‘Pitiless and cruel’ mother, 32, ‘took pleasure’ in making stepson, six, ‘suffer’, court hears

A woman accused of murdering her six-year-old stepson in a brutal ‘campaign of cruelty’ ‘took pleasure’ in making the boy suffer and saw him as an ‘obstacle’ in the relationship with her lover, a court has heard.

Emma Tustin, 32, ‘enjoyed’ making little Arthur Labinjo-Hughes suffer before inflicting his fatal head injuries when she allegedly shook him and bashed his head against a hard surface, a jury at Coventry Crown Court was told Friday. 

Under cross-examination, the mother-of-four – standing trial for murder and child cruelty along with her partner and the boy’s father Thomas Hughes, 29 – was branded ‘pitiless’ and ‘utterly remorseless’. 

The youngster was allegedly deprived of food and poisoned with salt before being fatally attacked at his home near Solihull, West Midlands, in June last year.

After playing footage of Arthur putting himself to bed on a living room floor, having been forced to stand up all day, Prosecutor Jonas Hankin, QC, put to her: ‘You knew that this was a nightly occurrence. 

‘A young boy putting himself to bed after 12 or 14 hours standing by a wall, lying on a cold concrete floor with no underlay and you didn’t realise it was that bad?’

He added: ‘You took pleasure in making him suffer, you would do things that were intended to maximise his suffering.’ Tustin denied the claim.

Tustin was also quizzed over messages she sent to Hughes, including threatening to ‘f***ing launch this lying little f***’, calling him a ‘cheeky c***’ and a ‘nasty little s***’. Another read: ‘I’m going to chin this little c***.’ 

On making Arthur stand ‘all day, every day’ in a hallway for a month-and-a-half before his death, Tustin told jurors: ‘He was out of sight, out of mind. We didn’t have to do anything for him. He was just left on his own.’

Jonas Hankin, QC, prosecuting, put to her: ‘You tried to turn him into a statue in the corner of your hall, facing the wall, that’s what you did.’

Asked why, Tustin replied: ‘The whole day was so hectic and mad, when he was in the hallway, it was like he wasn’t paid attention to. It was like he was invisible, he wasn’t there.’

Mr Hankin said ‘spiteful’ Tustin ‘relished policing Arthur’ and ‘persisted in ill-treating him’.

He said: ‘You subjected him to a campaign of appalling cruelty, didn’t you, day after day taking multiple forms. Standing, being isolated, restricting his food, restricting his drink, hitting him, insulting him, intimidating him. The list goes on.

‘You required strict adherence, no matter what. ‘Stand still’, ‘don’t talk’, ‘put your arms down’, ‘get up’, even if he was too exhausted to support his own weight.’ 

Tustin wept at audio played in court of Arthur saying: ‘No-one’s going to feed me’.

Tustin told jurors she ‘just wanted a day when it was peace and quiet, it never came.’

Mr Hankin replied: ‘Did it cross you mind to give Arthur a break?’

Tustin answered: ‘In that moment, and living it, I was exhausted. I wasn’t functioning properly. I just tried to get though the days as best as I could.’ 

She agreed it was ‘unacceptable’ to make Arthur stand up all day or to sleep on a floor, and admitted: ‘I couldn’t be bothered with Arthur as horrible as it sounds.

‘I just put him to one side. I didn’t think about his feelings nor any aspect of the pain he was feeling. ‘

Tustin, who said she wanted to plead guilty to a second count of cruelty, added: ‘It’s horrendous how he was treated, not only by me, but yes, I’ve admitted where I’ve done wrong and I’ve done a lot of things wrong.’

Mr Hankin put to her: ‘You are utterly remorseless for what you’ve done to Arthur, aren’t you?’, to which Tustin replied: ‘No, I am not.’

Tustin was accused by prosecutors of treating Arthur ‘worse than a prisoner’.

Mr Hankin put to her in cross-examination: ‘You are a pitiless, cruel woman and you hated Arthur and you treated him as if he was no longer a little boy.

‘He was just an obstacle to you and your relationship with your lover, Tom Hughes. 

‘That was the most important thing to you, wasn’t it?’, to which Tustin replied: ‘No.’

Arthur died in hospital from ‘unsurvivable brain injuries’ while in Tustin’s care after suffering abuse which met ‘the medical definition of child torture’, say prosecutors.

Tustin and Hughes both deny murder. Tustin has admitted one count of child cruelty but denies three others. Hughes denies four counts of child cruelty.

Arthur had been in the full-time care of Hughes after his mother, Olivia Labinjo-Halcrow, was accused of killing her new partner, Gary Cunningham, in February 2019.

He died after moving into Tustin’s council house in Cranmore Road, Shirley, during the first pandemic lockdown last March.

Prosecutors say Tustin shook and then slammed Arthur’s head on a hard surface while alone with him.

She denies murder and claims the boy died from self-inflicted injuries, an account disputed by medical experts.

Tustin is alleged to have taken a photo of Arthur as he lay dying and waited another 12 minutes before ringing 999.

She is said to have recorded more than 200 audio files of her stepson while he was in ‘various stages of distress’.

Earlier the trial heard that Arthur was poisoned with so much salt that medics questioned their machinery when he was admitted to hospital with fatal brain injuries on June 16 last year.

An expert suggested he was given at least 34 grams of salt – equivalent to six teaspoons – leading to hospital readings which were ‘off the scale’.

Jurors were shown camera footage from the day before Arthur collapsed showing Tustin carrying a bottle of salt.

She denies poisoning Arthur, as does Hughes.

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 the chances of Arthur causing himself fatal head injuries were ‘inconceivable’.

The court heard how one witness claimed Arthur was ‘too weak’ to even hold a glass of water to his mouth on the day before he collapsed.

They also said his ‘clothes looked dirty, his lips cracked, he could barely open his mouth to speak, his hair was dirty, his nails were dirty and he looked malnourished, gaunt and worn-out.’

Tustin apologised over text messages she sent to Hughes where she called Arthur ‘Satan’ and a ‘nagging little s***’.

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.’

She denied ever acting on those instructions.

The jury was previously told Arthur’s family raised concerns with social services two months before Arthur’s death. But after a home visit no further action was taken.

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.