Lauren Dickason 'cannot rely on insanity defence', court hears

A forensic psychiatrist has told a New Zealand court that Lauren Dickason cannot rely on the defences of infanticide or insanity.

Dickason has admitted killing her three daughters Liané, 6, and twins Maya and Karla, 2, less than a month after emigrating from South Africa to Timaru in September 2021.

She has pleaded not guilty to murder by reason of insanity or infanticide. Under New Zealand law, “infanticide” is a crime similar to culpable homicide and can be invoked by women who argue their minds were temporarily “disturbed”. The maximum prison term is three years.

Dr Erik Monasterio interviewed the 42-year-old former Pretoria doctor four times, according to news outlets 1News and the NZ Herald.

While she experienced depression, she was not at the severe end of the scale and does not meet the threshold for insanity, he said. In his opinion, she demonstrated an awareness of her actions and did not show signs of a psychotic breakdown when she strangled the children with cable ties and then smothered them. He estimated this would have taken her 20 minutes.

He also found there was no basis for a defence of infanticide because any depression Dickason experienced started when she was a teenager and was not as a result of any pregnancy.

This is in contrast with the defence's forensic and perinatal psychiatrist Susan Hatters-Friedman, who previously told the court sitting in Christchurch: “At the time of her offending, Dr Lauren Dickason was labouring under a disease of the mind to such an extent that it rendered her incapable of knowing her acts were morally wrong.”

Her diagnosis was that Dickason presented with symptoms consistent with a major depressive disorder with psychotic features. She found that the disorder had “a peripartum onset”.

Monasterio, however, said Dickason was not significantly cognitively impaired at the time and had in fact showed a high level of functioning in the period before she killed her girls, interacting with people and handling correspondence with government agencies.

Evidence led during the two-week-long trial so far has revealed Dickason struggled to form an emotional bond with the children. She was able to conceive only with IVF, including the use of donor eggs. She suffered from postpartum depression after each birth. 

Her husband Graham disclosed she told him on three occasions she had thoughts of harming the children, beginning in 2019. She was prescribed medication by a psychiatrist and he did not believe she would ever act on it. While she was stressed from “built-up pressure” due to the Covid-19 lockdowns and emigrating, he believed they could create a stable life in New Zealand after a period of adjustment.

Graham, an orthopaedic surgeon, was due to start work at Timaru hospital the week after the triple killing. He spent the week before making the acquaintance of his colleagues while his wife organised their new home and made arrangements for the children to start school. He left the house at 7pm that night for a work-related dinner and returned at 10pm to find his children dead in their beds. 

The court previously heard Dickason told detectives that on the day of the killing, she had just collected the children from school when one of the twins had a tantrum in the car. At home, after her husband headed out, she said the children had started their “high jinx again” and she snapped. 

Monasterio said she told him: “All I wanted was some quiet ... I want this to stop ... I didn’t want to feel like a bad parent any more.”

Monasterio spoke to Dickason about her marriage and in the first three interviews, she reported “a positive relationship” but in the last interview, she spoke of making “considerable sacrifices through their marriage to ensure that Graham continued to pursue weekends away hunting and with friends”.

After their children were born, Dickason shared that she at times felt “alienated” from her husband, whose attention was often focused on the girls rather than his wife — and her feelings “often” turned to “anger”.

During the early years of their relationship, Graham — whom she met at medical school — was her “rock” and “helped her to mostly overcome her depression and anxiety”. As Graham’s priorities shifted towards the children, however, Dickason felt a “loss of intimacy” and support.

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