The deaths of two British children in a Spanish hotel room took a further twist yesterday on Wednesday when their father appeared in court in Carlisle in the northwest of England on unrelated charges of sexual assault and child rape.
Martin Smith, 45, who is from North Shields, Tyne and Wear, northeast England, had been on the run from British police for two-and-a-half years before he was extradited from Barcelona on Tuesday.
That same day his wife, Lianne, 43, led police to a hotel room in the resort town of Lloret de Mar, in northeastern Spain, to show them the corpses of her children. Later in the day, she was arrested on suspicion of murdering them.
Post mortems are expected to be conducted today on Rebecca, five, and 11-month-old Daniel. Their father had been arrested 11 days earlier outside an apartment block near Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia cathedral, where neighbors said the family had been living for the past six months.
Smith was extradited to the UK on Tuesday and was remanded in custody after his appearance before Carlisle magistrates yesterday charged with 13 sexual offenses. It is understood he was told about the deaths of the children overnight by British police.
The unrelated charges against him include rape, gross indecency, indecent assault and attempted rape of girls under 16. The alleged attacks took place between April 30, 1995, and April 29, 2005.
Yesterday a police spokesman said: “Martin Smith, 45, was brought back to the UK yesterday and appeared at Carlisle magistrates court this morning to face 13 charges of sexual offenses and for failing to answer police bail. An application was made in court for him to be remanded in custody.”
“During the court hearing, it was disclosed that Spanish police have informed [the local] Cumbria constabulary that Martin Smith’s wife, 43-year-old Lianne Smith, has been arrested on suspicion of the murder of his two children, Rebecca, five, and Daniel, 11 months, in Spain,” the spokesman said.
Martin Smith will next appear before Carlisle crown court on June 7.
Spanish officials said that his arrest and extradition may have triggered the awful events that unfolded at the Miramar hotel in Lloret de Mar.
“The difficult situation the mother was living through may have set in train the events that led to a possible crime,” the Catalan justice minister, Montserrat Tura, said yesterday, after expressing her shock at the deaths of the two children.
Lianne Smith was being held at the police station in Blanes, near Lloret de Mar, last night and is due to appear before a magistrate this week. Spanish media said psychological assessments were to be taken.
The bodies of the two children were at a morgue in the nearby city of Girona.
Spanish media reported that forensic scientists would also look for evidence of sexual abuse, though police said neither parent was wanted on abuse charges in Spain.
Guests at the seafront hotel where the corpses were discovered described their shock at what had happened.
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