A jury has watched the police interview with the father of three girls killed by their mum in Timaru on day two of a woman's triple murder trial. Video / NZ Herald / TVNZ Pool
WARNING: This story contains graphic and sensitive content.
Thirteen days before emigrating to New Zealand, Lauren Dickason told her husband she was having thoughts of harming her three children and she was “scared”.
Graham Dickason was “surprised and definitely concerned” about his wife, but was not worried about the safety of his children at the time.
The family arrived in New Zealand on August 28, 2021, and on September 16, Dickason killed daughters Liane, six, and two-year-old twins Maya and Karla.
Dickason, 42, is on trial in the High Court at Christchurch facing three counts of murder.
The Dickason family before they moved to New Zealand.
She admits smothering the children to death, but has pleaded not guilty to the murder charges by reason of insanity or infanticide.
Since Monday, the jury has heard extensive evidence about the alleged murders, how Graham Dickason found his children dead in their beds and the family’s life leading up to the terrible day.
Dickason’s long history of depression and anxiety has been discussed in court at length, as well as her gruelling fertility journey that included having to give birth at 18 weeks’ gestation to a baby girl that did not survive.
The jury watched a three-hour video of Graham Dickason being interviewed by police in the hours after he found the girls and then heard further evidence from him in court via an audio-visual link from South Africa.
The defence began its cross-examination of Graham Dickason yesterday, questioning him in great detail about his marriage and recollections of his wife’s mental health and intense feelings of inadequacy as a parent at various points.
Defence lawyer Anne Toohey reiterated she was not criticising the husband, she was simply trying to establish a factual and comprehensive narrative leading to the alleged murders.
She asked about a conversation he had with his wife 13 days before the family left South Africa.
Dickason approached him and said - for the third time since 2019 - that she’d had thoughts and feelings of harming her children.
Lauren Anne Dickason in court on the first day of her trial. Photo / George Heard
She said she was scared by those thoughts and feelings.
“Lauren says that when she talked to you about this, you said to her, ‘Do you know how crazy you sound?’” defence lawyer Anne Toohey put to Graham Dickason.
“That you were emigrating to New Zealand in 13 days and she needed to, effectively, get her sh*t together?”
Graham Dickason said he was “surprised” by his wife’s admission and concerned about her, but not angry.
He thought she was just stressed about the massive upheaval in her life, combined with wrangling and raising three small children.
“She’s come to you, not saying she’s going to act on it, but scared by these thoughts - you didn’t think she would be capable of doing something like this to the girls?” Toohey put to Graham Dickason.
“No, I didn’t,” he said.
The court also heard that in March 2021, Dickason told her husband she wanted to trial stopping her anti-depressant medication.
She had been doing a weight loss programme and “felt quite good”.
Around the same time, her husband sent her a message saying he was “very aware” of her struggles but “unsure” how to help her.
“Actually I am realising I can’t help you, you have to manage by yourself,” he wrote.
“I really try not to add to your stress… I am angry - not angry at you but I am angry because you feel like this.”
He was upset that his wife felt the “weight of the world” on her and she was “consumed by fatigue and frustrations”.
“Guilt, anger and frustrations are stealing your joy, I am angry because my efforts to try and help and ease your load is actually making it worse. Therefore I feel a bit lost as to what my role is at this stage of my life.
“I want you to be a mother and enjoy it.”
Police at the scene of the alleged triple murder the day after the Dickason children died. Photo / George Heard
The court heard Dickason messaged a friend and said she cried before her husband went to work and again before she went to bed.
Toohey also asked Dickason’s husband about his recollection of her being “severely strained” immediately before the big move - not communicating, appearing “flat” and often “teary”.
“In your mind, were you thinking that if you could get to New Zealand and away from some of these stresses … this would actually be the best thing for Lauren?” she asked.
Graham Dickason replied: “That was probably my only thought at that stage.”
The trial is set for three weeks before Justice Cameron Mander and a jury.
The Crown will call more than 30 witnesses, including five experts on insanity and or infanticide.
The defence will then open its case and is expected to call a number of witnesses, including its own experts, to give evidence about Dickason’s mental state.
