This horrifying video shows Arthur Labinjo Hughes’s stepmother, eating McDonald’s while her doomed 6-year-old son is starving in the corridor.
Emma Tustin, Thomas Hughes and their respective sentences of more than 20 year each are seen here enjoying ice creams in her Solihull, West Midlands home last year.
Arthur, while the couple is relaxing on the couch, stands by him in the hallway wearing a soft onesie and sweatshirt in scorching temperatures.
Another clip, also recorded by the couple’s house security footage shows Tustin eating out of two McDonald’s boxes, while Arthur starves.
Hughes and Tustin starved Hughes and forced him to eat salty foods. They also made Tustin stand for 14 hours per day. This was in an inhumane, harsh, and degrading regime that lasted the final painful months of Hughes’ life.

Emma Tustin and Thomas Hughes can be seen tucking into ice creams at her Solihull home in West Midlands, last year

The couple are enjoying a relaxing time on the couch, while Arthur Labinjo/Hughes, 6 years old, is standing in the corridor wearing a lightweight onesie and sweaty temperatures.

Another clip, also recorded by the couple’s house security footage shows Tustin eating out of two McDonald’s boxes, while Arthur starves.

Arthur Labinjo Hughes, six years old (above), was the victim of a series of horrific abuses that included starving and beatings. This is one of the worst cases of child abuse ever recorded.
Police, teachers and social workers are being asked some very serious questions following the conviction of a stepmother of a six year-old boy of murder. His father was also convicted. The pair had tortured, starved, and killed him.
Emma Tustin killed Arthur Labinjo–Hughes repeatedly by slamming him on hard surfaces after Thomas Hughes, 29, starved her and forced-fed the boy salt-laden food.
Tustin instantly took a photo of Arthur as he was dying, and immediately pulled out her phone so she could send it to her boyfriend.
She called 911 and informed the operator Arthur had shaved 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.
The next morning, he died after his life support was shut off. His injuries were so severe that medics couldn’t do anything to help him.
Concerned relatives reported bruises to the council. Angela Scarlett and Jayne Kavanagh, social workers, visited Tustin’s house. They found no problems after performing cursory checks.
Hughes and Tustin had instructed Arthur, and Tustin’s child to pretend that Arthur’s injuries were caused by a playfight.
Arthur had suffered from ‘unsurvivable head injuries’ inflicted on him by Tustin one day prior to his death. He was unable to even hold a glass water in his mouth, and that made it difficult for him to swallow. After Arthur’s death, 130 areas of bruises were found across his body. This was equivalent to “nearly one bruise per day of lockdown”.
Social workers had hoped to keep their identities private when giving evidence to court. However, this can now be disclosed.
On Friday, Justice Mark Wall QC jailed Tustin & Hughes. He said that Hughes’ cruel abuse of Tustin was ‘without doubt the most distressing & disturbing case I’ve ever had to deal’.


Emma Tustin (32), killed Arthur Labinjo–Hughes repeatedly by slamming him on hard surfaces after Thomas Hughes, 29, starved and poisoned him.

After beating Arthur, Sick Tustin took her phone to her house in Cranmore Road in Solihull in June 2013. She wanted to photograph Arthur (pictured with Hughes’ father) in his final moments.

Pictured: Arthur Labinjo Hughes, six years old with his father Thomas Hughes. Thomas’ partner Emma Tustin is also in the picture. Emma Tustin is convicted for murder, while Thomas Hughes was found guilty of manslaughter following a difficult trial at Coventry Crown Court.
Arthur, he said: “He was a happy and healthy young man.” He liked his food and enjoyed school. He was a fan of cricket and football, and loved spending time with his extended families.
“He was poisoned by so much sodium that his blood levels could not be reliably and accurately measured. You must have been giving him smaller amounts of salt over a period.
Arthur’s incessant crying for food is due to this. He refuses food from you. That explains the reason you have been restricting Arthur’s access to water for quite some time.
“He was completely cut off from all his family. He had to be left alone and isolated in his home for the majority of the day.
He was forced to sleep on the ground floor with no mattress.
“In Arthur’s last three months, he suffered the worst suffering from both you and him.
“You and your partner told lies in order to cover up what was taking place inside that house.”
Hughes responded by saying: “You researched pressure point Arthur first and then you did it. He said this not in a playful way as Hughes suggested, but rather to create maximum pain and minimal injury.
Arthur’s maternal grandmother, Madeleine Halcrow, said Arthur loved nothing more than to play outside. In a so-called ‘punishing program’, Arthur was required to be in a blanket for several days in the heatwave. He also had to remain in an isolated hallway for up 15 hours per day during that time.
This little boy loved food, and was happy to have his meals. He died after being starved, and then forced to consume a deadly salt slurry. The bullies were seen shouting at Arthur from the corridor, while they enjoyed fish and chips, and McDonald’s, with Tustin’s kids.
They ‘denigrated and dehumanized him’. Arthur was made a miserable, sad, skinny, weak, unhappy child by the pair.
Arthur died in his final hours. The footage showed him grimacing with pain, his thin frame visible through his worn pyjamas. He shouted “no one loves” four times and then “no one is going for me” seven times. This was in just 44 seconds.
Hughes even cut the favorite Birmingham City shirt of the boy in one of his bizarre punishments.
She tried to hang herself from prison by taking an overdose, and was later discovered she was already attacked inside jail with salt.
Arthur was poisoned by salt hours prior to his death. A postmortem examination revealed that he had sustained about 130 injuries.
Two counts of child cruelty were admitted by Tustin during the horrendous trial in Coventry. She assaulted the boy three times and made him stand or sit in her hallway up to 14 hours per day. This was part of a behavioural program.
She made 200 recordings of Arthur crying, moaning, and pleading guilty to sending them to Hughes to show his ‘naughty’ behavior while he was away.
Some of the extracts were played before the court. One in which the boy says ‘no one loves me’ and another where he says ‘nobody’s going to feed me’.
Hughes had testified to Tustin’s mental abuse and that he ‘gaslighted him’ into following the discipline regime. However, he also admitted lying about it to the school staff, who were monitoring Arthur’s progress at the time of the Covid lockdown.
Tustin has admitted being cruel to Arthur in certain instances and was pregnant at that time with Hughes’ unborn child. Tustin has stated she is ‘disgusted’ and embarrassed by the admissions.
However, she claimed Arthur’s fatal head injury had been caused by Arthur throwing himself down the hallway staircase. She also described hearing a “bang” and a “crack”.