A mother who beat her three-year-old son with a bamboo cane and immersed him in scalding water before shaking him to death has been jailed for his murder.
Christina Robinson, 30, exposed her boy Dwelaniyah to a “campaign of violence and cruelty” and excruciating pain over several weeks before she shook him to death at the family home in Bracken Court, Ushaw Moor, Durham, in November 2022.
A trial at Newcastle Crown Court heard Robinson, a member of the Black Hebrew Israelite religion, admitted hitting the little boy with a bamboo cane but claimed she was following a Bible scripture, which advised the use of the rod for the “correction” of children.
She also deliberately immersed him in scalding water, causing severe burns that left him in agony.
Robinson did not seek medical help as safeguarding concerns would have been obvious if a health worker saw him.
After the toddler’s violent death at the hands of his mother, investigators found a broken cane in her house, which had traces of his skin and blood on it. Forensic scientists also detected blood stains on Dwelaniyah’s teddy bear as well as in different rooms in the family home.
Robinson, originally from Tamworth, Staffordshire, was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 25 years on Friday, after she was convicted of murder and four child cruelty charges at the same court in March.
Robinson was also convicted of child neglect after repeatedly leaving her children at home alone as she conducted an affair while her husband was several hundred miles away serving at an RAF base near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.
Passing sentence, Mr Justice Garnham said she was guilty of a gross abuse of trust as the victim’s mother.
The judge found that Robinson immersed her son in extremely hot water, causing burns to his lower limbs which affected 20 per cent of his body, after Dwelaniyah had soiled himself.
He told her: “You must have known the water was extremely hot, it must have been obvious.”
Despite the excruciating pain her son must have suffered in the days that followed, Robinson saw fit to cause further injury by beating him with a cane.
The judge said: “What must have gone through the mind of this little boy, being beaten with a cane by his mother, despite these terrible burns, does not bear thinking about.”
The judge accepted that when Robinson shook Dwelaniyah, causing fatal brain injuries, she did not intend to kill him. He also rejected claims that she was motivated by sadism, saying there was no evidence she took pleasure from inflicting pain.
But the judge said her mistreatment of Dwelaniyah in the last weeks of her son’s life was “appalling in the highest degree”. That was reflected in messages she sent to her boyfriend saying Dwelaniyah deserved a “major ass kicking”, that “he’s old enough to know better, so he’ll pay” and that “he’ll get what he deserves, no more, no less”.
Robinson represented herself and continues to deny she killed her son, saying: “I pray for the day when justice will be served.”
Following a three-week trial, the jury found that the defendant – who had told jurors she wanted to have a family with more than 10 children – caused a fatal brain injury to her son on 5 November 2022 while she was the only adult in the house.
It was more than 20 minutes before she dialled 999, first speaking to her husband on the phone despite him being 240 miles away serving with the RAF, and then using Google to look at how to resuscitate a child.
When the emergency services arrived, Robinson appeared calm as she explained her false version of events to a police officer while medics worked desperately on Dwelaniyah.
Despite their efforts at the scene, he could not be saved and probably died at the house, although further attempts to resuscitate him were made in hospital.
A post-mortem examination revealed he had been the victim of a series of assaults and had sustained a number of non-accidental injuries.
In his closing speech, Richard Wright KC, prosecuting, told the court Dwelaniyah “was subjected to a campaign of violence and cruelty by his mother for petty wrongs”.
Outside court following the sentencing hearing, Detective Chief Inspector Simon Turner said: “Dwelaniyah was a defenceless little boy who had his life ahead of him, but this was cruelly taken away his own mother – someone he should have been able to trust, someone who should have cared about him.
“We may never know why or what caused Christina Robinson to do what she did.
“Her actions are unforgivable and sadly nothing will bring Dwelaniyah back, but at least she is now facing the consequences of what she has done.”
