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 life with a minimum term of 25 years. Christina Robinson, 30, subjected her son Dwelaniyah to a 'campaign of violence and cruelty' over several weeks leading up to his death in November 2022 at the family home in Ushaw Moor, Durham.
Newcastle Crown Court heard that Robinson, a member of the Black Hebrew Israelite religion, claimed she was following a Bible scripture that advised using a rod for the 'correction' of children. She also deliberately immersed the toddler in scalding water, causing severe burns to 20 per cent of his body, and did not seek medical help for fear of safeguarding concerns.
After Dwelaniyah's death, investigators found a broken cane with traces of his skin and blood, and blood stains on his teddy bear and in various rooms. Robinson was convicted of murder and four child cruelty charges, as well as child neglect for leaving her children home alone while conducting an affair.
Sentencing, Mr Justice Garnham said Robinson was guilty of a 'gross abuse of trust' and that her mistreatment of Dwelaniyah was 'appalling in the highest degree'. The judge noted that despite the excruciating pain from the burns, Robinson beat him with a cane, and that she did not intend to kill him when she shook him, but the abuse was severe.
Robinson, who represented herself and continues to deny killing her son, dialled 999 more than 20 minutes after the fatal shaking, first calling her husband and searching online for resuscitation methods. Emergency services found her calm and giving a false account. A post-mortem revealed multiple non-accidental injuries.
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 by his own mother – someone he should have been able to trust.'
