Dickason has been found guilty of murdering her three young children at their Timaru home in 2021. She now faces a life sentence for the murder of each child. Video / NZ Herald
WARNING: This story contains graphic and sensitive content.
She admitted killing the girls but pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity or infanticide.
After the majority verdict today finding her guilty of murder, Justice Mander will sentence her at a date yet to be determined.
Dickason must be sentenced to life imprisonment, as explained in the Sentencing Act, unless the circumstances of the offence and the offender, imprisonment for life would be manifestly unjust.
Justice Mander has requested specialist reports about her mental health and psychiatric care before the sentencing hearing.
For her sentencing, the judge will consider whether to send her to prison - or detain her as a special patient under the Criminal Procedure (Mentally Impaired Persons) Act 2003.
If he makes that order Dickason could spend the rest of her life as a patient at Hillmorton Hospital’s psychiatric unit.
Only the national director of mental health can approve her release when and if she is ever deemed well enough.
Judge accepts majority verdict
Just before 3pm the jury sought instruction from Justice Mander about what they should do if they could not reach a unanimous verdict.
He said he would accept a majority verdict - meaning if all but one of them agreed their decision would stand - and sent them to continue deliberating.
At 3.02pm the jury rang the bell indicating they had reached a verdict.
Dickason’s parents then returned to the courtroom - her mother in tears as she waited for the outcome - and court staff put extra tissues out along the jury bench.
Lauren Anne Dickason appears in court on the first day of her two-week trial for the murder of her three children.
He also explained their options for verdicts and how to reach them.
There were four options for the eight women and four men who have been serving on the jury for more than four weeks.
Guilty of murder
Guilty of the alternate lesser charge of infanticide
Act of murder proven but not criminally responsible on account of insanity
Act of infanticide proven but not criminally responsible on account of insanity
The jury had been deliberating since Monday afternoon.
Dickason’s parents were in court - as they have been for the entire trial - to hear the final outcome.
Her husband Graham Dickason returned to South Africa after the alleged murders and did not return to New Zealand for the trial.
Lauren Dickason during her police interview. Photo / NZH
Over the last five weeks, the jury heard extensive evidence about Dickason’s life before and after she and her family emigrated to New Zealand from South Africa a month before the children died.
Dickason’s lengthy battle with a major depressive disorder, her gruelling fertility journey including at least 17 rounds of IVF and the loss of a baby early in a pregnancy, and her struggles with motherhood were canvassed.
The court was also shown videos of Dickason and her husband Graham being interviewed by police after the girls were killed.
Graham and Lauren Dickason with their daughters before the alleged murders. Photo / Facebook
The King v Lauren Anne Dickason - the Crown and defence cases
The Crown alleged Dickason murdered the children in a “calculated” way because she was frustrated, angry and resentful of them.
It acknowledged Dickason suffered from sometimes-serious depression, but maintains she knew what she was doing when she killed the girls.
The defence argued Dickason was a severely mentally disturbed woman in the depths of postpartum depression and did not know the act of killing the children was morally wrong at the time of their deaths.
