True Crime
The Cruel Torment and Murder of 6-Year-Old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes
Failed by a system meant to protect him — Killed by his stepmother and father
Arthur Labinjo-Hughes died on June 16, 2020, at his home in Cranmore Road, Solihull, UK. His death occurred after several months of constant physical abuse at the hands of his stepmother and father culminated in an attack that left the 6-year-old boy with an “unsurvivable” brain injury.
The prosecutor in the case described 32-year-old Emma Tustin and 29-year-old Thomas Hughes as “utterly ruthless, unthinking and pitiless” during the trial. He told the court that the child had been the subject of a “campaign of appalling cruelty” at the hands of the heartless couple.
Arthur’s maternal grandmother, Madeleine Halcrow called what had been done to her grandson “unfathomable” and added, “I think they are cold, calculating, systematic torturers of a defenseless little boy. They’re wicked, evil. There’s no word for them, especially your own child.”
The abuse seems to have started when Arthur went to live with his father full-time after his biological mother was arrested for the murder of her boyfriend in 2019. The couple had previously shared custody, but with Olivia Labinjo-Halcrow behind bars, it…
