Dwelaniyah Robinson death: The boy scalded, caned and murdered by his mum

Christina Robinson has been found guilty of murdering her three-year-old son Dwelaniyah, who had suffered more than 60 injuries including large excruciating burns to his lower body, in November 2022. What happened to him and how did she try to hide what she had done?

Christina Robinson said she did her best for her son.

What then, prosecutors asked, would her worst look like?

Dwelaniyah suffered agonising injuries in the weeks before his death for which no medical help was sought, was religiously caned for "disobedience" and would regularly be left home alone while his mother went shopping, gave lifts to her illicit boyfriend or attended nail appointments.

At her murder trial in Newcastle Crown Court prosecutor Richard Wright KC said Robinson had "failed her son completely".

Robinson replied: "I did my best for my son because I did not intentionally do anything to him."

She also intentionally did not seek medical help for her son, she admitted.

Robinson said it took three days for her to realise the severity of her son's scalding injuries.

They were caused, she told jurors, on 19 October when she was rinsing him with the showerhead after he soiled himself and the water got hotter than she was expecting.

By the time she became aware of the extent of his injures, she was "ashamed" and went into "care mode", knowing it would "look really bad" for her.

"Unfortunately I put my feelings first," she told jurors, after Mr Wright accused her of prioritising herself over her son's health and happiness.

Robinson ordered bandages, dressings, salves and creams online, but it was clear Dwelaniyah was in agony.

Neighbours reported hearing a child "whimpering" most nights and Robinson's lover, Chisom Innocent Onoja, said he saw Dwelaniyah grimacing with pain and struggling to move.

Health experts said had Dwelaniyah been hospitalised, he would have needed a general anaesthetic every day just for the changing of his bandages.

Mr Wright said his burns were "textbook" injuries of a child deliberately immersed in boiling hot water and Robinson did it as a punishment for the child soiling himself.

Robinson said that was simply not true, that a "toilet training accident did not warrant punishment".

Mr Wright said she hid him away knowing she would have serious questions to answer.

It was that same drive to protect herself that saw her fail to call an ambulance for more than 20 minutes after her son collapsed and stopped breathing at their home in Ushaw Moor near Durham on 5 November.

She said she simply didn't think to call 999, that it was a "heated situation" and she was panicking, too focused on performing CPR on Dwelaniyah while messaging her husband and making internet searches to make sure she was doing it right.

Robinson claimed he choked on a cheese bap and she was "completely clueless" as to how he died.

Doctor and pathologists told a very different story.

They found deep bruise marks on his elbows, suggesting he had been grabbed and fatal brain injuries caused by a forceful shaking.

She was adamant she did not shake her son, telling jurors she physically could not have as she had low iron at the time which reduced her energy and strength.

Yet she had the energy to strike him with a cane an hour or so before his collapse, Mr Wright said.

"It didn't take much energy," she replied.

She told jurors she had only hit him with the cane on that one occasion, although she could not recall how many times she struck him or how he reacted.

The boy had at least 19 so-called tramline wounds, indicative of having been caused by the bamboo cane Robinson admitted using.

She was a new follower of the Black Hebrew Israelites and that Saturday was her Sabbath, a day dedicated to God in which she watched hours of Youtube videos of scripture discussions.

Robinson was excited and eager to follow the Bible-based religion of her "bloodline", she said, so when she heard about the need to use the "rod for correction" she embraced that too.

Dwelaniyah was "messing about" with his food so she punished him by striking him across the chest with the cane, which she had bought to assist in her gardening.

"I just really wanted to be obedient to God and I thought this was part of it," she said.

She was asked by her-then barrister Jamie Hill KC, whom she later sacked as the trial neared its conclusion, how she felt about her actions.

She did not say that she regretted the pain she had caused her son.

Instead she spoke only of herself.

"I believe I was misguided," she said, adding: "I've had the opportunity to get into the Bible more and learn more and understand and get to know God more.

"My relationship with him is, yeah, it's great.

"Now looking back I can see how much of a babe I was then. A beginner."

The court heard she grew up in Tamworth, Staffordshire, with her mum and three siblings.

At the age of 16, shortly before she was due to take her GCSEs in which she was predicted As through to Cs, her family moved to Bulgaria so her mother could be "mortgage free".

Robinson worked as a mobile hairdresser before the family returned to Tamworth when she was 23.

She trained to be a personal trainer and got a job in a gym, but stopped working after she fell pregnant with Dwelaniyah, who was born at Good Hope hospital in Sutton Coldfield in August 2019.

Robinson had met his father, 33-year-old Gabriel Adu-Appau, on a dating site and the pair married and moved to Newcastle six months after their son's birth.

"I had always wanted to live up north," she said, in explanation of their decision to relocate.

After a period in Newcastle they moved to Bracken Court, in Ushaw Moor, where they struck neighbours as a happy, normal family, friendly but private.

Dwelaniyah appeared to be a well-behaved and quiet boy, always impeccably dressed, although in voice notes to Mr Onoja, Robinson said he was a troublemaker who deserved a "major ass-kicking".

Robinson initially told police her marriage was fine, but later told jurors it was a wreck.

She wanted a "very large family" with children in the "double figures", but her husband only wanted the one and said he "didn't care" when she suffered a series of miscarriages, Robinson claimed.

She said he was more interested in his career as demonstrated by his joining the RAF and moving to Aylesbury, at which time she said she was "completely done" with the marriage.

She started an affair with 27-year-old Mr Onoja from Middlesbrough, whom she met on the same dating app as she found her husband, and in September 2022 Robinson became pregnant through a sperm donor.

Robinson lied to Mr Onoja about her martial status and to her husband, not even telling him she had fallen pregnant.

Lies were a common theme.

She lied to the police about Dwelaniyah's scald injuries, claiming he had caused them himself whilst he was messing around in the shower.

She lied to detectives about using physical punishment, saying she had only ever slapped his bottom and never used a weapon against him.

She lied to the police about the state of her marriage, saying it was fine before later claiming in court they were separated.

She told jurors she only ever used a cane to chastise Dwelaniyah, then later remembered she also used serving spoons.

Robinson admitted she had lied repeatedly but said she did so because she was "afraid" she would not be believed.

Robinson insisted everything she told the jury was the truth.

They obviously disagreed and sided with Mr Wright.

Dwelaniyah died after being subjected to a campaign of "sadistic cruelty" and violent punishment from the woman who was supposed to protect him.

She was also found guilty of four child cruelty offences.

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