A six-year-old boy had such severe salt poisoning that he was unable to ‘put up much of a fight’ before an alleged fatal attack, a doctor has claimed.

Arthur Labinjo-Hughes had more than six spoons worth of salt in his system when he died in June last year, Coventry Crown Court heard.

Thomas Hughes, 29, is accused of killing his son alongside then girlfriend Emma Tustin, 32, in the West Midlands.

The pair deny murder and multiple counts of child cruelty following the death at home in Shirley, Solihull.

Consultant pathologist Dr Roger Malcolmson told the trial on Tuesday that it was ‘highly unlikely’ the boy poisoned himself before the ‘unsurvivable’ brain injury.

Dr Malcolmson stated it was ‘more likely’ that Arthur was ‘repeatedly poisoned with salt-contaminated food or fluids’ in ‘brutal controlling circumstances’.

But he suggested it was unlikely that the boy was given a single portion of salt shortly before he collapsed on June 16, 2020.

Arthur died in hospital in the early hours of the following day.

Asked whether the raised sodium levels, combined with dehydration, would have contributed to Arthur being ‘less physically able to resist a fatal assault’, the expert witness said: ‘That’s my suggestion, yes.

‘If he had been suffering health side effects from being poisoned to the extent he is likely to have been in this case, then yes he may not have been able to put up much of a fight.’

Dr Malcolmson had previously told jurors that Arthur suffered ‘severe’ eye injuries, including a detached retina, ‘very rarely seen’ in child head trauma cases.

He described the issues as ‘towards the extreme end’ of the scale, blaming them on ‘severe blunt force trauma’ to Arthur’s head.

Dr Malcolmson again suggested that the cause of Arthur’s death was a head injury which could not have been self-inflicted, because the boy would not have been able to generate enough force himself.

He told the court: ‘At minimum, there has been a very significant head impact, there may have also been a shaking-type mechanism.’

The court also heard that Arthur’s left kidney was ‘extremely small’ while his thymus lymphoid organ in his chest appeared to have shrunk.

Dr Malcolmson stated that the latter was likely caused by ‘severe and or prolonged physical stress’ and claimed it would have been brought on by ‘repeated and sustained abuse’.

Tustin and Hughes are accused of isolating Arthur from the family, assaulting him, depriving him of water and making him stand in the hallway, ‘where he spent up to 14 hours a day’.

On the day before he was allegedly murdered, following months of alleged, cruelty, one witness previously told the court Arthur appeared to be ‘skeletal’, had shaking legs and collapsed into a car.

Tustin has admitted one child cruelty offence but denies three others. Hughes denies all counts against him.

The trial continues.

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