Hairdresser's testimony at Tustin trial

[FallingStar21]

I know there have been several threads discussing various details around the case.. But having read the complete timeline and hairdresser's testimony, i just absolutely cannot believe that neither she or her partner called the police!
For example, she had been at Tustin's house doing her hair for 4 hours and Arthir made to sit at a table and not move for the entire time. She says she just thought he'd been naughty or something. No alarm bells ringing, really?
Different time she witnessed Arthur made to stand by the door, but not move or lean on the door etc.. Arthur given a sandwich to eat by the door while Tustin eating in the garden with the other kids... No alarm bells.
Witnessing Arthur being shouted at horrible words.
Finally, hairdresser at Tustin's with her (hairdresser's) partner seeing Arthur so frail and by their own accounts "petrified". They know Arthur had been deprived of water, because hairdresser's partner gives him a glass of water in secret... a glass, which Arthur cant even hold up to his mouth (all in their testimony) ...No Alarm bells, no nothing?!
If they were previously unsure whether they needed to do something, that last account couldn't have been more crystal clear.
I know legally it's viewed differently, but IMO these people are almost complicit in this... They too, had the responsibility to protect him once they'd seen what they saw, which was really black and white.
Just cant believe it.

Also...

If we don't know, we can't act.

Had that hairdresser called us the outcome might have been different

@LetHimHaveIt

I think people are grossly underestimating the great swathes of fundamentally inadequate people there are in this country. So bloody depressing. Each generation more stupid and hopeless than the one before. More usually, it's a child murdered by a stepfather with its own mother taking a secondary role, and then the birth father emerges at some point to say how horrific it all is, and you think - 'Well, where were you, pal?' This time, it's the birth mother and we know where she is - fucking prison, serving time for manslaughter. Not exactly a model of rectitude, then. And the wider family equally fucking shit. It's like that fucking horrific case of Suzanne Capper, which you could Google if you have the stomach. There again there was a ringleader, surrounded by a load of fucking inadequate lackeys who could have intervened but didn't because they were variously scared, thick as fuck, or in her thrall. These people don't want to engage with the police or social devices. They won't lift a finger to inconvenience, let alone actually imperil themselves. It'll never end. Never.

This just about sums it up. We’re surrounded by stupid. If natural selection was real, these people’s gene pool would have been wiped out by now. And just to add to the tragedy, the feckless absent mother or father comes out, shedding crocodile tears at times like these. The jailbird mother is has the biggest capability here.

If that was a typo and you meant culpability, she really doesnt. That would be Tustin and his father. The ones who actually killed him.

The jail bird, no she isn't the most culpable at all!!

The dad is.. And tustin but he allowed her in! He was Arthur's gate keeper and protector evil bastard

• the police did know in this case. They were notified a few times and if I read it correctly they said "social services are involved so we are not going to do anything further". Apparently one of the main ways they got involved was to threaten the uncle if he broke lockdown by going round there.

• in terms of the hairdresser, if it was the hairdresser herself who suggested that ET and TH get cctv to "prove their innocence" (just goes to show how thick they were) then they were hardly in the mindframe to then dob them in for child cruelty. ET was sneaking round the hairdressers house - they were clearly thick as theives.

• the main thing which really sticks in my throat is the way Thomas Hughes could have been so cringe worthy cunt struck with ET that he literally was prepared to go along with the cruelty in order to preserve his shag/the roof over his head/ whatever at the expense of his kid. I even read some text exchange where Thomas Hughes said something like (in response to ET saying i only want you not the kid) its both of us or none of us - and she replied "CYB" which i assume is see you bye. But that was not the end of it - just a little argument and nothing changed. Sorry but I actually think TH should have got more than 21 years and closer to what ET got - he was the child's father for goodness sake. At the very very minimum he should have taken Arthur to one of his relatives - ET even asked him to do that (I only want you) and he didn't bother. Unforgiveable.

If natural selection was real these people's gene pool would have been wiped out by now
I thought the paternal grandmother was a secondary school teacher if I'm not mistaken?

She deff should’ve reported it. I bet she will have to live with that guilt forever now. She was probably scared of repercussions and probably didn’t quite trust what she saw / her own response to it. A few years ago I regularly had a neighbours children coming to my house asking for food at strange times of day. One day they said they had to climb out a window to get to me and they couldn’t wake their mum up. I rang SS and Police and turned out she was passed out from drink and the children ended up being taken off her. I feel guilty it took me months to ring.. I didn’t want to interfere and was worried I was over reacting.

@Tevion28

Anybody else think this kid didn't stand a chance beginning with his biological mother

I think his life would have been very different if his dad hadn't met Tustin and had stayed living with his mother. They seemed happy before that.

@Anonymouseposter

If natural selection was real these people's gene pool would have been wiped out by now I thought the paternal grandmother was a secondary school teacher if I'm not mistaken?

Pitty the poor children she taught, if she raised a monster for a son.

@Coffeepot72

If I was a mobile hairdresser I would be reading this with horror. The same goes if I was pet sitter, electrician, cleaner or anyone else who briefly visits a household for work purposes. I doubt you attend a clients home to assess their childcare practices and unless something ridiculously blatant was going on, I doubt you would realise it was significant?

God help us if we start fining or prosecuting people for not realising when something bad is happening

Oh come off it. Unless you were extremely thick it would be obvious that things were very wrong with that family. Child made to stand without moving for hours, not given a drink, hardly had the strength to hold a glass of water!

Also the hairdresser was obviously a friend and don't forget she was the one who told Tustin to fit cctv to prove she wasn't abusing Arthur.

My DH is a plumber and he has said if he saw such an obvious abuse situation he would not hesitate to report.

The woman sent horrific recordings of the child to the father and he said ‘just end him’. According to the guardian.
Is it true that fellow prisoners are not very nice to people like this? And will these people be recognizable in prison for what they have done?

@Coffeepot72

I doubt you attend a clients home to assess their childcare practices and unless something ridiculously blatant was going on, I doubt you would realise it was significant?

The hairdressers boyfriend had to 'sneak' a cup of water to Arthur and said he was too weak to even hold it. And that he was wearing a fleecy onesie in hot weather. This was 'ridiculously blatant',

@sst1234

The woman sent horrific recordings of the child to the father and he said ‘just end him’. According to the guardian. Is it true that fellow prisoners are not very nice to people like this? And will these people be recognizable in prison for what they have done?

She has already had her food laced with salt by fellow inmates and been targeted in other ways in prison apparently. She'll not be making many friends in there.

"I think his life would have been very different if his dad hadn't met Tustin and had stayed living with his mother. They seemed happy before that."

His life would have been very different if his father had had enough of a backbone to think "I want this woman but she does not need to be the "step mother" (hahha) of my child". Emma Tustin wanted attention and the irony is Thomas Hughes seemed to have a wider family who would have looked after Arthur whilst he was under Emma Tustin's spell.

The fact Arthur's mother was not there should automatically and with no question be a social services massive red flag (she was in prison for murder).

The fact his father then was prepared to move in with a woman he met just weeks/months earlier before a national lockdown - that is all on his father. Thomas Hughes should have got a longer sentence.

@bubblesbubbles11

"I think his life would have been very different if his dad hadn't met Tustin and had stayed living with his mother. They seemed happy before that."

His life would have been very different if his father had had enough of a backbone to think "I want this woman but she does not need to be the "step mother" (hahha) of my child". Emma Tustin wanted attention and the irony is Thomas Hughes seemed to have a wider family who would have looked after Arthur whilst he was under Emma Tustin's spell.

The fact Arthur's mother was not there should automatically and with no question be a social services massive red flag (she was in prison for murder).

The fact his father then was prepared to move in with a woman he met just weeks/months earlier before a national lockdown - that is all on his father. Thomas Hughes should have got a longer sentence.

That makes it sound like it was all her. He was also abusing Arthur too of his own free will. I don't believe he was completely manipulated by her. He wasn't under her spell IMO. Maybe in the stress of lockdown he would have done that wherever he was.

cleo

what is this "stress of lockdown"?
I do not know either of TH or ET's exact working status (maybe she was a stay at home mum and maybe he was out of work) but the pictures we have seen are of the two of them eating ice cream, eating macdonalds and lazing in a hot tub in the back garden.
My guess is that TH did not really want to be a father to Arthur so left the "childcare" to ET (even tho she begged him not to) and ignored the fact that ET was not actually giving any kind of child"care" to Arthur.

I still think TH should have had a much higher sentence than 21 years.

Arthur was essentially ETs prisoner. Despite her claiming not to have wanted him he was always left with her, even when her own two DC were off with TH. she took him with her to the hairdresser for 6 hours when TH wasn’t there. The day he was killed he was alone with ET in the house while TH was out with her children. She was his jailer.

@bubblesbubbles11

cleo

what is this "stress of lockdown"?
I do not know either of TH or ET's exact working status (maybe she was a stay at home mum and maybe he was out of work) but the pictures we have seen are of the two of them eating ice cream, eating macdonalds and lazing in a hot tub in the back garden.
My guess is that TH did not really want to be a father to Arthur so left the "childcare" to ET (even tho she begged him not to) and ignored the fact that ET was not actually giving any kind of child"care" to Arthur.

I still think TH should have had a much higher sentence than 21 years.

They don’t exactly look like productive members of society.

MaryAndGerry

Factually that might be correct. However I do not think you can absolve TH of responsibility - he absolutely did know what was going on and my take on it was that he just could not be arsed with (and probably never was arsed with) looking after his son (whose behaviour might have been increasingly challenging understandable in light of the trauma he had been through).

He dumped Arthur on ET and bought into the narrative his son was extremely badly behaved because he could not be bothered with him himself.

TH's sentence should have been higher.

In a naieve moment I almost want the government to issue some kidn of "well of course" type statement - if you are in any way in locus parentis (step mother, girlfriend/boyfriend, primary care giver, temporary care giver etc) it is beholden unto you to treat that child as you would treat your own child (or if you abuse your own child, treat that child in a way which the law deems is not abusive).

I really think there are countless step families out there where the step parent is at best indifferent and at worst downright cruel - so it needs saying at the highest level.

However I do not think you can absolve TH of responsibility

That wasn’t the point of my post at all. I’m not sure how anyone could think that he was absolved of responsibility.

@MaryAndGerryLivingInDerry
That's kind of how I picture it too. Heartbreaking to think that he was held prisoner 24 hours a day for those 3 months. A prisoner denied basic rights, treated in the most degrading, disgusting ways...that lovely 6 year old boy.
The biggest punishment ET and TH could ever get is to live through the exact same hell that they inflicted.

@bubblesbubbles11

cleo

what is this "stress of lockdown"?
I do not know either of TH or ET's exact working status (maybe she was a stay at home mum and maybe he was out of work) but the pictures we have seen are of the two of them eating ice cream, eating macdonalds and lazing in a hot tub in the back garden.
My guess is that TH did not really want to be a father to Arthur so left the "childcare" to ET (even tho she begged him not to) and ignored the fact that ET was not actually giving any kind of child"care" to Arthur.

I still think TH should have had a much higher sentence than 21 years.

If she was begging him not too it doesn't make sense that she wasn't allowing Arthur to go out anywhere or have any time with TH. she wouldn't let him go to live with the gran as he would have won. That doesn't make sense that she didn't want to do childcare. She had the opportunity to get rid of him.

I find it particularly heart breaking that he was lying there dying while hearing all of these horrible things.