The ‘strange boy’ brought up by nuns who became notorious M62 killer

Anthony Hughes, 42, led a life punctuated by extreme violence and an obsession with firearms

16:41, 08 Feb 2026

Convicted armed robber and rapist Anthony Hughes

The cold-blooded execution of PC Raymond Codling on September 14, 1989, sparked a massive nationwide manhunt for his killer, Anthony Hughes. Brought up in an orphanage and raised by nuns, Hughes' life was stained by horrific crimes that ultimately led to his own pitiful end.

Inspector Codling was killed by Anthony Hughes at Birch Services on the M62[1] at the border of Heywood[2] and Middleton[3]. Alongside Sergeant James Bowden, 47, PC Codling, 49, had gone to the west bound area[4] of the service station to make inquiries about a van.

There they saw a man in a motorcycle leather jacket and a crash helmet.

He asked the officers directions to the cafe and gave them false ID.

The two officers went to check the man's motorcycle and saw him running towards them. Sergeant Bowden saw a bone-handled knife in a sheath on the man's belt and went to take the knife from him.

The man pulled his hand from inside his jacket and fired at the Sergeant's chest, but the bullet deflected off his notebook. He then levelled a pistol at the newly promoted Inspector, and a shot struck the left side of his chest into his heart.

Then, as he lay helpless, he fired a second bullet into the officer's head.

Hughes fired more shots before he fled on a dark blue Yamaha motorbike. Sergeant Bowden had been hit below his left knee but still gave chase for 300 yards before Hughes roared off on his motorbike.

The killing shook Greater Manchester and sparked a nationwide hunt to bring in the killer. And it wasn't long before the net began closing in on Hughes.

Armed police had descended into the Yorkshire town of Barnsley after Hughes appeared at the home of a Catholic priest.

He asked where Father Maurice Keenan was, then went next door to a primary school, bursting into the staff room and demanding to see the priest.

Cornered and with nowhere to go, Hughes shot himself in the head in Father Keenan's garage. A confession was found in a diary on his body, but no note of regret for the officer's family.

Inspector Raymond Anthony Codling was murdered at Birch Services

Two years after PC Codling's death, Home Secretary Kenneth Baker unveiled a stone memorial to the fallen officer at Birch Services. He will forever be remembered as a hero who died in the line of duty.

'A very strange boy'

In the days following PC Codling's death, the M.E.N. published several investigations into the cop killer's criminal history and unhealthy obsession with firearms.

Anthony Kenneth Hughes, 42, had been living in Bideford Drive, Baguley, Wythenshawe[5].

By the time of PC Codling's death, he was already wanted for robberies in which guns had been fired in the previous three weeks.

Hughes had a troubled childhood, having been raised in an orphanage for abandoned children by Catholic nuns. Just weeks before he killed Raymond Codling, he visited the same orphanage in Greenmount, Bury[6], and reminisced happily with staff about the time he had spent there.

One nun who knew Hughes as a child described him as "a very strange boy", but added the killing had come "as a terrible shock".

Hughes' criminal career started in 1960 when he was just 13. It began with a stolen bike, which escalated to a horrendous series of crimes, including raping a woman at Manchester Airport[7] in 1979.

Front page of the Manchester Evening News on the day PC Ray Codling was killed(Image: Manchester Evening News)

Wearing a stolen police uniform and playing the good Samaritan, he offered to help his victim after her car had stalled.

After restarting her car, he asked her for a lift. Thinking he was a policeman, she accepted, but soon after Hughes launched his despicable attack.

Still wearing the stolen police uniform, he was captured by alert officers and was jailed for seven years. But it was far from his first serious crime.

The rape took place just two weeks after he had been released on parole from a 10-year sentence for armed robberies. In one of the robberies, he shot a pump attendant in Stretford[8].

The 67-year-old garage attendant was shot in the shoulder when he refused to hand over money to the then 24-year-old Hughes.

His history of violence appeared to be partly fuelled by his obsession with firearms. In 1987, he had been photographed posing with a magnum handgun and a semi-automatic pistol at Diggle Gun Club.

The gun fanatic had asked other members to take photographs of him showing off the weapons.

Other club users had loaned him the weapons, unaware that he had convictions for armed robbery.

But Hughes's bragging confidence in posing for the snaps misfired when police got hold of the damning photographs. And in 1987, he was convicted of unlawfully possessing firearms and given a six-month suspended sentence.

It was later reported that the weapon he used to kill PC Codling had been stolen two years earlier from a member of the gun club. It is believed he took the weapon from a car after being given a lift to the club above Saddleworth[9].

'One of these days, I will get revenge on a cop'

Convicted armed robber and rapist Anthony Hughes, 42, who shot dead police inspector Raymond Codling at the M62 Birch service station near Manchester

Despite going through a relatively trouble-free two years before he killed PC Codling, three weeks before the inspector's death, Hughes' life began to go wildly off the rails again.

On August 21, 1989, she shot at a man but missed, in a GBP3,000 wages snatch in Palatine Road in Northenden.

Two weeks later, he appeared at Bury Magistrates' Court charged with stealing a tax disc for his motorbike. The case was adjourned.

On Thursday, September 7, a week before the killing, Hughes spoke to his stepfather. The 63-year-old later said, "Revenge was on his mind.

He had spent nearly 20 years in prison."

Adding: "I saw him last Thursday when he went off on that motorbike. He told me, 'One of these days, I will get revenge on a cop.' And that's what he has done."

The following day, Hughes walked into a bank in Hazel Grove[10] carrying a gun. After putting a closed sign on the door, he fired a bullet into the bank's ceiling.

Despite having ridden to the bank on a motorbike which he had hidden nearby, he made his escape with GBP2,000 in cash on a bus and, just for the hell of it, fired a bullet through three seats on the top deck.

Manchester Evening News clippings on the shooting and killing of Inspector Ray Codling by convicted armed robber Anthony Hughes(Image: Manchester Evening News)

He later took a taxi to a motorcycle shop in Deansgate, and agreed to buy a bike for GBP1,100, for which he never returned.

Later, he bought a bike in the Oldham area. Police followed his trail to the Manchester bike shop, where the owner gave them the name Anthony Hughes from his accounts.

A few days later, he turned up at his solicitor's office and posted a number of handwritten letters through the letterbox. One read, "May God forgive me for my madness".

It could now be seen as a grim signal that he was about to earn the infamy he had predicted for himself.

Some of the letters were addressed to the people important in his life. The apparent suicide notes spoke of his love for his step-father, his boyfriend, and his Rottweiler dog, Tyson.

Knowing police were on his tail after the bank raids, Hughes stayed in guest houses and all-night motorways services. Police circulated his name and description throughout the country, warning that he might be armed and dangerous.

A week after Hughes killed the officer then turned his own gun on himself, his solicitor told the M.E.N.: "The police were aware of his state of mind before the incident in Birch, but I do not think the officers who were shot knew who they were dealing with."

Hughes' pitiful life was one of convent schools and children's homes, mental institutions and prison; his jail sentences totalled 26 years.

Some of his neighbours confessed they lived in fear of him, while paradoxically, others described him as kind and generous.

Neatly dressed, he was seen as an intelligent and well-read man.

Nevertheless, a dangerous and violent one who bore a terrible grudge against the world he lived in.

References

1. ^ M62 (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)
2. ^ Heywood (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)
3. ^ Middleton (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)
4. ^ Sergeant James Bowden, 47, PC Codling, 49, had gone to the west bound area (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)
5. ^ Wythenshawe (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)
6. ^ Bury (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)
7. ^ Manchester Airport (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)
8. ^ Stretford (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)
9. ^ Saddleworth (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)
10. ^ Hazel Grove (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)