Jailed soccer star may launch appeal

The parents of disgraced footballer Lee Hughes said today they were considering helping their son launch an appeal after he was jailed for six years for causing death by dangerous driving.

Bill and Gail Hughes said they would be visiting the 28-year-old striker in Birmingham Prison and meeting solicitors to discuss their options.

Hughes was imprisoned after crashing his Mercedes into a car at Meriden, West Midlands, killing father-of-four Douglas Graham and injuring two other people.

Mr and Mrs Hughes said they were upset and hurt about the way in which their son had been portrayed and would be exploring the possibility of an appeal against sentence or conviction or both.

Mr Hughes told the Birmingham Evening Mail: “I feel he (Lee) has been made a scapegoat over all this.

“There have been some terrible things said about him.

“We are very shocked Lee is in prison and Lee himself is very upset.

“We will be going to visit him some time today and will try to give him all the support we can.

“We can confirm we will be meeting with solicitors about the possibility of launching some kind of appeal.

“But it’s early days yet and things are in the air at the moment, so I don’t want to go into detail.”

Lee Hughes, a married father-of-two, ran from the scene of the fatal collision on November 23 last year, only turning himself into police 34 hours later.