Lauren Dickason has been found guilty of the murder of her three daughters. Her husband, Graham, is also pictured here along with Lauren and the girls. Pictures: Facebook/ LaurenDickason
In a surprise development, Lauren Dickason has been served with a deportation order that will take effect once she has served her sentence for the triple murder of her daughters in New Zealand.
A deportation order means Dickason would be released on parole and then leave the country on the earliest possible flight back to South Africa.
The 43-year-old former South African doctor was sentenced to a finite term of 18 years imprisonment in June this year after she was found guilty at the High Court of Christchurch for murdering her two-year-old twins, Maya and Karla, and their older sister, Liané, 6, in September 2021.
During the headline-grabbing trial, her defence argued Dickason was still suffering from severe postpartum depression when she committed the heinous crime.
This was allegedly exacerbated by the family’s relocation to New Zealand, the events of the July 2021 unrest in South Africa, Covid-19 lockdowns and Dickason’s decision to stop taking her anti-depressants.
Citing Dickason’s mental illness as a factor, Justice Cameron Mander did not impose a life sentence nor did he order her to serve a minimum term of imprisonment before she could seek parole.
An offender with a finite sentence and no minimum term becomes eligible for parole after serving one-third of their time.
This means she will be eligible for release on parole in just under three years on 19 September 2027.
At her sentencing hearing, Mander made an order under the Mental Health Act detaining her as a special patient at Christchurch’s Hillmorton Hospital, a secure mental health unit.
“We can confirm that Lauren Dickason has been served with a deportation order. Immigration New Zealand plans to proceed with her deportation upon her release,” Fadia Mudafar, national manager of compliance at Immigration New Zealand, told the NZ Herald on Tuesday.
Mudafar would not be drawn on her deportation status at that time, saying there were “additional factors to consider” around her mental health detainment at Hillmorton Hospital.
It is standard practice for people convicted of serious criminal offences to be deported from New Zealand after a prison term.
Immigration New Zealand serves deportation liability notices and deportation orders, where appropriate, to people who may be liable for deportation because of criminal activity, other public interest factors, or for being unlawfully in New Zealand, according to its website.
Meanwhile, the Court of Appeal confirmed it had received notice from Dickason’s lawyers that the former doctor intends to appeal her convictions.
If the appeal is successful, a second trial could be held. No date has been set for the appeal.
In September, Dickason posted a message to her supporters along with new photographs of her and her slain daughters on social media.
“My wonderful little girls. It has been three years since I last held you tight and read you stories, tickled your tummies and kissed you all over,” the message read.
“I miss you every single day. Love Mommy.”
ALSO READ: Lauren Dickason: Sentencing of killer mom – who now sleeps with teddy bears – postponed
During the gruelling five-week-long trial, Dickason admitted to strangling her daughters with interconnected cable ties before smothering them to death one by one at their Timaru home, in Canterbury, on 16 September 2021.
She then tucked them in with their soft toys before attempting to take her own life with a knife and a cocktail of pills.
Her orthopaedic surgeon husband, Graham, was greeted by the horrific sight of his daughters’ lifeless bodies when he arrived home from a work function.
The Pretoria family immigrated to New Zealand and had just completed their hotel quarantine in Auckland, a week before the tragic killings.
ALSO READ: Dickason trial: How idea became belief that ‘brutal, callous’ murders are ‘happy ending’
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