A former Staffordshire woman accused of killing her two children in a Spanish hotel room is reported to be on hunger strike in prison.

Lianne Smith, aged 43, went missing from Lichfield in 2007.

She was remanded in custody by a court on the Costa Brava on Friday.

She is alleged to have murdered her five-year-old daughter Rebecca and 11-month-old son Daniel, who were found dead in a room at the Hotel Miramar in Lloret de Mar on Tuesday.

Smith was today believed to be suicide watch in jail in Girona and to be eating and drinking very little. Sources say she has told prison guards she would rather die than face trial in Spain.

A Girona police spokeswoman said: “She tried to commit suicide before police arrested her.”

Smith was transferred to prison on Friday afternoon after a judge ruled that a case should be brought against her. She is being held in isolation and British consular staff are holding regular meetings with her.

She will have to decide this week whether her children’s bodies are buried in Spain or flown back to the UK.

The former Cumbria County Council employee confessed to the horrific killings in notes left at the crime scene, a court in Blanes, near Lloret de Mar, was told.