The former partner of an ex-Dudley councillor jailed for sex offences involving children has condemned his sentence as insufficient. Adrian Hughes, 36, admitted four charges and was sentenced to 32 months in prison at Preston Crown Court on April 24.
Hughes, a former Labour councillor, 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 were uncovered during an online sting by police officers posing as youngsters. Hughes requested explicit images from them and sent explicit images of himself.
During sentencing, Miss Recorder A Siddiqi stated: '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, a mother of three who wished 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 is 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 served on the council's Children and Young Person's Scrutiny Committee from May 2022 to May 2023 and the Children's Corporate Parenting Board during the same period.
His ex-partner clarified: 'I do not think he did anything to a child when he was a councillor, he was never in contact with any other children so it was not anything like that. He made decisions, he was not around kids so I have no concerns in respect of that.'
Hughes 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. However, 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 indicated he would continue as an independent member of the authority. In May 2024, he was removed from the council for failing to attend any meetings for six months.
Despite the trauma of seeing her former partner jailed for sexual offences, his ex-partner said she would not allow the situation to harm her family. She stated: 'It is not going to affect me and my kids, we will carry on living our lives. We will be happy, it is not going to affect us in the slightest.'
