Arthur Labinjo-Hughes was a young boy who lived in the West Midlands, England. Tragically, he was subjected to abuse by his caregivers during the COVID-19 pandemic, which ultimately led to his death. Arthur was only six years old at the time of his passing.
The abuse of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes was carried out by his father, Thomas Hughes, and his father’s partner, Emma Tustin, over a period of several months. This abuse reached its tragic climax on June 17th, 2020, when Tustin killed Arthur by inflicting blunt force trauma to his head.
The Inside Story
Arthur Labinjo-Hughes was the child of Olivia Labinjo-Halcrow and Thomas Hughes. His parents separated shortly before he turned two, and he lived primarily with his mother while sharing custody with his father. In February 2019, Labinjo-Halcrow fatally stabbed her new partner, Gary Cunningham, after experiencing mutual domestic violence.
This resulted in Thomas Hughes becoming Arthur’s sole caregiver. Arthur changed schools and moved into an annex behind his paternal grandparents’ home, where he resided with his father.
Then, in March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic led to the closure of all schools in the UK and a national lockdown. At the beginning of the lockdown, Arthur and his father were staying in Emma Tustin’s home. Although Thomas Hughes’s mother asked that he and Arthur come to her house, he refused and decided to move in with Tustin for the duration of the lockdown, at her home in Solihull.
Arthur is Abused
In April, Thomas Hughes briefly returned home with his son due to a disagreement with Tustin. While he was at his grandparents’ house, Arthur disclosed that Tustin had pinned him against the wall, called him a “horrible ugly brat,” and his grandmother found several bruises on his back.
Despite the grandmother’s request, Thomas Hughes returned to his partner’s house and refused to leave Arthur at his grandmother’s house for an extended period, prompting her to report him to social services. The following day, a social worker visited Hughes and Tustin’s home. She was told that Arthur’s injuries had been sustained in a fight with Tustin’s son. The social worker concluded that Arthur was “very happy and very safe” and that there were no safeguarding issues in the household.
However, Thomas Hughes later revealed that Tustin had coached the boys to lie about the incident and had warned him that they would lose custody of their children if he did not cooperate.
In May 2020, Arthur was frequently punished by being made to stand in the hallway for long periods of time, allegedly for misbehaving. Tustin reported these incidents to Thomas via text messages and audio clips of Arthur crying. In these clips, the child could be heard crying for his grandmother and uncle and, at one point, said “nobody loves me.” These heart-wrenching recordings only serve to highlight the extent of the abuse that Arthur was experiencing at the hands of his caregivers.
Tustin and Thomas in the living room where Arthur was forbidden from entering
When Arthur’s school reopened on June 8th, he did not attend. The school contacted Thomas Hughes about the matter, but he provided various excuses for the child’s absence. The couple installed a camera at home to monitor Arthur during his isolation, further isolating the child from the outside world.
The camera recorded a disturbing incident in which Tustin slapped Arthur for entering the living room. It also captured footage of Tustin and her children enjoying food and leisure activities, which Arthur was not allowed to participate in.
On June 15th, Tustin took Arthur with her to spend most of the day at her hairdresser’s house. Throughout the six hours she was there, Tustin forced the boy to stand by the door and frequently shouted and swore at him. The child collapsed to the floor as they left the hairdresser’s, but neither Tustin nor Thomas helped him. Later that evening, Thomas belted Arthur’s legs, and he later told Tustin to “just end him.”
The following day, she fed him to consume large quantity of salt before smashing his head several times against a hard surface.
She called emergency line but Arthur did not recover from his injuries.
Medical examination discovered Arthur had salt poisoning and had sustained 130 bruises that had resulted from years of abuse.
After analyzing thousands of messages, photos,and videos, Tustin and Thomas were found guilty.
In December 2021, Emma Tustin was convicted of murdering Arthur Labinjo-Hughes at Coventry Crown Court. She was sentenced to life in prison, with a minimum term of 29 years. Thomas Hughes was also convicted in relation to Arthur’s death. He was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 21 years in prison.