Soccer chief faces 13 child sex charges

Ken Hughes arriving at Oldham Magistrates.

OLDHAM Town FC chairman Ken Hughes has been remanded in custody after being charged with sexual offences against children.

Oldham magistrates decided the 65-year-old, of no fixed abode, should stay in prison while he awaits his next hearing — at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court on December 22.

Mr Hughes is charged with six counts of indecently assaulting a boy and two charges of inciting the same boy to commit an act of gross indecency.

These offences are alleged to have happened in the 1990s.

Hughes is also charged with three counts of causing or inciting a boy to engage in sexual activity between 2006 and 2007 and three offences of engaging in sexual activity with a boy in 2008.

There are 13 charges in total, involving males now aged 16, 17 and 28.

Magistrates have imposed a Section 39 order — which bans the identification of minors involved in court cases — to protect the younger victims.

Hughes founded Oldham Town FC, who play in the Vodkat North West Counties first division, as local works team George Dew in 1964.