Christina Robinson, 30, admits hitting her son Dwelaniyah with a bamboo cane because the Bible told her she could chastise her child, Newcastle Crown Court has heard.

She denies child cruelty and murder following his collapse at the family home in Ushaw Moor, Durham, in November 2022.

On the second day of her trial, PCSO (police community support officer) Paul Gilroy, who responded to an emergency call at the home, said he arrived at a similar time to paramedics.

He saw a boy wearing a nappy with blood-stained bandages on his legs.

As paramedics worked on her son, Robinson watched on and did not say much, Mr Gilroy said.

When the ambulance crew asked her what had happened, she said she did not know, he recalled.

"She was really quite calm, seemingly unpanicked I would have said," the police support officer said.

Jamie Hill KC, defending, asked: "She was for the most part standing silently, watching what the paramedics were doing with the little boy on the floor?"

Mr Gilroy replied: "Yeah, that's correct."

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Dr Nicola Mullins worked with the Great North Air Ambulance Service and went to the house 19 minutes after the first paramedics had arrived.

Although Dwelaniyah was taken to hospital, she agreed when Richard Wright KC, prosecuting, said the little boy was essentially already dead while attempts to save him were made at the house.

The prosecution alleges Robinson inflicted a fatal head injury but claimed her son had choked while eating food.

She had previously deliberately scalded his legs and bottom, causing excruciating pain, but failed to seek medical attention for him, the jury has heard.

Jurors have heard Dwelaniyah was in Robinson's sole care as his father - the defendant's husband - was away serving with the RAF.

The trial continues.