Arthur Labinjo-Hughes: Emma Tustin and Thomas Hughes sentences appealed

Emma Tustin and Thomas Hughes are appealing against their jail terms which are also being challenged as being unduly lenient

The stepmother jailed for murdering Arthur Labinjo-Hughes should be given a whole-life order, a sentencing review at the Court of Appeal has heard.

Emma Tustin was jailed for at least 29 years and Arthur's father Thomas Hughes got 21 years for manslaughter.

The pair are appealing against their jail terms which are also being challenged as being unduly lenient.

The six-year-old suffered an unsurvivable brain injury while in the care of Tustin at her home in Solihull.

The couple's trial at Coventry Crown Court in December heard Arthur had been poisoned with salt, subjected to regular beatings, denied food and drink and made to stand for hours alone in the hallway of Tustin's house.

He died in June 2020.

At the Court of Appeal on Wednesday, Tom Little QC, representing the Attorney General's Office (AGO), said Tustin's case "merited at the very least consideration of a whole-life order".

"This was, we accept, not a straightforward sentencing exercise. The trial was plainly a harrowing one for all concerned," he said.

Arthur was "subjected to the most unimaginable suffering", he said, adding: "This was an extremely serious example of child murder against the background of that cruelty."

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In written submissions, Mr Little said the trial judge Mr Justice Wall failed to properly consider whether Tustin's offences were so serious they required a whole-life order.

He said the murder was "sadistically motivated" and even if it was not, her offending as a whole was "so exceptionally serious" that it was open to the judge to impose a whole-life order.

Arthur Labinjo-Hughes died in June 2020 after months of abuse

The 30-year starting point for her sentence should have been significantly increased, he wrote.

Mary Prior QC, acting for Tustin, said the sentencing judge took a "fair and proper approach in this very difficult case" and the "toxicity of the relationship" between the couple created a scenario where they both abused Arthur.

"At the very least, Thomas Hughes was encouraging Emma Tustin to be cruel, to assault and to ill-treat his son," she added.

Bernard Richmond QC, representing Hughes, argued that the judge fell into error and was almost "treble counting" when calculating his sentence.

The hearing concluded on Wednesday and the judgement was reserved.