Jurors leave court in tears as stone-faced Lauren Dickason found guilty of murder

A crestfallen yet stone-faced Lauren Dickason stood in the dock as a guilty verdict was handed down in the High Court at Christchurch on Wednesday.

The South African doctor was on Wednesday convicted on each of the three charges of murder she faced after admitting to killing her three children: Liane, six, and two-year-old twins Maya and Karla

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Laura Dickason murder trial gruelling and upsetting

The jury – eight women and four men – reached a majority 11-1 verdict after two days of deliberation since Monday.

It has been a difficult and gruelling trial during which distressing evidence was presented. Stuff NZ reported several jurors left the courtroom crying.

Justice Cameron Mander expressed his thanks to the jury for their service and acknowledged it had taken a toll on each of them.

42-year-old Dickason admitted to strangling her three little girls with interconnected cable ties before smothering them to death one by one at their Timaru home, in Canterbury, on 16 September 2021.

She, however, pleaded not guilty to murder, claiming she was severely mentally disturbed at the time, and has mounted a defence of insanity or infanticide.

Dickason has not herself given evidence as she had no obligation to do so, said Judge Mander.

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What were the five possible outcomes for Dickason

There were five possible outcomes from the jury’s deliberations:

1. Guilty of murder;
2. Not guilty of murder but guilty of infanticide
3. Act of murder proven, but not criminally responsible due to insanity;
4. Act of infanticide proven, but not criminally responsible due to insanity; and
5. Hung jury, if a unanimous or majority verdict cannot be reached.

Infanticide as defence under NZ law

Under New Zealand law, infanticide operates both as a stand-alone offence and as a partial defence to murder or manslaughter, according to NZ Herald.

In other countries, infanticide applies to children under the age of one, but in New Zealand it’s extended to kids under 10 due to varying takes on the effects of postpartum depression.

In New Zealand, a woman can be found guilty of infanticide rather than murder if it is proven “the balance of her mind was disturbed” from the effects of childbirth, lactation or any disorder caused by childbirth or lactation.

If the jury ruled infanticide as the reason for the deaths, Dickason might have been sentenced to just three years in jail. If they believed the prosecution’s version in this instance, she would have been incarcerated for life.

Insanity as defence

If Dickason was found not guilty by reason of insanity, it would have been up to Justice Mander to decide on her future, NZ Herald reported.

That would like be a detention order under the Criminal Procedure (Mentally Impaired Persons) Act 2003.

This would have seen Dickason being detained at a secure mental health facility as a special patient until such time as the national director of mental health determines her to be well enough for release back into the community.

Dickason will be detained in a mental hospital until her sentencing.