A mother accused of murdering her three-year-old son has told jurors she wanted to have at least ten children.

Christina Robinson denies killing her son Dwelaniyah by violently shaking him at their home in Bracken Court, Ushaw Moor, Durham, in November 2022.

The 30-year-old is also accused of hitting him with a bamboo cane and deliberately scalding him, causing burns on his legs and buttocks, in the weeks before his death.

She denies murder and child cruelty.

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

Giving evidence, Robinson said her marriage to Gabriel Adu-Appau was failing after he joined the RAF and she looked into using a sperm donor after they “broke up”.

Jamie Hill KC, defending, asked how many children she wanted to have – to which she replied: “Double figures”. She also said she had been willing to be a surrogate mother for a friend.

Robinson said her husband usually carried out discipline in the house if both parents were present, and that he used shoes, a sandal, slippers, utensils or pieces of wood.

She told jurors 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”.

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.

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

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

The prosecution previously said burns covered as much as 20% of Dwelaniyah’s body and would have caused excruciating pain for several weeks.

Jurors have been shown paramedics’ body-cam footage as they tried to save the boy at the house, where Robinson said the youngster had hurt himself in the shower.

Dwelaniyah, whose heart had stopped beating, was taken to hospital but could not be saved.

On Wednesday, Robinson told the court her son was accidentally scalded when she washed him in the shower and the water suddenly became hot.

She said she did not realise he was getting burned by the water because he normally cried when he was showered.

Robinson did not seek medical attention for the burns, saying she treated them herself in the days following, 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.

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