DAD’S JOY AT
WHEN applications finally opened for the Elizabeth Emblem, a medal recognising public service heroes who lost their lives in the line of duty, Bryn Hughes was right at the front of the queue.
The heartbroken dad of two lost his daughter PC Nicola Hughes when she was gunned down by a fugitive killer.
Shocked to find there was no way of officially honouring Nicola’s sacrifice, Bryn campaigned for two years for state recognition for his daughter and other heroes like her.
And so when the Elizabeth Emblem became a reality earlier this month, Bryn applied for Nicola’s award just moments after the website went live.
PRIDE
For the former prison guard, it was a moment filled with pride that also finally brought a sense of closure 12 years after Nicola’s appalling murder.
Bryn, 60, says: “I’m over the moon that there is finally something in place to honour Nicola, and hundreds of other people like her.
“I applied for Nicola’s medal at one minute past midnight on the day they were launched, and can’t wait to have it in my hands.
“It’s something that shows her sacrifice is appreciated and heard by the country, which is hugely comforting.”
Nicola, 23, and colleague PC Fiona Bone, 32, were murdered on September 18, 2012, when they answered what they thought was a routine call to a burglary in Tameside, Greater Manchester. But it was a fake 999 call, a trap laid by one-eyed underworld killer Dale Cregan.
On the run after shooting dead gangland rival David Short, 46, and his son Mark, 23, Cregan fired at Nicola and Fiona with a semiautomatic Glock pistol and launched a grenade.
Bryn was driving home from work when he got the phone call that changed his life for ever. He recalls: “This police officer told me Nicola was dead. Having to call my son Sam, then 20, and tell him what had happened... it was the hardest call of my life.”
Bryn had been so proud when Nicola decided to join Greater Manchester Police in 2009, aged just 19. He says: “She flew through her training. She had such a way of dealing with people, she was strong but kind.”
The two had a close bond. “She was brilliant company, funny,” he says. “She was always offering to help our neighbours, always had a kind word.
“We had conversations about the possibility of being assaulted – she was well aware of it, given my job – but she wasn’t scared and, at the time, I wasn’t scared for her. She knew her job.”
Cregan, 30, was given a whole-life sentence in 2013 for what the judge called “premeditated savagery”. He
This is really important to me and I hope it will provide solace for other heroes’ families too
caused outrage when he was accused of manipulating the system by going on hunger strike to get himself moved out of his category A jail to secure Ashworth Hospital in Merseyside where he could have more freedom.
After Nicola’s death, Bryn returned to his job at HMP Wakefield, but found working for the prison service – where he’d been for 25 years – too hard, and took early retirement.
To prevent himself being consumed by grief, he started running – and has run 12 marathons all over the world, including with police officers at the
North Pole, which raised £250,000. He also launched the PC Nicola Hughes Memorial Fund – and has since raised more than £1million.
The fund mainly supports kids of victims of crime – often where one parent has been killed by the other, meaning the children are living in care or being looked after by elderly grandparents. These are causes that Bryn knows would have been close to Nicola’s heart.
Bryn, who was awarded an MBE last year, says: “Nicola was such a caring person. She was always the first to offer to help, and I thought of what she’d want to do with this money. We’ve paid for therapy, equipment so they can attend school from home if they aren’t able to go back in person, trips away, especially to scatter their parent’s ashes, whatever they need.”
The fund has also paid to train Victim Support volunteers and for rehab equipment for injured police. Alongside his fundraising, Bryn has also been campaigning hard with the Police Federation for recognition for Nicola’s sacrifice. Servicemen and women killed in action or terror attacks have been awarded the posthumous Elizabeth Cross since 2009 – but there was no civilian equivalent. Bryn says: “We
originally started campaigning a policing medal before coming across so many other families whose loved ones deserved to be honoured.
“There was the family of a paramedic killed by a brick through his windscreen, a teaching assistant who was stabbed in the classroom, and I knew there had to be something official for these heroes too.
“The fact that Nicola’s actions have been officially commended by the highest point of authority in the country is really important to me and I hope it will provide solace for other families, too.”
The emblem – named after the late Queen Elizabeth II, who Bryn was told supported the campaign and wanted it to bear her name – recognises civilians who have given their lives in public service since 1948.
Applications made through the website go first to a committee, then the Prime Minister and ultimately King Charles for approval. The gong was launched almost 10 years to the day from Bryn setting up the memorial fund, which the dad, who separated from Nicola’s mum years before her death, says “feels really right”.
He adds: “We’ll always miss Nicola. She’s left a hole that can’t be filled. I’m proud of everything she has achieved in life, and I hope she would be proud of what we’ve achieved in her name too. None of us live for ever, but hopefully Nicola’s legacy will.”
Steve Hartshorn, of the Police Federation of England and Wales, believes the emblem will mean a lot to its members, saying: “This announcement acknowledges that in the most tragic of circumstances, an officer’s family will receive formal state recognition for their loved one’s sacrifice.”
Bryn hopes to receive Nicola’s medal in the next few weeks.
He adds: “When it arrives it will go in a frame in pride of place next to a photo of Nicola.
“But for special occasions, like National Police Memorial Day, I shall pin it to my chest with pride.”