Arthur Labinjo-Hughes case

[Thistle_do_nicely]

Wondered from the OP and part way through the article why they had the CCTV, was it just so they could record/watch a feed of his suffering for their own amusement? Considering they texted each other images of their cruelty I'm guessing that's what it is.

Arthur should never have had to endure what he did. I can't understand that level of pointless cruelty. edit: it's minor in comparison to the rest but cutting up the football shirts as punishment - I doubt either of those fuckers got him those so they were probably rare moments of kindness gifted to him for birthdays/christmas from relatives, and they couldn't even let him have that.

Edited December 2, 2021 by Thistle_do_nicely

[Fullerene]

1 hour 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.

 

Solihull again!  The other story was 3 year old Kaylee Jayde Priest who was also killed in Solihull last year by evil guardians.

Once again truly sickening.

Edited December 2, 2021 by Fullerene

[UsedToGoToCentralPark]

It's absolutely horrific to think this was allowed to happen, I hope the guilty parties have a long and painful rest of their lives.

[ICTChris]

He

22 minutes ago, invergowrie arab said:

Victoria Climbie was 21 years ago and baby P was 14 years ago, Brandon Muuir 12 years ago which would suggest that rather rather a steady stream, its an exceptional occurrence.

Social Services in England have been absolutely gutted to the point I'm surprised stuff like this doesn't happen more often. Maybe it does.

There is about one murder a week of a child in the UK, on average.  That will include teenagers as well but seems shockingly high to me.  Having said that, in the last few days there has been the murder of a 16 year old in Hamilton and a 14 year old in Liverpool maybe I'm niave.

 

 

[superwell87]

Reading that absolutely broke me. 

[Benjamin_Nevis]

Social Work services in England are pretty much cut to the bone. They aren't quite so thinly spread up here but case numbers are still fucking mental. I'm fairly sure SSSC recommend a full-time SW's caseload should be about 30ish, most of the ones we deal with are well above that. However there's a difference between being seriously overworked and total fucking incompetence. Arthur's case falls into the latter.

Every SW involved in that shambles should be binned immediately, however the usual shite about "lessons learned" will be spouted and all that will happen is that a couple of utterly pointless extra stages in case audits will be brought in to tick a box, a couple of older team members will voluntarily retire and f**k all else will change. 

[AsimButtHitsASix]

Without all of the details to hand, which might be years away, the Daniel Pelka story was something we used to talk about in my NHS Trust and how it might have fitted in with the SNP's "named person" scheme and there may be parallels to explain how no-one noticed.

Basically it's very easy for these people to lie to separate departments. The granny phones the Polis and the Polis turn up? "Nah he's fine. She's just a cow stirring trouble." The uncle phones the school? Same lie. The neighbour phones the social? Same again.

Pelka was raking through bins at school for food and they telt the school he was on a strict diet for health reasons. His doctor noticed bruises and they telt him he was bullied at school. All it needed was the school to speak to the doc or vice versa. Having a named person to collate any claim, through different avenues, and they should be able to spot any trends that are easily missed if there are separate units dealing. England never brought in any such scheme and the SNP scrapped their idea for it as well. 

[supermik]

Don’t have the stomach to read the links. What I would imagine is that one of the saddest parts of the whole atrocity is that the poor mite probably awoke every morning with a total devotion to the cnuts.

[Alert Mongoose]

As vile and unreadable as it is, it’s always worth considering where this evil came from.  It may not be the case here but it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that the upbringing of the criminals may not be described as harmonious. That’s not in any in way to absolve them of blame for their evil acts but just me trying to get my head round the motivation for it.
 

Adopting a child who was born into foster care straight from birth and dealing with supervised visits etc gave my wife and I a brief glimpse into the circuitous nature of parents unable to look after themselves partly due to have been born into the same situation.  It’s a grim scenario that just continues through generations and I’ve no idea how we will ever break the cycle.

[Aladdin]

The video and audio clip in the report is one of the most harrowing  things I've ever seen on the Internet.

Unfortunately, given how stretched social work services are, these cases happen every few years. I dont think there's an epidemic of violence against children on this level but, given the lack of resources, despite the inevitable review, its depressingly likely there will be another similar case in a few year time.

[invergowrie arab]

38 minutes ago, ICTChris said:

He

There is about one murder a week of a child in the UK, on average.  That will include teenagers as well but seems shockingly high to me.  Having said that, in the last few days there has been the murder of a 16 year old in Hamilton and a 14 year old in Liverpool maybe I'm niave.

 

 

Take your point, I'm more coming from the PoV that I wouldnt be attributing systemic failures in social services to that many. 

Walking around London recently I noticed it's getting very like New York with the amount of seriously mentally ill people wandering the streets presumably as social services aren't available.

It's not quite as bad here but I wouldn't do childrens SW for a million a year given case loads, paperwork and level of responsibility quite apart from what you see.

[19QOS19]

...who were meant to nurture and love the child not behaved like absolute animals.

I'm paraphrasing but I remember watching a criminal show where a head psychologist made a valid point in response to a sentence like that - Animals don't treat other animals like that. Only the human breed are so horrible.


Just caught the end of the story on BBC and was almost in tears with the video of the wee tot on the floor saying "nobody will feed me". Absolutely heartbreaking.

Violence doesn't solve anything but I sincerely hope those two c***s have plenty of hot water with sugar heading their way. Hope the Jury are well looked after. I can't even bring myself to read the full story never mind sitting through it all.

[Meldrew]

can't remember the last time i was as angry reading a news article

[tamthebam]

24 minutes ago, 19QOS19 said:

 

 

I'm paraphrasing but I remember watching a criminal show where a head psychologist made a valid point in response to a sentence like that - Animals don't treat other animals like that. Only the human breed are so horrible.


Just caught the end of the story on BBC and was almost in tears with the video of the wee tot on the floor saying "nobody will feed me". Absolutely heartbreaking.

Violence doesn't solve anything but I sincerely hope those two c***s have plenty of hot water with sugar heading their way. Hope the Jury are well looked after. I can't even bring myself to read the full story never mind sitting through it all.

 

Paid Counselling is made available to Jurors dealing with bad cases in Scotland and I imagine the situation is the same in England.

The OP asked the question about how to prevent such cases from happening. As with most things there is no one simple solution but a number of measures;

More funding of social work

More resources for adoption and fostering

Reducing child poverty

An improvement to systems monitoring child welfare

And just perhaps that old Daily Mail favourite tougher sentences although these on their own don't help.

It is perhaps fortunate that such cases are rare and that there is more awareness of child welfare among the public in general. Unlike when I was a wee lad you are unlikely to see a parent giving a young child a skelping in public these days.

And if you want to help a child in Scotland Children 1st usually do nice Christmas cards (NSPCC work in England and Wales)

[Scary Bear]

6 hours ago, ICTChris said:

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?  

The honest answer about what can be done with the current systems is probably ‘nothing’.

It’s not exactly a steady stream either. It’s every few years that we get a brief glimpse into the extremes. We see horrific parents and we move on. We don’t get a expose of why they have become the monsters they are. You hear the same take of social workers, police and others checking up but not intervening. I can only assume that the occasional deaths are the tip of the iceberg. There are probably loads of utterly shitty, sadistic parents out there and oodles of other feckless ones. Unless the parents are literally hitting the kid with an iron bar when the social worker/police are round then the kid will remain with the parents.

[Scary Bear]

3 hours ago, Shandon Par said:

The social workers are probably lumbered with treble the volume of cases they could reasonably expect to cope with and have been saying something like this will happen over the last decade. 

You’re probably right. It’s all been about getting the deficit down for the Tories since they got back in power in 2010. That means cuts. That means even less resources and poorer morale. Social services and the police weren’t great before the Tories but they are hardly likely to improve in that environment. 

[Bairnardo]

I have to be honest and say I couldnt read the full BBC article never mind anything else.

I dont think a lot of people would ever be themselves after being on that Jury. Im a bit of a believer that certain things, when they break in your mind thats you. Your a different person. I dont know if I think its appropriate to put people through that. Just imagining what it would do to me.

[mizfit]

There’s some things you can’t imagine happening in this country and this is one of them. An absolute disgrace that the social workers didn’t pick up any of the issues until it was too late.

[BFTD]

Imagine being in jail and finding out your child had been tortured to death. Imagine being the grandparents, locked out and essentially told by the authorities that nothing was wrong and to mind your own business. The kid probably died thinking his whole family had abandoned him.

The stepmother's an obvious monster, but all the father had to do was admit that he didn't want the child and allow him to be cared for by someone who appreciated him.

[gkneil]

I saw this case pop up sometime last week and then made the mistake of listening to the 2 audio recordings the police released. 

I can easily say no story has ever affected me as much as this one has, and that was even before the additional information was released that family members had contacted social workers and the police multiple times. It's bad enough to end up having guardians (one of which is your own dad) who are capable of such acts, it's horrific to then be failed completely by the system that is meant to catch these things when they do happen.

I've never been called to jury duty so don't know but, in addition to never having to be called up again, surely there is some sort of support for the jurors after sitting through this? The fact there has been so much audio/video available during the trials means a significant number of them will be on the road to PTSD I expect. And not just jurors, anyone who has been in that court room will have felt this, regardless of the cases they may have sat through.

I expect we'll see plenty campaigning etc for child protection services to be funded properly and may even see something happen on that. But, as always, it will have taken something to go catastrophically wrong for change to be implemented - in this case a wee boy has not only lost his life, he barely had what you'd call a life.

Hearing him saying "nobody loves me" over and over will haunt me for a long time.