A jury has watched the police interview with the father of three girls killed by their mum in Timaru, on day two of a woman's triple-murder trial. Video / NZ Herald / TVNZ Pool
WARNING: This story contains graphic content
The father of three little girls killed in their Timaru home by their mother told police how he tried to breathe life back into them and revive them after he came home to find them “lifeless” in their beds.
The now 42-year-old killed the children just 20 minutes after her husband Graham Dickason left their home to attend a work function.
She tried to asphyxiate them using cable ties and when that did not work, smothered them with blankets then tucked them into bed with their favourite soft toys and tried to take her own life.
The Crown alleges Dickason murdered the girls in a calculated and clinical way because she was angry and frustrated with them and resented the impact they had on her marriage.
Yesterday, the jury heard from Graham Dickason - the first time he has spoken about the death of his “gorgeous” daughters.
Graham Dickason spoke about taking his children to school in the morning. The twins had their first day of preschool and Liané had started a local primary school earlier.
He had a work function that night and left the house after the children had dinner.
Nothing was amiss.
But when he got home he soon realised something was very wrong.
In an interview with police that was played to the jury, he said he found Dickason standing in the kitchen holding the bench and looking “wobbly”.
“That’s when I asked her if she was okay ... I asked her what’s wrong, and the only thing I can remember that she said was ‘it’s too late’ ... just bluntly ‘it’s too late’,” he recalled.
Graham and Lauren Dickason with their daughters. Photo / Facebook
“I realised that there was something strange in her face ... It’s just a facial expression I haven’t seen before.”
He ran to Liané’s bedroom, which was the closest.
“She was covered with a blanket, her face was pale, she had a cable tie around her neck ... I shook her by her shoulders, spoke to her, probably yelled at her ... I don’t think I picked her up at that stage, I think I just tried to wake her.
“I think I ran for the twins’ room, saw the same thing. I think I tried to wake both of them briefly before I ran to the kitchen to get the scissors.
“I cut the cable tie around Liané’s neck first ... I think I put her on the ground and I think I gave, tried to give her two breaths. And I think after that I ran to the twins to cut the cable ties around their necks ... I was in a panic. I can’t say for sure what was the exact sequence.
“I screamed their names, checked, grabbed their shoulders. I think I could see in the colour of their faces that it was futile but I cut the cable ties.”
“I think I already took Liané to the twins’ room cos she was in my arms when I ran back there. And I think when I realised that they, all three deceased, I just went out of the house,” he told police.
“I did notice that [Lauren Dickason] made her way to Liané's room and I think the last time I saw her she was just lying across the foot end of Liané’s bed ... I wasn’t sure if she’s dead or alive, I didn’t check.
“I just walked past and walked out of the house. I didn’t talk to her, she was just laying with her eyes closed.”
Graham Dickason said he called a friend to come to the house because he didn’t know the New Zealand emergency number.
“I asked him to come and help me. He could probably hear I was distressed.
Lauren Dickason has admitted killing 6-year-old Liané and 2-year-old twins Maya and Karla at their Timaru home on September 16.
“He asked ‘what’s wrong’ and I think I just told him that something’s wrong with the kids, that Lauren did something to them and I think they’re dead,” he said.
“I walked around the house, I think I was screaming around the back side of the house … I think I just sat in the hedge just on the grass.”
He said she was a good mother but not one who nurtured or cuddled her children.
He said in the lead-up to the alleged murders his wife “lost a lot of weight”, which he put down to the stress of moving and parenting three young children.
“Obviously there was something deeper that, that I didn’t recognise. I’ve been married to her for 15 years. Not in my wildest dreams did I imagine something like this,” he told police.
