‘A bruise for every day of lockdown’

A six-year-old boy was poisoned, tortured, and eventually beaten to death by his stepmother and father during lockdown after the authorities missed a string of opportunities to save him.

Stepmother, 32-year-old Emma Tustin was found guilty of the "wicked and evil" murder of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, while his father, Thomas Hughes, was convicted of his manslaughter. Arthur had more than 130 areas of bruising on his body when he died, described in court by Jonas Hankin QC, the prosecutor, as "a bruise for every day of lockdown". Mr Hankin added "Violence was a way of life for him in lockdown,"

The court also heard that Tustin and Hughes had only decided to move in together in Solihull, West Mids, in March 2020 when the first lockdown was announced, and Hughes brought his son to live with his new partner. The pair then spent weeks starving, abusing and attacking the little boy, before he eventually succumbed on 16th June last year to an "unsurvivable brain injury".

During the trial, jurors sat through eight weeks of harrowing evidence. Tustin had used her mobile phone to record hundreds of video and audio clips of the little boy being abused, mocked and physically attacked. In one audio message, Arthur could be heard pleading to see his Uncle Blake, to whom he was denied access. In the heart-breaking recording, the child could be heard pleading: "Please help me, help me Uncle Blake, they're not feeding me. I need some food and drink." Some 18 hours before the fatal attack, Hughes sent a message to Tustin saying: "Just end him." Tustin carried out the fatal assault while in the sole care of Arthur, and took a photo of the boy on her mobile phone as he lay dying and sent it to Hughes. She then took 12 minutes to call 999, and lied to police, claiming Arthur had fallen and banged his head six times. The pair will be sentenced next month.

The NSPCC has repeatedly warned of the dangers posed to children from abuse during lockdown. The court was told Arthur was not at school throughout the attacks - where teachers may have noted his injuries - because it had closed for lockdown. Now the roles of social services and the police are under a spotlight after it emerged that Arthur's grandparents and uncles tried to raise the alarm on four occasions but their concerns were dismissed by the authorities. When one of Arthur's uncles told police he was planning to check up on his nephew he was threatened with arrest for breaching lockdown rules.

Just weeks before his death, social workers examined Arthur and reported that there were no concerns, concluding that any bruising was the result of "play fighting" with Tustin's other children. Officers from West Midlands Police visited Arthur eight weeks before he died and reported that he appeared "safe and well" - despite receiving photographs from his uncle showing his numerous injuries.

Following the delivery of the verdicts at Coventry Crown Court, a spokesman for Solihull Council said the circumstances around Arthurs death would now be subject to an independent review. The police watchdog investigated the force's handling of the case but concluded that no officers were at fault.

Altrincham