Police chief ’s priority: speeding
THE officer who was head of South Yorkshire Police between 2004 and 2011 was best known for leading an ultimately embarrassing crusade against speeding motorists.
Chief constable Meredydd Hughes CBE showed little sympathy for those clocked by speed cameras.
He also demanded tougher sentences for hit-and-run motorists and those causing death by dangerous driving.
This was going on a time when scores of young girls were being subjected to sexual exploitation including gang rapes, grooming and trafficking.
His campaign reached a humiliating conclusion when he was caught driving at 90mph in a 60mph zone in 2007.
Mr Hughes was disqualified from driving for 42 days and fined £350, and was left with little option but to step down from his role as chairman of roads policing at the Association of Chief Police Officers, which he had held for two years.
He retired from South Yorkshire Police in 2011, before making a failed bid to be elected as the area’s first police and crime commissioner. He has however been awarded a CBE for his services to policing.
But now campaigners and politicians will want to know whether the focus on speeding motorists was to the detriment of child sex abuse victims in the area his force covered.
Mr Hughes could not be reached for comment last night.