Dwelaniyah Robinson's death ended mum's 'sadistic cruelty' campaign

Dwelaniyah Robinson was fatally injured at his home near Durham in 2022

A boy died at the end of a campaign of "sadistic cruelty" and punishment by his mother, a murder trial has heard.

Dwelaniyah Robinson was fatally shaken after being deliberately and extensively scalded and caned, prosecutors told Newcastle Crown Court.

Christina Robinson, 30, denies murdering her son, manslaughter and four child cruelty offences.

In his closing speech, prosecutor Richard Wright KC said the "liar" mum had shown "remorseless arrogance".

Warning - this article contains distressing content.

The trial has heard Dwleaniyah suffered agonising burns to his lower body at his home in Ushaw Moor near Durham on 19 October.

Prosecutors said she deliberately immersed him in boiling hot water as punishment for soiling himself, but she said he was injured accidentally when the shower got too hot.

She accepted she did not seek medical treatment for him but said she was "ashamed" and went into "care mode" wanting to treat him herself.

Christina Robinson denies murder, manslaughter and four counts of child cruelty

On 5 November, about an hour or so before he died, she admitted caning him across the chest in line with the teachings of her religion, the Black Hebrew Israelites.

She said it was punishment for "disobedience" as he was playing with his food.

Mr Wright said there were at least 19 injuries consistent with a caning, but Ms Robinson said she could not remember how many times she struck him.

He collapsed at about 16:00 with Ms Robinson claiming he choked on a cheese bap.

However, pathologists said he had suffered a fatal head injury consistent with having been forcefully shaken.

'Incapable of belief'

In his speech to jurors, Mr Wright said Dwelaniyah had suffered at least 60 injuries and his death was "the culmination of a campaign of quite deliberate cruelty and violence meted out as a punishment".

He said Dwelaniyah had been subjected to "sadistic cruelty" from the "person who should have been protecting him for days, weeks or even months before his death".

Mr Wright said because of the injuries she had inflicted, her son became an "inconvenience" and "irritant" to her.

"She had put him in this condition and so she became trapped in the house with him," Mr Wright said, adding she had "hidden him away".

Robinson admitted to jurors she had told numerous lies to police but claimed she was "afraid" she would not be believed.

Mr Wright said she was "simply incapable of belief", adding: "She is and has demonstrated herself to be a practiced and determined liar who throughout has put protecting herself above everything else.

"You cannot rely upon anything she says as being truthful and honest."

'Put herself first'

He said she still maintained she had "made some mistakes but was genuinely doing her best for her son at each and every turn".

Mr Wright said she was not only "deliberately dishonest" but had also shown a "remorseless arrogance".

He said the immense pain Dwelaniyah burns would have caused "every moment of every day" would have been "absolutely obvious" but she did not get him help.

Mr Wright said she had a choice, namely "put [Dwelaniyah] first and face the consequences and the questions and the searching looks from the medics and take him for help, or put yourself first and do nothing and let him carry on in that pain and suffering".

Instead she chose the "further deliberate infliction" of suffering by not getting him any professional treatment, the prosecutor said.

Ms Robinson, originally from Tamworth in Staffordshire, has dismissed her legal team and chosen to represent herself.

The trial continues.