A mother Mum killed her three daughters who killed her three daughters had lost her first child and had not recovered to “baseline mental health,” the court heard.
At her home in Timaru, New Zealand’s South Island, in September 2021, 42-year-old Lauren Anne Dickason is accused of killing her two-year-old twins Maya and Karla as well as their six-year-old sister Liane.
She has been on trial in Christchurch’s High Court since July 17 and has admitted to killing the girls but has pleaded not guilty due to insanity.
Dr. Ghazi Metoui, a clinical psychologist, told the court on Thursday that Ms. Dickason’s depression had gotten worse over a period of years after conducting extensive interviews with her.
Maya and Karla, twin daughters who are two years old, are held by Lauren Dickason and her husband Graham as they pose with Liane, their other daughter who is six years old.
Maya and Karla, twin daughters who are two years old, are held by Lauren Dickason and her husband Graham as they pose with Liane, their other daughter who is six years old.
After drowning the couple’s three small daughters, Lauren Anne Dickason (shown on the left) is currently on trial for murder.
Mum killed her three daughters
After drowning the couple’s three small daughters, Lauren Anne Dickason (shown on the left) is currently on trial for murder.
According to the New Zealand Herald, Dr. Metoui stated during cross-examination by Crown attorney Andrew McRae that “everything (for Ms. Dickason) was black and horrible… game over.”
Dr. Metoui informed the court that although Ms. Dickason experienced a significant amount of stress as a result, her inability to conceive naturally was a more serious underlying issue.Mum killed her three daughters.
In his perspective, her fertility issues were deeply entwined with her depressive issues during the 11-year period prior to her alleged offense, he added.
She experienced postpartum depression that persisted for years after losing her first child at 18 weeks gestation, prenatal anxiety, and what is known clinically as the intermittent symptom pattern.
She always had weaknesses in her early years, starting in adolescence and continuing into her early 20s, and these are risk factors in and of themselves for postpartum depression.
The truth is that, from the time she started trying to get pregnant until she gave birth, all of her mental health decreases happened after 2010.
The court heard that after the trauma of her first unsuccessful IVF pregnancy, Ms. Dickason’s mental health never fully recovered. She also experienced post-natal depression after giving birth to her daughters.
Lauren Anne Dickason (shown with husband Graham) has been on trial in Christchurch’s High Court since July 17 and has admitted killing her three daughters but has pleaded not guilty due to insanity.
Mum killed her three daughters
Lauren Anne Dickason (shown with husband Graham) has been on trial in Christchurch’s High Court since July 17 and has admitted killing her three daughters but has pleaded not guilty due to insanity.
According to Dr. Metoui, “Her major depressive disorder, severe type, at the time of the alleged offense was an extension and part of her chronic postnatal depression since 2015 after having Liane and re-emerged in 2019 after having Karla and Maya, and episodically subsequently.”
She “met the medical and legal threshold for infanticide,” according to me, because “the equilibrium of Mrs. Dickason’s mind at the moment was upset by this unique disease consequent upon childbirth.”
Dr. Metoui disagreed with the Crown’s claim that Ms Dickason’s actions were motivated by rage because Karla’s temper outburst occurred soon before the girls were strangled to death.
She wasn’t specifically angry with Karla, Dr. Metoui said, adding that “it is a step too far.”
“I believe she was perhaps unhappy but really angry about her failing family, portrayed as an explanation,” said the author.
“I believe that Karla’s behavior demonstrated to her that her family was in pain and unhappy,” said the author.
Despite the fact that the deaths were “brutal, cruel, determined, and deliberate,” Dr. Metoui told the court that Ms. Dickason cannot be charged with a crime.
As for Ms. Dickason’s mental state at the time of the alleged offense, he added, “I do not feel that it barred her from appreciating the nature and quality of the conduct.”
Five specialists have testified during the trial, with two backing the Crown’s case for murder and three stating that Ms. Dickason’s actions were motivated by insanity. Mum killed her three daughters.
Five specialists have testified during the trial, with two backing the Crown’s case for murder and three stating that Ms. Dickason’s actions were motivated by insanity.
But given the severity of her depression at the time and the erroneous thinking that went along with it, she finally believed that she and her three children would have been better off dead.
She has an insanity defense, in my opinion, because she didn’t realize the alleged actions violated the established standards of right and wrong.
Dr. Metoui disagreed with Mr. McRae’s assertion that Ms. Dickason’s tale had evolved over time and accepted the “altruistic motives” recommended by the professionals caring for her.
She never, according to Dr. Metoui, “backpedaled, started ducking and diving, became confused, or was inconsistent about it; she was simply extremely straightforward about it.”
Mr. McRae advised Dr. Metoui to exercise caution while using the data Ms. Dickason provided. Mum killed her three daughters.
The psychologist answered, “This is where you and I are currently at odds.”
We are aware that our memories are incomplete. Even though she was cooperating and doing her best, there were gaps in what she told me.
Dr. Metoui kept disputing Mr. McRae’s assertions. Ms. Dickason intentionally killed her kids.
He remarked, “She was a truly ill woman.”
“It’s shattering to her mental health when she’s psychiatrically ill… She wasn’t taking care of herself, I’d say, and she was clinically anorexic and socially retreating from just about everyone.
According to the Prosecution, Ms. Dickason and Mum killed her three daughters killed the kids deliberately out of resentment, anger, and frustration.
The Dickason children were ‘tucked in’ to their mattresses after being tragically suffocated.
The Dickason children were ‘tucked in.
And The Dickason children were ‘tucked in’ to their mattresses after being tragically suffocated.
Originally, Mr. McRae claimed Ms. Dickason killed her children “methodically and purposely, perhaps even clinically,” because she was “resentful of how the children stood in the way of her relationship with her husband.”
Once Judge Cameron Mander summarizes the case and gives the jury instructions. The jury will hear the final arguments from the Crown and the Defense on Friday.
The girls were choked by Ms. Dickason when Graham was away at a business dinner.
He came back to find his wife unconscious after she had attempted suicide and the deceased girls snuggled into their beds with their faces covered.
Graham testified at the trial from his Pretoria home after returning there with the girls’ remains.
Three of the five experts who testified said Ms. Dickason’s mental illness was what drove her to her conduct. While two others agreed with the Crown’s case for murder.
The rebuttal: “This is not murder.”
Dickason has pled not guilty to the accusations of murder due to insanity or infanticide. Despite admitting to smothering the children to death.
The Crown agrees that Dickason experienced occasionally severe depression. But it insists that she was acting with knowledge when she killed the girls.
The children were allegedly slain “methodically and purposefully, possibly even clinically,” according to Crown Prosecutor Andrew McRae. Who claimed Dickason was an irate and frustrated woman who was “resentful of how. The children stood in the way of her relationship with her husband.”
The Crown agrees that Dickason experienced occasionally severe depression. But it insists that she was acting with knowledge when she killed the girls.
Dickason, according to McRae, killed her children “methodically and purposefully, possibly even clinically,” because . She was “resentful of how the children stood in the way of her relationship with her husband” and was furious and disappointed.
Before the alleged killings, Graham and Lauren Dickason were pictured with their daughters. Image: Facebook
Before the alleged killings, Graham and Lauren Dickason were pictured with their daughters. Image: Facebook
The rebuttal: “This is not murder.”
Just before 11 a.m. today, defense attorney Anne Toohey began the defense case by stating . That there was no question Dickason killed the kids and then attempted to commit suicide using a variety of tactics.
She intended to go to sleep and never get up.
“The reason she did that is the question. According to all three specialists for the defense, her postpartum depression, which resulted from childbirth, damaged her cognition.
“All of the defense experts concur that the motivation was humanitarian… In other words, Lauren murdered her kids out of love. She believed that she was killing them out of love because. And She was also planning to commit herself and she didn’t want to leave the kids. She persisted because she was so certain it was the proper move.
Given her depressing and gloomy attitude in the weeks following the alleged killings. Dickason informed mental health professionals that she still believed it was best for her children to die. Toohey claimed that this was the outcome of a serious mental disorder.
Toohey told the jury that Dickason was “severely” ill and had been depressing himself with suicidal thoughts for months.
The rebuttal: “This is not murder.”
“This is a story of a mother who killed her children and postpartum depression. She did not want to abandon her kids. Nor did she want them to experience the pain of having such a terrible mother. She didn’t deliberate this decision; it was a spontaneous one.
Dickason, a doctor by trade, was described as “a very educated and capable person” whose “entire passion in life is centered toward rescuing people,” according to Toohey.
“Why did she kill her three lovely daughters. She fought for years to attain through torturous IVF treatments – her girls that she loved and protected? “, one could ask. There is no doubt about the fact that Lauren was gravely mentally ill on that particular night.
According to Toohey, Dickason was identified as having postpartum depression. Which “persisted after the delivery of her children” and “never went away.”
She stopped taking the antidepressants in the early months of 2021 without first talking to her psychiatrist. She had taken the medicine “for years, straight through her pregnancy,” according to her.
Toohey explained to the jury that she stopped because she believed they were no longer working for her.
Six weeks turned out to be insufficient, she remarked.
She stopped eating and didn’t get much sleep. And She stopped enjoying herself and everything,” stated Toohey.
She informed officers that performing ordinary things was taking her a long time; these are all signs of sadness.
“To Lauren, during that week in Timaru, everything seemed hopeless. Just like in South Africa, there was a power outage. She believed that the students at Liane’s school appeared depressed and untidy. Despite the fact that they were simply enjoying themselves as regular young children.
“The house was little, it was chilly outside, and the rental market was awful. When you’re down, everything seems awful. It is crucial to comprehend this.
