Jury out in trial of mother accused of murdering toddler

The jury has been sent out to consider verdicts in the trial of a mother accused of murdering her three-year-old son.

Christina Robinson denies murdering her son Dwelaniyah at the family home in Bracken Court, Ushaw Moor, Durham, by violently shaking him and causing a fatal brain injury in November 2022.

The 30-year-old also denies four child cruelty offences which are said to have happened in the weeks leading up to his death.

During the three-week trial, the Crown has claimed Robinson deliberately scalded the little boy as a punishment, that she hit him with spoons, slapped him and beat him with a bamboo cane, that she did not seek medical attention for his burns, and that she neglected him by leaving him alone at home.

Please do not find me guilty for something I have not done

Robinson, who is now representing herself after parting with her legal team, told the jury in her closing speech earlier on Tuesday: “Please do not find me guilty for something I have not done.”

She questioned the expert evidence about how her son died, claiming there was uncertainty about what happened to him, and pointed out he was “clumsy” and would bump into things.

Robinson, originally from Tamworth, Staffordshire, denied the claim that her son was an “inconvenience”, pointing out that she always wanted a large family.

She did accept that she used the cane on Dwelaniyah, describing it as a form of “correction”, but said she had been “misguided”, having heard a religious lesson online.

“My reasons behind it was simply that I believed I was doing the right thing, it is in the Bible,” the follower of the Black Hebrew Israelites religion said.

She said Dwelaniyah was burned accidentally while she washed him in the shower and that she did not seek medical attention for him because she was ashamed.

Mr Justice Garnham sent the jury out to start their deliberations and said they were under no pressure of time.