Arthur Labinjo-Hughes: Police officer's poem for murdered youngster chosen by family for memorial
A West Midlands Police Federation officer has spoken of being "truly humbled" that a poem she wrote to honour a murdered six-year-old has been chosen by the boy's family to feature on a memorial plaque.
The killing of young Arthur Labinjo-Hughes shocked the nation, including his hometown of Solihull in the West Midlands. His father and stepmother were jailed last year after a trial.
Police federation response officer Jess Davies, who lives in Solihull and whose own son is just five months older than Arthur, was deeply affected after following the trial closely and decided to write a poem to "give Arthur his identity back".
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.”
She wrote the poem after Arthur’s stepmother Emma Tustin and father Thomas Hughes were sentenced to a total of 50 years in jail between them.
“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.”
The memorial plaque has been placed in Cranmore Green, in Shirley, Solihull - near to the now-shuttered house in which Arthur was murdered.
Jess was also put forward to help with Government research, which should support the future of policing.
“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,” Jess said.
“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.”
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
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
