Arthur Labinjo-Hughes: Stepmum 'blamed boy for relationship troubles'

The court previously heard Arthur Labinjo-Hughes appeared to be drained and weak on the days before he died

A stepmother accused of abusing and murdering a six-year-old boy said she blamed the child for her troubled relationship with his father.

Arthur Labinjo-Hughes died after allegedly being poisoned with salt and enduring months of "cruel" punishment.

The boy died of an unsurvivable brain injury in Solihull on 17 June 2020.

Emma Tustin, 32, and the boy's father Thomas Hughes, 29, deny murder and multiple child cruelty charges at Coventry Crown Court.

Giving evidence, Ms Tustin denied poisoning Arthur, claiming he stopped eating voluntarily by the first week of June, but said she was "ashamed" of her behaviour towards the child.

She is accused of carrying out the fatal assault on the boy at her home in Cranmore Road, Solihull, before photographing him as he lay dying in the hallway.

'Disgusting' language

Ms Tustin, who has admitted one count of child cruelty but denies two other similar charges, said Arthur loved her "straight away" after she met his father in 2019.

But after they moved in together in March 2020, the boy's behaviour changed and by May she "couldn't cope" with the atmosphere between her, Mr Hughes and Arthur, she said.

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She said: "Arthur, because of the way that he was behaving, obviously triggered Tom to get angry, so because of how Arthur was behaving, Tom was taking that out on me."

She admitted language she used in text messages to describe the boy was "disgusting" and it was "unacceptable" that from the end of May 2020, Arthur spent the majority of the time on the "thinking step" in hallway.

"Looking back now with the evidence there is, it was unacceptable and I can't imagine how he was feeling," she said.

"He just wanted attention... at this point I had given up on Arthur."

She also told jurors "the poor child was just angry and frustrated" and was isolated with no-one to speak to "and when he was being spoken to it was abuse and there's nothing I can say that makes it any better."

Ms Tustin made made several claims her partner physically abused Arthur by "head-butting", "smacking" and "ramming him" into the front door and that Arthur hit himself on one occasion.

The trial continues.