Arthur Labinjo-Hughes: A life cut short by cruelty

Tuesday 16 June 2020 started the same as any other for six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes: in misery and in pain.

Barely able to stand, he folded away his bedding in the living room where his father and new stepmother had been making him sleep on the floor, all the while monitored by CCTV set up to catch him “misbehaving”.

For three months, his life was dictated by a cruel punishment regime enforced by Emma Tustin and Thomas Hughes.

That day would be his last alive.

Warning – this article contains distressing content.

Arthur’s short life had been difficult. He lived with his mother, Olivia Labinjo-Halcrow, after she and Hughes split not long before his second birthday. After she was arrested for killing her abusive partner in 2019, Arthur was left in the sole care of his father.

Despite the challenges, he was a happy and cheeky child who was adored by his extended family. He loved school, football and superheroes.

Not long after taking responsibility for Arthur, Hughes, 29, met Tustin on an online dating site. When the UK went into lockdown in March 2020, the new couple made the decision to merge their families at Tustin’s home on Cranmore Road in Solihull, where she lived with her own children, aged four and five.

It didn’t take long for things to deteriorate for Arthur. By April, social services and police had paid a visit after referrals from his concerned grandmother, Joanne Hughes, and an anonymous tip off from Tustin’s own parents. The 32-year-old was said to have “bristled with hostility” towards Arthur.

Mrs Hughes spotted extensive bruising on her grandson’s back and he’d told her Tustin had slammed him into the stairs, calling him an “ugly, horrible brat”. BBC