Lauren Dickason killed her three children “out of love” at their Timaru home after deciding to take her own life and not wanting to leave the little girls “to live without a mum”, her lawyer has told a jury at her murder trial.
The defence has revealed Dickason will not take the stand at the trial in the High Court at Christchurch - but a number of experts, her mother and another family member will give evidence that she was “severely” unwell and suffering from ongoing postpartum depression when she smothered her three daughters to death in September 2021.
“Lauren was in such a dark place, so removed from reality so suicidal, disordered... that when she decided to kill herself she thought that she had to take the girls with her,” defence lawyer Anne Toohey told the jury this morning.
“Lauren felt inadequate as a mother, she found it hard to cope… this was spontaneous... Lauren was in a dark place. She believed life was no longer worth living - for either her or her children. She decided to kill herself and she felt that they were all better off dead.”
The 42-year-old is on trial in the High Court before Justice Mander charged with murdering her daughters Liané - who was a week off her 7th birthday - and 2-year-old twins Maya and Karla. The sisters were found dead in their beds by their father Graham Dickason when he returned home from a work function.
The family had only been in New Zealand for a matter of weeks after emigrating from South Africa.
Dickason admits smothering the children to death, but has pleaded not guilty to the murder charges by reason of insanity or infanticide.
While the Crown acknowledges Dickason suffered from sometimes-serious depression, it maintains she knew what she was doing when she killed the girls.
Last week, Crown Prosecutor Andrew McRae alleged Dickason was an angry and frustrated woman who was “resentful of how the children stood in the way of her relationship with her husband” and killed them “methodically and purposefully, perhaps even clinically”.
While the Crown acknowledges Dickason suffered from sometimes-serious depression, it maintains she knew what she was doing when she killed the girls.
McRae alleged Dickason was an angry and frustrated woman who was “resentful of how the children stood in the way of her relationship with her husband” and killed them “methodically and purposefully, perhaps even clinically”.
The defence case: 'This is not murder'
Defence lawyer Anne Toohey opened the defence case just before 11am today, saying there was no dispute Dickason killed the children and then tried - using multiple methods - to take her own life.
“Her intention was to go to bed… and to never wake up.
“The question is why she did that. All three defence experts say her mind was disturbed by reason of her postpartum depression arising from childbirth.
“All of the defence experts agree that there was an altruistic motive… That means that Lauren killed her children out of love. In her mind, she was killing them out of love - she was killing herself and she didn’t want to leave the children… she was so sure this was the right thing to do she persisted.”
In the weeks after the alleged murders, Dickason told psychiatric specialists she still felt it was best that her children were dead, such was her bleak and hopeless outlook - which Toohey said was the result of her significant mental disturbance.
Dickason was “severely” unwell - and had been effectively spiralling into a deep depression with suicidal thoughts for months, Toohey told the jury.
“This is about postpartum depression and a mother who killed her children. She did not want to leave her children without a mum… she also did not want her children to suffer from having such a bad mother. This was an impulsive decision - she did not plan it.”
Toohey said Dickason was “a highly intelligent capable person”, a doctor by profession whose “entire vocation in life is geared toward saving lives”.
“Why did she kill her three beautiful girls, who she fought for years to get through brutal IVF treatments - her girls who she loved and protected? The answer is that Lauren was severely mentally unwell on that night - there is no question about that.”
Toohey said Dickason was diagnosed with postpartum depression “that’s continued since the birth of her children” and “that never went away”.
In early 2021 she stopped taking the antidepressants - without consulting with her psychiatrist. She had been taking the medication “for years, including right through her pregnancies”.
“She stopped it because she thought they weren’t working for her any more,” Toohey told the jury.
“She lost weight she got fitter and, not surprisingly on some level she was feeling better.”
Steep decline in mental health, jury told
But from July 2021 there was “a steep decline” in Dickason’s mental health.
There was major unrest in South Africa and Dickason was “terrified” of riots, looting near the family home and “daily violent crime”.
During a powercut, the mother-of-three was convinced her family would be murdered.
On top of that, Toohey said Dickason had “huge stress with Covid lockdowns, three small children at home and trying to navigate the immigration process”.
“She began to think that she was failing as a mother… and all of that happened at a time when she had stopped taking that antidepressant medication."
After she had thoughts of wanting to hurt the girls in August 2021 - which she told her husband about - she started taking the medication again.
But Toohey said the pills “take time to build up” and were “not like a panadol for a headache”.
“As it turned out six weeks was not enough time,” she said.
In the weeks leading up to the family moving to New Zealand Toohey said Dickason’s family and husband were “all desperately worried” about her.
“She stopped eating she wasn’t sleeping much… she lost interest and pleasure in everything,” said Toohey.
“She told police that it was taking her ages to do simple tasks - these are all symptoms of depression.
“During that week in Timaru, everything looked bleak to Lauren. There was a power cut just like there had been in South Africa… she thought the children at LIane’s school looked sad and unkempt - and of course, they weren’t, they were just normal little children having fun.
“The house was small, the weather was cold, the rental market was terrible. When you are depressed everything looks terrible… it is so important to understand this.”
Toohey said it was crucial for the jury to “listen for the evidence about what Lauren said actually happened that week and what she experienced.”
In the two days before the alleged murders the family’s immigration adviser was seeking further details about Dickason’s mental health as well as additional information about the cleft lip Karla was born with that had been corrected by surgery when she was just months old.
Hours before she killed the children, Dickason and her husband took them to the park.
While there some teenage girls told her that a man had been there taking photos of them.
Toohey said those two things triggered Dickason’s fatal actions.
“At this stage, Lauren was so unwell she thought New Zealand was not safe and her application for a visa was hopeless,” she said.
“By the time these two things happened Lauren was so deep into her depression, removed from reality… that she decided to die and take her daughters to with her.”
Changes in accused, says mother
Dickason's mother Wendy Fawkes gave evidence this afternoon, saying the accused loved her children “very much”.
However, shortly before Dickason emigrated to New Zealand she was “absent” and Fawkes was concerned her daughter would have a “breakdown”.
“There were changes in Lauren... especially in the last couple of weeks. She stopped communicating, she was very flat,” she said.
“I was extremely worried about her... I’ve never seen Lauren in such a bad mental state. Lauren became more distant.... in her messages to me she told me how broken she is.”
Fawkes, supported by her son while she gave evidence, read a statement to the court before answering questions from Dickason’s lawyer.
The retired teacher and her husband Malcolm have attended every day of their daughter’s trial, leaving only once when pathologist Dr Martin Sage’s evidence about the post mortems.
Fawkes spoke of her oldest child’s desperation to be a mother, her “heartbreaking” IVF journey and of the loss of a baby named Sarah.
“She was very anxious and stressed after every treatment,” she said.
“When Lauren lost Sarah the fact that the baby was taken… always haunted her. There was no funeral or time to say goodbye. Lauren was very sad.”
Fawkes said her daughter “persisted” as having children was her “primary” goal.
She recalled that in May 2019 she was called to Dickason’s house. The court earlier heard that on that day Dickason had told her husband that she’d had thoughts of hurting the children.
“I understood that they needed help and they were not coping,” said Fawkes.
“When I got there Graham was sitting with his head in his hands looking quite forlorn… Lauren came in, and both were upset.
“I don’t know that I was aware of the full detail of what was said before I got there - I remember saying, 'You need to go and get help and see somebody'.
“Lauren was visibly upset and obviously wasn’t coping with the children.”
Dickason later told her mother she had seen a doctor and he had adjusted her medication.
Fawkes told the court she was not aware of the full extent of DIckason’s psychiatric issues.
“As a mother, I could see when Lauren was down and I tried to encourage her, I knew she was seeing a psychologist but I didn’t know the details. She never told me what (her) diagnosis was.”
Fawkes described her daughter as a parent.
“Birthdays were a big thing for Lauren… she went to a lot of trouble on the children’s birthdays,” she said.
“From what I saw she loved them very much there is absolutely no doubt about that in my mind.
“She did arts and crafts, baking… she would take the kids biking and out to various things. She also took Liane to art classes and gym classes.”
Fawkes told the court she had “significant reservations” about Dickason and her family moving to New Zealand.
“Neither of them had ever been here before, I was worried they would lose their support networks.
"I raised this with (them), the realities of emigrating. But once Lauren has made up her mind you can’t tell her what to do.
“I said to (Graham) I was worried about Lauren, she had lost a lot of weight… she was absent.”
Fawkes said Dickason was “paranoid” about the rioting in South Africa which was 500km away and “panicked” about power outages.
As the family’s departure date came closer Fawkes became increasingly worried.
“Lauren wasn’t communicating. I said to Graham that I was really worried... and he said, ‘Mum everything is going to be OK, but if we have one more bump in the road I’m going to stop it all.
“The last time I saw them was the night before they flew out... we didn’t even go inside, we just went to say goodbye.
“The children stood on the upstairs balcony and waved, Lauren came and gave me a hug, she was very distant, she seemed out of it, disconnected. She seemed frail... I did not realise Lauren was suicidal.”
Fawkes said she never saw anything to make her worry about the children.
“Their safety was her priority, she absolutely loved them.”
After arriving in New Zealand Dickason had little contact with her family. She sent messages but infrequently and lay on her bed during video calls.
Defence implores jury to listen hard to Dickason’s evidence
Toohey said the jury would also hear evidence about Dickason’s police interview which the defence say was inappropriate.
She said the woman was “literally disconnected from a drip and taken to the police station”.
“The on-call psychiatrist considered there was no acute need, despite the fact that she had just killed her three children and tried to commit suicide,” said Toohey.
The defence says police “got their confession” during the interview, knowing Dickason was likely under the influence of drugs, “in acute shock and in clear mental distress”.
Toohey spoke further to the jury about insanity and infanticide and what the defence experts will tell them over the next few days.
“If you find that Lauren’s mind was disturbed at the time this happened due to postpartum depression - then this is not murder it’s infanticide. And if she didn’t know what she was doing was morally wrong that night then she is not guilty of murder or infant that is insanity.
Some details of children’s deaths not published
Yesterday the jury watched a video of Dickason’s interview with police the day after the alleged murders.
In it, Dickason confessed to killing her children, explaining how and what led up to the fatal incident.
The New Zealand Herald has chosen not to publish some of the information Dickason disclosed to police about how the children died.
Both the Crown and defence sought to have certain elements suppressed - in a bid to protect Dickason’s husband and wider family.
“Leaving to one side the distressing nature of her conduct, some of the particulars she provides about what occurred are particularly harrowing,” Justice Mander said.
“Information has been provided to me from a psychologist who… advises that publication of a detailed account of what took place at the time the children were killed will be deeply disturbing to Mr Dickason and his family, who understandably have suffered significant psychological trauma as a result of these events.
“It is opined that should more harrowing details of the incident be released to the public by the media, this would cause irreparable harm to the mental health of Mr Dickason and the Dickason family.
“It is submitted that their ongoing recovery from this ‘catastrophic event’ should not be further complicated, if at all possible.”
Justice Mander heard from two other mental health specialists about the welfare of other members of DIckason’s family.
“They are reported to have suffered from increased psychological distress in recent times… both… suffer from increased symptoms of depression, PTSD, and persistent complex bereavement disorder,” he said.
“Two mental health specialists have opined that release of ‘sensitive and prejudicial’ evidential information will aggravate their already fragile emotional and psychological wellbeing.”
After considering the request, Justice Mander said he could not make an order suppressing the information.
“I accept publication of these details are likely to have a detrimental impact on Mr Dickason and members of the children’s family.
“I am acutely aware of the distress that will likely be caused… Unfortunately, the evidence relating to Mrs Dickason’s own account of what she did which is sought to be suppressed is not peripheral detail… Mrs Dickason’s actions on the night obviously form a central part of this case.
“Her apparent determination to take her children’s lives provides the context in which the varying psychological and psychiatric opinions will be required to be assessed.
“There is a need for the jury’s ultimate verdicts to be understood against the full background of what actually occurred, shocking as those details may be.
“As much as a court may wish to protect those innocent parties who have suffered so devastatingly from what has occurred, it cannot mitigate the harsh effect of evidence that is of such direct relevance to the charges, and the defences it is trying, without risk of distorting the public’s understanding of the case the jury must decide."
Justice Mander said whilst he could not prevent all of the information being published, he urged media to carefully “assess” what it reported from Dickason’s confession.
“My decision regarding the non-suppression of Mrs Dickason’s account should not be interpreted as the Court’s imprimatur that these details should be put in the wider public domain - only that as a matter of law I do not consider I can prohibit publication, nor exercise my discretion to effectively censor such evidence.
“However, I observe that the nature of this evidence… raises very real questions regarding what responsible news outlets may choose to publish and in what detail.”
