Photo: West Midlands Police/Facebook
A father and his partner have been sentenced following the murder of the man’s 6-year-old son, Arthur Labinjo-Hughes.
On Thursday, dad Thomas Hughes and stepmother Emma Tustin were convicted after an eight-week trial in the U.K.’s Coventry crown court, according toThe Guardian.
Hughes, 29, was given 21 years in prison for manslaughter while Tustin, 32, was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 29 years for the murder of Arthur, the outlet reported.
The pair was also convicted on child cruelty charges, per theBBC.
During the trial, jurors heard horrific tales of how Arthur was treated before his death.
According to the BBC, Hughes and Tustin starved Arthur and forced him to eat salt-laced meals, kept him isolated within their home, and beat him regularly.
West Midlands Police/Facebook
Hughes was also found guilty of two cruelty counts, though he was acquitted of one in relation to Arthur’s salt poisoning and another relating to keeping food and drinks from his young son, the outlet stated.
Tustin, meanwhile, was also sentenced to 10 years for four counts of child cruelty, which include assaults, intimidation, and the lacing of Arthur’s meals with salt, the BBC added.
Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up forPEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletterfor breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.
The outlet added that Tustin poisoned Arthur with salt in the weeks prior to his death, also giving him a “significant” amount in the hours before he died.
When the child was admitted to the hospital, The Guardian reported, his sodium levels within his blood were so high that medical staff could not measure them accurately. The outlet also noted that Arthur was found with 130 bruises on his body.
In a victim impact statement that was presented to the court, Arthur’s mother, Olivia Labinjo-Halcrow, reflected on her son’s death. The woman is currently in jail for killing her partner in 2019.
“Life as I know it will never exist again. I feel hollow every day, I feel as though I’m walking around with all the lights turned off,” Labinjo-Halcrows said, per the BBC. “He was the light of my life, the best parts of me. He was a precious gift.”
Solihull Member of Parliament, Julian Knight, also reacted to the couple’s jail sentences and called for them to be increased.
“I think anyone reflecting on those sentences yesterday thinks that they were too lenient and my intention is to try to refer this to the unduly lenient sentencing scheme as soon as possible,” he said, perSky News. “There’s a palpable sense of real loss and tragedy over this and a sense of anger and questions over how this was allowed to happen and how these monsters were allowed to inflict this horrible torture on this defenseless young boy.”
source: people.com
