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Friday evening UK news briefing: Stepmother jailed for life for torturing and killing Arthur Labinjo-Hughes

Chris Price
·7-min read
Your evening briefing from The Telegraph
Your evening briefing from The Telegraph

Evening briefing: Today's essential headlines

Ghislaine Maxwell trial | Jeffrey Epstein had photographs of partially clothed pre-pubescent girls on display at his Palm Beach mansion when it was raided by police in 2005. The paedophile financier can be seen pulling down the underwear of a young goddaughter in one and pretending to "bite her bottom", a New York court heard before proceedings started on day five of Ghislaine Maxwell's sex trafficking trial. Follow the proceedings live, while Josie Ensor analyses how the prosecution team has opened the trial with a series of own goals.

Stepmother jailed for life for torturing and killing boy

She was described by a judge as a "manipulative woman who will tell any lie" before she made a "calculated" decision to kill.

Today, Emma Tustin was jailed for life with a minimum term of 29 years for starving, poisoning and then murdering her six-year-old stepson Arthur Labinjo-Hughes.

In a final act of cowardice, Tustin "refused to come up" to the dock for the duration of the sentencing after she was brought to Coventry Crown Court.

Arthur's father Thomas Hughes has been jailed for 21 years.

On Thursday, Tustin and Hughes were found guilty of killing six-year-old Arthur after months of abuse.

In his sentencing remarks Mr Justice Mark Wall QC said the case was one of the most distressing and disturbing cases he had ever had to deal with.

Harrowing recordings released by police show Arthur in the hours before his death.

Yorkshire face revolt over staff cull in racism scandal

It has been a troubling day for the world of sport, where racism and thuggery have brought shame.

In cricket, Yorkshire face a player revolt – and a bitter legal battle – over a cull of their entire coaching team in the wake of the racism scandal that has engulfed the county.

The Telegraph has learned that Lord Patel, the beleaguered club's new chairman, held crisis talks with members of the squad today.

Some players were said to feel so strongly that they were threatening to leave themselves.

Players are said to be furious at what they deemed an indiscriminate cull, one that could nevertheless help lift the ban on the club staging England matches and lure back key sponsors. Read on for details.

Meanwhile, unprecedented criminal behaviour at Wembley combined with authorities' "collective failure to foresee risk" caused the Euro 2020 final to become a warzone, a landmark report has ruled.

Scotland Yard faces severe criticism for implementing full policing operation hours later than needed in Baroness Casey's 129-page report, which explores how "our biggest game of football for 55 years" became "a source of national shame".

Her four-and-a-half month investigation concludes that the FA and Met Police were lucky there were no fatalities.

This footage will remind you of the shocking scenes as hooligans stormed Wembley.

Vibes 'not good' as Tories eye next by-election race

Conservative MPs have warned that it may be "too late" to shore up support in North Shropshire, with just two weeks before the next by-election.

MPs told the Telegraph that "the vibes coming back" from the seat are "not good".

Overnight, Boris Johnson held on to his party's safe seat in Old Bexley and Sidcup, but the Conservative majority was slashed in the by-election from almost 19,000 to just 4,478.

Louie French, the Tory candidate, won the election triggered by the death of James Brokenshire with a 51.4pc share of the vote, compared with Labour's 30.8pc.

Richard Tice, the leader of the Reform UK party, has claimed the result is a "rejection of Boris Johnson personally".

Tom Harris analyses why in Old Bexley and Sidcup last night, everyone's ball burst.

Covid news: Latest updates

Around the world: China's quantum leap sparks fears

A group of physicists at Google's Santa Barbara laboratory said they had reached "quantum supremacy" in 2019 – the Eureka moment at which its experimental machine could outperform today's most powerful supercomputers at a particular function. In December 2020, a group of Chinese researchers boasted of their own quantum moment. Scientists at the Hefei National Laboratory in eastern China were able to solve a physics problem known as boson sampling in just over three minutes, compared to the 2.5bn years that the country's fastest supercomputer would take. James Titcomb analyses how it has plunged the West into a race to protect its secrets - and what quantum computing actually is.

Comment and analysis

Friday interview

'Man Utd must be at the top. Getting back there motivates me'

Raphael Varane - Manchester United
Raphael Varane - Manchester United

Defender Raphael Varane talks to Matt Law about the trick to getting Manchester United back to winning ways and the day Alex Ferguson visited him at home as an 18-year-old

Read the full interview

Sport briefing: Hamilton quickest in Saudi GP practice

Lewis Hamilton posted the fastest time today in the first practice for the inaugural Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. Follow the rest of the session here. A must-read for the cricket fans among you comes in the form of an interview with Chris Tremlett, James Anderson and Tim Bresnan. They share their recollections of that memorable Ashes series win 10 years ago, involving broken ribs, Andrew Strauss's dancing and winding up Ricky Ponting. Elsewhere, Will Greenwood says Northampton have the most biased fans in rugby — but reckons they are right about this team.

Editor's choice

  1. Global press | Meghan, Harry and the privacy paradox

  2. Sally Solves | 'My oven exploded and John Lewis won’t do anything about it'

  3. The Midults | 'My girlfriend talks dirty to me in German and I hate it'

Business briefing: Sturgeon warned over North Sea oil

One of the North Sea oil industry's most respected figures has warned Nicola Sturgeon's government against scaring off investment and jobs after one of her ministers said it was "great that the Cambo project looks like it's on the skids". Sir Ian Wood hit out at politicians who have failed to support the proposed oil field off the Shetlands after Shell decided to walk away, warning it will create an "adverse investment environment". Ms Sturgeon stated last month that she was opposed to the development of any new oil fields. Matthew Lynn says Boris Johnson should ignore Ms Sturgeon and back North Sea oil – but sets out why he won't.

Tonight starts now

Encounter, review | Head to the cinema for this piece of bugged-out science fiction paranoia, with an opening sequence that may have you bolting for the door, or at least the remote control. Something foreign has landed on our planet and got in the soil: microscopic mites. They infest insects, and we see the body of a prone, sleeping person get bitten, in a forensic sequence of effects shots which lead us deep down under the skin. Riz Ahmed stars in this stylish and sinewy thriller out today.

Three things for you

And for this evening's downtime....

Supermodel comeback | Jerry Hall's last major fashion moment was, arguably, in March 2016 when she married Rupert Murdoch wearing a gauzy turquoise corseted dress by Vivienne Westwood with jewelled silver flats. Now she is making a return to modelling at the age of 65. Bethan Holt looks at the classiest of comebacks.

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