Sure, I understand those petitions calling for Emma Tustin and Thomas Hughes to be locked up forever for torturing and killing little Arthur Labinjo-Hughes. I agree that no punishment they will receive could ever fit the crimes they committed. My heart is broken by his passing, no more and no less than anyone else’s. And I’m angry about it. But nothing about the way I feel can change what happened. Nor will they prevent another such occurrence in the future. Could we not translate our upset and our anger into something more constructive?
By all means bring in a law which says that no parent who kills their child is ever let out of prison. Given the type of people Tustin and Hughes are, I doubt very much whether a full life tariff would have made them think’ “Hmm, maybe we should ease up on this child abuse before we kill our son because instead of spending 20-odd years in prison, we could end up in there forever. I mean, I could live with 29 years minimum – I’ll only be in my early sixties – but a whole life tariff?” They’d have done it anyway. Filthy, dirty, lowlife sewer-dwellers that they are. I’ve got a couple of suggestions.
How about investing more money in the social care sector? We know that local authorities have seen government support slashed in the last decade or so and we know that since 2010, we have 20,000 less coppers on the beat. Cuts have consequences. If we want underfunded and understaffed public services, then accidents will happen, sometimes a catastrophe like the death of Arthur.
We have staff shortages in the social care sector, so why not make social work, nursing and teaching degrees free?
And here’s the most radical suggestion of all: how about saving children before they are killed?
Is the sum total of our anger and heartbreak simply that we punish child killers and leave everything else as it is? Because that is all I have seen on social media. I would argue that we need to punish child killers and dramatically improve social care so that there are less child killers, that abuse is picked up earlier, that children are able to live the lives they deserve. I cannot accept that anger alone will change anything.
Boris Johnson says he will “leave no stone unturned” in the quest to find how Arthur was abused and killed. Let’s hope he includes what the government he leads has been up to for the last 11 years.
By all means, bang Tustin and Hughes up for life. But please: no more Arthurs, eh?
