Police were yesterday mourning the death of one of the country's top former detectives. John Hughes, 73, had been ill with cancer.
In a police career spanning more than 35 years, Mr Hughes headed Operation Stockholm, the investigation into the murder of Swedish tourists Urban Hoglin and Heidi Paakkonen in 1989.
He attended the Bassett Rd machine-gun murder scene as a young detective and tracked down two men who were convicted of the savage point-blank shooting of Northcote motelier Rex Bell.
An article in Metro magazine 15 years ago described him as "Auckland's toughest cop".
Former police colleagues credited him with vital roles in cleaning up serious crime in inner-city Auckland, sparking the emergence of the team policing unit that patrols bars and clubs, and the establishment of the armed offenders squad.
Mr Hughes was three times national light-middleweight boxing champion and an accomplished ultra-distance runner.
His son, Craig Hughes, told the Herald last November that the discovery of his father's illness was sudden but he had not lost the ferocious competitiveness and determination that marked his work and his sport.
Former top detective dies
John Hughes
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