Arthur Labinjo-Hughes *Very upsetting*

[HolidayHelper]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-59475076

Poor little boy. So utterly, utterly failed. He was TELLING figures of authority what was happening and nobody listened. How come whenever something like this happens they always roll out 'Lessons Will Be Learned'... but then they're not, in just goes and happens again? It makes me so fucking angry. I know there aren't enough foster carers, I know there's not enough money, but it was OBVIOUS what would happen in this case and nobody did a damn thing.

I wish and wish I was in a position to foster vulnerable children. Arthur could have had a completely different outcome if he could have been placed witha loving family.

My heart breaks when I read about him. I’ve found the news pieces so upsetting.
Where are the minds of the people that do these things to children? Didn’t they look at him and feel love?
Where were the wider family who must have simply ignored him when he said his father was going to kill him?
Beggars belief. And yet again it will keep happening 😡

I believe he had a wider family who loved him, and would have looked after him in a heartbeat. They reported the dad to social services and police but they didn't do much. I wonder how much lockdown had to play in what happened, I'm sure the abuse may have been picked up if he was in school and out and about more.

I think there will be more of these stores coming out of lockdown, sadly.

Regarding the step-mother, yesterday she changed her plea from not guilty to guilty - what would the reason for that be? Is it to try to get a smaller sentence?

The whole thing has been horribly upsetting.

Just horrific. I get an anxious, sick feeling every time I read about this poor little boy. Why didn’t they just put him into care if they didn’t want him?! Why subject him to such torture. It just beggars belief. That poor boy, he must have been so lonely and scared
Lockdown definitely played a part. He died in August 2020 I believe, at that point he had probably been out of school since March. I wonder how many more children suffered an increasing amount of abuse during that six months when they slipped out of “the system”.

It's just dreadful isn't it. That poor, poor little soul. To be so aware that he wasn't loved by the people he had the misfortune to live with. Time and time again "lessons will be learned". But we can learn all the lessons under the sun. It doesn't make a difference unless the resources and training are made a higher priority. Why didn't social services do more? Why didn't police take this case more seriously? Children's charity's warned they were deeply concerned about child abuse during lockdown.

Nearly every time a child dies in these sort of circumstances it is always apparent that social services were aware of them so how on earth do they still not see what's going on? Why are children not checked up on more once there has been a report? It's half measures all the time.
We spend vast amounts of money on children's healthcare and treatments. And rightly so. But why is child protection so woefully underfunded? Clearly far fewer children are removed from harm than should be. If the issue is lack of foster placements then increase the funding. I just don't buy the lack of budget excuse when we have seen the shameful wastage on Brexit and HS2. The government simply seems to accept that a certain number of children will become victims of abuse and they are ok with that.

RIP Arthur. You are free from those monsters now

@Visitors

My heart breaks when I read about him. I’ve found the news pieces so upsetting. Where are the minds of the people that do these things to children? Didn’t they look at him and feel love? Where were the wider family who must have simply ignored him when he said his father was going to kill him? Beggars belief. And yet again it will keep happening 😡

That’s not fair, it’s been widely reported that the family reported the “father” and his partner to social services and the police but was ignored

His life was so horrific, I can't understand this level of cruelty RIP Arthur. I hope they get lengthy sentences.

@Visitors I think the wider family tried to take him away but were warned by police that if they didn’t hand him back they would be arrested.

Having read the trial reporting for weeks now, it was very clear that family did everything they could and were even threatened with arrest if they did anything more.

Poor, poor, Arthur. And the poor, poor, jury who were made to sit through weeks of evidence that must have been so horrendous.

I'm so relieved that the jury considered everything very carefully. The fact that they found Mr Hughes not guilty of two counts suggests that they were very careful as they considered all the evidence.

So so sad reading about this, that poor poor little soul. How can people be so cruel to an innocent child. The cctv image of him crying is haunting me...does anyone know what sentence those monsters got?

Sentencing is tomorrow but BBC News reporting that Tustin will get a mandatory life sentence.

So wider family raised serious concerns but were threatened with arrest? How is that- why would the police not refer immediately to social services?

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/4416690-Emma-Tustin-is-a-murderer

That poor little lad I can't get my head round what's happened to him, can't stop thinking about what a horrible short life he had. 6 years old thinking know one loved him

Horrific, I cried when I saw the video on the news. Someone could have given him a warm, safe, happy and loving home. I would loved to imagine him fed, warm and safe but it's absolutely traumatising.

I hope they both die a horrible death.

Tustin will get a life sentence , as she has been found guilty of murder ( the only sentence given for the conviction of murder).
However I’d assume she’ll get a minimum tariff in custody. I’d predict she will review a minimum of 25 years in prison.
Hughes has been convicted of manslaughter, I’m guessing he’ll get maybe 20 years.
They should throw away the key and let them both rot.

The poor child never had a chance with samples like that for parents and their choice of terrible partners. And weren't "lessons" supposed to have been learned over Victoria Climbie? How many decades ago now? Last century?

I'm crying for this little boy tonight. I wish he could know that he was loved.

Simply horrific. The worst thing is, I can't say that I am surprised. I've worked in safeguarding roles in schools and can honestly say that the system is broken and far too soft. I kicked up a fuss as much as I possibly could about some of my suspicions about the abuse and neglect that was happening to children in our school. Social services continually told me there was 'not enough evidence' in every single case. Some of them were textbook cases of abuse. I went home on so many occasions with the fear of "what if that child is killed at home". When some of the vulnerable children didn't arrive at school I wondered to myself if the police would be coming to question us all about what we did and didn't do to protect them in the case that something awful had happened. I was told by senior staff that I couldn't write anything but facts in the safeguarding documents, meaning I couldn't write down my suspicious surrounding the facts (I ignored this and did it anyway). Honestly, I wish in my heart that I could have taken some of those children and given them the wonderful childhood they so desperately deserved. I think we need to accept that cases like Arthur's are happening all around us, but services are so restricted by red tape that nobody is allowed to do anything.

We had a child disclose to us that his mum had thrown him across the kitchen floor in anger. He showed us his bruises. He was 6 and I fully believed everything he said. He cried and didn't want mummy to be in trouble. I wanted to keep him in school where he was safe and not allow his mum to take him home until the police and social services had ensured that it was safe for him to go home. We were not legally allowed to prevent his mum from taking him home, and she took him home an hour later. Social services later concluded there was no risk.

I also had a girl disclose to me that her father, in her words, "abuses us". She detailed how he tried to strangle her, how he held her neck up against the wall, and much more. I followed protocol despite her literally begging me to not tell anyone else about this or her dad would be angry and she didn't want him to go to prison. She then completely shut down and would not repeat to anyone what she had said to me. I followed every rule in the book, yet was terrified knowing that, along with reporting to social services, the headteacher would have to call home and inform them of her allegations. She would then be sent home to the person she had accused of abusing her, pending social services involvement. She was terrified and so was I. I tried everything to see if there was any way we could do this without informing the family and putting her at further risk for "telling", but was told no and I had no legal power to change anything.

I'm so sorry, Arthur, and all the other little ones suffering. The system has failed you. I don't work in education or with children anymore. I'm not sure I could again unless things change.

@BlossomingSlowly your experience sounds horrific...I had no idea and in fact was assuming that the safeguarding in the UK was very much switched on. I think there might be a case of incentives going wrong. Because there is so little money and foster carers, the incentive of the social services might be to be very selective to only cases they would go to court if they didnt take them on, and only tickbox the rest so they can claim they did their duty. There must be more funding in a supposedly civilised society to counter this situation. Not sure whether a Tory government cares enough though but lets not get political. I am so heartbroken...

At least three members of his family reported what was happening to social services, the dad wouldn't let him go and live with his grandmother because that meant Arthur was winning and getting what he wanted. I read somewhere the next door neighbours also called social services.

It's hard to know how much lockdown contributed, he was not in school despite being offered a vulnerable child place. Would the school have been able to do more for him if they were physically seeing him every day?

@Plusfiftytwo Safeguarding is very switched on in most school and is hammered home at the beginning of every school year, with all staff having at least basic safeguarding training. The trouble is schools can report and report but social services and the police are exceptionally underfunded and understaffed, and evidence that will stand up in court is hard to get. Social services visits are often pre-arranged like in Arthur's case, and they only have so much power to dig into things. Funding, understaffing, lack of power and poor communication between police and social services is at the heart of the problems I believe. I absolutely understand that good parents would hate to be subject to a social services 'investigation' based on poor evidence, but for me, if you've nothing to hide then you've nothing to fear. A lot of people think that social services can take children away very easily, but in fact, in the 2 years I spent in two schools in very deprived areas, no child was ever taken away from their parents, even temporarily (much to the disgust of myself and colleagues who were genuinely concerned for the safety of certain children). It makes me so sad to say that we need to be tougher because some of the most horrific cases of neglect are in plain sight and schools' hands are completely tied. Yes social care needs to support people to be better parents and improve as opposed to just removing children, but there has to be a limit when evidence is overwhelming that the situation is damaging the child significantly and putting their safety at extreme risk.

Honestly it's so heartbreaking but I don't think many people understand the scale of the problem, it's absolutely huge 😔

To add, lack of proper funding in deprived areas also adds to the problem. Unemployment, alcohol addiction, drugs, poor mental health, loneliness and general lack of knowledge all add to the problem. I have to say I have met many parents who have hearts of gold but have been dealt a genuinely awful hand in life and need some extra support from social services to be the best parents they can be.

This is just so so sad. That poor little boy. Its just so horrific that he knew he wasn't loved and couldn't escape the evil! I hope they both rot in prison. I read somewhere she was complaining as the other prisoners were throwing salt at her...Well thats just a tiny snippet of how that little boy felt when she was hurting him and he had no where to run and now she hasn't either. Just reading the articles and the text messages between the 2 are absolutely sick. Thats little boy was failed.The times they were reported. That little boy was failed. They both deserve to be locked up and key thrown or rot. I watched the video of her telling the police what happened and she had no remorse in her whatsoever just stood there and blamed the little boy for headbutting her ect. Absolutely heartbreaking.

Social visits should be a surprise, they should interview individually and do detective work, go to speak to neighbours, relatives, school, friends, stake out if they need to. Unbelievable that this is happening and there's no one to help no-one to turn to, and school and relatives are so helpless. This could've been prevented. I'm in shock and sobbing for that poor soul. Is it normal that I'm sick to my stomach reading about it. I hope prisoners continue throwing salt and hope she rots in there...

NlossomingSlowly absolutely, spot on. What an excellent post.

Understaffed schools being left to make checks on pupils that can't be located as urgent safe and well checks because what should be escalated to the police to do doesn't get actioned as its not a priority, and schools get asked if they have done it!