Sentencing for the South African doctor found guilty of murdering her three young daughters just 19 days after arriving in New Zealand has been delayed until next year.
Lauren Anne Dickason, 41, smothered Liane, 6, and 2-year-old twins Maya and Karla to death at their new home in Timaru on September 16 in 2020.
The family had emigrated from South Africa, arriving in the country on August 28.
Dickason admitted killing the girls but denied charges of murder - mounting a defence of insanity or infanticide, on the basis she was so mentally unwell at the time she could not be held fully responsible for her actions.
She was sent to be sentenced on December 19.
However, The New Zealand Herald has learned that date has been vacated.
A nominal date of February 2 has been allocated for her case to be called and on that date a new sentencing hearing could be set.
Dickason will be sentenced to life in prison and Justice Cameron Mander will set a minimum non-parole period.
He will also decide where she spends the start of her sentence - in jail or at the forensic psychiatric facility where she has been held since shortly after the murders.
