Just moments before his tragic death, the 6-year-old boy cried, “No one loves me…No one’s gonna feed me.” The six-year-old boy’s plight was only revealed recently when it was far too late. The distressing audio of the young child was played during the trial of his dad and his dad’s girlfriend. The 32-year-old woman was sentenced to life in prison and must serve a minimum of 29 years behind bars before being eligible for parole. The boy’s father was sentenced to 21 years in prison after being convicted of the manslaughter of his son. Both defendants were convicted on Friday, Dec. 3.
Although the couple, Thomas Hughes and Emma Tustin, denied having killed the boy, the jury revealed that the 6-year-old boy, Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, died of brain injury on June 17, 2020, after collapsing at Tustin’s home in UK, while they were alone, according to reports.
The court heard the harrowing campaign of cruelty that the boy was subjected to in the months that led to his untimely death. It is alleged that 29-year-old Hughes and 32-year-old Tustin forcefully fed the child salt-laced meals, kept him isolated at home, starved, and dehydrated him.
Arthur was also subjected to routine beatings. At the time of his death, Tustin claimed that Arthur’s head injury was self-inflicted and that he sustained it by possibly throwing himself down the staircase in the hallway, a place where he had to spend 12 to 14 hours a day as a part of the couple’s startling behavioral regime, according to reports.
Tustin has accepted recording over 200 audio files every time Arthur was punished. She told that the court that the audiotapes were a way to show her partner how his son had been behaving. Two of these heartwrenching audio files have now been made public. In one of them, the young boy can be heard saying, “no-one loves me” and repeating the phrase four times in a 23-second time frame. In the second, 44-second clip, he cries, “no-one’s gonna feed me,” seven times. The internal CCTV camera also captured the frail stature of Arthur in a video that was recorded hours before he collapsed.
The footage, which was also released by the police, shows the six-year-old struggling to even pick up and put away his pillow and blanket after waking up around 8:36 a.m. What’s worse, the child did not even have his own bed and would sleep on the lounge floor without a mattress. Clearly, he suffered a great deal even towards the end of his end but Hughes and Tustin continue to maintain that they didn’t cause his death despite it being revealed that Arthur had 130 injuries all over his body, both fresh and old ones.
The child’s uncle, Blake Hughes, told the court last month that the youngster broke out in tears after telling him how Tustin pushed him against a wall and branded him ugly. “He said his mum didn’t love him and had abandoned him. He then started to break out crying. He went on to say nobody loved him,” Blake shared.
The prosecution alleged that it was Tustin who administered the fatal assault, resulting in the boy’s demise. According to the reports, his head was banged “repeatedly against a hard surface” that ultimately led to his death. During the trial, the court heard that Tustin tried to take her own life during the trial by taking an overdose and attempting to hang herself to avoid facing punishment for murdering Arthur.
The boy’s father is equally held responsible for it as he is accused of aiding the killing. The boy’s father recently admitted using pressure points on the child‘s neck to discipline him after watching videos of police brutality online. He now faced three counts of child cruelty but denied any wrongdoings. As for his girlfriend, she had admitted to one count of child cruelty but continues to deny two other similar charges as well as denies murder.
According to reports, Tustin was sentenced to life in prison and must serve a minimum of 29 years behind bars before being eligible for parole. The boy’s father was sentenced to 21 years in prison after being convicted of the manslaughter of his son. Both defendants were convicted on Friday, Dec. 3.