A 'wicked' father bought himself an ice cream as he made his six-year-old son stand still in a fluffy onesie on a 'baking hot day', a murder trial has heard.
Thomas Hughes, 29, subjected Arthur Labinjo-Hughes to a 'persistent campaign of cruelty' and 'relished in his distress' during lockdown, a jury was told.
Arthur died of an unsurvivable brain injury on June 16 last year after allegedly being murdered while alone with Hughes' partner, Emma Tustin, 32.
Prior to his death, the child was allegedly poisoned with salt, deprived of food and water and made to stand in a hallway 'hour after hour, day after day, week after week'.
Tustin and Hughes both deny murder at Coventry Crown Court.
Jonas Hankin QC, prosecuting, told the court Hughes is an 'utterly ruthless, unthinking, and pitiless' father, who struck Arthur 'over and over and over again'.
He added that Hughes is a 'short-tempered wicked man… who took out his frustrations on a defenceless, isolated child'.
Arthur Labinjo-Hughes (right), six, pictured with his dad Thomas Hughes (left), 29, who denies murder and four counts of child cruelty
Arthur had moved into the care of his father after his mother, Olivia Labinjo-Halcrow, was accused of killing her new partner in February 2019.
Hughes met mother-of-four Tustin online before the couple moved with Arthur into her home near Solihull in the West Midlands when the Government introduced a lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The court heard social workers were called to the home two months prior to Arthur's death after his grandmother raised concerns about bruises on his back, but no further action was taken.
Mr Hankin, though, told the court that Hughes plotted to deceive social workers by coaching Arthur and Tustin's son to lie about the injuries.
He said: 'You were worried as soon as someone saw him, the authorities would be involved and Emma was worried that if the authorities became involved she would lose her children.'
Giving evidence in his own trial, Hughes said he 'wanted to tell the truth' and felt 'uncomfortable', but was warned off by Tustin and claimed it was her who coerced the children into fabricating a story.
Arthur was found with 125 areas of bruising on his body on June 16, 2020.
Hughes and Tustin are alleged to have subjected him to 'violence and intimidation' in 'brutal and controlling circumstances' prior to his death.
Arthur was also found to have consumed so much salt upon his death that medics at Birmingham Children’s Hospital questioned their machinery.
