Arthur Labinjo-Hughes: Memory blanket stitched from tributes

Football shirts, scarves and other memorabilia left as tributes to a murdered six-year-old boy have been crafted into a memory blanket.

Tributes were left at the Solihull home where Arthur Labinjo-Hughes died at the hands of his father and stepmother.

Emma Tustin was jailed for 29 years for murder and child cruelty and Thomas Hughes for 21 years for manslaughter.

The project's organiser said the blanket would now be given to Arthur's maternal grandmother.

Kerry Vines, 37, who lives a few doors from the Cranmore Road address in the West Midlands, said she wanted the scarves and flags left for the boy "to be put to good use" and for Arthur to "have something special".

She previously organised a vigil and balloon release near the house attended by hundreds of people.

The dozens of items had been gathered from the garden with the blessing of Arthur's grandmother, Madeleine Halcrow, she explained.

"I'm honoured she allowed me to do it for him."

After an appeal on social media, local seamstress Ellie Jones offered to stitch the memory blanket together.

The designer said she had made it mainly from Birmingham City Football Club tributes, describing it as "like a big jigsaw".

Arthur's story "really hit home to me," Ms Jones said, "so it was great really to be able to give something back knowing that I could have made a tiny little difference."

Arthur's beloved football club is to dedicate a home game each year to the murdered boy and is also planning a memorial garden in his name.

Ms Vines added she would often see Arthur when he would stop outside her house "to fuss the dog".

"I look out of the window and say goodnight and good morning every day now," she said.

"He was so beautiful and his smile was so contagious," she added.

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