Mum 'Suffocated Her Kids With Plastic Bag'
12:58am UK, Saturday May 22, 2010
Martin Brunt, crime correspondent, in Lloret de Mar
A British mother admitted killing her two young children by suffocating
them with a plastic bag in a Spanish hotel, a court has heard.
Lianne Smith, 43, is currently being held in a Girona jail to await trial over the deaths, following the hearing in Blanes, on the Costa Brava, earlier.
Rebecca, five, and her 11-month-old brother Daniel were found dead at the Hotel Miramar, in the seaside resort of Lloret de Mar, on Tuesday.
The children died after Smith's partner Martin Smith, 45, was extradited to Britain to face child sex charges.
Lianne Smith being transferred to a jail in Girona
Reports in Spain suggested the siblings were killed on Monday and that their mother - now charged with murder - spent the night in the hotel room with their bodies.
Lianne Smith, who is believed to have run a nursery in Barcelona, was worried the Spanish authorities would take her children away and she had planned to kill herself, reports in Spain said.
Rebecca Smith
But it was suggested she could not face being parted from the youngsters.
A court statement issued later referred to Smith's suspicion that social services would remove her children.
The statement continued: "Smith spontaneously declared that she had killed her two children." It said Smith had suffocated her children with a plastic bag.
After the hearing, the former manager at Cumbria County Council's children's services department was seen looking tired and drawn as she was led into prison in Girona.
The events unfolded just two days after her partner and father of the children appeared before Carlisle magistrates charged with 13 sexual offences and jumping bail.
Martin and Lianne Smith
Martin Smith, originally from North Shields, was one of Britain's most wanted men until his arrest by Spanish police earlier this month.
At the time, he was suspected of a series of child sex crimes, including rape, gross indecency, indecent assault and attempted rape.
Post-mortem examinations have been carried out on the siblings, but the results have not been made public.