30 years for child murders mother
A British woman who murdered her young son and daughter in a Spanish hotel room has been sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Lianne Smith, 45, had admitted smothering 11-month-old Daniel and five-year-old Rebecca with a plastic bag at the Miramar Hotel in Lloret de Mar on the Costa Brava in May 2010.
In a written sentence issued to the media today, Judge Adolfo Garcia Morales jailed Smith for 15 years for each of the murders.
It comes after a jury at the Provincial Court in Girona, north east Spain, decided last month that Smith was criminally responsible for the children’s deaths.
At the conclusion of the trial, prosecutor Victor Pillado Quintas asked for Smith to be sentenced to 34 for years in prison.
Her defence sought an acquittal, claiming she was in a state of “psychiatric disturbance” and suffering insurmountable fear when the tragedy happened.
Judge Garcia Morales said he was imposing the minimum sentence for murder because he considered that, although responsible for her actions, Smith was suffering a degree of “mental disturbance” when she committed the crimes.
He wrote: “The jury stressed that this mental disturbance was not as important as the defence had argued.
“This was based on facts such as several suicide attempts made by Smith, a statement she gave during which she appeared normal and did not make any significant mistakes as she described what had happened and how it happened, the composition of several coherent notes, and calculations she made in order to pay what she believed she still owed to the hotel.”
