A bullying father accused of murdering his six-year-old son in a 'campaign of cruelty' told police he will be remembered as the 'dad who killed his son'. Arthur Labinjo-Hughes died in hospital several hours after he was found unresponsive at a house on Cranmore Road in Shirley, near Birmingham Thomas Hughes, 29, told police he was 'accountable' for the death of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, whom he allegedly killed with his new partner Emma Tustin, 32, a court heard. The couple are said to have subjected Arthur to systematic abuse 'designed to terrorise' the youngster. Arthur was allegedly deprived of food, made to stand in a hallway for 14 hours a day and poisoned with salt before being fatally attacked at Tustin's home near Solihull, West Mids, last June. Prosecutors allege Arthur was subjected to months of cruelty by Hughes and Tustin which matched the 'medical definition of child torture'. The pair deny murder and multiple counts of child cruelty. During police interviews, Hughes revealed how Arthur had spent much of his waking hours during lockdown in 'isolation' and admitted to police: 'I'll be honest. Now, I've had a taste of it, it was the same as prison. It wasn't nice and it was wrong.' In transcripts read out to jurors at Coventry Crown Court, Hughes said: 'From lockdown up until his death. He spent more of his time in isolation. 'I can't remember the time he was treated like a normal child by myself. I can't remember the last time he was allowed to sit in and watch TV.' Without the presence of a solicitor, Hughes revealed how he slapped Arthur for interrupting his fish and chips and slashed his favourite football shirt. He told how he sent text messages telling Tustin to 'bounce' Arthur's head and 'kill him', and said he put in 'punishment' rules that would see his son confined to the hallway from 'nearly the time he would get up, to bed time'. Thomas Hughes, 29, and his girlfriend Emma Tustin, 32, are jointly accused of murder after Arthur Labinjo-Hughes (right) was found with an 'unsurvivable brain injury' at his home in Solihull, Warwickshire Emma Tustin, 32, allegedly took 12 minutes to dial 999 and took photographs of the youngster as he lay dying in the hallway Hughes told detectives while in custody: 'I know it doesn't paint me in a brilliant light and I know I'm not going to be remembered as the dad that I was. 'I'll just be remembered as that dad who killed his son. I really didn't want it to come to this.' When told Arthur was found with 130 bruises on his body at post-mortem, Hughes told officers he could account for 'most'. In his sixth interview while under arrest, he told detectives: 'It paints me as a monster I'm aware. 'I'm 27 years old, nearly 28, for nearly all of those years I've never been in trouble with the police. 'Nobody would have a bad word to say. But the last few weeks they would have lots of bad things to say. 'That last few months I effectively turned into a monster. That's how I'm going to be seen now. I'm not going to be the dad whose boy worshipped the ground he walked on.' Hughes added: 'I never intended to hurt him. It's a case of discipline gone too far. Gone horribly wrong.' The court was told that when Tustin was arrested, she disclosed she was eight weeks pregnant. Arthur was said to have spent his waking hours 'segregated and isolated' in a hallway and made to sleep on a living room floor. Hughes, speaking after being arrested and held in police custody, told detectives how he whacked Arthur's legs for making 'noises' while he ate fish and chips and cut up the boy's favourite Birmingham City football shirt in front of him. The admissions were made to police in an interview two days after Arthur died from fatal head injuries at Birmingham Children's Hospital on June 17, 2020. He said: 'I took some scissors to it and ripped it up in front of him. 'He was upset. He had a meltdown. He loved football shirts. 'Because I knew he loved his football shirts, I made him put another one in the bin.' He added: 'I ripped up his favourite blanket in front of him and put that in the bin.' Arthur had been in the full-time care of Hughes after Olivia Labinjo-Halcrow was accused of killing her new partner, Gary Cunningham, in February 2019. Hughes then fell 'hook, line and sinker' for Tustin, jurors were told, and moved into her home in Cranmore Road when the country entered lockdown in March 2020. Hughes (left) is accused of forcing his son to endure 'physical and psychological' abuse in the weeks before his death Tributes, including this BCFC teddy bear, were left outside the Hughes family home in Solihull, West Midlands Prosecutors allege Tustin murdered the youngster when she was home alone with him, and that Hughes 'intentionally encouraged' the killing. Tustin has pleaded guilty to one count of child cruelty but denies further charges of the same offence. Hughes denies all charges. In interview, Hughes said he believed his treatment of Arthur had led to his death and described Tustin as being 'Mother Teresa'. He told officers: 'I put Arthur in that position, I'm accountable for it. I don't believe anyone else is. 'I put Arthur in that position and I have to deal with that. I know it's a long way off but I'm guilty, I make no bones of it. 'I don't want other people to suffer for my ignorance, my neglect.'