The murder of six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes was one of the most distressing cases of the year.
The Solihull youngster was attacked by ‘wicked’ stepmother Emma Tustin after months of neglect at the hands of the 32-year-old and his birth father Thomas Hughes.
He was ‘poisoned’ with foods containing large amounts of salt. An Oxford-based paediatrician who gave evidence at the trial reportedly said Arthur’s brain contained the highest salt level he’d ever seen.
Emma Tustin Picture: West Midlands Police
Mr Justice Wall, who sentenced the couple, said the case was ‘without doubt one of the most distressing and disturbing cases I have had to deal with’.
Jailing Tustin for life and her partner for 21 years, the judge said: “This cruel and inhuman treatment of Arthur was a deliberate decision by you to brush off his cries for help as naughtiness.”
READ MORE: ‘Wicked’ stepmother and ‘pitiless’ father jailed for killing six-year-old Arthur
Court cases involving parents’ abuse of their children are – thankfully – few and far between. And reporting restrictions typically prevent those who molest or neglect their sons and daughters from being identified.
In the past 18 months, Oxford Crown Court has seen a number of parents and carers in the dock accused of attacking their children or step-children.
Left boy in bath to have sex with girlfriend
Judge Ian Pringle QC damned as ‘foolish, reckless and dangerous’ a man’s decision to leave his partner’s toddler in the bath – so he could go next door and have sex with the woman.
When they returned from their romp, the child had seriously injured his own genitals.
Despite medical experts saying the injury could not have been self-inflicted, the 29-year-old ‘step-father’ was cleared by jurors at Oxford Crown Court of wounding with intent and causing the tot grievous bodily harm.
However, the man, who we are not naming in order to protect the identity of the boy, admitted neglect on the basis that he left the child alone in the bath.
Sentencing him to an 18 month community order and 150 hours of unpaid work on Wednesday, Judge Ian Pringle QC said: “According to you at some stage your partner suggested you and her go next door where you might be a bit more intimate at that sage and leaving the child in the bath on his own and that is what you did.
“You went next door, you had sex then you went back – not concerned about the boy’s state of health.
“This was a foolish, reckless thing, leaving a young boy in a bath at only three-and-three-quarters – a dangerous thing to do with a young child – because you and your partner decided to have sex.”
In mitigation, the man’s barrister said his client had rarely looked after the boy. The care was usually provided by his mother.
READ MORE: 'Reckless' step-dad left toddler in the bath
Paedophile ring probe ends in Oxford arrest
The FBI tipped off Oxford police to the fact that a woman in the city had shared sick pictures of her assaults with paedophiles online.
The mum-of-two was snared in an FBI sting in summer 2020 and the file passed to the UK authorities.
The woman, who we have not named in order to protect her sons’ identities, took obscene pictures of herself with the young children.
She also boasted of urinating in the boys’ juice cups and exchanged sick fantasies with paedophiles on the internet.
Jailing her for six years, Judge Nigel Daly said: “I find this behaviour quite impossible to comprehend.
“As you will appreciate, anything that appears on the internet will in all probability remain there forever and you have subjected your own infant children to this very real possibility.”
READ MORE: Jail for FBI sting mum who photographed sexual abuse of her own sons
‘I am a liar’
In 2020, a man who perpetrated a brutal regime of sadistic, violent punishments and mental torment against his two children in Berkshire and Oxfordshire was jailed.
His daughter, now an adult, was made to write ‘I am a liar, I am a stealer’ 1,000 times on a piece of paper and was later ‘whipped’ by dad Shane O’Brien.
He repeatedly ‘bashed’ his son’s head against a wall after he downloaded games onto a phone while the couple were away.
The children said they were left suffering flashbacks and had been made to feel ‘less than an animal’.
Shane O'Brien Picture: TVP
Outlining the case at Oxford Crown Court, prosecutor Alexandra Bull said the crimes involved ‘physical abuse, sadistic punishment, emotional abuse and neglect.’
She said the ill treatment all took place between July 2014 and December 2016, involving two child victims in the Berkshire and Oxfordshire area.
Among the catalogue of cruel punishments, the children were made to hold up placards that read ‘liar’ and were whipped with a belt.
O’Brien’s partner, wicked stepmother Denise O’Brien, was spared prison. The court heard she ‘turned a blind eye’ to the cruelty.
Jailing the dad for 26 months, Judge Nigel Daly said the cruelty involved ‘gratuitous degradation’ as well as ‘significant force used'.
READ MORE: Dad jailed for brutal regime of cruel and unusual punishments for his children
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tik Tok
Got a story for us? Send us your news and pictures here
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article