Arthur Labinjo-Hughes can finally be laid to rest after his father agreed to release his body – 18 months after he was murdered.

The six-year-old boy has been left at the mortuary where his post-mortem was carried out 16 months amid a legal dispute over who had the right to bury him.

On Friday his dad Thomas Hughes was jailed for 21 years after being found guilty of manslaughter, following a campaign torture against the boy over lockdown last year.

He was regularly starved, beaten, fed poisonous quantities of salt, and made to stand to attention in the hallway for up to 14 hours a day while her own biological children were treated with love and affection.

His stepmum Emma Tustin was handed a life sentence with a minimum of 29 years after being convicted of murder.

Defenceless Arthur suffered ‘unsurvivable’ brain injuries after smashing Arthur’s head against the hallway wall in June at their home in Solihull, West Midlands.

As the boy’s family disputed over laying Arthur to rest, Thomas was said to have been ‘passive’ throughout.

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But now he wants to offer a ‘tiny scrap of peace ‘to the boy’s biological mother, Olivia Labinjo-Halcrow, according to his barrister.

Bernard Richmond QC, said his client wanted to leave the issue of Arthur’s burial to his mum’s family – only stepping in when they could not agree, BirminghamLive reports.

He added: ‘I have spoke to him and said this can’t go on. He has instructed me to say that Arthur’s remains, after a service with his family, must go to his mother’s family for her to have a funeral and she must have control of his ashes.

‘He does hope he can give Olivia a tiny scrap of peace.’

Labinjo-Halcrow is currently in prison after stabbing her partner to death in a ‘drink and drug-fuelled rage’ in 2019.

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Having met Tustin through the Plenty of Fish dating site, Hughes and Arthur moved into her home in March 2020 when the campaign of torture began.

Questions remain over how Arthur’s desperately sad case managed to slip through the cracks.

Social services had been to see the boy two months before his death and concluded there were ‘no safeguarding concerns’.

Now a national inquiry is being launched to determine what improvements are needed by the agencies that came into contact with Arthur.

Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said ‘no government can legislate for evil’ but ministers would ‘take action to stop it whenever we can’.

The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) has confirmed that the sentences of Arthur’s parents would be reviewed, following claims they were too lenient.

Arthur’s granddad, Peter Halcrow, 61, said ‘no punishment could ever be enough’ and has called for the pair to be locked up indefinitely.

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