Hughie was a businessman from Ireland who Nina Lucas met in a lap dancing club in Manchester when he was on a business trip and she was in a downward spiral, having been viciously assaulted the month before by Corey Brent and his gang, an attack in which her boyfriend Seb Franklin had also died. He was also trying to make sense of his life, having separated from his wife after nineteen years of marriage. After the club, Nina had gone along in a drunken state to his room at the Chariot Square Hotel where she had crashed out in his room and made her way back to her home at 16a Victoria Street the day afterwards.
With seemingly no regrets, she made contact to meet Hughie again the next day at the Rovers Return Inn where barmaid Daisy Midgeley was less than impressed with Nina's new friend, quickly spotting the wedding ring on his finger. Hughie was also coping with the domestic loss in his life and he and Nina proceeded to get drunk with Daisy firmly admonishing him when he started to get too out of hand with his rendition of Danny Boy. The two retired back to his hotel where Nina spotted Weatherfield County FC's star striker Tommy Orpington in the bar with his agent Matt. However, she suddenly sobered up when she saw that they were having a business meeting there with the new star of the club's youth academy, Corey Brent himself, and interrupted their conflab to make it clear to Matt exactly who he might be taking on, leaving Hughie to his own devices in the process. Afterwards, Hughie tried to get Nina back to his room but Abi Franklin had followed her there after being alerted by Daisy and made it clear that his attentions to the teenager weren't welcome.