JUSTICE FOR ARTHUR
Arthur Labinjo-Hughes’ cruel dad Thomas Hughes has his sentence INCREASED for killing son, 6, in campaign of abuse
THE killer dad of six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes has had his prison sentence increased by judges at the Court of Appeal.
Cruel Thomas Hughes, 29, was caged for 21 years for the manslaughter of the youngster - but this was today found to be unduly lenient.
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Judges lengthened his jail term by three years to reflect the severity of his crimes.
Hughes' ex-girlfriend Emma Tustin, 32, who was jailed for life with a minimum term of 29 years for murder and child cruelty, also appealed her tariff but this remains unchanged.
Arthur was tortured by his dad and step-mum during an eight-month-long campaign of abuse.
He was isolated, poisoned with salt and starved in his final months before twisted Tustin’s fatal attack where she banged his head repeatedly against a hard surface.
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The lad died after being found with 130 areas of injury at Tustin’s house near Solihull, West Mids, during lockdown 2020.
Extending Hughes' sentence, Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett today said: "The manslaughter bristled with aggravating features including as grave a breach of trust as can be imagined in respect of a small boy who was especially vulnerable, not least as a result of Hughes' own conduct.
"He lied to Arthur's school to keep him at home to protect both himself and Tustin.
"Without the cruelty offences the manslaughter deserved a sentence of 18 years or more.
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"The judge's view was that the offence fell just short of murder and, as we have said, the risk of death, given the preceding conduct, was real.
"In our view the appropriate sentence is one of 24 years' imprisonment to take account of all the offending."
Discussing Tustin's sentence, the senior judges refused to increase her 29-year minimum prison term, finding it was an "appropriate sentence".
Lord Burnett said anyone looking at the "detailed written materials" submitted, along with CCTV footage, "would find it hard to contemplate how anyone, let alone someone with joint responsibility for his care, could have treated Arthur as Tustin did".
"The child cruelty in which she engaged was at the top end of the scale for sentencing purposes, had it been considered in isolation," the judge added.
"The mechanisms of assault reflected explosive violence calculated to cause maximum harm rather than any sadism in the usual sense of the word.
"It would not alone have taken this case into 30-year minimum territory.
"It was the antecedent protracted and serious cruelty which did have an element of sadism that, on the judge's reasoning, firmly placed this case at a minimum starting point of 30 years.
"In our view the judge was right to take a starting point of 30 years for the principal reason he gave, namely that to do so properly reflected the seriousness of the murder of Arthur and the dreadful cruelty for which Tustin was responsible that preceded it."
HARROWING ABUSE
Tustin recorded more than 22 pictures and videos of Arthur in distress highlighting the horrific abuse he was suffering.
In one video, she cruelly took a trip to McDonald's while Arthur was left in a hallway for 14 hours without food.
In another haunting clip, Arthur wakes up on the living floor on the morning of his death after being denied a bed.
He appeared to be so frail he could barely pick up his bedding and staggered as he attempted to walk.
His pyjamas - the same onesie he had been in for the fifth day in a row - appear to be hanging off him.
And in haunting audio, the youngster can be heard sobbing: "Daddy's going to throw me out the window", and "no one loves me".
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Judges also today reviewed the sentences of killer cop Wayne Couzens.
The former Met Police officer, who is behind bars for the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard, today lost a bid to reduce his whole-life sentence so will die in prison.
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