Mother 'admits killing children in hotel room'

Lianne Smith, 43, was held by police in Lloret de Mar on the Costa Brava after Rebecca, five, and her 11-month-old brother Daniel were found dead on Tuesday. They had reportedly been suffocated.

The children died on the same day that Smith's partner Martin Smith, 45, was extradited to Britain to face child sex charges.

In a statement yesterday, court officials said: "Smith spontaneously declared that she had killed her two children."

One of the UK's most wanted men until his arrest by Spanish police earlier this month, Martin Smith allegedly jumped bail in 2008 while facing charges of rape of a child under 16, gross indecency with a girl under 16, indecent assault of a girl under 16 and attempted rape of a girl under 16.

A spokesman for Staffordshire Police said they originally attempted to trace his partner and her daughter after they left their home in the area in 2007.

"As soon as we became aware of the arrest of Martin Smith we instigated a welfare check – through authorities in Spain – on Lianne and Rebecca." he said.

"We were informed that they were safe and well. Lianne declined all offers of police help and support and stated her intention to remain in Spain – as was her legal right – and not to return to the UK. At this point we also became aware of the existence of Rebecca's younger brother."

Ms Smith had been a manager in Cumbria County Council's children's services department before the family moved to Staffordshire in October 2007.

Smith, who is believed to have run a nursery in Barcelona, was reportedly worried the Spanish authorities would take her children away and that she planned to kill herself, leaving her children with a minder.

In the end, she could not bear to be parted from them.

The children's nanny said she believed Smith intended to leave the two infants in her care and go off and kill herself.

Mimi Buckley, 21, from Merseyside, said: "I think she meant to hire me as a nanny, leave her children with me and then commit suicide. But I don't think she could bear to leave them."

She described the children as "beautiful" and spoke of Rebecca's love of drawing and "girly things". What happened was "awful", she added.

Two police forces – Staffordshire and Cumbria – have referred the case to the Independent Police Complaints Commission who will consider the contact officers had with the family when they lived in the UK and decide whether an investigation is necessary.

Spanish police are investigating the children's deaths.

Yesterday one Spanish newspaper suggested that they died on Monday night rather than Tuesday.

Their mother would have then spent that night in her room in the Hotel Miramar with their bodies, the local paper said.

Post-mortem examinations have been carried out but the results have not been made public as the judge overseeing the investigation has ruled they should be remain secret.

However, they are believed to have confirmed that the children died from suffocation.

Yesterday, Judge Rafael Fernandez ruled there was evidence that the mother was responsible for the deaths and decided she should be held in custody.

Following the hearing in Blanes, she was transferred to jail in Girona to await trial.

The children's father Martin Smith, originally from North Shields, appeared before Carlisle magistrates on Wednesday charged with jumping bail and 13 sexual offences.