Mother found guilty of murdering her two children faces 34 years
A WOMAN who killed her son and daughter in a Spanish hotel room has been found guilty of their “abominable” murders.
Lianne Smith, 45, admitted smothering 11-month-old Daniel and Rebecca, five, with a plastic bag at the Miramar Hotel in Lloret de Mar on the Costa Brava in May 2010.
A court in Girona, north-east Spain, yesterday found her guilty of murder after deciding she was criminally responsible.
Smith had claimed she had been in a state of “psychiatric disturbance” and suffering insurmountable fear when the tragedy happened.
She had fled her home in Barcelona as police pursued her partner Martin Smith, 46. He was extradited the day of the killings and later jailed for 16 years for child-sex offences last year but hanged himself in his cell in January.
Wearing a dark top, black trousers and flip flops, Smith remained calm when the verdict was read out.
Victor Pillado Quintas, for the prosecution, then asked for her to be jailed for a total of 34 years.
Judge Adolfo Garcia Morales is expected to release a written sentence in the coming weeks.
Smith had been seeking an acquittal. But the jury rejected her claim that she was “totally disturbed” or she was so scared she could not be expected to act in any other way when she committed the murders.
Jenifer Lahoz Abos, for the defence, had asked for a maximum sentence of three-and-a-half
For more offers visit: www.scotsman.com/ReaderTravel years in prison. She asked the judge to consider Smith’s admission to police that she killed her children as a mitigating factor
After her partner was deported to the UK, Smith thought British social services were in Spain to take the children away from her.
Giving evidence during the trial, psychiatric experts said Smith was convinced that killing her children was the only solution available to her.
The court heard that after spending two days with Daniel and Rebecca at the Miramar, Smith suffocated them as they slept on the night of 17 May 2010. First she smothered her son with a plastic bag and immediately afterwards used the same bag to kill her daughter.
Smith then tried to take her own life several times, before going down to the reception at 1:30pm the following day and asked for police and an ambulance to be called.
She let an officer from Lloret de Mar local police into the room, pointed to a bed where the dead children lay covered by sheets and confessed to killing them.