A mother accused of murdering her three-year-old son has told a jury he was starved of oxygen during his birth.
Christina Robinson, 30, is on trial for murdering her son, Dwelaniyah, at the family home in Bracken Court, Ushaw Moor, Durham, in November 2022.
She denies losing her temper and violently shaking the boy on the day he collapsed, never to recover, as well as a series of child cruelty offences said to have happened in the weeks before he died.
The jury at Newcastle Crown Court has been told they can consider an alternative manslaughter charge, plus four child cruelty charges, all of which she denies.
The prosecution said she deliberately burned him by immersing him in hot water; that she used slaps, or the back of her hand, hit him with a bamboo cane, spoons and other implements; that she failed to get him medical treatment; and that she abandoned him by leaving him alone at home.
