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A Dudley Labour councillor, who sat on the Children’s Services Committee, has been sentenced after admitting four sexual offences involving children.
Adrian Hughes was caught by a police operation where officers impersonated two girls, one aged 12 and the other aged 13.
Hughes admitted to attempting to initiate sexual activity with a 12 year old child and two other under age girls.
He also admitted charges of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a 12 year old child and two other children.
The offences took place during May and June 2025 when law enforcement officers created the characters of Molly, aged 12 and another child called Lucy on the online platforms IB and Kick.
He sat on the Children’s Services Select Committee and the Overview and Scrutiny Committee from May to September 2023.
He was a member of the 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.
Prosecutor James Cooper told the court Hughes, who was a Labour councillor in Dudley first made contact with ‘Lucy’.
Despite ‘Lucy’ telling Hughes she was under age 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.
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.
The court heard, during the offending, Hughes was using cocaine, cannabis and alcohol but was now free from drugs and had dramatically reduced his drinking.
The judge 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.