Top horror story in the last week or so has been the British mum Lianne Smith, charged with murdering her two kids in Spain. The alleged infanticide followed the arrest of her husband Martin in Barcelona after he was accused of child sex offences.
Lianne, who lived in Lichfield, Staffs, put the blame for her situation on the authorities in the UK with this chilling statement – the content of which will be all-too-familiar to nby and Slog regulars:
“Social services in Staffordshire and their policy of ‘forced adoptions’ are to blame for this. If we were dealing with the police and court system I would still be here for Martin.”
The reference is to her husband Martin who -rightly or wrongly – Lianne Smith thinks was wrongly accused of child abuse. But the reality is that the 43-year-old mum smothered Rebecca, five, and 11-month-old Daniel because she was worried that they would be taken into care over the allegations.
The balance of her mind must have been disturbed for her to do such a thing. But the fanatical rigidity of Staffordshire social services childcare division is infinitely more bonkers than Lianne Smith could ever be.
Last night, one of the single mums defended by The Slog against Staffordshire’s jackbooting social workers wrote this heartrending email to the site:
‘i am going to have to flee the uk john have you seen this Lianne Smith who killed her children is blaming staffordshire and forced adoptions’
The mother – who of course we can’t name thanks to the Harman-Balls axis of State Secrecy – is pregnant, and living in 24/7 anxiety about Staffordshire’s already stated intention to take the child off her. This is the same Council which awarded custody of her existing kid to the father….who was at the time out on licence following a jail sentence for gbh ‘glassing’ in a pub.
The Slog has long waged a campaign against Peter Traves, the boss of Staffordshire Social Services. This week he denied any blame over the two children found dead in a Spanish hotel room:
‘“At the time there was nothing to indicate the family would abscond. We believe our action was appropriate given our understanding of the case at the time. At no time was the daughter at risk here – our social workers did a good job.”
So the now-dead daughter wasn’t at risk, and threatening the mother did not in any way contribute to the fact that, as a Girona spokeswoman said, “She tried to commit suicide before police arrested her.” As always with these people, all blame and no responsibility.
Mind you, Mr Traves did this from the safety of being…..no longer in his post. For Peter Traves, whose staff face a police probe over the matter, quit as head of the department three weeks ago.
It’s all too familiar and ghastly. And in the matter of the shot of Traves at the head of this piece, one can only observe that the camera never lies.
Top horror story in the last week or so has been the British mum Lianne Smith, charged with murdering her two kids in Spain. The alleged infanticide followed the arrest of her husband Martin in Barcelona after he was accused of child sex offences.
The Slog 