Christina Robinson trial: Doctor says Dwelaniyah's extensive burns looked like 'inflicted injury'

A three-year-old boy had suffered such extensive burns "he should have been admitted to a burns unit” in the weeks before his alleged murder, a court has heard.

Christina Robinson is accused of causing a fatal head injury to her son Dwelaniyah at the family home in Ushaw Moor, near Durham, in November 2022.

The 30-year-old is also accused of deliberately scalding his legs and buttocks and hitting him with a bamboo cane.

She denies murder and child cruelty.

Dr Lekshmi Nair, a consultant paediatrician at the University Hospital of North Durham, helped to treat Dwelaniyah on 5 November 2022. She also examined his body after he was declared dead.

She told Newcastle Crown Court on Monday (4 March) that she formed the opinion that the boy's body had “extensive burns, scratches and bruises of a non accidental nature which indicated neglect”.

The court has previously heard a recording of Robinson telling Dr Nair that the burns had been caused when he was messing about in the shower a few weeks earlier.

However, the doctor told the court that “the appearance of the burns is not consistent with the explanation given by the mother,” adding, “they have the appearance of an inflicted injury”.

She explained that “there were no splash marks” on his body, adding: “If he’d been playing with the shower I would have expected splash marks.”

Dr Nair also said there were “very neat lines on the outside of the burn” which, she said suggested it was an “inflicted injury”.

She described the burns as “indicative of an immersion injury, where the child is held in hot, boiling water, causing those burns”.

In addition, she said a culture from a swab of the burns grew bacteria which showed that it was “it was an unclean and untreated wound”.

She told the court that a child with such extensive burns “should have been admitted to a burns unit”.

The court has been told that Robinson admits beating Dwelaniyah with a cane because the Bible told her she "should chastise her child”.

Dr Nair said that there were “linear marks” on his body which were “suggestive of being struck by a long implement with a high velocity".

She said there were “several of these marks on his body” including on his right shin, his abdomen and on his back.

The trial continues.

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