ARTHUR Labinjo-Hughes’ dad has had his manslaughter sentence increased.
Thomas Hughes was handed a 21 year sentence for his part in the six-year-old’s death and his partner Emma Tustin was jailed for at least 29 years for Arthur’s murder at Coventry Crown Court.
Court of Appeal judges have increased Hughes’ sentence to 24 years.
But they declined to increase Tustin’s sentence of life imprisonment.
This came after reviewed after the Attorney General, Suella Braverman QC referred the cases to the Court of Appeal under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme.
Speaking after the hearing, Ms Braverman said: “My thoughts are with all those who loved Arthur Labinjo-Hughes.
“This barbaric crime has shocked and angered the nation, and I am glad that the Court has agreed that Thomas Hughes should serve a longer prison term to reflect this.
“Although no sentence can ever repair the damage that his and Emma Tustin’s actions have caused, I am glad to have sought a review of these sentences and welcome the Court’s review of this extremely serious case of child homicide.”
Arthur died from a brain injury inflicted by Tustin at her Cranmore Road home in Shirley in June 2020.
Police pieced together the events after trawling through hours of CCTV from inside the home and studying hundreds of messages, videos, audio files and photos on Tustin’s and Hughes’ mobile phones.
This included a message from Hughes to Tustin saying “Just end him.”
During the trial at Coventry Crown Court harrowing videos were shown of Arthur being forced to sleep on the floor, stand in isolation for hours at a time, being sworn at and calling out no one loves him.
Arthur and Hughes moved in with Tustin at the start of lockdown in March 2020.
After Arthur’s death a neighbour told police she’d seen Arthur in February he’d seemed healthy, but by June he appeared physically weak, struggling to stand and he had difficulty in climbing stairs.
Tustin and Hughes, who were also convicted of child cruelty, had made Arthur stand in isolation for 14 hours at a time and had also deprived him of food and water and poisoned him with salt.
During the trial the court heard how Tustin and Hughes also lied about his welfare to the school and misled social services.
Since the conviction a Joint Targeted Area Inspection, which was launched by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Nadhim Zahawi, in his role as Education Secretary, has taken place.
It looked into how organisations work together to protect young people in the borough from harm.
While the inspection hasn’t looked into the circumstances of Arthur’s death specifically, it found a number of improvements were needed from those providing local services.
