A man whose partner is awaiting trial for the murder of their two children in a Spanish hotel room has been jailed for 16 years at Liverpool Crown Court for sexually abusing a child.
Martin Smith, 45, originally from North Shields, was convicted in December on 11 counts of indecent assault, attempted rape and rape over nine years from May 1995. He began grooming his victim, using attempted hypnosis, when she was 7.
She would comply with his demands because she was scared of Smith’s bullying and domineering personality.
She told the jury last year that he would hit her with a slipper to ensure her obedience and that the abuse “escalated” as she grew older until, at the age of 12 years old, he began raping her.
Mr Justice Stephen Irwin told Smith that he had trapped and overwhelmed his victim and had “so domineered her that she was crushed by you”.
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“Despite all the evidence, you continued to deny what took place,” said the judge. “In my view, you rewrite the world to suit yourself.”
In December 2007 Smith and his partner Lianne fled for Spain.
It was after Smith was arrested and extradited from Spain that his daughter Rebecca, five, and son Daniel, 11 months, were found dead in a hotel in Lloret de Mar on the Costa Brava.
Lianne Smith, 44, Smith’s partner, is awaiting trial in a Spanish jail for their murder. She had told the jury at Smith’s trial, via videolink, that he was a “very friendly, generous, kind” man incapable of committing such offences.
Kim Whittlestone, for the defence, said: “Since his extradition to the UK, the events in Spain were out of his control. He has found that extremely distressing.”
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After the hearing, Detective Inspector Kim Fulton said: “Smith thought that he could escape justice when he fled the country but he was wrong.
“Smith inflicted a decade of abuse on a vulnerable young girl and although nothing can make up for the physical and mental suffering she endured, I hope she takes comfort from the fact that her abuser will spend the next 16 years behind bars.”