A mother who beat her three-year-old son with a bamboo cane after claiming the Bible advised the use of the rod weeks before she murdered him has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 25 years.

Christina Robinson, 30, had exposed her son Dwelaniyah to cruelty and excruciating pain over several weeks before she shook him to death at the family home in Durham in November 2022.

Mr Justice Garnham said she was guilty of a gross abuse of trust as the victim’s mother.

A trial at Newcastle Crown Court heard Robinson had deliberately immersed him in scalding water, causing severe burns that left him in agony.

She did not seek medical help as safeguarding concerns would have been obvious if a health worker saw him.

Robinson, a member of the Black Hebrew Israelite religion, admitted hitting the boy with a bamboo cane but claimed she was following a Bible scripture which advised the use of the rod for the “correction” of children.

The defendant, originally from Tamworth, Staffordshire, was convicted of murder and four child cruelty charges which happened at the family home in Bracken Court, Ushaw Moor, Durham, following a trial in March.