Warning: This story contains evidence from the trial which some readers may find extremely upsetting.
A High Court jury has found Lauren Dickason guilty of murder after a month-long trial in Christchurch.
The high-profile case was centred around the tragic loss of three young children - 6-year-old Liané and 2-year-old twins Maya and Karla - who were described by those who met them as "lovely" and "happy" girls.
It took the jury 15 hours to decide the 42-year-old mum murdered her three children. They reached a majority verdict of eleven-to-one after they could not come to a unanimous decision.
In finding Lauren guilty of murder, the jury rejected Lauren's partial defence of infanticide and the defence of insanity.
The jury could be heard crying as they left the courtroom. Lauren's lawyers also both burst into tears after they heard the verdict.
Lauren, a former doctor, moved to Timaru from South Africa with her husband and orthopaedic surgeon Graham Dickason, and their three children. They had only been in the south Canterbury town for a week when she murdered her little girls.
On September 16, 2021, Graham found their children dead after he returned home from a work function.
Lauren admitted to killing the girls by smothering them to death but pleaded not guilty to murder. Her lawyers argued the defence of insanity and infanticide - that she did not know killing her children was morally wrong.
But the Crown claimed she is a murderer that acted methodically, purposefully and even clinically out of anger and control.
Now a jury has sided with the Crown delivering a guilty verdict.
The trial commenced on July 17 before Justice Cameron Mander. Lauren was represented by a defence team led by Kerryn Beaton KC, while Andrew McRae led the Crown's case.
Over four weeks, a jury of eight women and four men heard from 30 witnesses and five experts about the circumstances before, during and after the children's deaths. Graham Dickason, Lauren's mum, a close family member, friends in Timaru, first responders, doctors, detectives, a pathologist, psychiatrists and a psychologist all took the stand to give evidence during the trial.
Many became emotional as they discussed the three little girls, Liané, Maya and Karla, who were horrifically taken from the world too soon.
Lauren too sobbed in court as she sat through the witnesses' accounts of how she killed her daughters over and over again.
The jury was transported into the depths of Lauren's life in the years leading up to the killings.
Lauren's long struggle with mental health dating back to when she was a teenager was at the centre of the defence's case.
The court heard thousands of messages sent from Lauren to her friends and family which gave insight into what she was feeling and her struggle with motherhood.
Lauren had her first formal psychiatrist assessment in 2015 which found she had "major depression disorder with underlying anxiety" and her depressed mood was part of a post-partum episode.
She would have waves where her mood worsened, with Graham describing her as "down" with positive moments in between.
Her gruelling fertility struggle was also laid bare as the court heard how it took 16 cycles of IVF, one miscarriage and donor eggs for Lauren to finally become a mum.
But while she was happy to finally have Liané who was born in 2014 and then the twins, Maya and Karla in 2018, the court heard it was evident Lauren struggled with motherhood.
A close family member of the Dickasons said after the birth of Liané and then the twins, Lauren would be crying a lot and found it overwhelming at times, but felt these feelings improved over time.
The Crown's expert witnesses claimed she experienced remission from her depression between November 2020 and June 2021 - which she reported was the best she had felt in years.
Lauren had also stopped taking antidepressants in March 2021, she recommended these in August of that same year.
Lauren said her depression took a turn for the worst in July 2021, in the context of stressors from the COVID-19 pandemic, riots in South Africa and moving to New Zealand.
It was at this time Lauren reported having thoughts to harm her children. She had images of sedating them, putting them into the bath and cutting their femoral arteries, the court heard.
This was the second time she thought about harming her kids, the first was in 2019 and the third was just before the family moved to New Zealand.
During the third ideation, she imagined strangling her children with cable ties the family had for their suitcases. The jury also heard how Lauren searched on the internet for ways to overdose children between July and August 2021.
The family departed South Africa at the end of August and completed managed isolation and quarantine on September 11, 2021.
New Zealand was meant to be an escape from the worries in South Africa and a new start for the Dickasons but from arrival, for Lauren, it was anything but.
Lauren described Timaru as a cold place where the people looked unkempt with mullets and tattoos, while she thought the children appeared sad. She believed the rentals in the town were small, disgusting and creepy.
She reported thinking New Zealand was notorious for bullying and feared her children would be cyber-bullied when they were old enough to have a phone. She also compared racism in New Zealand towards Māori to racism in South Africa.
She was fixated on these aspects to the point, the defence experts said they became fixed, false beliefs - delusions. They said Lauren's depression was causing her to view the world through a nihilistic lens.
An event Lauren kept referring to, to the point a defence witness expert said it could be delusional, was the incident at the park. She said she was warned by a group of girls a teenage boy taking photos of her children.
This led her to believe New Zealand was just as dangerous as South Africa.
But there were positive moments for Lauren in Timaru, such as Liané saying she enjoyed her first day of school and a BBQ with Graham's work colleagues and their families.
Lauren said the "straw that broke the camel's back" was when she received an email from immigration asking for more medical information about her mental health and Karla's cleft palate, leading her to believe it was "hopeless" to get their visas.
On the evening of September 16, 2021, Lauren said her children were "being wild again", jumping on the couches and not listening to her.
Graham had left for a work function after dinner, kissing Lauren goodbye and patting her on the shoulder.
Lauren told the psychiatrists how she felt overwhelmed and wanted to ease the pressure.
"I wanted everything to end," she said.
She then remembered seeing the cable ties in the garage earlier that day.
Lauren told the children they were going to make necklaces and put the ties around their necks. She then tried to strangle them and when that didn't work she suffocated them with a towel.
"Mummy's very sick and is going to die. I can't leave you behind because I don't know who's going to look after you," Lauren reportedly told her children before they died.
She then tucked them into bed with their soft toys and attempted suicide.
Lauren said she thought she would wake up in heaven but instead, she remembers waking up in the hospital.
The jury heard from five expert witnesses why, in their opinion, Lauren killed her children.
Three of the witnesses said the act could be understood in terms of altruistic filicide - the belief she was saving her children from a fate worse than death.
Not wanting to leave the kids behind, fear of their suffering, not wanting to leave them without a mum, loving them too much and not wanting to burden Graham were all explanations given by Lauren as to why she killed her children.
"She decided to kill herself and also the girls and I suggest that is because she was so delusional and so disordered in her thinking… in her mind, it was the morally right thing to do," Beaton said in her closing address.
But the other two witnesses believed she killed them out of anger and control.
Simone McLeavey believed Lauren killed her children out of fear her three little girls would be mothered by someone else if she died and her husband ever remarried.
While Erik Monasterio believed her mental illness did not extend so far to have an insanity defence and that she had recovered from her postpartum depression so could not be guilty of infanticide.
"There is this very clear theme of anger that has been totally ignored by the defence experts and it is anger that explains the defendant's actions here - this was a long time brewing," McRae said during his closing address.
Ultimately, the jury agreed with McRae, finding Lauren guilty of murder.
Justice Cameron Mander told Lauren it was inappropriate to remand her in prison at this time and she will be detained in a hospital.
Where to find help and support:
- Shine (domestic violence) - 0508 744 633
- Women's Refuge - 0800 733 843 (0800 REFUGE)
- Need to Talk? - Call or text 1737
- What's Up - 0800 WHATS UP (0800 942 8787)
- Lifeline - 0800 543 354
- Youthline - 0800 376 633, text 234, email talk@youthline.co.nz or online chat
- Samaritans - 0800 726 666
- Depression Helpline - 0800 111 757
- Suicide Crisis Helpline - 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO)
- Shakti Community Council - 0800 742 584
