Mum hit tot with cane ‘for messing around with food’

A MOTHER accused of murdering her son told a jury she hit the threeyear-old with a bamboo cane to punish him for messing around with his food after she heard religious instruction online.

Christina Robinson, 30, who denies murder and child neglect following the death of her son Dwelaniyah at the family home, said she was following Bible quotes she had seen on Youtube.

She told jurors she is a follower of the Black Hebrew Israelites religion, which follows the teachings of the Old and New Testament and the Apocrypha, and which says that they are a Tribe of Israel who were displaced to Africa then sold into slavery.

She denies violently shaking her son at the family home in Bracket Court, Ushaw Moor, Durham.

It is alleged she had deliberately burned him and hit him with cane before murdering him.

She said the severe burns he suffered on up to 20% of his body were caused accidentally in the shower when she was washing him, on October 19, 2022.

The mother told Newcastle Crown Court she did use a piece of garden cane on him on the day he died – November 5 2022 – some hours before she claimed he went limp and collapsed while eating.

Robinson explained she had been listening and watching religious teachings online about chastisement.

She said: “They had quoted certain scriptures which did promote using the rod for correction, so it stemmed from there.”

When Jamie Hill KC, defending, asked what Dwelaniyah had done that needed to be disciplined, she replied: “He was messing about with his food, he was not eating.”

Robinson said she was a “complete beginner” as a follower of the religion then and she “did not have the understanding”, saying: “Honestly,

I thought I was doing the right thing.

“I was happy and eager to jump into something, it felt like I belonged, but I just got it wrong.

“I didn’t know what I was doing, I thought I was doing it right.

“I just really wanted to be obedient to God and I thought this was part of it.”

Robinson said she now realised she was “misguided” then.

She added: “I have had the opportunity to get into the Bible more and understand and get to know God more – my relationship with Him is great.

“Looking back I can see how much of a babe I was then – like a beginner.”

She denied violently shaking

Dwelaniyah or throwing him forcefully, saying she was pregnant at the time, adding: “I didn’t have any energy that day, my iron levels were low.”

She agreed she did not use the cane on the little boy in anger, and she explained: “I thought I was doing the right thing after hearing the scriptures which promoted the use of a rod for correction.”

She also told jurors she intended to have a large family with “double figure” children and had looked to use a sperm donor to get pregnant after the break-up of her marriage.

Robinson explained how her son was accidentally scalded when she washed him in the shower when the water suddenly became hot.

She explained she did not realise he was getting burned by the hot water as he normally screamed when he was showered.

Robinson did not seek medical attention for the burns, saying she treated them herself in the following days, even when she realised he was badly hurt.

She told jurors: “I already felt ashamed at the time when it happened, I didn’t mean to do this to him.

“As it got worse and worse, it just looked really bad. I knew it would look really bad.”

Earlier, she referred to how she had changed since the break-up of her marriage and the death of her son, having previously “always been the happy, smiling one”.

The trial continues.