I don’t entirely disagree with this. Hughes didn’t strike the fatal blow to Arthur, and wasn’t even in the house when he died, yet was still found guilty.
I’m just not buying the whole “FS was so controlled by SB” argument. She didn’t seek medical attention for Star because she knew Star was covered in bruises and had injuries, not because SB wouldn’t “let” her. She wasn’t so controlled that she couldn’t go out drinking all the time. MOO
It’s not the same. There was ample evidence that TH had severely physically abused his son, both digital and from witnesses. He had made numerous threats to kill him and Arthur had repeatedly expressed fears his dad would kill him. Arthur had a blood clot in his brain, was salt poisoned, and would likely have died at some point. Either one of them could have killed him, and based on past patterns of abuse, TH is very lucky that ET happened to attack Arthur that day, or it likely would have been TH charged with murder.
In contrast, there is no evidence that FS deliberately injured Star, and there’s no evidence that she knew SB was doing so before the 12th-14th of September.
Social services were onto FS, and her grandparents were credible option for social services to place Star with. Her half brother had been removed and placed with her grandparents, so it was a risk that was real to her. She was terrified of them taking Star away and back to her grandparents. SB played on this and told her to keep Star away from most of her family. It would have made sense to FS.
When asking SB to delete photos of Star so that social services didn’t see her injuries, and SB asked which ones, FS described ones from accidental injuries. This is where she thought the bruises came from.
In thousands upon thousands of messages, not a single one before the 12th-14th September shows that FS thought Star was being assaulted.
When FS went out, SB would sometimes bombard her with hundreds of texts, and one time she turned up and dragged her into the car and drove away. FS had to do 12 hour facetimes to prove she was alone.
This behaviour going on and off from SB is part of the mind games, not evidence that FS wasn’t controlled.
Much of the control was because FS immediately defers to and trusts those more intelligent than herself, rather than FS being controlled by SB terrorising her. Although many witnesses have described being frightened of SB and what she would do.