The Cruel Torment and Murder of 6-Year-Old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes

Arthur Labinjo-Hughes died on June 16, 2020, at his home in Cranmore Road, Solihull, UK. His death occurred after several months of constant physical abuse at the hands of his stepmother and father culminated in an attack that left the 6-year-old boy with an “unsurvivable” brain injury.

The prosecutor in the case described 32-year-old Emma Tustin and 29-year-old Thomas Hughes as “utterly ruthless, unthinking and pitiless” during the trial. He told the court that the child had been the subject of a “campaign of appalling cruelty” at the hands of the heartless couple.

Arthur’s maternal grandmother, Madeleine Halcrow called what had been done to her grandson “unfathomable” and added, “I think they are cold, calculating, systematic torturers of a defenseless little boy. They’re wicked, evil. There’s no word for them, especially your own child.”

The abuse seems to have started when Arthur went to live with his father full-time after his biological mother was arrested for the murder of her boyfriend in 2019. The couple had previously shared custody, but with Olivia Labinjo-Halcrow behind bars, it had fallen to Hughes to handle the full-time care of their son.

Multiple audio and video recordings of Arthur that had been captured on cell phones and security cameras inside the home were played for the jury. These showed that Arthur’s condition had deteriorated over the months of abuse until he was “scarcely able to articulate his words” and barely able to stand by the time he was murdered. His distress is obvious in the recordings that show him kicking and punching himself, groaning in pain, and begging to see a doctor. One clip shows Arthur crying as he says that “no one loves me” and “no one is going to feed me.”

Prosecutor Jonas Hankin QC told the jury that it was clear from the recordings that Tustin had enjoyed abusing Arthur despite her claims that it was heart-wrenching to watch or listen to the recordings in court.

During the trial, testimony revealed that social services had been to visit Arthur on April 17, 2020 — just two months before his death. An independent review of their actions has been launched after the court heard testimony that Arthur’s paternal grandmother, Joanne Hughes, had called the Solihull council staff to check on her grandson after seeing large bruises on his back. The social workers reported only finding a faint yellow bruise that they were told resulted from Arthur play tussling around with another boy. They accepted the couple’s claim that all was well in their home and didn’t investigate further.

After her concerns were dismissed, the grandmother sent photos of deep purple bruises she had taken the day before their visit to the social workers, but they still did not follow up with the family. During this same period, she had also contacted the West Midlands Police, also sending them photos of Arthur’s bruises, but there seemed to be no concern from them either. It was as if no one cared about what was happening to him but her.

The final assault happened two months later while Arthur was in the sole care of his stepmother. In court, the prosecution told the jury that Tustin had violently shaken her stepson and then banged his head against the wall until he collapsed. The injuries caused were described as “extensive and devastating”. Justice Wall, who presided over the case, compared them to the forces that Arthur would have experienced in “a high-speed road traffic collision.”

After Tustin’s attack on the helpless child, she took a photograph of him as he lay dying and sent the image to his father before also calling him on the phone. She called emergency services another twelve minutes after that. She lied to the paramedics, telling them that Arthur “fell and banged his head and while on the floor banged his head another five times.”

Her story later changed to suggest that Arthur might have thrown himself down the stairs, even though he was too weak to have hurled himself with enough force to have done so and caused the damage visible on his body.

Text messages recovered from the phones of Tustin and Hughes show that less than 18 hours earlier, Hughes had encouraged the killing of his own child by sending Tustin a text that read “just end him.” There was also evidence that showed Arthur had expressed his fear of his father, telling him that he felt he was in danger with him. Unfortunately, he was right.

In the weeks leading up to his death, Arthur had been forced to stand for up to fourteen hours per day as a punishment. Tustin had also been giving Arthur immense amounts of salt. When he was admitted to the hospital, his sodium levels were so high that normal hospital equipment couldn’t measure it accurately. He had been deprived of food and drink, leaving him extremely emaciated. The evidence of physical violence was staggering with more than 130 separate injuries visible.

Though much of this was at the hands of Tustin. Arthur’s father was also physically abusive. Evidence showed that Hughes had even researched “pressure points” in order to inflict “maximum pain” on Arthur. Furthermore, he encouraged the abuse against his son. He did nothing to stop the long hours of standing in the hallway or Tustin’s abuse of his son.

CAUTION: The link below contains disturbing audio presented as evidence in the trial.

While held in prison awaiting trial, Tustin expressed that she had considered suicide, going as far as making two attempts to end her life. She also reported being bullied by other inmates during her pre-trial incarceration. She garnered no sympathy from the court or the jurors in light of the evidence presented against her.

It took the jurors just over six hours to render their verdicts. Afterward, they observed a minute of silence in honor of Arthur.

Tustin was convicted of two counts of child cruelty for poisoning Arthur with incredibly excessive amounts of salt and withholding food and drink. She had already confessed to willfully assaulting Arthur on three separate occasions and isolating him by forcing him to stand in the hallway for long periods of time. Hughes denied all wrongdoing but was also found guilty of the latter two offenses.

Additionally, Tustin was found guilty of Arthur’s murder and sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 29 years to be served. Hughes was given 21 years for manslaughter.

During sentencing, Justice Wall stated:

“[Arthur] was subjected to the most unimaginable suffering at the hands of both of you. You both told lies to conceal what was happening in that house. Your behavior towards him was often spiteful and at times sadistic. This is, without doubt, one of the most distressing and disturbing cases with which I have had to deal.”

Wall further described Tustin, who refused to attend the sentencing, as a “manipulative woman who will tell any lie and shift the blame on to anyone to save her own skin”. He called it shocking that Tustin’s other two children, ages four and five, managed to have “lived a perfectly happy, normal life in that household while this appalling cruelty to Arthur was taking place”.

Wall pointed out that Arthur’s father had seemed to care for his son well before becoming “infatuated with Tustin to the extent that it obliterated all your love for your son.”

There is no bringing Arthur back. His stepmother and father will pay a price for his torture and death, but it is doubtful either feels remorse for the pain and suffering they caused a child who only wanted to be loved.

Perhaps the hardest part to accept about the situation is that Arthur could have been saved before it was too late if the system that should have protected him hadn’t failed so miserably at their job.