Lauren Dickason is appealing her conviction for the 2021 murders of her three young daughters in Timaru.
Sentenced to 18 years in prison in June, Dickason was found guilty despite her legal team’s defense of insanity and infanticide.
She smothered 6-year-old Lianè and 2-year-old twins Karla and Maya three weeks after the family arrived from South Africa.
The jury’s verdict came after 14 hours of deliberations, with Justice Mander acknowledging her severe mental illness as a significant factor.
Eligible for parole after serving a third of her sentence, Dickason remains in a special inpatient unit. The date for her appeal has not yet been set.
A woman said to be suffering from severe mental illness, yet eligible for parole after serving 6 years for a triple murder. Then what? Will she be free to wander around New Zealand or will she be repatriated to South Africa and thus release us from the expense of her ongoing care?
I don’t for a minute believe this woman has a mental illness which was not noticed at any time during the past 9 or 10 years. She is as cunning as a fox and without empathy or emotion in the pursuit of getting her own way. It took some time to suffocate three children. Yet here we are expected to make allowances for her.
Yep as little as six years for this….
I’d rather be dead 1000 times than harm my child like this……
Definitely not the full quid
Unbelievable. Send her back to South Africa