Christina Robinson guilty of son Dwelaniyah's murder

A woman has been found guilty of murdering her three-year-old son who she had severely scalded and caned.

Dwelaniyah Robinson was killed by a fatal head injury caused by a forceful shaking at his home near Durham in November 2022.

Christina Robinson, 30, had denied murder and child cruelty but was found guilty after a 17-day trial at Newcastle Crown Court.

She will be sentenced for her "sadistic cruelty" in May.

Warning - this article contains distressing content

Prosecutors said Dwelaniyah, who had more than 60 injuries, was regularly and "violently" punished by his mother, including being forced into scalding hot water 18 days before he died.

Robinson said her son had been burned accidentally but admitted striking him with a cane an hour before he collapsed at their home in Ushaw Moor on 5 November 2022.

She said she was following the Bible-based teachings of her religion, the Black Hebrew Israelites, which preached using a rod to correct a child.

Robinson, who grew up in Tamworth, Staffordshire, and Bulgaria before moving to the North East in 2020, said she believed she was "right" at the time but now realised she had been "misguided".

She admitted she did not seek medical help for Dwelaniyah's burns because she was "ashamed" and knew it would "look bad" for her.

Prosecutor Richard Wright KC said she killed Dwelaniyah after the injuries she had inflicted made her son an "inconvenience" or "irritant", but Robinson claimed the alleged motive made "no sense".

She represented herself for the final two days of her trial after sacking her legal team.

Robinson had said she wanted at least 10 children and was pregnant through a sperm donor at the time of Dwelaniyah's death, a secret she kept from her husband Gabriel Adu-Appau who was stationed with the RAF near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.

She was also having an affair with a man from Middlesbrough who she met online.

After a day and a half of deliberations, jurors found Robinson guilty of murder and four counts of child cruelty.

These covered the inflicting of the burns, failure to get medical help, striking him with a cane and abandoning him, the court having heard she would regularly leave the boy home alone while she went out to run errands or get her nails done.

Judge Mr Justice Garnham asked her if she would seek legal assistance ahead of sentencing, to which Robinson, who showed no emotion when the verdict was delivered, replied: "I will consider it."

The judge told her: "I advise you in the strongest possible terms to consider it very carefully, I think you need the assistance of competent counsel to deal with the sentencing."

He also thanked jurors and exempted them from further jury service for 20 years.

Det Ch Insp Simon Turner of Durham Police said the abuse inflicted on Dwelaniyah had been "horrific" and Robinson had left her son in "significant pain".

He said she "lied from the outset" and he was "pleased the jury has seen through her lies".

He said the case had affected everyone involved, adding: "My thoughts are with those who truly cared about Dwelaniyah.

"Sadly, nothing can bring him back, but hopefully today's verdict will provide some closure and allow them to grieve."

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