Mother held in custody after her 1 & 5 y/o children are found dead in hotel room

[lulupop]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8691064.stm

A British woman is being held in police custody after two of her children were found dead at a Spanish holiday resort.

Police said the children, a boy of one and a girl of five, were discovered in a room at the Hotel Miramar in the coastal town of Lloret de Mar.

They said the mother telephoned the hotel's reception desk to call the police and ambulance service.

The woman has been moved to the nearby town of Blanes and will be questioned further by police on Wednesday.

Sombre place

The bodies of her two children were discovered on Tuesday afternoon in their room at the 4-star hotel on the Costa Brava, in the north-eastern province of Girona.

Police said there were no outward signs of violence but officers have not confirmed reports in Spanish newspapers that the children were suffocated. A post-mortem examination is expected within the next few days.



The BBC's Dominic Hughes in Spain says the the Hotel Miramar has reopened for business, having been closed for most of Tuesday afternoon, but it is a sombre place.

Room 101, where the bodies were found, remains sealed off.

Police said the family were on holiday in the resort. It is not clear whether the children's father was travelling with them.

The Foreign Office spokesman said: "We are in contact with the Spanish police but because the children are minors we cannot say much. There is an ongoing investigation."

A Spanish police spokesman said on Tuesday: "The mother will be held in police custody overnight and officers will continue to question her tomorrow."

Popular destination

Local police were called to the scene, 45 miles (70km) north of Barcelona, shortly before 1400 local time.

A Girona police spokesman said: "When the officers arrived they found two children inside a room at a hotel.

"Girona police are investigating the death of the two children. The police have detained the mother of the minors to find out what happened."

Lloret de Mar is a popular destination for British holidaymakers.

A spokesman for travel association Abta said: "It's a very traditional Spanish resort, similar to Benidorm and Torremolinos."

[lulupop]

:-o

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Spain-Hotel-Deaths-Father-Is-Most-Wanted-Criminal-Martin-Smith/Article/201005315634625?lpos=World_News_Carousel_Region_0& amp;lid=ARTICLE_15634625_Spain_Hotel_Deaths%3A_Fat her_Is_Most_Wanted_Criminal_Martin_Smith

Sky News has learned that the father of the two children found dead in a Spanish hotel room is one of Britain's most wanted criminals.

The bodies of the five-year-old girl and one-year-old boy were discovered in room 101 at the Hotel Miramar in the resort of Lloret de Mar on the Costa Brava on Tuesday.

Smith, 45, from North Shields, was seized in Barcelona on Friday, more than two years after he failed to answer bail in the UK.

He was extradited yesterday and Sky News crime correspondent Martin Brunt said he is due in court in Cumbria today charged with 13 sex offences, including rape and child sex abuse.

Brunt said: "He was given the news last night by Cumbria police that his two children had died and police officers described him as being distraught".



The atmosphere at the Hotel Miramar is 'subdued'


The children's mother is being questioned after the discovery of the bodies.

Speaking outside the hotel, Sky News' Ursula Errington said: "We understand from Spanish media, who are quoting police sources, that they are looking for a British male who was not resident at the hotel."

Police said the 40-year-old woman was on holiday with her children.

Sources close to the investigation told El Mundo detectives believe the youngsters were suffocated as they showed no external signs of injury.

The results of post-mortems are expected today or tomorrow.



The mother is now being held in Girona


The woman went to reception shortly before 2pm on Tuesday and emergency services were called but efforts to save the youngsters failed.

Describing the scene outside the hotel, Errington said the atmosphere was "subdued".

She added: "There are still two seals on the door of room 101 signed by the director-general of the Ministry of Justice of Catalonia stopping anyone going in.

"The mother is now being held at a nearby town called Blanes but she will appear in court in the next 24 to 48 hours."

A psychological evaluation is also being carried out on the woman.

After her arrest the woman was taken to her hotel room by police and an investigating judge to help them reconstruct events leading up to the children's deaths.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said consular staff were in contact with the police.

She said: "We can confirm that we will be providing consular assistance to a British national."



A Google map shows Lloret de Mar, north of Barcelona


Former Scotland Yard detective Mike Hames told Sky News there was a "good relationship" between British and Spanish police.

Lloret de Mar is a popular destination for British holidaymakers. While the nightlife attracts an 18-to-30s crowd, the resort is also popular with families.

The four-star hotel is on the sea front in the former fishing village, near a large number of bars and restaurants.

The beach hotel, which has 54 rooms, is around 46 miles from Barcelona near the Cap de Creus Natural Park and a water park.

On travel websites it is said to offer "all comforts and a high quality service to anyone looking for a beach holiday in Costa Brava".

[White trash bitchy blonde]

[lulupop]

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Spain-Hotel-Deaths-Dad-Martin-Smith-On-Most-Wanted-List-And-Police-Claim-Lianne-Smith-Confesses/Article/201005315634625?lpos=World_News_Carousel_Region_0& amp;lid=ARTICLE_15634625_Spain_Hotel_Deaths%3A_Dad _Martin_Smith_On_Most_Wanted_List_And_Police_Claim _Lianne_Smith_Confesses

A woman killed her children in Spain because she feared they would be taken away after it emerged the father was one of Britain's most wanted fugitives, Sky sources have claimed.

The bodies of five-year-old Rebecca Smith and Daniel Smith, aged 11 months, were found at Hotel Miramar in the Costa Brava resort of Lloret de Mar on Tuesday.

Sky News sources in Spain have claimed mother Lianne Smith has confessed to suffocating them "with a plastic bag".

The children's father, Martin Smith, was seized in Barcelona on May 8, more than two years after he failed to answer bail in the UK.

He was extradited yesterday and remanded in custody when he appeared at court in Carlisle today charged with 13 sex offences, including rape and child sex abuse.

According to Sky News crime correspondent Martin Brunt, Smith's extradition could have been the catalyst that set the events leading to the children's deaths in motion.


Brunt said: "His removal back to the UK may have triggered this terrible tragedy.

"A source in Spain has told me that Lianne Smith said to police she was very concerned that the Spanish authorities would take the children off her."

Initial reports had suggested there were no obvious signs of violence at the scene.

Brunt added: "It looks as though a plastic bag was used to kill them - that is the latest information from Spanish sources."

Sky News has also learned a sign had been put on the door of Ms Smith's hotel room shortly before the alarm was raised which read: "Do not disturb, my kids are ill."



Sky sources: Martin Smith's extradition may have sparked the tragedy


The father, 45 and from North Shields, was described by Cumbria Police as being "distraught" when told of his children's deaths.

"It is an extraordinary twist to a very tragic story," said Brunt.

Rebecca had been reported missing on website Help Find My Child - which posts details of abducted or missing children.

In an entry dated December 7, 2007, the girl was said to be missing from Lichfield in Staffordshire.

The website says: "Police are concerned for Rebecca who has not been seen since she left the UK with her mother and father Martin Smith."


Martin Smith Had Worked As A tv psychic
Before skipping bail in 2008, Smith had worked as a TV psychic, appearing on Living TV's Most Haunted show.

According to Spanish police, another British man is still being sought in relation to the deaths.

Speaking outside Hotel Miramar, Sky News' Ursula Errington said: "We understand from Spanish media, quoting police sources, that they are looking for a British male who was not resident at the hotel."

The results of post-mortems are expected within the next 24 hours.

A psychological evaluation is also being carried out on 43-year-old Ms Smith.

She went to the hotel reception shortly before 2pm on Tuesday and emergency services were called. Efforts to save Rebecca and Daniel failed.

[Seraphim]

[butterflykim]

A woman killed her children in Spain because she feared they would be taken away after it emerged the father was one of Britain's most wanted fugitives, Sky sources have claimed.

why would they have been taken away from her if it was her husband they were looking after?

[ICDEDPPL]

[quote author=butterflykim link=topic=25403.msg1632235#msg1632235 date=1274739349]

why would they have been taken away from her if it was her husband they were looking after?
[/quote]Some peoples logic is fucked up. She should have offed herself.

[lulupop]

Gently holding her baby son, Lianne Smith is a picture of proud parenthood.
Hours later, the boy and his sister were dead and their mother had tried to kill herself.
The haunting photograph, apparently taken by Mrs Smith's five-year-old daughter Rebecca, was included in a package which was posted from Spain to England.
It arrived only yesterday and is revealed exclusively in the Daily Mail. The fugitive mother compiled an album of their 'wonderful holiday' together on the Costa Brava, then sent it off with a farewell letter before allegedly smothering Rebecca and 11-month-old Daniel with a plastic bag almost two weeks ago.


Hours left to live: Baby Daniel Smith in his mother Lianne's arms

The package leaves little doubt that the tormented teacher mapped out every last detail of her actions, and was fully in control until the end.
Crucially, a line in her letter pinpoints the exact moment - and the reason - she decided to put her plan into action.
She reveals that 'an attempt was made to take my children' - so she intended to give them 'a short and wonderful holiday before events you will start to hear about in the press'.


Smiling and apparently untroubled: Lianne Smith poses for the camera

Mrs Smith, 43, who is accused of her children's murder, sent the package to a publicist she had contacted through the internet after the arrest of her partner Martin Anthony Smith.
He became one of Britain's most wanted men when he fled with her to Spain more than two years ago to avoid child sex charges.
The former TV 'psychic' was taken from the flat they shared in Barcelona on May 8, and extradited to Britain shortly afterwards.


Ice-cream treat: Rebecca prepares to tuck into a sundae

Mrs Smith, a former child protection expert with Cumbria County Council, refused to believe he was guilty - and hoped publicity over her plight would allow her to keep custody of her children while she fought the allegations on his behalf.
In an anguished telephone interview with the publicist, she sobbed: 'I really don't know how I'll cope.'
On May 14, she was panicked into fleeing Barcelona after what she described as 'an attempt to take my children'. It is thought that Spanish social workers had tried to contact her.



She headed for Lloret de Mar, the resort where she and Smith spent three weeks after they arrived in Spain. The neatly written letter gives the clearest indication yet that she intended to end her life alongside her children.
According to experts, it was the work of someone who strives to maintain control over the situation in which she finds herself - 'at whatever cost'.


The last trip to the beach: Five-year-old Rebecca Smith and her 11-month-old brother Daniel crawl happily in the sand together near the family's Costa hotel

She put her Barcelona home address at the top and dated it Sunday May 16.
By that time, she was already staying in the beachfront hotel where the children's bodies would be discovered less than 48 hours later. Crucially, she already speaks about them in the past tense.
Without explaining why, she says she packed essentials for only three days.
The letter from Mrs Smith, who lived in Lichfield, Staffordshire, before fleeing to Spain, coldly shifts responsibility for what happened.


Epitaph to a lost son and daughter: Extracts from the letter sent back to England by Lianne Smith

'Social Services in Staffordshire and their policy of "forced adoptions" are to blame for this,' she writes. Foretelling her own death, she adds: 'If we were only dealing with the police and court system I would still be here for Martin.'
The final line appears to have been added as an afterthought. It makes certain that the exact location of room 101, where the bodies would be discovered, was identified.
'Our hotel is the MIRAMAR,' she writes. 'Our room is the 1st floor far right.' As it turned out, no one needed a guide like this to find them.
Mrs Smith survived to alert the authorities herself despite apparently using the same plastic bag which smothered the children on herself. This was followed by a further suicide attempt when she slashed her wrists.



Tender moments: Daniel plays with a banana next to the bed where he died and Rebecca enjoys a ride on the swings

What looks certain now is that the children's deaths were not the result of any single, overwhelming moment of torment - but the culmination of a desperate, carefully calculated escape Mrs Smith had been planning for days.
Chillingly, the evidence suggests she took the pictures, wrote the letter, got the film developed - then put the rest of her plan into action.
The letter was written in blue roller-ball on two sides of A4 paper. It was sent in the same package as the set of colour prints, negatives, two blank Lloret de Mar postcards and rough copies of passport identity pages. It bore three Spanish stamps and was marked 'Urgent'.
In one of the photographs, an envelope just like the one that arrived can be seen on Daniel's bed, with a pen and paper nearby.


In another, also apparently taken by Rebecca, Mrs Smith is seen smiling and apparently untroubled.
The children are shown swinging in a play area in front of the hotel, and larking around on the beach.
Rebecca, on her own in one photo, is enjoying an ice cream sundae dripping with sticky red sauce. Later she is captured giving a double thumbs-up sign to her mother, or pulling cheeky faces for the camera as she lurches towards the lens.


James enjoys himself in the hotel playground

The Daily Mail asked handwriting analyst Margaret White, a founder member of the British Institute of Graphologists, to study a sample from the letter without telling her who wrote it.
She concluded that the writer is someone who 'carefully prepares for every eventuality', and is capable of detaching herself emotionally from difficult situations.
Significantly, she was also someone 'who seeks a way of resolving a problem by whatever means she deems most appropriate, and/or most likely to provide a lasting solution'.
She leaves little to chance - and is someone who will do 'whatever it takes' to stop control being snatched from them.
Told who wrote the letter, Mrs White concluded that she was 'very tightly controlling both herself and the situation at the time of writing.
'She has made her decisions and arrangements and is determined not to be diverted from them. She "knows" they are right.'
A slight change in the handwriting - when Mrs Smith talks about the situation 'turning' - is the only time she allows her emotion to surface. Mrs White concludes: 'Whilst fearful and anxious that something may occur that would ruin her careful preparations, her resolution to "protect" both herself and her children is profound.'
What motive Lianne Smith had for the killings is still to be officially confirmed.
Whatever transpired, her photographic catalogue and handwritten narrative were clearly compiled to ensure the case was made public.
Together, they will also stand as a tragic epitaph for two innocent lives.

[Natasha_XO]

[quote author=lulupop link=topic=25403.msg1636052#msg1636052 date=1275134894]

[/quote]

[leapfreak]

She's been found guilty

Lianne Smith faces up to 34 years in a Spanish prison after she was last night found guilty of murdering her two children.

The British mother stared blankly at the floor as the unanimous verdict rang out at Girona Provincial Court, in north-east Spain.

The 45-year-old is now on suicide watch after previously trying to kill herself.

After eight hours? deliberation, the jury foreman announced the panel of seven men and two women had believed Smith was ?fully conscious? and knew what she was doing when she smothered Rebecca, five, and 11-month-old Daniel in their beds in a Costa Brava hotel.

They flatly rejected Smith?s defence claim that she was insane, pronouncing her guilty on both counts of murder.

It means she faces spending the next three decades in a standard Spanish prison cell, as the jury rejected an alternative verdict which would have allowed her to serve her sentence in a psychiatric wing.

Jurors agreed Smith, from Lichfield, Staffordshire, did suffer from an unspecified psychosis and from depression ? but ruled she was not criminally insane.

They said she ?took advantage of the trust the children gave her as their mother? and their ?defencelessness? as sleeping children.

Judge Adolfo Garcia Morales will sentence her at a later date.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ed-guilty.html