The jail terms handed to the killers of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes will be reviewed by the Court of Appeal, it has been confirmed.
Attorney General Suella Braverman has referred the case to the appeals court amid concerns that the sentences handed out to the boy's killer stepmother and father are too lenient.
Arthur, six, was left with an unsurvivable brain injury while in the sole care of 32-year-old Emma Tustin, who was jailed for life after being convicted of murder by assaulting the defenceless child at her Solihull home in June 2020.
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Tustin’s life sentence carries a minimum term of 29 years, while Arthur’s father Thomas Hughes was sentenced to 21 years for manslaughter.
The Attorney General’s Office has determined that the sentences do fall under the Unduly Lenient Sentence (ULS) scheme and has referred the case to the Court of Appeal, which will make the decision about whether they should be increased.
During a trial earlier this year, a court heard how Arthur has been subjected to months of abuse at the hands of his stepmother and had been poisoned by Tustin with salt.
It emerged at trial that Arthur had been seen by social workers just two months before his death, after concerns were raised by his paternal grandmother Joanne Hughes, but they concluded there were “no safeguarding concerns”.
In her victim impact statement, which she read in court ahead of the sentencing, Ms Hughes said Arthur, as a “happy, contented, thriving seven-year-old” would “be alive today” had her son not met Tustin.
The judge said the trial had been “without doubt one of the most distressing and disturbing cases I have had to deal with”, adding neither Hughes not Tustin had shown any remorse.
The government has since announced a major review into the circumstances which led to the murder of the six-year-old boy.
It aims to determine what improvements are needed by the agencies that came into contact with Arthur in the months before he was murdered.
The National Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel will lead the review and will provide additional support to Solihull Children’s Safeguarding Partnership to “upgrade” the already existing local review which was launched shortly after Arthur’s death.
