Nicola the lionheart

PC Nicola Hughes

PC had the steely determination to do her very best.


CLIMBING through a dogflap to get into a house, being thrown over a fence by colleagues to chase a suspect and barging a thief into a doorway, were typical acts by fearless Diggle PC Nicola Hughes.

Bryn Hughes, (49) said his daughter liked "make–up, nails, hair dye and studying", Though only 5ft 6in her sergeant said she had “the body of a lion cub but the heart of a lion” — determined to make a difference even from her youth.

"She used to check on an elderly neighbour and the next thing she was, 'You need to go round to fix her windows'. She was always volunteering me for things.

"If she couldn't help them she would volunteer me. Once there was a school cycling trip and she checked my diary to see if I was off. I ended up cycling 26 miles.

"On another occasion all her class was going swimming and they needed some help. She spoke to the head teacher and told him, 'My dad can do that'. I didn't know I was going to be looking after 26 boys on the trip, all because Nicola volunteered me. I had no choice. That's the way she put it."

She practised karate from the age of 10 and was a green belt, training at the club run by her father, the Karate Club Oldham Kyokushinkai.

“There was nothing she wouldn't try. There is a four–day summer camp every club in the UK goes to and at the end there's supposed to be a controlled sparring session and it turned into a mass brawl. She absolutely loved it."

Nicola went to Saddleworth School and then Oldham Sixth Form College where she did A–levels in psychology and law, but abandoned her degree in social sciences and psychology at Huddersfield University half way through her first year — telling her father itwasn’t for her.

She had part–time jobs at a shoe shop and at the Bull's Head pub in Delph, before applying to join the police aged 20.

Mr Hughes said: "She was as happy as anything. She was interested in forensic psychology and read a lot on it and watched it on the television.

"She wanted to find something interesting, something challenging and something secure.

"I was very proud. I know you worry about your kids and hope they get a job and settle down. It was never like that with Nicola because of how she was as a child and growing up. She was determined about what she wanted to do.

"You know it's dangerous, that they are dealing with dangerous people. But you knew she would be sensible."