A mother who suffocated her young son and daughter in a Spanish hotel said she had given them a "perfect holiday" before killing them, a court has heard.
Lianne Smith, 45, has admitted smothering Rebecca Smith, five, and 11-month-old Daniel with a plastic bag at the Miramar Hotel in Lloret de Mar on the Costa Brava in May 2010.
She went on trial on Monday at the Provincial Court in Girona, north-east Spain, so a jury can determine whether she is criminally responsible for the children's deaths.
Her defence is seeking an acquittal, claiming she was in a state of "psychiatric disturbance" and suffering insurmountable fear when the tragedy happened. If found guilty, she faces a total of 38 years in prison.
The killings took place shortly after her partner, Martin Smith, was arrested in Barcelona by Spanish police acting on a European Arrest Warrant.
The family had been living in Spain since 2007 after fleeing Lichfield, Staffordshire, after Lianne's eldest daughter by her first husband accused Mr Smith of sexually abusing her.
After Mr Smith was deported to the UK, Lianne became obsessed with the idea that British social services were in Spain to take her children away from her.
Lloret de Mar was where she and Martin Smith had gone when they first arrived from England, so she withdrew money and went there to hide with her children.
Giving evidence, Lianne refused to answer questions from the prosecution, as is her right under Spanish law.
But the jury were shown a video of a statement she made to police the day after the children died, filmed in a room next to where the killings took place.
In the video, a tearful Lianne told police: "I gave my children a three-day holiday, a perfect holiday, we were very, very happy.
"We came here (to Lloret) with nothing, we had left everything again. This was the end of the road, I knew my children would be taken back to England. My daughter didn't want to go, she didn't want to leave me.
"So I know it's not right to take another life, but I felt I was in a corner and my intention was for me and my children to go. It was not just the children, it was me as well."
The court heard that after killing the children, Lianne tried to take her own life by cutting herself with razors, covering her head with a plastic bag, hanging herself with telephone cable and drowning in a bath.
Answering questions from her lawyer, Jenifer Lahoz Abos, Lianne explained that she had gone to Lloret after seeing two people outside her house when she went shopping early one morning.
She said: "I knew and I could feel they were from social services and they had come to take the children, and I love my children, I love my children."
In her statement to police, Lianne said she had killed the children while they slept and claimed they had not offered resistance. She said she felt as if "someone else" had done the killing.
Before trying to take her own life, she left four notes and an envelope containing money for the hotel.
In one of the notes, addressed to Rebecca and Daniel, she wrote: "I love you very much. I haven't been able to give you a marvellous life together. I am so sorry."
Another note in Spanish was left on the hotel bedroom door, telling staff: "Don't need cleaner today, my children are sick".
And in one she accused her oldest daughter, Sarah Richardson, of causing the tragedy with the "lies" she had told about Martin Smith, who she described as an "innocent man".
In December 2010, Lianne's partner was found guilty at Manchester Crown Court of 11 specimen charges of rape, attempted rape, indecency with a child and indecent assault.
The jury in that case heard he had used hypnosis, bullying and violence to groom and sexually abuse his stepdaughter between May 1995 and May 2004.
Last January, he was found hanged in his cell at Strangeways Prison in Manchester.
Smith said her family led an ordinary life in Barcelona before her partner was arrested. She was the family's breadwinner, working as an English teacher while she also took care of the home.
In her statement to police she said: "Martin was arrested on a European Arrest Warrant, the only thing he has done is not answer bail. From that point I investigated what had been said about our family.
"I discovered my husband was on TV Crimestoppers Most Wanted and my daughter was a missing person. As a missing person it would mean she could be taken back to England and forcibly adopted, on no evidence."
Describing the moment after she killed her children, she said: "I lay down on the bed beside them and gave them a cuddle and talked to them."
Lianne and Martin Smith, who were not married but shared the same surname, met in October 1992 through a dating agency.
She was going through a divorce from her first husband at the time and was then living in Wallsend, Tyne and Wear.
Martin Smith, originally from North Shields, had been a singer in a band in clubs in the North East before working as a TV psychic.
The couple lived together in Cumbria, where she worked as a manager at Cumbria County Council's children's services department.
In 2007 they moved to Lichfield, Staffordshire, but only stayed for a few months before fleeing to Spain with Rebecca.
Daniel was born in Spain in June 2009.
Victor Pillado Quintas, for the prosecution, today said it is not clear who is the father of Rebecca and Daniel.