Last year, after an intense and high profile five-week trial in the High Court at Christchurch, Lauren Anne Dickason was found guilty of murdering her daughters Liane, 6,and 2-year-old twins Maya and Karla.
She pleaded not guilty to three charges of murder, mounting a defence of insanity or infanticide.
After hearing all of the evidence - including from five psychiatric and psychological experts - the jury accepted the Crown case over Dickason’s version of events and convicted her on all charges.
Graham and Lauren Dickason with their daughters, from left, Maya, Karla, and Liane.
In June this year, Justice Cameron Mander sentenced Dickason to a finite sentence of 18 years.
He did not impose a life sentence nor did he order her to serve a minimum term of imprisonment before she could seek parole.
He said that imposing a life sentence on the killer would be manifestly unjust - and that it was clear to him her mental illness was a causative factor in the deaths of the little girls.
The Herald can now reveal Dickason is fighting against her convictions.
Her legal team filed a Notice of Appeal against Conviction in the Court of Appeal on July 23. The grounds for the appeal are not yet known.
Dickason’s lawyer Kerryn Beaton KC has been contacted for comment.
If the appeal is successful a second trial could be held. No date has been set for Court of Appeal proceedings.
At her sentencing hearing Justice Mander made an order under the Mental Health Act detaining her as a special patient. This means she is being detained at Hillmorton Hospital, a secure mental health unit, for the foreseeable future.
If and when she is well enough, that order can be reviewed and she can be transferred to prison - but for now she is hospitalised.
Lauren Dickason at her sentencing. Photo / Pool
“The murders were committed with a high level of brutality,” said Justice Mander at sentencing.
“Sentencing a parent for the murder of three children is unprecedented... not only were the children vulnerable because of their age, but they were entirely dependent upon you as the mother who they look to for care and protection and would have viewed you as an unconditional source of safety and love.
“The ending represents a fundamental breach of trust... Your actions extended over some period... However, I do not consider you were lashing out or venting your anger at the children... the systematic and methodical way you did that does not support a finding that you were simply an angry mother.”
While he did not discount Dickason’s “experience of anger and frustration at the three little girls”, he considered that was a further stressor that added to her “sense of hopelessness”.
“As a result, you were distorted... You genuinely believe they would be better off dead because you saw no future.
“I am satisfied... the tragic event would not have occurred but for the major depressive episode from which you were suffering.
“That night, you were suffering from a major depressive disorder marked by a general sense of hopelessness. You were in despair at the situation. You found yourself... isolated without family and, as you perceived it, you were effectively alone... you saw the only way out as being suicide in which the children had to join you in death... you somehow perceived the children’s deaths as a means of alleviating a source of stress and despair or some combination of both.
“There is a direct causal connection between your mental illness and your offending, which significantly reduces your moral culpability as a result.”
Kerryn Beaton KC is representing Lauren Dickason at her murder trial. Photo / George Heard
Days after she was sentenced a “note” from Dickason was published for supporters on a social media page.
“Yesterday was a win for maternal mental health,” the notes add.
“Justice Mander heard me. His decision is fair and just.
“Thank you all for your love and support over the last year.
“Thank you for believing my version of events - that I am not an angry, jealous and selfish person; but rather a mother suffering from a severe mental illness while trying to raise my three beautiful little girls and supporting my husband in all his endevours [sic].
“I believe you can have it all, but just not all at once.
“Be kind to yourselves and talk until someone hears you. Do not be ashamed to admit if you can’t cope.
“There is a way out which doesn’t have to end in tragedy.”
Anna Leask is a Christchurch-based reporter who covers national crime and justice. She joined the Herald in 2008 and has worked as a journalist for 18 years with a particular focus on family violence, child abuse, sexual violence, homicides, mental health and youth crime. She writes, hosts and produces the award-winning podcast A Moment In Crime, released monthly on nzherald.co.nz.
