Evil stepmum who tortured & killed Arthur ‘only wanted kids for BENEFITS and attention’, blasts ex

A WICKED stepmum who murdered a six-year-old boy only ever wanted children for benefits, her ex claims.

Emma Tustin, 32, tortured Arthur Labinjo-Hughes to death after he moved in with dad Thomas Hughes, 29, during lockdown.

The mum-of-four was convicted of murder yesterday, while Hughes was found guilty of manslaughter.

Now her ex and father of one of her four children has slammed Tustin as a "black widow" who "sucks the life out of each man" she gets with.

The man, who hasn't been named, also claims she only wanted children for attention and splurged money meant for them on luxury items for herself.

He told the : "She had no maternal instinct whatsoever.

"She wanted children for the attention they brought her as newborns, and for the child benefit. But once the attention died away and she was left at home with a baby, she didn’t want to know."

The ex also believes little Arthur would still be alive if social services had listened to his warnings about her.

At first he said he didn't speak with the authorities as he was "worried" they would take his baby away because Tustin was "unhinged".

After they split, he and his family alerted social workers to Tustin.

But he claimed she "turned on the water works" and accused him of beating her and the children instead.

The ex said: "Social services have blood on their hands.

"If they had heeded our warnings then little Arthur might still be alive.

"Unfortunately, in terms of child welfare and social services, it is a woman’s world. The man is never believed."

TORTURED TO DEATH

In his closing speech, prosecutor Jonas Hankin QC said Tustin and Hughes carried out a "systematic course of conduct designed to terrorise, degrade, neglect and harm Arthur physically and psychologically".

He added: "Together they denigrated and debased him, they dehumanised him."

Arthur was segregated for 14 hours a day and forced to sleep on the floor in a brutal struggle that matched the “medical definition of child torture”.

He was also poisoned with so much salt he was too weak to even put up a fight against his torturers' horrific abuse.

A serious case review has now been launched into the shortcomings - including that Tustin was already known to children’s services over previous concerns of domestic violence.

West Midlands Police, too, has been probed by the police watchdog over its actions after worried family members raised concerns over Arthur’s safety.