‘Evil’ Couple Who Tortured and Killed 6-Year-Old Boy Are Jailed

A father and his girlfriend have been jailed for killing his six-year-old son.

Arthur Labinjo-Hughes died in hospital in the early hours of the 17th of June 2020 from a severe blow to the head sustained hours previously at home. 

Thomas Hughes, 29, from Solihull, was found guilty of manslaughter, and Emma Tustin, 32, also from Solihull, was found guilty of murder by a jury at Coventry Crown Court on Thursday.

On Friday Hughes was jailed for 21 years and Tustin was jailed for life. She was told it would be 29 years until her case could be considered by the parole board.

Prosecutors said Arthur had been subjected to months of “incomprehensible and escalating cruelty,” while experts said his injuries met the medical definition of child torture. Judge Mr Justice Wall said it was among the “most distressing and disturbing cases” he had ever dealt with.

Arthur’s maternal grandmother, Madeleine Halcrow, read out a victim impact statement delivered on behalf of Arthur’s mother. "My child, my little love, defenceless, trusting and nothing but loving, was killed,” she said.

"His short life stolen and the hole left in me and those who loved Arthur will never be repaired. Sleep well, my angel - you are truly loved." Tustin was not in court to hear the victim impact statements or her sentencing, as she refused to come into the courtroom to be sentenced.

Paramedics called on the night before his death had found Arthur unconscious on the floor and a neighbour performing CPR. He was underweight, had bruises on his head and body, and his gums were bleeding.

Tustin and Hughes said that Arthur had injured himself after banging his own head on the floor, but detectives uncovered that the six-year-old had been subjected to months of “systematic cruelty” by his father and Tustin.

The couple kept CCTV inside their own living room, where Arthur slept. Along with evidence obtained from the CCTV, Hughes’s and Tustin’s phones and medical tests, police learned that Arthur had been forced to stand for hours on end as a punishment, was repeatedly assaulted, and poisoned with salt.

Senior Investigating Officer Detective Inspector Laura Harrison, said: “This has been a truly heartbreaking case and has deeply affected everyone who has been involved in it.

“An innocent boy was subjected to a campaign of cruelty by the very people who were meant to be loving and protecting him.

“Despite the lies they told, we carefully built a case against the two of them. We were able to seize their phones and found the messages they exchanged which showed their anger towards Arthur.

“As part of our investigations we were able to access their home where we found a CCTV camera set up in their living room. And the footage from that helped us build up a picture of the grim reality of Arthur’s life inside that house.”

The video footage showed Arthur standing in isolation and being punished for sitting down. Detectives uncovered audio recordings where Arthur was sworn at, insulted and threatened with violence.

Arthur had no bedroom in the house in Solihull in England’s West Midlands. He slept in the living room, and his blanket was found stuffed in a cupboard underneath the stairs.

Harrison said: “It’s not clear why Tustin and Hughes started to make Arthur’s place in his family home so truly awful and why they caused him such harm and suffering – but that harm and suffering was sustained and escalated over time. 

“Nor is it clear why the couple installed a CCTV camera in their own living room, but sadly that footage has proved invaluable in demonstrating some of the hardships, emotional abuse and physical violence Arthur endured behind closed doors.”

In some of the 200-plus audio recordings of Arthur found on Tustin’s phone, the little boy can be heard asking to see other members of his family, and saying he needs food and water. In one particularly harrowing recording, which Tustin send to Hughes, Arthur can be heard to say, “no one loves me.”

On the day before Arthur was fatally injured, Hughes texted Tustin saying “just end him.”

Arthur was home alone with Tustin when he was fatally injured. It took 12 minutes before an ambulance was called.

“We believe that both Tustin and then Hughes, understood how seriously Arthur was injured. Only the pair of them can explain why it took so long for an ambulance to be called, but we’d suggest it was the final act of cruelty they inflicted on Arthur,” Harrison said.

A post-mortem revealed that Arthur had more than 100 marks and bruises across his head, body and limbs.

A specialist kidney consultant said that one of the only explanations for the high levels of salt found in Arthur’s body was that he was being deliberately force-fed a mix of salt and water by an adult.

During the trial, Tustin pleaded guilty to two counts of cruelty to a child relating to forcing him to stand and assaulting him. She was convicted of two further counts of cruelty to a child, relating to denying Arthur food and water, and administering salt to him. Hughes was convicted of two counts of cruelty by forced standing, isolation, intimidation, and assaulting Arthur. He was cleared of murder, and cruelty by withholding food and drink, and administering salt.

After the verdicts had been delivered, Halcrow, Arthur’s maternal grandmother, called Hughes and Tustin “evil,” and said the way they treated Arthur was “unfathomable.”

“I think they are cold, calculating, systematic torturers of a defenceless little boy. They're wicked, evil. There's no word for them, especially your own child," she said.

Ahead of sentencing, a spokesperson for UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: "The Prime Minister found the details of this case deeply disturbing and his thoughts are with those who loved Arthur, and no child should ever suffer in the way that he did. 

"It's clear there are questions that need to be answered to get to the bottom of how this happened.”