Father ‘tried to revive son by pouring Coca-Cola in his mouth’ after ‘murdering’ him, court hears
Father, 29, accused of starving, poisoning and beating his son, six, ‘tried to revive him by pouring Coca-Cola in his mouth’ after ‘murdering’ him, court hears
Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, six, was allegedly killed after suffering systemic abuse Thomas Hughes, 29, and Emma Tustin, 32, deny murder of Arthur in June 2020Hughes is said to have told Arthur ‘you’re my world’ as a neighbour gave CPR
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A father accused of murdering his young son after starving, poisoning and beating him then tried to revive him by pouring Coca-Cola in his mouth, a court heard today.
Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, six, was allegedly killed after suffering systemic abuse from Thomas Hughes, 29, and stepmother Emma Tustin, 32, which prosecutors say matched the ‘medical definition of child torture’.
The youngster was deprived of food, made to stand for 14 hours a day and poisoned with salt before being fatally attacked at his home in June 2020, it is said.
Prosecutors allege Tustin murdered Arthur when they were alone at her council house near Solihull, West Midlands, and that Hughes ‘intentionally encouraged’ the killing.
The couple deny murder and multiple counts of child cruelty.
Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, six, was allegedly killed after suffering systemic abuse which matched the ‘medical definition of child torture’. His father Thomas Hughes, 29, (pictured with Arthur) and stepmother Emma Tustin, 32, deny murder and child abuse
Tustin (pictured) and Hughes are said to have subjected Arthur to systematic cruelty ‘designed to torture’ the youngster. They deny murder
During police interviews following her arrest, Tustin claimed Arthur inflicted his fatal injuries after smashing his head on a concrete floor.
In transcripts read to jurors at Coventry Crown Court, the mother-of-two told detectives she ‘heard a crack’ as the youngster ‘knocked him f******-self out’.
She said: ‘There’s nothing under the floor, it’s just concrete.
‘When he cracked his head I went to pick him up. He flung his arms back at me. He said: ‘I don’t care’.
Football mad Arthur collapsed with ‘unsurvivable brain injuries’ on Tuesday, June 16, and died the following day
‘He threw himself down, smacked his head two or three times. I put my arms underneath him and he wasn’t fighting me. I picked him up and put him on the stairs. I checked his pulse, checked he was breathing.’
After Arthur collapsed with ‘unsurvivable brain injuries’, Tustin was joined by Hughes, who had returned from buying a birthday cake.
She claimed he tried to pour Coca-Cola into Arthur’s mouth, telling officers: ‘Tom was talking to him, he didn’t have time to talk to him. He tried to give him Coca-Cola.
‘Why are you giving him cola? Trying to put Coke in his mouth?’
Tustin recalled fetching her neighbour, nurse Carol Miller, who helped administer CPR. She said that Hughes then remarked in front of her: ‘Don’t worry Arthur about all the things you’ve done, everything will be alright.’
She told police: ‘I was disgusted by it. It was vile. All that was going through my head was that this kid was getting worse.
‘[He said] ‘come on Arthur, you’re my world. He’s my world, he’s my world, come on Arthur’.’
Arthur had been in the full-time care of Hughes after Olivia Labinjo-Halcrow was accused of killing her new partner, Gary Cunningham, in February 2019.
Hughes then fell ‘hook, line and sinker’ for Tustin, jurors were told, and moved into her home in Cranmore Road when the country entered lockdown in March 2020.
Hughes (left) is accused of forcing his son to endure ‘physical and psychological’ abuse in the weeks before his death
A touching note was left among the floral tributes to six-year-old Arthur at his former home after his death
Tustin has pleaded guilty to one count of child cruelty but denies further charges of the same offence. Hughes denies all charges.
Earlier in the trial, jurors heard text messages between Hughes and Tustin talking of alleged abuse.
In one message, Hughes threatened to ‘take his jaw off his shoulders’ and told Tustin: ‘Just gag him or something. Tie some rope around his mouth with a sock in it or something.’
Tustin told police that she did not assault Arthur and that Hughes was responsible for ‘punishments’.
A day before Arthur collapsed, Tustin claimed she saw Hughes assault his son.
She told officers: ‘I could just hear his hands going.
‘I asked Tom what the hell was going on he said ‘he’s being disrespectful. If I have to put my hands on him to learn, then so be it’.
‘I don’t agree with that. I would never, ever hit my kids. He didn’t care.’
The trial was previously told that Arthur’s paternal grandmother, Joanne Hughes, made a referral to Solihull children’s services to report bruises on her grandson’s shoulders, claiming that Tustin could be responsible.
But a visit by social services found ‘no safeguarding concerns’. A social worker said she was unable to spot anything but a faint yellow bruise.
West Midlands Police also shut down a log after Arthur’s uncle, Daniel Blake, sent over photos of bruising, the court heard.
In a 999 call made 12 minutes after Arthur was found unresponsive on June 16, Tustin claimed his head injuries were self-inflicted. She claimed he had ‘banged his head while on the floor on all fours’.
Arthur died the following day at Birmingham Children’s Hospital.
Police outside a home on Cranmore Road in Shirley, Solihull, West Midlands, where Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, six, was found injured on June 16 last year
Earlier in the trial, a medical expert said he believed Arthur was shaken and slammed with ‘very severe’ force.
Consultant neuropathologist Daniel Du Plessis said that the chances of Arthur causing himself fatal head injuries were ‘inconceivable’.
Tustin has pleaded guilty to one count of child cruelty but denies further charges of the same offence. Hughes denies all charges.
Opening the trial Mr Hankin told jurors: ‘Both defendants participated in a campaign of cruelty intended to cause Arthur significant harm and suffering.
‘Violence and intimidation, both physical and verbal, were routine.
‘Arthur’s visible injuries, his miserable physical condition and obvious despair provided each defendant with a daily reminder of the lengths to which the other would go to cause him harm.’
The trial continues.
