• Lianne Smith 'suffocated children Rebecca, five, and Daniel, 11 months, with a plastic bag' days after partner had been arrested on paedophilia charges
  • Court shown video of mother calmly explaining how she used plastic shopping bag to suffocate her children
  • Martin Smith was later found hanged while serving 16 years for rape, attempted rape and indecent assault

By Sam Greenhill
UPDATED: 18:36 EST, 18 June 2012


A Spanish courtroom fell silent today as a British mother described calmly how she killed her two children after treating them to a ‘perfect’ beach holiday.

In a video interview with police, Lianne Smith demonstrated how she used a plastic shopping bag to suffocate Rebecca, five, and 11-month-old Daniel in their hotel beds on the Costa Brava.

As Daniel struggled for breath, she drew the bag closed around his neck and ‘did not stop squeezing’ until he was dead, Girona provincial court in north-east Spain heard.

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Calm: In a video interview with police shown in court, Lianne Smith demonstrated how she used a plastic shopping bag to suffocate Rebecca, five, and 11-month-old Daniel in their hotel beds on the Costa Brava

Calm: In a video interview with police shown in court, Lianne Smith demonstrated how she used a plastic shopping bag to suffocate Rebecca, five, and 11-month-old Daniel in their hotel beds on the Costa Brava

Charges: Miss Smith, who is originally from Lichfield, in Staffordshire, is accused of killing the youngsters in their sleep after booking into the hotel before spending the night with their bodies

Charges: Miss Smith, who is originally from Lichfield, in Staffordshire, is accused of killing the youngsters in their sleep after booking into the hotel before spending the night with their bodies

Then she did the same to her daughter before giving her children a cuddle and spending the night beside their bodies.

She said she tried to kill herself before telling the hotel receptionist to summon police.

The interview officers recorded in May 2010 in the room next to the one where the killings took place hours earlier was made public for the first time yesterday.

Proceedings: Miss Smith said in the video that she tried to kill herself before telling the hotel receptionist to summon police

Proceedings: Miss Smith said in the video that she tried to kill herself before telling the hotel receptionist to summon police

Asked what she had done by police Miss Smith replied matter-of-factly: 'I ended the lives of my two children'

Asked what she had done by police Miss Smith replied matter-of-factly: 'I ended the lives of my two children'

Prosecution witnesses include two members of hotel staff - a cleaner and a receptionist - and nine police officers who saw Miss Smith at the scene where the children were killed.

Prosecution witnesses include two members of hotel staff - a cleaner and a receptionist - and nine police officers who saw Miss Smith at the scene where the children were killed

THE TV PSYCHIC PAEDOPHILE WHO TRIED TO HYPNOTISE HIS VICTIM

Martin Smith, who once appeared on Living TV’s Most Haunted show, was jailed for 16 years having been found guilty on 11 counts of rape, attempted rape, indecency with a child and indecent assault.

At his trial in 2010, the court heard how he used violence and hypnotism to abuse his victim for almost a decade, starting in May 1995 when she was seven. What could not be reported at the time was that his victim was none other than Sarah, Lianne Smith's own daughter.

Sarah later waived her right to anonymity to tell the disturbing story of how her 'controlling' stepfather was a ruthless abuser who turned her mother into a stranger. By the time Sarah was ten, Smith had started to use hypnotism to try to put her in a trance before raping her.

‘He’d say to me: “You are getting sleepier and sleepier”, and I’d pretend to go along with it because he was going to do whatever he wanted to me anyway,’ she says. ‘Afterwards he would count me back out of the trance and say something like “you’ve had a dream” or “you’ve been somewhere nice and warm”. ‘He’d finish by asking: “So what have you been doing?” and I’d say: "Oh, I’ve had a nice dream”, and he would think that was great and send me off to bed. ‘I think he hoped I wouldn’t remember the abuse, because if I didn’t know it had happened, he didn’t need to feel guilty.’

Smith fled to Barcelona with Leanne in 2007 after he was arrested and questioned by police over allegations he had sexually abused his step-daughter. They travelled to Spain with their daughter, Rebecca, three, and began building a new life eventually setting up a business among the thriving expat community In Barcelona.

But police never gave up the hunt and  Smith, from North Shields, was tracked down in May 2010 and extradited back to the UK to face charges.

Smith, 45, from Lichfield, Staffordshire, showed no emotion as the jury watched it.

She is asked what she had done and replied matter-of-factly: ‘I ended the lives of my two children.

'Then I lay in the bed beside them, I gave them a cuddle. I talked to them until about 9 o’clock then I went into the bathroom.’

Smith – a former manager at Cumbria county council’s children’s services department – said that during the night she wrote notes to her children.

One said: ‘I love you very much. I wanted to give you a lovely life together. I’m very sorry.’

Smith claims she killed her children because she feared they would be taken from her by social services after her partner – TV psychic Martin Smith to whom she wasn’t married – was arrested on child sex charges.

The couple fled to Spain in December 2007 but in May 2010 Martin Smith was tracked down and deported to face trial in the UK.

Obsessed with the idea that social services were coming to get her children, Lianne Smith said she took them to the 53-a-night Hotel Miramar in Lloret de Mar.

She began to cry as she told officers: ‘I gave the children a three-day holiday, a perfect holiday. We were very, very happy.

‘[But] it was the end of the road. I knew they were going to take my children to England.’

The jury must decide whether Smith is criminally responsible for the deaths. The prosecution is calling for her to be jailed for 38 years.

The defence wants her to be acquitted on mental health grounds.

Martin Smith was convicted of repeatedly raping Lianne Smith’s daughter from a previous relationship, Sarah Richardson, when she was a child. Sarah, now 24, waived her anonymity after Smith was jailed last year in Manchester.

He hanged himself in prison last January.

The court yesterday heard that it was not clear who was the father of Rebecca and Daniel.

The trial continues.

Lianne Smith, pictured with her son Daniel, has been placed on suicide watch after learning of her partner's hanging in prison

Lianne Smith, pictured with her son Daniel, has been placed on suicide watch after learning of her partner's hanging in prison

Martin Smith, 46, (left) was discovered in his cell by wardens at Strangeways prison. Rebecca, five, along with her 11-month-old brother Daniel, were found dead at the Miramar Hotel in Lloret de Mar on the Costa Brava

Lianne Smith, pictured arriving at Girona prison in Spain after she was formally accused of the murder. Right, the apartment block in Barcelona where Lianne and Martin lived

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