Football fans across the country have paid poignant tribute to murdered six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes after it was revealed the 'unduly lenient' sentences of his 'monstrous' father and stepmother are set to be reviewed by the Attorney General.
In powerful scenes replicated at sold-out stadiums across the country, thousands of supporters marked Arthur's short life with a rousing minute of applause in the sixth-minute for the young Birmingham City FC supporter.
Applause rang out from the capacity crowd at West Ham's London Stadium as fans of the Premier League side and league leaders Chelsea shared a touching tribute at the six-minute mark of their match.
Players wore 'Arthur We Love You' t-shirts in pre-match warmups ahead of Birmingham City FC's Championship clash against Millwall on Saturday, while Coventry City fans also remembered the youngster with applause in the sixth minute of their match against West Brom.
Emma Tustin and Thomas Hughes were both jailed for more than 20 years each for their roles in the death of little Arthur, but could face a harsher sentence after Solihull MP Julian Knight warned their case will be passed onto Britain's chief legal advisor.
Tustin was given a life sentence with a minimum of 29 years while Hughes was jailed for life with a minimum of 21 years. the minimum term before her case is considered by a parole board is 29 years.
But Mr Knight, speaking as he lay flowers outside the youngster's home in Solihull, West Midlands on Saturday, said he intends to refer Tustin and Hughes' case to the 'unduly lenient sentencing scheme' - meaning the pair's time behind bars could be extended.
It comes as harrowing video footage shows Arthur's evil stepmother devouring a McDonald's takeaway while the doomed six-year-old boy starves in the hallway last summer.
Both Tustin, 32, and Hughes, 29, can be seen tucking into ice creams at her Solihull home in West Midlands in June 2020. As the couple relax on the sofa, Arthur is left to stand by himself in the hallway, wearing a fluffy onesie in sweltering temperatures.
In other clips, recorded on the couple's home security footage, Tustin scoffs into two separate boxes of McDonald's, while a starving Arthur is left to his own devices.
Tustin and Hughes starved the youngster, force-fed him salt-laden dishes and made him stand alone for more than 14 hours a day, in a degrading, punishing and hellish regime over the last painful months of his life.
Speaking in Solihull on Saturday, Mr Knight said: 'There’s a palpable sense of real loss and tragedy over this and also, frankly, a sense of anger, and questions over how this was allowed to happen, how these monsters were allowed to inflict this horrible torture on this young, defenceless boy.
'My view is very simple on this. We need to get to the bottom of how this happened and we need to ensure that those who have failed him are accountable.
'But also I think anyone reflecting on those sentences yesterday thinks that they were too lenient and my intention is to refer this to the unduly lenient sentencing scheme as soon as possible and I will be doing that on Monday morning.'
It comes as neighbours revealed Tustin's violent side previously saw her chase an ex-boyfriend with a garden spade - underlining the turmoil that Arthur was forced to live alongside up until his final days.
Speaking to CoventryLive, one neighbour, who did not wish to be named, claims she saw Tustin armed herself with a garden spade and angrily chased away an ex-boyfriend.
The neighbour explained: 'She was a nutcase, a fruit loop. One day, her ex came down the road, there had been a row, and she was chasing him down the road with a garden spade.'
The 'evil' stepmother was also said to have rowed with neighbours in disputes over cats.
'As soon as she moved in she gave a woman a few doors down a nervous breakdown about cats', the neighbour added.
'She was shouting "get your cats to stop s***ing on my driveway". As if you can do that?'
Social workers, police and teachers are facing damning questions after a six-year-old boy's stepmother was found guilty of his murder - and his father convicted of manslaughter - after the pair tortured, starved and beat him to death.
Emma Tustin killed Arthur Labinjo-Hughes by repeatedly slamming his head on a hard surface after she and 29-year-old Thomas Hughes starved the youngster and force-fed him food laden with salt.
After killing Arthur, Tustin immediately fetched her mobile phone to take a photograph of him as he lay dying in the hallway to send to her boyfriend.
She called 999 and told the operator Arthur had 'banged his head'.
After police arrived at her Solihull home, the self-pitying stepmother cried and tried to convince them the stick-thin boy had attacked her - while several miles away he lay dying in hospital.
He passed away the next day when his life support was turned off, with medics deciding there was nothing they could do due to the catastrophic nature of his injuries.
After concerned relatives told the council about bruises on the youngster's back, social worker Jayne Kavanagh and support worker Angela Scarlett-Coppage visited Tustin's home but reported 'no concerns' after carrying out cursory checks.
Tustin and Hughes had 'coached' Arthur and one of Tustin's other children to pretend his injuries were the result of a play-fight.
A day before Arthur died of 'unsurvivable' head injuries inflicted by Tustin, he had been rendered 'too weak' even to hold a glass of water to his mouth. The 130 areas of bruising found on the little boy's body after his death equated to 'nearly a bruise for every day of lockdown'.
Meanwhile, social workers wanted to be anonymous when they gave evidence to the court, it can be revealed.
Jailing Tustin and Hughes on Friday, Mr Justice Mark Wall QC said the couple's campaign of cruel abuse against the defenceless youngster had been 'without doubt one of the most distressing and disturbing cases I have had to deal with'.
He said of little Arthur: 'He was a healthy, happy young boy. He enjoyed his food, liked school, loved playing cricket and football and adored spending his time with his extended family.
'He had been poisoned with so much salt that the levels of sodium in his blood could not be accurately and reliably measured. I am sure that you had also been poisoning him with smaller doses of salt for some time.
'It is the only explanation for Arthur being heard regularly to cry out for food while rejecting the food that you prepared for him and offered him. It explains why you had been restricting his access to free water for some time.
'He had been completely isolated from his extended family. He was forced to live a solitary and lonely life within your home, including being made to stand to attention alone in the hallway of the house for most of the day.
'He was made to sleep downstairs on the hard floor without a mattress.
'In the last three months of Arthur's life he was subjected to the most unimaginable suffering at the hands of both of you.
'You both told lies to conceal what was happening in that house.'
Addressing Hughes, he said: 'You, I am sure, researched pressure pointing Arthur and then did it. Not in the playful way you suggested but as an attempt to cause maximum pain with minimum injury.'
Arthur's maternal grandmother, Madeleine Halcrow, said Arthur loved nothing more than to play outside. But he was forced to wear a fluffy onesie for days during a baking heatwave and stand isolated in a hallway for 15 hours a day over six weeks in a 'punishing regime'.
The little boy, who 'loved his food' and looked forward to mealtimes, was starved and forced to drink a lethal 'salt slurry' before he died. CCTV caught the bullies yelling at Arthur, out of sight in the hallway, as they tucked into fish and chips and McDonald's with Tustin's children.
The pair 'denigrated, debased and dehumanised him', taking everything he loved away from him as they turned Arthur into a 'desperately sad, thin, weak, miserable child'.
Harrowing footage taken in Arthur's final hours showed the youngster grimacing in pain with his emaciated frame showing through his tattered pyjamas as he shouted 'no one loves me' four times then 'no one is going to feed me' seven times in 44 seconds.
One of his twisted punishments even saw Hughes cut up the boy's favourite Birmingham City football shirt in front of him.
On Friday it emerged she had tried to take an overdose and hang herself in prison after already being attacked in jail by inmates dousing her with salt.
Tests revealed Arthur had been poisoned with salt in the hours before his collapse, while a post-mortem examination found the youngster had suffered about 130 separate injuries.
Tustin admitted two counts of child cruelty during the harrowing trial in Coventry, including carrying out three assaults on the boy and also making him sit or stand in her hallway for up to 14 hours a day as part of a behavioural regime.
She accepted making 200 audio recordings of Arthur, often crying and moaning during these punishments, claiming she did so only to send them to Hughes in order to demonstrate the boy's 'naughty' behaviour while he was absent.
Some of these extracts have been played to the court, including one in which the boy can be heard saying 'no-one loves me', and another in which he cried 'no-one's gonna feed me'.
Hughes, in evidence, had alleged Tustin 'mentally abused' and 'gaslighted' him into complying with the punishing disciplinary regime, but also admitted lying to school staff who were checking on Arthur's progress during the first Covid lockdown.
Tustin, who has accepted being cruel to Arthur on occasions and was pregnant with Hughes' unborn child at the time, has said she was 'disgusted and ashamed' by her admitted behaviour.
But she callously claimed that Arthur's fatal head injury must have been self-inflicted, possibly caused by him throwing himself down the staircase in her hallway, and describing how she heard a 'bang' and a 'crack'.
It comes as the Director of Association of Child Protection Professionals said Arthur should have been the top priority of local social services.
Asked if the six-year-old should have been at the top of social services' priority list, Wendy Thorogood told Times Radio: 'He should and you would have expected them to actually look at his history, but unfortunately they go on what they see at that moment in time.
'I can't comment on what they actually witnessed but you have to remember he was at the hands of quite cruel people who could manipulate him, his environment and professionals.
'I would have expected any assessment to really take account of the grandmother's photos, I would have expected join conversations and real conversation with Alfie, and that appears to have been missed.'
Ms Thorogood added: 'We have to remember this was under Covid, so he wasn't actually getting additional oversight from school and education.
'I feel they took probably the assessment he was out happy, playing, a boy being boisterous.
'I would have expected any bruises that had been shown would have actually been shared with health to actually have a view as well as to where the injury was.
'The biggest thing is to actually speak with the child and I can't say whether or not that actually happened.
'Equally, it's a society responsibility, in relation to his cries were so abnormal if we'd had an anonymous call from one of the neighbours that could have given them more power to do the investigation.
'He wasn't on a child protection list, he wasn't one of the children that you would have considered to be a priority.'
It comes as the ex-head of the council department that failed Arthur Labinjo-Hughes announced she was retiring weeks after his murder – but refused to apologise yesterday.
Louise Rees, 60, tendered her resignation to Solihull Council chiefs shortly after the six-year-old's death sent shockwaves around the children's services department, sources said.
But she was allowed to keep working, and drawing her £123,000 salary, for another 12 months while a replacement was sought. Mrs Rees refused to apologise when contacted by the Daily Mail.
Mrs Rees is likely to have left with a generous lump sum and an annual pension of at least £40,000. According to her LinkedIn profile, she is currently 'retired and loving it'.
The career civil servant also left her previous job at Stoke City Council, where she was the £140,000-a-year director of children and family services, a week before it too was lambasted for serious failings.
Ofsted inspectors found that, during Mrs Rees's tenure, services for children 'seriously declined' as a result of 'poor leadership, management oversight and an absence of performance inspection'.
Children were 'not being protected' and 'widespread and serious failures' left them at 'risk of serious harm'.
Although inspectors did not single out individuals for criticism, their report in February 2019 was unequivocal.
'Leaders and managers failed to recognise and manage risk at every level of the organisation,' they said.
An inspection in 2015 had noted that services required improvement or were good, and council chiefs had no idea things had got 'so bad'.
In the wake of the report, government commissioner Eleanor Brazil, who helped turn around Haringey Council in north London following the Baby P scandal, was sent in to review the department.
Boris Johnson has said he found it difficult to read about Arthur's case, saying on a by-election campaign visit in Oswestry, Shropshire: '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.
'And I must say, 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.
'And 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.'