Arthur Labingo Hughes: Prosecutor to review the sentences of the spouses

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The attorney general has confirmed that the sentences of the couple who murdered six-year-old Arthur Labingo Hughes will be reviewed.

Toston, 32, repeatedly hit Arthur’s head on a hard surface in the hours before his death, after she and Thomas Hughes, the 29-year-old’s father, carried out a campaign of abuse, including starvation and then force-feeding him food covered in salt. .

The attorney general’s office confirmed on Saturday afternoon that the sentences would be reviewed “to determine whether they are too low.”

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The Public Prosecutor’s Office has 28 days from the date of sentencing to review the case, assess whether it falls under the Ultra Permissive Sentence (ULS) scheme and decide whether to refer the sentence to the Court of Appeal.

It comes after Solihull MP Julian Knight, who laid flowers at Arthur’s mausoleum, revealed he plans to push for longer sentences for “evil monsters”.

In a video posted to Twitter, Mr. Knight said: “We need to know why this happened, and we need to ensure that those who let him down are held accountable. But also, I think anyone who pondered those sentences yesterday thought they were too lenient.”

“I intend to refer this to the Excessively Lightweight Sentence System as soon as possible. And I will do so on Monday morning.”

Sentencing, the judge said Arthur was, at the time Tustin was introduced into his life, a “happy, healthy boy.”

But less than three months after moving in with Tustin at the start of the first national shutdown, the young boy was left “shattered” from being subjected to an “acute or prolonged abuse” campaign, he said.

Tustin was also convicted of two counts of child cruelty, including salt poisoning and withholding food and drink from Arthur.

She had pleaded guilty to two other charges of cruelty, intentionally assaulting Arthur on three occasions and sequestering him, including forcing him to stand in the hallway for up to 14 hours a day as part of a particularly harsh punitive regime.

The judge said anyone who could have seen the boy’s reactions was a “cry for help from a very unhappy child,” who Tastin was, by then, starving and deliberately refusing water.

He told Hughes, who claimed as evidence that it was only after Arthur’s death that he realized the extent of his misconduct, that these were “self-serving lies”.

He said Tustin made a “calculated” decision to kill, adding, “I’m sure the moment you launched this attack on him you intended for him to die.”

“You are a manipulative woman who will lie, assign blame to anyone, to save your skin,” he added.

“You wanted Thomas Hughes so he could provide for yourself and your children, but you didn’t want Arthur to bother you anymore.”

It came as experts said Arthur Labingo Hughes should have been a top priority for social services.

Wendy Thoroughod, director of the Association of Child Protection Professionals, said the killing of Arthur, whose body was found covered in 130 bruises, was a “community responsibility”.

She told Radio Times: “It[should have been at the top of the priority list for social services]and you would have expected them to actually look at his history, but unfortunately they continue what they see in that moment.

“I can’t comment on what they actually saw but you have to remember that it was at the hands of very tough people who can manipulate him, his environment and the professionals.

“I was expecting any evaluation of Grandma’s photos to really take into account, I was expecting to have conversations…with Arthur, and that seemed to pass me by.”

Ms Thurgood said Arthur was not getting “extra” supervision from school and education as the incident occurred during the coronavirus lockdown.

She added, “I feel they probably took the assessment that he was a happy, playful, rowdy boy.

“I was expecting any bruising that was already shown to be shared with Health to get a point of view as well as where the injury is.

“The most important thing is to actually talk to the child and I can’t say if this really happened or not.

“Similarly, it is the responsibility of the community, regarding his cries were unnatural if we had received an anonymous call from a neighbour, which would have given them more power to conduct the investigation.

“He wasn’t on the child protection list, and he wasn’t one of the kids you would have considered a priority.”

Lord Laming, who led the public inquiry into Victoria Clemby’s death and reviewed the case of child Peter Connelly, said social workers must be properly trained and supported.

The counterpart also warned that fiscal cuts in the past decade were having an effect.

This came as football fans applauded during the sixth minute of West Ham’s match against Chelsea as Arthur’s image was shown on the screen.

More domestic football clubs Aston Villa and Birmingham City will be honored over the weekend.

We all have a “duty” to make sure other vulnerable children are not let down by welfare like Arthur, former Children’s Minister Tim Lawton said.

“Funding for children’s welfare is overdue, social workers are overburdened and undervalued, when in truth they should be revered as our fourth emergency service,” the Tory member wrote in The Sun.

“Early interventions to stop the causes of protection problems have been diluted to late interventions for symptoms of firefighting.

“This is a wrong economy where the child in this situation pays with his life. We all have an interest in establishing this right urgently and a duty to ensure that.”

Solihull’s local Child Protection Partnership launched an independent review after it emerged in court that social workers had seen the boy just two months before his death, but concluded there were “no protection concerns”.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday that ministers “will leave no stone unturned” to determine what went wrong in the “appalling” case.

Speaking during his campaign visit in North Shropshire, Johnson said: “It’s still early days, but I can tell you this, we will leave absolutely no stone unturned to find out exactly what went wrong in that horrific case.”

Education Minister Nadim Zahawi said he would submit a statement on the issue to parliament on Monday.

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