Arthur Labinjo-Hughes: Emma Tustin jailed for life for murdering six-year-old stepson

A “manipulative” and “utterly ruthless” stepmother who starved, poisoned and then murdered six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 29 years.

Emma Tustin, 32, was convicted of Arthur’s murder following an eight-week trial at Coventry Crown Court on Thursday.

The court heard how Arthur suffered a severe blow to the head while alone with Ms Tustin at her home in Solihull, West Midlands, on 16 June 2020. He died in hospital the following day from an “unsurvivable” head injury.

Her former partner Thomas Hughes, 29, was convicted of manslaughter – but cleared of murder – after encouraging his son’s killing. He was jailed for 21 years.

Jurors were told he sent a text message to Tustin, an unemployed mother-of-four, shortly before the fatal assault telling her to “just end him”.

The former children’s commissioner Anne Longfield said very vulnerable children “have continued to slip from view” and “not enough” has been learnt from previous cases to protect the lives of others.

At the start of the hearing on Friday, the court heard how Tustin was brought to the court but had “refused to come up” to the dock for sentencing,

Mr Justice Mark Wall QC said the couple’s campaign of cruel abuse against the boy had been “without doubt one of the most distressing and disturbing cases I have had to deal with”.

He said: “This cruel and inhuman treatment of Arthur was a deliberate decision by you to brush off his cries for help as naughtiness.”

The judge said Tustin had made a “calculated” decision to kill, adding: “You are a manipulative woman who will tell any lie, and shift the blame onto anyone, to save your own skin.

“You wanted Thomas Hughes so he could provide for you and your own children, but did not want to be troubled by Arthur any longer.

“It is a shocking feature of this case that your children, Tustin, lived a perfectly happy normal life in that household while this appalling cruelty to Arthur was taking place.”

Mr Justice Wall QC described Hughes’ “encouragement” of Tustin’s actions “chilling”, adding: “You were Arthur’s father, in a position of trust and bore primary responsibility for protecting him.

“He was extremely vulnerable and you lied to his school in the last days of Arthur’s life to protect both you and Ms Tustin.”

Tustin was also convicted of two counts of child cruelty, including salt-poisoning and withholding food and drink from Arthur.

Jurors heard how Arthur was placed in his father’s care after his mother Olivia Labinjo-Halcrow was arrested for killing her abusive partner Gary Cunningham in 2019.

Hughes, a labourer, met Tustin on an online dating site and he and Arthur moved into Tustin’s home before the first national lockdown in March 2020.

But it wasn’t long before cracks appeared in their blended home, and the jury heard how Tustin’s was said to have “bristled with hostility” towards Arthur.

During the trial, it emerged that Arthur was seen by social workers in April – two months before his death – after his paternal grandmother, Joanne Hughes, spotted bruises on his back.

She said Arthur told her how Tustin pushed him into the stairs and called him an “ugly, horrible brat”. Tustin said Arthur’s injuries were sustained while playing.

Officials concluded there were “no safeguarding concerns”.

Ms Hughes, a secondary school teacher, described Arthur, as a “happy, contented, thriving seven-year-old” would “be alive today” had her son not met Tustin.

“It is also clear that Arthur was failed by the very authorities that we, as a society, are led to believe are there to ensure the safety of everyone,” she told the court on Friday.

An independent review is under way into the authorities’ contact with Arthur before his death.

In harrowing evidence, the court heard how CCTV set up to monitor Arthur at home caught Tustin trying to give the schoolboy Calpol after she had murdered him out of view in the hallway.

This was the place where Arthur would stand facing the door for up to 14 hours a day – isolated and deprived of love and attention.

Arthur was made to sleep on the living room floor without a mattress.

He was separated from his father, who the court heard would eat chocolates in the kitchen with Tustin and her own children.

Arthur’s maternal grandmother Madeleine Halcrow also read a victim impact statement on behalf of his birth mother, Olivia Labinjio-Halcrow – who is serving an 11-year prison sentence.

She said: “My child, my little love, defenceless, trusting and nothing but loving, was killed.

“He was let down by a person he trusted and should have protected him, left alone and isolated, and then they took him away from me.”

The Prime Minister Boris Johnson said details of the case were “deeply disturbing” and that “no child should ever suffer” in the way Arthur did.

A spokesman said: “A local child safeguarding practice review is under way to fully assess the circumstances surrounding Arthur’s tragic death at the hands of those who should have been looking after him. We won’t hesitate to take any action off the back of that review.”