Mother accused of murdering three-year-old son wanted more than 10 children

A mother accused of murdering her three-year-old son told jurors she wanted to have a family with more than 10 children.

Christina Robinson, 30, denies causing a fatal injury to her son Dwelaniyah by violently shaking him at the family home in Bracken Court, Ushaw Moor, Durham, in November 2022.

She is accused of hitting him with a bamboo cane and deliberately scalding him, causing excruciating burns to his legs and buttocks, in the weeks before his death.

The married defendant, who is originally from Tamworth, Staffordshire and who grew up for a period in Bulgaria, denies murder and a child cruelty charge.

Newcastle Crown Court has heard she claims she was allowed to chastise the little boy according to the teachings of the Bible.

Giving evidence in the witness box, Robinson said her marriage to Gabriel Adu-Appau was failing after he decided to join the RAF.

She told the jury she looked into using a sperm donor after the relationship “broke up”.

Jamie Hill KC, defending, asked how many children she wanted to have.

“Double figures,” she replied.

She also said she was prepared to be a surrogate mother for a friend, saying she was “very fertile”, but in the end, it was not necessary as the woman got pregnant herself.

Mr Hill asked who did the discipline in the house if both parents were there and the defendant answered that it was her husband.

She claimed he used shoes, a sandal, slippers, utensils or pieces of wood to discipline in the house.

Robinson told the jury that after one occasion, she had told her husband “that was unnecessary” but that “it was as if what I had said did not matter”.

Robinson said she had discussed physical punishments with her husband, who grew up in Ghana, and she told the court: “He explained to me and told me stories about how things were done where he came from.”

The court has heard Mr Adu-Appau was away from the family home, serving on an RAF base near Aylesbury when Dwelaniyah was fatally injured.

Robinson said she had four miscarriages but her husband only knew about two of them, adding: “He wasn’t interested, he didn’t care that they died.”

She added: “It was a hard time for me, and I never have and I never will recover from them.”

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 cried 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.”

The trial continues.