Woman Jailed For 18 Years For Murdering Three Daughters In New Zealand; Not Pleaded Guilty (Photo @iSeeRacist)
In a bizarre crime, a 43-year-old woman, Lauren Dickason, has been given 18 years of imprisonment by a New Zeeland court for murdering her three daughters.
The woman was reportedly undergoing mental health issues for a long time. The murder took place after the family – her husband Graham Dickason, three children: six-year-old Liané and two-year-old twins Karla and Maya – reached New Zealand from South Africa in September 2021 to start a new life.
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The incident happened in September 2021 at the family’s home in Timaru, New Zealand when the woman’s husband was out for dinner with friends. By the time he returned home, he had found the bodies of his daughters.
In August last year, a court found that Lauren Dickason killed her three daughters in September 2021 while also observing woman’s mental health battle at the time of crime, including the IVF struggles, tensions with motherhood and other angst. It also found that the woman googled for methods to overdose her daughters with sedatives.
Notably, the woman has not pleaded guilty to the murder charges of three children, arguing a defence of insanity and infanticide. However, she admitted the killing saying that she takes responsibility for taking “our three beautiful girls from this world.”
“I would like to take this opportunity to convey the deepest and most sincere remorse for the extreme pain and hurt caused to my children and my family by my actions,” she said.
According to the prosecution, the woman killed her children out of “anger and resentment.” “You might think that it is hard to sit here and understand Mrs Dickason’s behaviour that night: ‘Why would a mother do this to her children – she must’ve been so unwell for that to have occurred,” the New Zealand-based media Otago Daily Times quoted the prosecution.
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However, with the court’s sentence, Lauren Dickason would start her punishment term at a mental health hospital in the custody of the state, according to an AFP report quoting a court official at Christchurch High Court.
While ordering the verdict, Justice Cameron Mander said that the offending involved a mother who was afflicted with a “disease of the mind that was causative of her actions.”
He did not impose a minimum non-parole period in sentencing the woman, who escaped life imprisonment which is the usual penalty for murder in New Zealand.
The statements from the family sought forgiveness for the woman, noting the pain she already suffered and the mental trouble she had been experiencing. The woman’s lawyer also argued for a mental health unit as an appropriate place to accommodate her, highlighting the need for care.
