A SOLIHULL police officer’s poem about ‘superhero’ Arthur Labinjo-Hughes has been used on a family memorial plaque in Shirley.
Jess Davies penned the poem to give the six-year-old, who was tragically killed by his stepmum Emma Tustin and father Thomas Hughes in 2020, a voice.
Jess, who lives in Solihull and whose son is just five months older than Arthur, says the incident had a real impact on her and, after following the trial closely, felt like she ‘got to know’ the young boy through the stories written in the media.
She said: “I just want to do something in his memory. I suppose in situations like these you feel so helpless.
“I think that in many cases involving the murder of someone, the victim can lose their identity in some way, they become a person who was murdered. I suppose I wanted to help give Arthur his identity back; I wanted to put into words who he was.
“While I never actually worked on the case myself, I felt like I got to know him through the stories I read. I started to learn all these little things about him. So I used snippets of those stories to create the poem.”
The memorial plaque has been placed in Cranmore Green, in Shirley – near to the now-shuttered house in which Arthur was murdered.
Jess said: “I made a donation to the charity set up in Arthur’s memory and sent the poem to the charity too. I said that I’d written it for his family and they could do what they wanted with it,” explained Jess.
“When I saw that they had placed my poem on his memorial plaque, I was touched and truly humbled that they had actually put it to use.
“It’s cases like this that remind us that we’re human too. As officers, we might put on a uniform but behind our uniforms we’re human, we have feelings.
“Following Arthur’s case has certainly made me change how I deal with jobs involving children, going forward. I’ll do all I can to prevent cases like these from happening again.”
With a clear passion for preventing such incidents from taking place again, Jess was also put forward to help with Government research, which should support the future of policing.
Jess is also hoping to run a marathon in memory of Arthur by fundraising for the charity set up in his name Arthur’s Angels.
Jess’s poem reads:
Arthur
Close your eyes and you’ll feel him near
The most magical story you’ll ever hear
A superhero with the biggest smile
He came into this world for a little while
How he loved his Squashies and football too
Singing keep right on to his boys in blue
The happiest soul with eyes so bright
The cheekiest smile, a sunny delight
Superheroes are real you see
They are here to look after you and me
They touch our hearts and light up the sky
But then we must all say goodbye
This superhero could only stay a while
Heaven needed his superhero smile
We mustn’t be sad for he has work to do
Little Arthur’s shining love on all of you
