Birmingham City and Millwall held a minute's applause in memory of six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes today.
Play stopped in the sixth minute as players and supporters from both sides came together for a minute’s applause in memory of the Birmingham fan, who was murdered by his stepmother in June 2020.
Arthur was left with an unsurvivable brain injury while in the sole care of Emma Tustin, who on Friday was jailed for life while Arthur’s father Thomas Hughes was sentenced to 21 years for manslaughter.
The team also wore T-shirts that read "Arthur we love you" and carried a banner before the match with a picture of Hughes.
The six-year-old’s stepmother, Emma Tustin, was jailed for life on Friday after being found guilty of his murder, while his father, Thomas Hughes, was sentenced to 21 years for manslaughter.
TV screen shows young Birmingham fan Arthur Labinjo-Hughes before the Sky Bet Championship match at the Coventry Building Society Arena, Coventry. Picture date: Saturday December 4, 2021.
Barrington Coombs
It comes as Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said ministers will leave “absolutely no stone unturned” to establish what went wrong in the case of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes.
Solihull’s Local Child Safeguarding Partnership launched an independent review after it emerged in court that the boy had been seen by social workers just two months before his death, but they concluded there were “no safeguarding concerns”.
Speaking during a by-election campaign visit in north Shropshire, the Prime Minister said it was essential that lessons were learned from what happened.
“I just want to say, on the tragic and appalling case of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, like many people I find it hard to read it, let alone to understand how people could behave like that to a defenceless little child,” he said.
“I’m glad that justice had been done, in the sense that they have both received tough sentences, but that is absolutely no consolation, and what we’ve got to make sure now is we learn the lessons about that case, we look at exactly what happened, what else could have been done to protect that child.
“It is early days, but I can tell you this, we will leave absolutely no stone unturned to find out exactly what went wrong in that appalling case.”
Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said he would be making a statement on the case to Parliament on Monday.
“We are determined to protect children from harm and where concerns are raised we will not hesitate to take urgent and robust action,” he said.
“We will not rest until we have the answers we need.”
Councillor Ian Courts, leader of Solihull Council, said in a statement he was “deeply shocked and appalled” at the death of Arthur, adding that the council would “leave no stone unturned to understand, learn and fix any issues that the independent review finds” and “any further actions that may come about through subsequent reviews and inspections”.