Distressing CCTV footage shows the moment a boy struggled to lift a light duvet just hours before he died from catastrophic head injuries.
Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, 6, was so frail on the morning of June 16 last year he is visibly unable to pick up his bedding off the floor of his living room in Shirley, Solihull.
A couple of hours after the clip was taken, he collapsed from head injuries which lead to his death, Birmingham Live reports.
Prosecutors at Coventry Crown Court have argued the youngster was subjected to weeks of “systematic abuse” at the hands of his father Thomas Hughes, 29, and step-mum Emma Tustin, 32.
They add that those weeks of cruelty culminated in one final, and ultimately fatal attack.
Both have denied murder and the multiple counts of child cruelty they’re accused of at Coventry Crown Court.
It was yesterday that the shocking video evidence from Tustin’s living room from the day of the youngster’s death was played to the court.
The jury watched as Arthur is seen stirring at 8.30am on June 16.
Describing the footage for the first time in the trial, Prosecutor Jonas Hankin QC, said: “Arthur wakes up and stands.
“He appears to be struggling to fold his duvet. He appears to be crying and struggling on his feet.
“He drags his duvet on the floor out of the living room.”
Arthur appears to stand up in stages, wearing the same onesie he had been for the fifth day in a row, it has been claimed.
The two-minute footage, which did not record sound, shows how he he finally gets to his feet and appears to stumble and limp towards the door.
Arthur edges out the room, tiny step by tiny step, and at one point loses grip of his bedding. After retrieving it in his hand he ushers himself out of the living room.
It is alleged by that stage Arthur’s body was feeble from being made to stand in isolation in the hallway for up to 14 hours a day, being repeatedly assaulted, deprived of food and water and likely by then ‘poisoned’ with salt.
Medical experts have told the jury his thymus – an organ in the immune system – had shrunk due to a ‘period of severe prolonged physical stress’ comparable to a child with cancer.
The court has also heard Arthur was allegedly made to sleep on the living room floor even on nights when Tustin’s children were staying elsewhere and their beds were free to use upstairs.