The father of murdered six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes has had his manslaughter sentence increased after launching an appeal to reduce it.
The Court of Appeal increased Thomas Hughes' 21-year sentence for the death of his son to 24, Sky News reported on Friday, while his his partner Emma Tustin's a life sentence with a minimum term of 29 years remained unchanged.
Hughes was found guilty of manslaughter and Tustin — Arthur's stepmother — of murder in December 2021 over the boy's death in June 2020.
Both appealed against their sentences, while a separate appeal sought to have them raised, arguing they were too lenient.
The "manslaughter bristled with aggravating features including as grave a breach of trust as can be imagined in respect of a small boy who was especially vulnerable," said Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett in his ruling.
"He [Hughes] lied to Arthur's school to keep him at home to protect both himself and Tustin," Burnett added. "The judge's view was that the offence fell just short of murder and, as we have said, the risk of death, given the preceding conduct, was real."
"In our view the appropriate sentence is one of 24 years' imprisonment to take account of all the offending," the judge concluded.
The couple's first trial heard how they subjected Arthur to months of torture during the first COVID-19 lockdown, when schools were closed for all but the children of key workers.
The couple beat Arthur, made him stand on a step for up to 14 hours, sleep on the hallway floor of their home in Solihull, West Midlands, starved him and forced him to eat toxic quantities of salt. They referred to him in messages as "Satan", "Hitler", "devil-child" and other terms of abuse.
On June 16, 2020, Tustin beat Arthur so viciously that he suffered a fatal brain injury, then took a photo of the unconscious boy with her mobile phone and sent it to Hughes. Hughes had earlier encouraged her in a message, saying: "Just end him".
Arthur had previously lived with his mother Olivia Labinjo-Halcrowb until she was arrested in February 2019 for stabbing her new boyfriend Gary Cunningham to death. She was convicted of manslaughter later that year and sentenced to 11 years imprisonment.
The shocking case has revived calls for the death penalty, abolished for murder in 1965, to be reinstated.
Three months after Arthur's murder, 16-month-old Yorkshire girl Star Hobson was kicked to death by her mother Frankie Smith's abuse lesbian lover Savannah Brockhill. Brockhill was sentenced to a minimum of 25 years for Star's murder, while Smith was jailed for eight years — later increased to 12 after a judicial review.