A British mother who killed her young son and daughter in a Spanish hotel room was “astonishingly calm” when she showed police their bodies, a court heard today.
Lianne Smith, 45, has admitted smothering five-year-old Rebecca and 11-month-old Daniel with a plastic bag at the Miramar Hotel in Lloret de Mar on the Costa Brava in May 2010.
She is on trial at the Provincial Court in Girona, north-east Spain, so a jury can determine whether she is criminally responsible for the deaths.
Her defence claims she was in a state of “psychiatric disturbance” and suffering insurmountable fear when the tragedy happened. She had fled to the hotel with her children after her partner Martin Smith was charged with child sex offences. If found guilty, she faces 38 years in prison. The police officers who attended the scene, who were identified to the court by their badge numbers, said Smith seemed calm when she confessed to the killings the day after carrying them out.
Agent 504 of Lloret de Mar local police said: “First I found a baby and then a little girl, and I could see they were both dead. The woman was calm, she was not saying anything.”
Agent 2681 from the Mossos d’Esquadra, the Catalan police force, said: “I was shocked by her attitude, the astonishing calmness and coldness she displayed.” The case continues.
