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Arthur Labinjo-Hughes case


ICTChris

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A man and a woman have been found guilty of causing the death of six year old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes.  Arthur died of a head injury in June 2020 while in the care of Emma Tustin, his stepmother.  Tustin was found guilty of murder while Arthur's father Thomas Hughes was found guilty of manslaughter. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-59489765

I don't think I've ever seen a case detailing such utter cruelty towards a child as this one.  The evidence in court was utterly horrific - the boys father and his girlfriend beat Arthur, they deliberately poisoned him with salt, they bullied and taunted him, they texted each other encouragement of the abuse.  Hughes sent Tustin a message saying he was going to 'put him six feet under' and encouraging Tustin to 'just end him'.  CCTV footage at the trial showed Arthur crying and saying 'no-one loves me' while being made to sleep on a sofa.  The evidence was just unrelenting in it's horror.

Two months before his death Arthur was visited by social workers following concerns raised by his maternal grandmother.  They reported no concerns, a review is underway on Arthur's dealings with the authorities in this case.  Arthur's birth mother had been imprisoned for murder a couple of years ago leading to him moving in with his father and starting the chain of events that lead to his death.  

What can be done about cases like this?  There have been a steady stream of them, high profile and low.  Baby P, Victoria Climbie - where children are brutally abused and have violence inflicted on them but social services or other authorities don't pick it up.  Are they failing systemically or, being brutally honest about it, is there nothing that you can do about evil like this?  

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The Daily Mail has a large piece about the case.  Some horrific facts contained within.  One relative was told they'd be arrested if they broke the national lockdown to go to the house to check on Arthur.  SOcial workers were sent photographs of bruising on Arthur but didn't take any actions.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10267013/Arthur-Labinjo-Hughes-stepmother-GUILTY.html

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Got as far as this on BBC. Couldn't imagine  being on that jury listening to that evidence.

 

Following the verdicts the jury asked if they could hold a minute's silence for Arthur, which they were allowed to do. They were also excused from sitting on another jury for life.

They heard weeks of harrowing evidence, including how Arthur was force-fed salt-laced meals, kept isolated in the home, starved, dehydrated and routinely beaten.

 

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10 minutes ago, HeartsOfficialMoaner said:

It's too fcuked up for me, I can't read anymore about it. How the jury managed to sit through that I don't know.

6 years old, nobody loves me. His whole life. It's too much.

It's unbelievable.  I swithered about starting a thread about it because it's just so horrible.

The jury were given a lifetime dispensation from serving on a jury again, you only see that in the worst cases.

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It's too fcuked up for me, I can't read anymore about it. How the jury managed to sit through that I don't know.
 
6 years old, nobody loves me. His whole life. It's too much.


I was in tears reading the story on the BBC, absolutely horrendous, starving, but couldn’t eat the food as it was so laced with salt. No one loves me. How could you hear that and not do something, anything?

How could you be so cruel, to do that to a defenceless child? Genuinely felt physically sick reading about the case.

I hope the pair of them never see daylight ever again.
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I've got some sympathy for the social workers because this pair are obviously psychopaths who will have spent their entire lives lying and manipulating. 
 
 


I haven’t. His maternal grandmother raised concerns, his uncle raised his concerns with the police, Tustin’s stepfather anonymously called social services, Hughes’ father was at loggerheads with him last Christmas over the treatment the pair were inflicting on him, the school also made their thoughts known too.

I’d fully expect heads to roll following this, and it will be an injustice to hear the authorities at Solihull say that it was a blip and changes will be made, when it will in fact be nothing but a sound bite to detract from the criticism that they are rightly facing following this tragic case.

That said, none of this would have happened had the people who were meant to nurture and love the child not behaved like absolute animals.
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Are concerns being raised by family members a rare occurrence though? 

It's very difficult for a social worker to assess they are dealing with two psychos torturing a child. It would probably be more likely for a doctor to raise the alarm.

Edited by Detournement
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Are concerns being raised by family members a rare occurrence though? 
It's very difficult for a social worker to assess they are dealing with two psychos torturing a child. It would probably more likely for a doctor to raise the alarm.


Then frankly something must change. His father made excuses as to why he wouldn’t be attending school last June when they reopened, the school opened their doors to him during lockdown as they had suspicions that he wasn’t receiving the care he should have been, and his father and step-mum kb’d it as it suited them if he were away from prying eyes.

Why on earth would either of them have taken him to a doctor? He lay dying for over ten minutes, Tustin, rather than phoning an ambulance, stood over him and took photos of his lifeless body to send to Hughes. Are those the sort of people you would expect to take a child to a GP, who could then report their concerns?

I don’t know what I would have done in that situation, but I would like to think had I been his teacher or head teacher, and was as concerned as they probably were given Arthur had mentioned on numerous occasions that he feared his father killing him, that I’d be chasing daily updates from authorities, especially during a national lockdown when they weren’t able to see him every day.

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19 minutes ago, Adam said:

 


I haven’t. His maternal grandmother raised concerns, his uncle raised his concerns with the police, Tustin’s stepfather anonymously called social services, Hughes’ father was at loggerheads with him last Christmas over the treatment the pair were inflicting on him, the school also made their thoughts known too.

I’d fully expect heads to roll following this, and it will be an injustice to hear the authorities at Solihull say that it was a blip and changes will be made, when it will in fact be nothing but a sound bite to detract from the criticism that they are rightly facing following this tragic case.

That said, none of this would have happened had the people who were meant to nurture and love the child not behaved like absolute animals.

 

I would see social workers jailed over this.

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The whole case is absolutely sickening and heartbreaking. I don't think of myself as a particularly emotional person, but I was close to tears just reading some of the reports earlier today. Goodness knows how the jury got through it. 

He has also been let down horrendously by social services and the police. They were either negligent or incompetent, probably both. 

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I just can't imagine what goes through the minds of people who do things like this. People do all sorts of awful things and perform mental backflips to justify it to themselves, but occasionally you get these cases of sadists who cause unimaginable pain just for the sheer joy of it. I can't get into that headspace.

There would've been people living on that street who would've loved and protected that kid. It's unbearable to think about.

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