A British woman whose two children were found dead in a hotel room in Spain’s Costa Brava, appeared at court today.
Lianne Smith (43), is suspected of suffocating her children Rebecca Smith, five, and Daniel, 11 months, at the resort of Lloret de Mar on Tuesday.
The children died on the same day her partner Martin Smith was extradited back to Britain to face charges of child sex abuse.
Today’s hearing, which is being held behind closed doors in the town of Blanes, will allow a judge to decide whether to bring a case against the mother.
The children’s father Martin Smith appeared in court in Carlisle on Wednesday
charged with 13 child sex offences said to have been committed in the Cumbria area between 1995 and 2005.
The 45-year-old, originally from North Shields, was one of Britain’s most wanted men until his arrest by Spanish police earlier this month.
The father 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.
Spanish police are investigating the death of the children, reported to have been suffocated with a plastic bag.
It has been reported that Mrs Smith, who is believed to have run a nursery in Barcelona, was worried the Spanish authorities would take her children away.
Meanwhile, it was claimed today that Mrs Smith planned to kill herself and leave her children with a nanny but in the end could not bear to be parted.
The children’s nanny said she believed Mrs Smith intended to leave the two infants in her care and go off and kill herself.
Mimi Buckley (21), from Merseyside, told the Daily Mirror: "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."