Arthur Labinjo-Hughes: 'Bullying' couple 'poisoned' boy, 6, with salt - BBC News

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A "bullying" father and stepmother "poisoned" a six-year-old boy with salt and exposed him to months of "cruel" abuse, a court has heard.

Thomas Hughes and his girlfriend Emma Tustin are jointly accused of murdering Arthur Labinjo-Hughes at her home in Shirley, Solihull, on 17 June 2020.

Prosecutors said his head was "banged repeatedly against a hard surface" causing an "unsurvivable brain injury".

The couple are also accused of multiple counts of child cruelty.

It is alleged Ms Tustin, 32, of Cranmore Road, carried out the fatal assault while in sole care of Arthur and fetched her mobile phone immediately afterwards to take a photograph of the youngster as he lay dying in the hallway.

Prosecutors said despite having her phone, she took 12 minutes to call 999, telling medics Arthur "fell and banged his head and while on the floor banged his head another five times".

Jonas Hankin QC, for the prosecution, told jurors at Coventry Crown Court that Ms Tustin's account included the suggestion "Arthur had headbutted her during the incident" and had treated the couple badly.

Mr Hughes, 29, of Stroud Road, and Ms Tustin allegedly forced Arthur to endure "systematic, cruel behaviour", both "physical and psychological" in the weeks before he died.

One witness said the previously happy and healthy boy looked "as though he were broken" on the day of his death.

The same witness said that when Arthur "secretly" asked him for a drink of water, while Mr Hughes and Ms Tustin were out of the room, "he had to hold [the glass] to Arthur's mouth" because he was "too weak to hold it himself".

Opening the case on Thursday, Mr Hankin said: "His clothes looked dirty, his lips cracked, he could barely open his mouth to speak, his hair was dirty, his nails were dirty and he looked malnourished, gaunt and worn-out."

Arthur was "segregated and isolated" for "up to 14 hours a day", the court was told, often made to stay on the step next to the hallway by the front door, and prevented from having food and drink.

Mr Hankin said the evidence indicated Arthur was isolated and "physically and verbally abused", while access to food and drink were "controlled or restricted".

He told the jury "Arthur was made to sleep on the living room floor" at Ms Tustin's home in Solihull and after his death, "a duvet was found in a cupboard under the stairs".

'Put him out with the rubbish'

The jury was told medical evidence revealed the boy died from "head trauma inflicted on him by an adult" and the most likely cause was that he had been "vigorously shaken and his head banged repeatedly against a hard surface".

Notes from hospital doctors who treated him after his collapse revealed he had also been "poisoned with salt" and had suffered extensive bruising.

Ms Tustin took pictures and recorded audio clips and videos of Arthur being punished, sending them to Mr Hughes, jurors were told.

On 6 May 2020, Mr Hughes texted Ms Tustin, telling her: "Tell him not to move a muscle - put him by the fridge, put him outside or wherever, give him away.

"Put him out with the rubbish."

The prosecutor said Ms Tustin recorded more than 200 audio files of Arthur in "various stages of distress".

In some of the recordings he was heard saying: "Please help me, help me uncle, they're not feeding me, I need some food and a drink."

The court was told that in June last year, Mr Hughes told a neighbour: "If you hear anyone saying 'don't kill me', ignore it, I'm not hurting him."

Mr Hankin said emergency services were called to reports Arthur had "sustained a self-inflicted head injury at his stepmother's home address", with paramedics noting a "large bruise" on his forehead.

He suffered a cardiac arrest, but medics got his heart beating and rushed him to Birmingham Children's Hospital.

His head injuries were said to be unsurvivable and Arthur died shortly before 01:00 BST on 17 June.

• Latest updates from the West Midlands

The jury was told that Arthur had been in the sole care of his father after his natural mother, Olivia Labinjo, was convicted of a killing in February 2019.

On the first day of the trial, Ms Tustin admitted child cruelty by ill-treating, while Mr Hughes denies a similar charge. They each deny murder.

The pair also face an allegation of child cruelty by administering salt to Arthur between 1 and 17 June last year.

Both are also accused of two counts of child cruelty by assault on multiple occasions and also by withholding food and/or drink.

The trial continues.

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2021-10-07 16:11:57Z
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Brexit: New NI Protocol proposals to be brought by EU - BBC News

The EU will bring forward new proposals for the Northern Ireland Protocol next week, European Commission Vice President Maros Šefčovič has said.

He said he hopes they would form the basis for intensive talks with the UK.

The protocol avoids a hard border on the island of Ireland by keeping Northern Ireland in the EU's single market for goods.

But unionists argue it creates a trade border between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

They say it undermines Northern Ireland's constitutional position as part of the UK.

• What is the Northern Ireland Protocol?
• Boris Johnson says NI Protocol could work if it was 'fixed'

Mr Šefčovič told an event in Dublin that he hoped talks would begin before the end of October.

He said his proposals would be "very far reaching" and that he hoped they would be seen as such.

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) - Northern Ireland's largest unionist party - had warned that it may quit Stormont if its demands over the protocol were not met.

Peter Morrison

Mr Šefčovič said the EU was going to "enormous lengths".

"I believe the package of practical solutions that we are putting on the table would be attractive for Northern Ireland and would be, I hope, supported by a majority of stakeholders in Northern Ireland," he told the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA) in Dublin.

He said the commitment of the EU to the Good Friday Agreement was "absolute" and that the avoidance of a hard border on the island was a "prerequisite".

Earlier this week UK Brexit Minister Lord Frost said he was expecting a short, intense negotiation with the EU.

He told the Conservative party conference that the protocol was "not working and needs to change".

In July, Lord Frost put forward radical proposals for changes to the protocol.

Triggering Article 16, which would suspend part of the deal, may end up as "the only way" forward, he warned.

• What is Article 16 and what exactly does it say?

Mr Šefčovič said threats to trigger Article 16 were not helpful.

He said his proposals were not presented on a "take it or leave it" basis and that both the UK and EU would need to get out of their comfort zones.

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2021-10-07 10:08:44Z
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Gofundme started for MP who spoke of tragedy of £82,000 a year salary - Metro.co.uk

Sir Peter Bottomley hit the headlines yesterday for speaking out about the ‘grim reality’ of MPs’ pay (Picture: UK Parliament / GoFundMe / JustGiving)

The British public has taken pity on a hard-done-by MP and set up fundraising pages after he revealed the struggles of getting by on his generous annual salary.

Sir Peter Bottomley, the ‘Father of the House’ as the MP in the Commons with the longest continuous service, hit headlines yesterday after saying parliamentarians should be given a pay rise.

He thinks MPs, who are paid £81,932 annually, should be paid the same amount as GPs – whose average salary in England is £100,700. The average salary across the UK was £31,461, as of last year.

His comments in the New Statesman came on the day Universal Credit was cut by £20 a week for the country’s most vulnerable people.

Although Sir Peter said he currently is not struggling financially, he believes the situation is ‘desperately difficult’ for his newer colleagues.

The representative, for Worthing West in West Sussex, added: ‘I don’t know how they manage. It’s really grim.’

The MP was taken to task and ridiculed online, with social media users saying he needed to ‘get a grip’ with reality.

Many pointed out his salary does not include an MP’s generous expenses allowance, and others suggested if he had his wages cut by the equivalent of the Universal Credit cuts he would lose out on more than £17,000 a year.

Sir Peter, pictured here with his wife Baroness Virginia Bottomley, has been ridiculed on social media for his comments (Picture: PA)

Satirical website The Poke suggested his comments sparked ‘panic-buying of tiny violins’.

Others, ironically referencing Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party conference keynote speech yesterday, suggested Sir Peter ‘level up’ and get a better-paid job.

But some people took it even further and suggested Brits do a ‘whip round’ for the MP.

One JustGiving page pleads: ‘Please help feed struggling Sir Peter Bottomley!’

The proceeds are going to The Trussell Trust – a charity working to end the need for food banks in the UK.

It said: ‘In light of Sir Peter Bottomley making the stark revelation yesterday that he finds it incredibly hard to live on his MPs salary of £82,000 a year, I’ve decided to try and raise some money so that he and others that are so in need of financial support to feed themselves and their families don’t go hungry.

‘My heart quite honestly bled for him when I heard of the struggles of him and his colleagues, on the same day that they implemented a £20 cut to Universal Credit, affecting hundreds of thousands of families across the UK.

One JustGiving page pleads: ‘Please help feed struggling Sir Peter Bottomley!’ (Picture: JustGiving)

Another fundraising page is called ‘support struggling Tories’ (Picture: GoFundMe)

‘I’m sure with the struggles these MPs are experiencing themselves, they must rely heavily on The Trussell Trust and the other charities that offer similar services to those facing hardship.

‘We should take it as an absolute blessing that these food banks exist under the Government of a well-developed country, who due to their careful and diligent spending throughout Covid and Brexit have made these services more necessary and critical than ever.’

Another GoFundMe page with the title ‘support struggling Tories’ is raising £20,000 for food banks – the amount which would make up the difference between an MP’s salary and the average annual wage of a GP.

Simon Harris, who launched the page, wrote: ‘I am raising £20,000 for the Tory MP Sir Peter Bottomley who has courageously admitted that he is “struggling” on the current MP’s salary of £80,000 per year.

More: Politics

‘This amount will bring his pay in line with a GP, as he has pointed out in the media.

‘Personally I think that the £20 Universal Credit uplift funding should be immediately redirected to MP’s like Sir Peter who are clearly in dire straits, and I will even present him with a giant novelty cheque when we reach the total. 

‘The fact that some of these people could be forced to switch from Waitrose to Sainsbury’s has forced my hand – it’s time to step up and help those who are genuinely in need.

‘Or I’ll just give the money to food banks because that’s where a lot of these WORKING Universal Credit claimants are going to end up, and I don’t have the empathy level of a service station pasty.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

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2021-10-07 09:25:00Z
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Single father 'can't afford fuel' for school run without Universal Credit uplift - ITV News

ITV News Correspondent Ben Chapman meets one of the families rocked by the end to the Universal Credit uplift

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A single father of two has said that he may be forced to take his children out of school because he won't be able to afford the fuel to take them there without the Universal Credit uplift.

Tony Bridgwood from Stoke-on-Trent has been receiving an extra £86 a month during the pandemic to help cover rising costs, and will now lose 20% of his income.

The 59-year-old gave up working as a utilities engineer when he took sole custody of 9-year-old twins Byron and Brandon in 2018.

After earning, at times, up to £4,000 a month, he was no longer able to work and look after his children.

He couldn't keep up with his mortgage payments and was forced to sell his house and his car. Now he has to survive on a quarter of that money, and is reliant on food banks to help feed his family.

"Sometimes I don't eat, I know some people will find that hard to believe, but I just have what the boys leave behind."

---

Tony explains the choices he is forced to make to be able to afford to live

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The Universal Credit uplift has been a lifeline for Tony and millions of others like him.

As of Wednesday, the £20 extra per week  - a temporary measure brought in to help people on lower incomes during the coronavirus pandemic - has officially been withdrawn.

It's the biggest ever overnight cut to social security, with 5.5 million people across the UK seeing their Universal Credit (UC) payments cut by £1,040 per year.

It means families like Tony's now have to face difficult decisions about what they can go without.

"£20 a week might not sound like a lot, but it gets my children to school and puts extra food on the table and I don't think Mr Johnson has taken that into account."

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What does the extra cash each week mean for families?

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Without the uplift now, Tony is worried that he won't be able to afford the fuel to take his children to school and has started taking steps to home school his boys.

With furlough coming to an end last month, and with energy, food and petrol prices rising, charities have raised concerns that the cut will have a devastating impact on families.

Tony says the withdrawal has caused him anxiety and he doesn't understand why the payment has been taken away when there's a clear need for it, especially with rising energy costs.

"I am worried and anxious because these companies are not going to say we'll make an exception. Where's that money coming from? How am I supposed to get that money?"

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Tony doesn't know how he'll make up the difference without the uplift

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A government spokesperson said: “We’ve always been clear that the uplift to Universal Credit was temporary.

“It was designed to help claimants through the economic shock and financial disruption of the toughest stages of the pandemic, and it has done so.

“Universal Credit will continue to provide vital support for those both in and out of work and it’s right that the government should focus on our Plan for Jobs, supporting people back into work and supporting those already employed to progress and earn more”.

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2021-10-06 21:44:56Z
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Labour accuses Boris Johnson of recycling teacher payment scheme - BBC News

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Labour has accused Boris Johnson of announcing a "less generous recycling" of a scheme aimed at luring more maths and science teachers to deprived areas.

In his Conservative Party conference speech, the PM said the "best" staff would get £3,000 tax-free salary boost from the "levelling up premium".

But Labour said this effectively meant a return to recently scrapped early-career payments for teachers.

These were worth up to £7,500 in areas of England with high educational needs.

• Johnson vows to get on with job of rebuilding UK
• Teachers to be offered cash to stay in school
• What is levelling up and how is it going?

In his conference speech in Manchester, Mr Johnson promised the government would work to bring better jobs and pay to all areas.

But he argued that, for this to happen, educational opportunities had to be spread more evenly.

Mr Johnson said: "There is absolutely no reason why the kids of this country should lag behind and why so many should be unable to read or write or do basic mathematics at 11."

He added that "to level up you need to give people the options, the skills that are right for them, and to make the most of those skills and knowledge you need urgently to plug all the other gaps in the infrastructure that are still holding people and communities back".

"We are announcing a levelling up premium of up to £3,000 to send the best maths and science teachers to the places that need them most," Mr Johnson also said.

Under the new scheme, teachers in the first five years of their careers will be able to get the payments if their specialist subject is maths, physics, chemistry or computing.

Downing Street said this would cost £60m over three years, with the money coming from new funding, and would support staff recruitment and retention.

'Late in day'

Early-career payments, which initially applied only to maths teachers, were introduced in England in 2018-19.

Given to those in their third and fifth years in the job, they amounted to £5,000, or £7,500 in areas with high educational needs.

In 2020-21, the scheme expanded to include - with lower payments - maths, physics, chemistry and foreign languages teachers starting postgraduate teacher training.

But the scheme was scrapped for those starting training in the 2021-22 academic year.

For Labour, shadow education secretary Kate Green said: "The Conservatives have no idea how to improve education and outcomes for young people. The premium announced today is a less generous recycling of an old policy that Boris Johnson's government scrapped just a year ago.

"Under the Conservatives, teacher vacancies have more than doubled, school funding will be lower in real terms next year than it was in 2010 and the promised £30,000 teacher starting salary has still not been delivered."

Natalie Perera, chief executive of the Education Policy Institute, called Mr Johnson's announcement that the government was reinstating targeted payments to get teachers into challenging areas a "welcome move - albeit one that has come late in the day".

Sam Freedman, a former adviser at the Department for Education, told BBC Radio 4's the World at One: "It is a policy that existed, was introduced in 2018, lasted a couple of years and then was scrapped.

"So this is actually a kind of U-turn and they are bringing it back in a slightly tweaked form, which is certainly welcome because we have a serious recruitment problem and retention problem with teachers that this may do a small amount to help with, but it is not a new policy."

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2021-10-06 20:38:40Z
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French fishermen threaten to block exports to UK in run-up to Christmas as tensions rise over fishing rights - Sky News

French fishermen have threatened to blockade the port of Calais and cut off Christmas supplies in a post-Brexit fishing row.

They claim they have been "deceived" by the British government over fishing licence applications and have called on the European Commission to take "retaliatory measures".

The president of the fishing committee for the northern Hauts-de-France region, Olivier Lepretre, said blocking the port in Calais and exports into the United Kingdom is "an option".

Image: Just 31 out of a possible 70 licences for French vessels have been granted granted access to operate in the UK's exclusive economic zone. Pic: Michael Bewley

"As far as French fishermen in northern France are concerned, in the absence of any results, the blocking of the port of Calais and exports to the United Kingdom for the period leading up to Christmas is an option," he said.

Mr Lepretre met with France's Minister of the Sea, Annick Girardin, last week to discuss fishing licences granted to French fishermen by the UK government.

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Overall, in Hauts-de-France, 31 out of a possible 70 eligible vessels have been granted permission to operate in British waters, the committee said, describing it as "an unacceptable decision condemned by the entire profession".

"UK authorities are refusing to grant full licences due to evidence deemed insufficient," it said.

More on Brexit

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"The work has been however meticulously done by the French side and fishermen believe they have been deceived by the British government."

France has once again threatened to cut off energy supplies to the UK, if the terms of the Brexit deal aren't met.

Image: France's Europe minister Clement Beaune said the agreement should be implemented fully or France will 'exert pressure on the UK'

Clement Beaune, the country's Europe minister, said the agreement had to be "implemented fully" and - should it not be - then "we will take European or national measures to exert pressure on the UK".

Asked what actions could be taken, Mr Beaune pointed to both UK exports to France and European energy exports to the UK.

"The UK depends on our energy exports, they think they can live alone while also beating up on Europe and, given that it doesn't work, they engage in aggressive one-upmanship," he added.

His comments came after Paris became angered by a series of application rejections to fish in British waters.

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The government in London announced last month it had approved just 12 of the 47 applications it received from French small boats.

That fury was further stoked in a later announcement by the Jersey government that of 170 licence applications it had received from French boats, 75 had been rejected.

Earlier this year, the French government made similar threats of "retaliatory measures" as part of a fishing dispute with Jersey.

It included a threat that it could cut off electricity to the British Crown Dependency, which receives 95% of its electricity from France through three undersea cables.

Image: Britain's Minister of State Lord David Frost said it is 'unreasonable' to suggest the UK was acting in bad faith

But on Monday, Brexit Minister Lord David Frost hit back at the French government's energy warning, arguing it was "unreasonable" to suggest the UK was acting in bad faith when it came to allocating post-Brexit fishing licences to French boats.

He said London had been "extremely generous" to European Union requests and he questioned why the EU "resorts to threats quite quickly".

"For all the frustrations of the last 18 months, and particularly since January, I don't think we as a country have resorted to those sort of threats," he told a fringe event at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester.

"We have granted 98% of the licence applications from EU boats to fish in our waters according to the different criteria in the Trade and Co-operation Agreement, so we do not accept that we are not abiding by that agreement.

"We have been extremely generous and the French, focusing in on a small category of boats and claiming we have behaved unreasonably, I think is not really a fair reflection of the efforts we have made."

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2021-10-06 07:10:10Z
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Sarah Everard vigil: Police officers contacted arrested woman on Tinder - BBC News

Reuters

A woman who was pictured being arrested at the Sarah Everard vigil has said "about 50" police officers have since contacted her via a dating app, leaving her "terrified".

Patsy Stevenson, 28, said the officers approached her on Tinder after she was handcuffed at the vigil on 13 March.

She said they knew she was "fearful of police" and had done it "for a reason".

The Met said its officers "must abide by our high standards of professional behaviour, both on and off duty".

Hundreds attended the vigil on Clapham Common in south London following the death of Ms Everard, who was murdered by Met Police officer Wayne Couzens after he abducted her while she was walking home.

The event had been cancelled after the Met said it would be illegal under lockdown restrictions.

Ms Stevenson said the event was "a turning point", where "everyone realised we actually we all go through the same things", but the "sombre atmosphere... turned very scary very quickly" after police started trying to disperse the crowd.

She was handcuffed and held down by two officers, and was also issued with a £200 fine.

She has since launched legal action against the Met Police over the arrest.

'Death threats'

She said that since the arrest, "about 50" police officers had approached her via the dating app.

"They were all in uniform on their profiles or it said 'I'm a police officer'," she said.

"I do not understand why someone would do that.

"It is almost like an intimidation thing, saying 'look we can see you', and that, to me, is terrifying.

"They know what I went through and they know that I'm fearful of police and they've done that for a reason."

Ms Stevenson said she had also become the focus of internet conspiracies since her arrest and "can't count the amount of death threats I've had".

She said people had claimed she was a "crisis actor" paid to attend the vigil and get arrested to legitimise attacks on the police.

She added that many of the threats had been about kidnapping her.

"Now there's always that fear when I'm out and I see someone staring at me," she said.

"I just want to be able to live the way you live without fear.

"But then again, I'm a woman."

Everard family

Ms Stevenson said she was not "anti-police" and had reported the threats, which are being investigated, though had not reported the dating app contacts.

She said the police needed to start "taking accountability" for officers' actions and the Met's advice that women should flag down a bus if they have concerns when stopped by an officer was "part of the problem".

"Stop telling women how to change their behaviour just to stay alive," she said.

"If they started looking into it properly and... listening to people's concerns and then enacting change, we would be able to trust them more."

The Met said Ms Stevenson should "please contact us and provide us with more information so we can work to establish if any MPS officer is involved [and] whether any misconduct may have occurred.

Met Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick, who has rejected calls to resign, confirmed on Monday there would be an independent review into the force's standards and culture and Home Secretary Priti Patel also said an inquiry into the "systematic failures" that allowed Wayne Couzens to continue to be a police officer would be launched.

Analysis

By Lauren Moss, BBC London Home Affairs Correspondent

The death threats and abuse Patsy Stevenson says she's received come at a time when scrutiny on the treatment of women is higher than ever - not just by the police, but by society in general.

The photos of her being arrested at the vigil caused shock across the country and while a police watchdog found officers acted appropriately in what the Met called an "extraordinarily challenging circumstance", Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary did say public confidence in the force had suffered as a result.

The inquiry into how killer Wayne Couzens was able to be a serving police officer and a review into culture within the force may go some way to reassuring people that all in authority believe such appalling crimes must never be allowed to happen again, but it goes far beyond that.

Women like Patsy say they need to see action, not only hear words.

Patsy's death threats prove it's not just the streets that need to be safer, but the social media platforms many people use every day and that is an even wider issue that goes far beyond policing.

Related Internet Links

• Metropolitan Police

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2021-10-05 20:45:28Z
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