Yes, but he could've put the offending messages on hide along with the poster and waited until the other moderators had a chance to decide for themselves. Now, as it is, all I have is heresay about postings that no longer exist. True I might keep a more watchful eye on ughaibu, but it is possible that I might've not found the messages offensive and could've unhid them. Then they wouldn't be lost. With them being deleted unilaterally, I am given no chance to make a decision or to have something to refer to in the future should a simular occurance happen. If I also found the messages offensive while they were still hidden, then they probably would be deleted. When someone is on hide, I can still read their posts. No one else can, except maybe the other moderators, so no one will be offended while the posts remain hidden.
This is one very good thing about having more than one moderator, it gives the board more coverage for moderation. I suppose I could've also switched the "Mode" for who can post to "All posts must be approved" when I was the only moderator and was going to log off. I hadn't thought of that then, but it would've been a workable solution and might've precluded a lot of the things that have gone down since that time.