and 2024.

He was a member of the Children's Services Select Committee and Overview and Scrutiny Committee from May to September 2023.

He was also a member of the Children and Young Persons' Scrutiny Committee and Children’s Corporate Parenting Board from May 2022 to May 2023.

He was suspended by the Labour Party in 2023 following a complaint about his behaviour, but said he would continue to sit on the council as an independent.

In March, another former Labour councillor, Liron Woodcock-Velleman, was handed a suspended sentence after he pleaded guilty to a series of sexual offences, including attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child.

Woodcock-Velleman, a councillor for Barnet, sent naked images of himself to an undercover officer he believed to be a 13-year-old girl.

He also demanded the girl "show me your bra" and asked if she was a virgin, a court was told.

Judge James Lofthouse told Woodcock-Velleman: "You know you have no one to blame for the disintegration of your personal and professional life but yourself.

"This is where your reckless, vile and frankly devious interest in children has led you."