Mother Lianne Smith detained by court

A Staffordshire mother is being detained in prison after being charged with murdering her two young children at a holiday hotel in Spain.

Lianne Smith, 43, was arrested on Tuesday after the bodies of five-year-old Rebecca and Daniel, 11 months, were found at the seafront Hotel Miramar in Lloret de Mar.

The mother, who went missing from Lichfield in 2007, appeared in court in Blanes on the Costa Brava.

Judge Rafael Fernandez said there is evidence the mum was responsible for the deaths and sent her to jail in Girona pending a trial.

Post-mortem examinations established the children were asphyxiated.

Mrs Smith's husband, Martin, 45, has appeared in court in Cumbria charged with unrelated child sex offences.

The hearing came after claims that Mrs Smith reportedly left a suicide note saying: "I hope you can forgive me."

The children died on the day her partner was extradited back to Britain.

It was claimed today that she planned to kill herself and leave her children with a nanny but in the end could not bear to be parted.