Arthur Labinjo-Hughes: Review of his death 'owes it to him'

Arthur was killed by his father and stepmother after social workers found "no safeguarding concerns"

Authorities owe it to Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and all children to review events leading up to his killing, the crime and policing minister Kit Malthouse has said.

The stepmother and father of the tortured, poisoned schoolboy were jailed on Friday for murder and manslaughter respectively.

The government has confirmed a national review into Arthur's death.

Mr Malthouse urged public patience amid "understandable" anger.

The National Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel will lead the investigation and will provide additional support to Solihull Children's Safeguarding Partnership to "upgrade" the existing local review launched shortly after Arthur's death in June 2020.

It emerged during the trial he had been seen by social workers just two months before he died, but they concluded there were "no safeguarding concerns".

Mr Malthouse told the BBC: "There are broadly two inquiries, the first inquiry will look very carefully at what actually happened in this truly appalling case."

He said the second would be a "wider review" looking at systems across the whole of the country "to try and examine whether there are lessons that can be learned for the system more generally to try and prevent these type of awful cases in the future".

He added he "found it hard to read about what actually happened".

Kit Malthouse said he understood people's anger about the case

Emma Tustin was jailed for 29 years and Arthur's father, Thomas Hughes, for 21. The pair were also convicted of various child cruelty offences.

Their sentences are set to be reviewed by the Attorney General's Office.

The trial heard Arthur had been poisoned with salt by Tustin and subjected to regular beatings by both adults. He was also given punishments such as being denied food and drink and being made to stand for hours alone in a hallway.

Tustin delivered a fatal head injury to Arthur while in her sole care.

• What happened to Arthur Labinjo-Hughes?

• Arthur Labinjo-Hughes: A life cut short by cruelty

Mr Malthouse said it was so far unclear "whether there were just individual failings by human beings, or whether there was a systemic fail".

He said: "This was an incredibly horrible case we must examine it in detail - we have to learn."

Emma Tustin was convicted of Arthur's murder while his father, Thomas Hughes, was found guilty of his manslaughter

"I understand people's anger about this case and I understand their demand for answers quickly," the minister said, adding: "But we owe it to him actually, and to all those children out there, to carefully piece together the lessons that we can learn from this and then put them into action as swiftly as we can after we've learned the lessons."

Education secretary Nadhim Zahawi is due to make a statement to the Commons on Monday afternoon regarding the case.

On Sunday, hundreds of people gathered on Cranmore Road, Solihull - the home of Tustin, and where Arthur was fatally injured - to pay their respects to him.

If you have been affected by the issues raised in this article, help and support is available via BBC Action Line.