PM orders national inquiry into Arthur’s appalling murder

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Boris Johnson is expected to announce a wide-ranging inquiry into the murder of six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes in an attempt to avert another such tragedy.

The investigation will involve police, schools, social services and probation watchdogs and is intended to learn lessons from what happened.

It is likely to consider whether guidelines should be put in place to help protect at-risk youngsters in the event of future national lockdowns.

Arthur’s stepmother, Emma Tustin, 32, was jailed for life at Coventry Crown Court on Friday, with a minimum of 29 years, after being found guilty of his murder, while his father Thomas Hughes, 29, got 21 years for manslaughter.

Solihull’s Local Child Safeguarding Partnership launched an independent review after it emerged the boy had been seen by social workers two months before his death, but they found there were ‘no safeguarding concerns’.

It comes after Tustin’s former cellmate revealed she never mentioned the boy while awaiting trial during the six weeks they shared a cell.

Meanwhile yesterday football fans across the country paid poignant tribute to Arthur  with a rousing minute of applause in the sixth-minute for the young Birmingham City supporter.

Mr Johnson is looking to save more children from suffering the vicious abuse Arthur received from his sick stepmother and father, the Sunday Times reported.

Speaking on Friday during a campaign visit in Shropshire, the Prime Minister vowed to leave ‘absolutely no stone unturned’ to establish what went wrong in the case.

He said it was essential to learn lessons and to work out what else could have been done to protect the child. 

Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi is due to make a Commons statement on the case on Monday.

Justice Secretary Dominic Raab said ministers are determined to see what lessons can be learned from the murder of six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes.

Asked if there would be an inquiry, Mr Raab told Sky News this morning: ‘The Prime Minister made clear that we want to see how social services liaise with the criminal justice agencies, and what lessons we can learn.’

‘It is right that we look at the criminal justice end and in between that I think the job of social workers – particularly those looking at children at particular risk – we need to learn the lessons.’

He added: ‘I do think we have got to make sure a more precautionary approach which looks at the risk to those particularly vulnerable young children and see what more we can do to read those early signs earlier and better.’

On Saturday, the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) confirmed Tustin and Hughes’ sentences are to be reviewed. The AGO has 28 days from the date of sentence to review a case, assess whether it falls under the Unduly Lenient Sentence (ULS) scheme, and make a decision as to whether to refer a sentence to the Court of Appeal.

The Court of Appeal then makes a ruling on cases which have been referred.

A spokesman for the AGO said: ‘The Attorney General’s thoughts are with those who loved Arthur. I can confirm that the sentences given to Emma Tustin and Thomas Hughes have been referred to the Attorney General for review to determine whether they were too low.’

Speaking about sharing a cell with Tustin, Elaine told the Mirror she told inmates she was being held in Eastwood Park prison in Gloucestershire because her ex-partner Hughes had ‘neglected’ his son.

Elaine, who was recalled to prison for battery and criminal damage, told the publication: ‘Emma hadn’t said anything about Arthur dying. She never mentioned him.’

She claimed she only found out about Tustin’s charges after finding her case paperwork, with Elaine saying she grew ‘angry’ after reading about Arthur’s 130 bruises, resulting in the pair having a row.

She claimed she asked Tustin how she didn’t notice Arthur’s bruising while giving him a bath, to which she alleged Tustin responded that she ‘gave him a towel’.

Elaine, who also gave evidence at Tustin’s trial, added: ‘I pressed the bell and said if the prison officers didn’t get her out then I’d be staying there a long time.’

Tustin was moved to a different cell, but inmates began lacing her meals with salt after learning about how she had poisoned Arthur, Elaine claimed.

Yesterday football fans across the country paid poignant tribute to Arthur in powerful scenes replicated at sold-out stadiums nationwide.

Thousands of supporters marked Arthur’s short life with a rousing minute of applause in the sixth-minute for the young Birmingham City FC supporter.

Applause rang out from the capacity crowd at West Ham’s London Stadium as fans of the Premier League side and league leaders Chelsea shared a touching tribute at the six-minute mark of their match.

Players wore ‘Arthur We Love You’ t-shirts in pre-match warmups ahead of Birmingham City FC’s Championship clash against Millwall on Saturday.

Meanwhile Coventry City fans also remembered the youngster with applause in the sixth minute of their match against West Brom.

New figures showed nearly 50,000 vulnerable children may have ‘dropped off the radar’ of social services during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The number of new cases referred to children’s services departments fell by 45,220 – or 7 per cent – from 2019-20 to 2020-21.

The total dropped to 597,760 for the year to March 2021, the lowest figure since records began in 2013. By contrast, the total for 2018-19, before the pandemic, was 650,930.

The Department for Education said the sharp reduction was driven by a fall in referrals from schools, which were closed for most pupils during lockdown.

Tim Loughton, a former children’s minister, said the pandemic had put vulnerable children such as Arthur at greater risk.

‘There was an increase in child abuse because of course they were off the radar,’ he told the Daily Telegraph.

A former children’s commissioner also suggested the lockdown helped Tustin and Hughes carry out their reign of terror largely unchecked.

Tustin killed Arthur by repeatedly slamming his head on a hard surface after she and Hughes starved the youngster and force-fed him food laden with salt.

After killing him, she immediately fetched her mobile phone to take a photograph of him as he lay dying in the hallway to send to her boyfriend. She called 999 and told the operator Arthur had ‘banged his head’.

After police arrived at her Solihull home, the self-pitying stepmother cried and tried to convince them the stick-thin boy had attacked her – while several miles away he lay dying in hospital.

He passed away the next day when his life support was turned off, with medics deciding there was nothing they could do due to the catastrophic nature of his injuries.

After concerned relatives told the council about bruises on the youngster’s back, social worker Jayne Kavanagh and support worker Angela Scarlett-Coppage visited Tustin’s home but reported ‘no concerns’.

Tustin and Hughes had ‘coached’ Arthur and one of Tustin’s other children to pretend his injuries were the result of a play-fight.

A day before Arthur died of ‘unsurvivable’ head injuries inflicted by Tustin, he had been rendered ‘too weak’ even to hold a glass of water to his mouth.

The 130 areas of bruising found on the little boy’s body after his death equated to ‘nearly a bruise for every day of lockdown’.

Jailing Tustin and Hughes, Mr Justice Mark Wall QC said the couple’s campaign of cruel abuse against the defenceless youngster had been ‘without doubt one of the most distressing and disturbing cases I have had to deal with’.

He said of little Arthur: ‘He was a healthy, happy young boy. He enjoyed his food, liked school, loved playing cricket and football and adored spending his time with his extended family.

‘He had been poisoned with so much salt that the levels of sodium in his blood could not be accurately and reliably measured. I am sure that you had also been poisoning him with smaller doses of salt for some time.

‘It is the only explanation for Arthur being heard regularly to cry out for food while rejecting the food that you prepared for him and offered him. It explains why you had been restricting his access to free water for some time.

‘He had been completely isolated from his extended family. He was forced to live a solitary and lonely life within your home, including being made to stand to attention alone in the hallway of the house for most of the day.

‘He was made to sleep downstairs on the hard floor without a mattress. In the last three months of Arthur’s life he was subjected to the most unimaginable suffering at the hands of both of you.

‘You both told lies to conceal what was happening in that house.’

Addressing Hughes, he said: ‘You, I am sure, researched pressure pointing Arthur and then did it. Not in the playful way you suggested but as an attempt to cause maximum pain with minimum injury.’