Thomas Hughes and Emma Tustin were also convicted of child cruelty charges
A father and his partner have been found guilty of killing six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes who was tortured, starved, and neglected.
Arthur eventually died of a head injury in June 2020 while in the care of his stepmother.
On Wednesday, Emma Tustin, 32, was found guilty of murder and Thomas Hughes,29, was found guilty of manslaughter, the BBC reported. The pair were also convicted of child cruelty charges at the Coventry Crown Court.
Arthur was living with his father and Tustin in Solihull, West Midlands, after his mother was jailed for murder.
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During the trial, distressing audio was played of Arthur crying saying, “nobody loves me” and and “no-one is going to feed me”, along with footage showing the final hours of the youngster’s life.
CCTV video, from the morning of June 16, showed him struggling to carry a duvet after being forced to sleep in the living room for the fifth day in a row.
The schoolboy was killed as a result of having his head banged “repeatedly against a hard surface” at the hands of Tustin, the court was told, and died on June 17.
A court heard Arthur had endured a campaign of cruelty that amounted to the “medical definition of child torture”.
This included being deprived of food, made to stand for 14 hours a day, and poisoned with salt.
Arthur’s uncle Blake Hughes told the court last month that the youngster broke out in tears after claiming that Tustin had 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,” he said.
Jurors were told how Tustin would send Hughes voice notes of Arthur crying whenever he left the house.
Hughes would reply with messages such as “dig Arthur’s grave”, “I’ll take his neck off”, and the “kid is getting it when I get back”.
He also sent texts saying that he would take his “c*”ting jaw off his shoulders” and told his partner “put him out with the rubbish”.
Hughes admitted he would also use “pressure points on Arthur’s neck to discipline him” after seeing videos about police brutality in the US online. He said he would use these pressure points for “about 10 to 15 seconds”.
