Lauren Dickason says she ‘failed’ daughters after being sentenced to 18 years

Former South African doctor Lauren Dickason has been sentenced to an effective 18 years incarceration in a mental health hospital for the murder of her three children.

Dickason was found guilty at the High Court of Christchurch in New Zealand on 16 August last year after a five-week-long trial.

The 43-year-old murdered six-year-old Liane and two-year-old twins Maya and Karla at their Timaru home in September 2020.

She strangled them with cable ties and smothered them to death before tucking them in with their soft toys before attempting to take her own life with a knife and a cocktail of pills.

Failed her daughters

Dickason showed no emotion when Justice Cameron Mander handed down sentence, but released a statement through her lawyers saying that she had “failed” her daughters.

“I loved Liané, Maya and Karla with all my heart. I failed them, I failed Graham, and I failed our families.  I take 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,” Dickason said.

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Sentencing

During sentencing, Justice Mander said it was “difficult to comprehend the struggle and grief”, particularly with the circumstances in which their lives were taken, the New Zealand Herald reported.

Mander began the sentencing by outlining how Dickason killed her three daughters and acknowledged her diagnosis with a major depressive disorder in her teens.

Mander ordered Dickason to be detained at a mental health facility for compulsory treatment, rather than prison. She will remain at the facility until she reaches a point she is mentally well enough to be transferred to prison.

The judge did not set a minimum term of imprisonment, which means Dickason is eligible for parole after a third of her sentence, six years, has been served.

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