Arthur Labinjo-Hughes 'faced systematic brutality amounting to torture'
The six-year-old's killers are having their sentences reviewed
The Court of Appeal has heard that six-year-old Arthur Labinjo Hughes faced "systematic brutality amounting to torture" leading up to his death, during a review of the prison sentences of five killers.
Senior judges are hearing challenges or appeals to the prison sentences of notorious criminals, including the whole-life terms of former police officer Wayne Couzens and double murderer Ian Stewart.
Emma Tustin and Thomas Hughes, who killed Arthur, are also having their sentences reviewed.
Arthur suffered a fatal brain injury while in the sole care of Tustin, who was jailed for life with a minimum term of 29 years after assaulting him on June 16 2020.
Tustin and Arthur's father, Hughes, who was sentenced to 21 years for manslaughter, are appealing against the length of their sentences which are also being challenged as being unduly lenient.
On Wednesday, Tom Little QC, representing the Attorney General's Office (AGO), said Tustin's case "merited at the very least consideration of a whole-life order".
He said: "This was, we accept, not a straightforward sentencing exercise. The trial was plainly a harrowing one for all concerned."
Mr Little said Arthur was "subjected to the most unimaginable suffering", adding: "This was an extremely serious example of child murder against the background of that cruelty."
In written submissions, Mr Little said the trial judge failed to properly consider whether Tustin's offences were so serious they required a whole-life order.
He wrote: "In the context of sadistic conduct that preceded the murder, it is submitted that murder itself was sadistically motivated.
"Even if it was not, then (Tustin)'s offending as a whole was so exceptionally serious that it was open to the judge to impose a whole-life order.
"This was not a case involving episodic criminality before the murder but systematic brutality amounting to torture."
The barrister also said the 30-year starting point for Tustin's sentence should have been significantly increased.
However Mary Prior QC, for Tustin, said the sentencing judge took a "fair and proper approach in this very difficult case".
Ms Prior said the "toxicity of the relationship" between Tustin and Hughes created a scenario where they both abused Arthur.
"At the very least, Thomas Hughes was encouraging Emma Tustin to be cruel, to assault and to ill-treat his son," she added.
Tustin, 32, previously of Cranmore Road, Solihull, and Hughes, 29, are appealing against their sentences which are also being challenged by the AGO.
The hearing before the Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett and four other judges is due to finish on Thursday, with a decision expected at a later date.