The jury in Lauren Dickason’s murder trial will today hear her describe in her own words, how she killed her children. Video / NZ Herald
WARNING: This story contains very graphic and sensitive content.
The day after killing her three children Lauren Dickason told police she had been “thinking about it for sure” for a while, that she had not “felt normal” for months and that “something just snapped”.
“Last night something just triggered me... so now I have three dead kids,” she said during an interview with detectives the day after the alleged triple murder.
The defence questioned whether it was appropriate for police to interview Dickason when they did - but they are adamant she had been “medically cleared” and they had “no concerns” about proceeding.
The defence refutes that and says the woman was “very unwell”, and while those close to her were worried, no one recognised how unwell she was “until it was too late”.
Lauren Anne Dickason appears in court on the first day of her two-week trial for the murder of her three children.
Today the jury watched a video of Dickason’s interview with police the day after the girls died.
The officer who interviewed Dickason told the court she was “an articulate woman who was polite” and willingly engaged with police.
She was “quietly spoken” but maintained eye contact and understood what was happening to her.
The video interview spans about an hour. Some elements of the video have been suppressed.
“When I finished, I knew they were dead” - Lauren Dickason in her own words
During the interview, Dickason is tearful but speaks clearly and coherently. Her eyes are closed during much of her confession.
Dickason first spoke to the interviewing officer about the move to New Zealand saying the emigration process was “so overwhelming”.
She indicated that requests from the family’s immigration advisor the morning the girls died had exacerbated her stress.
The jury heard yesterday that the advisor had been seeking further information about Dickason’s mental health history and about the treatment of Karla’s cleft lip.
The child was born with the condition but it had been surgically corrected and she was unlikely to need any further medical intervention.
WARNING: This story contains very graphic and sensitive content.
“I don’t even know where to start... It just got too overwhelming - and with the new visa thing that came through yesterday I just see no hope for us here in the future,” Dickason told the officer during the interview.
“Just getting on the aeroplane was enough of an effort, there was so much paperwork to be done and then there was the two weeks in MIQ which almost had us crazy.
Dickason killed the girls about 20 minutes after her husband Graham left home to attend a work function.
One of the last photos taken of the Dickason family before the children were allegedly killed by their mother. Photo / Facebook
The officer probed Dickason on the events of the night of the alleged murder.
“Basically the kids were being wild again, jumping on the couches, not listening to what I’m trying to tell them...” Dickason said in the video interview, which was played in open court.
“I have been thinking about it for sure… last night something just triggered me.
“I went to the garage, I saw some cable ties there. I thought that could possibly work.
Dickason’s recorded police interview described how she decided to put the children together in one room before using the cable ties on them.
When that was unsuccessful, she told police she suffocated them.
Dickason explained that she killed little Karla first, and why.
“I did the twins first... The first one was being really, really, really horrible to me lately,” she explained.
“She has been biting me and hitting me and scratching me and throwing tantrums 24 hours a day - and I just don’t know how to manage that. That is why I did her first.
Dickason told police once she knew the girls were dead she “tucked them up” into their beds pulling their blankets over their heads.
“Then I decided I had to do something with myself… and I ran through the house and none of the knives were sharp and then I just started drinking my medication that I could find.
As the video was played for the jury Dickason sat in court with her head in her hands and wept at times.
Her mother, in the public gallery and supported by her father, also covered her face with her hands and cried.
‘I think there was something wrong with me’ - Dickason’s parenting struggle
Dickason spoke further to police about the lead-up to the alleged murders.
“We struggled with infertility for years and years. I had a baby before Liané and I lost her at 20 weeks… then Liané came along and then the twins were born four years later and they really put a lot of strain on us,” she said.
“I have been functioning on two hours sleep a day… I think in the last three months I’ve probably lost 10kg just from stress.
In the interview, Dickason disclosed she had been diagnosed with major depressive disorder in 2015.
She had post natal depression after the birth of both her older daughter and then the twins.
Dickason said she had been medicated for years but in early 2021 she stopped taking her medication because she “just started feeling better, functionable again”.
“To get through the emigration” she prescribed herself antidepressants again.
Dickason was a doctor in South Africa - where it is both legal and common for GPs to self-prescribe.
She admitted she had thoughts of harming her kids in the past.
Graham and Lauren Dickason with their daughters before the alleged murders. Photo / Facebook
The jury heard evidence of three occasions before the family moved to New Zealand where Dickason told her husband she was scared of the thoughts she was having about hurting the girls.
Those incidents were when she was battling post-natal depression.
“These other thoughts were something pretty new,” she said.
“Something completely different popped up in isolation… I don’t know where those thoughts suddenly started coming from.”
The dreamer, the firecracker, the fruitcake - mum describes daughters to police
Dickason told police about her little girls, describing them through tears.
She speaks about the girls in the present tense despite knowing they are dead.
“Liané's a dreamer, she’s always thinking of some weird and wonderful plan or experiment or magic potion… but doesn’t have ears… not at all.
“(She’s) a very loveable little girl but we’ve definitely seen her regress during the lockdown period and she’s not like she was before we left. She’s become much more babyish.”
Dickason said she and Graham had been through “a bit of trauma” with Karla given her issues at birth including surgery at just five months old to correct her cleft upper palate.
“Shes’ a real firecracker,” she said.
“She has got such a temper on her that you can’t describe the aggression that comes out of that little body and it scares me, it scares her dad, it scares her sisters because she climbs onto them and bites them… but then at school, they say no shes an angel no problems.
“Maya’s a fruitcake - she just laughs and smiles at everybody, she’s a real happy-go-lucky but also experiencing the terrible twos right now.”
Dickason also outlined her struggle with parenting and how it had changed her relationship with her husband who she described as “my rock”.
“If they can’t have - they throw a tantrum and throw stuff on the floor; even if it’s a full bowl of cereal and milk…
“I say to Graham ever since they were born, mums always feel this instantaneous love for their children and I never really experienced it with my kids.
“I think there was something wrong with me for not feeling that - and I did my best that I could.”
Was it appropriate for police to interview Dickason so soon? Defence probe process
Earlier today the jury heard how police collected Dickason from the hospital when she was discharged and carried out the interview.
They were satisfied the interview was appropriate and they could obtain “complete, accurate and reliable” information from her.
The defence grilled the interviewing officer on the process and whether Dickason should have been spoken to under the circumstances.
Lawyer Kerryn Beaton KC suggested someone in Dickason’s situation should have been interviewed later and that speaking to her so soon - particularly given the high-stress situation, possible shock and trauma, her ingestion of drugs and her psychological condition - was not appropriate or fair.
Dickason allegedly killed 6-year-old Liané, and 2-year-old twins Maya and Karla at their Timaru home on September 16.
She asked the officer if there were concerns about the killer’s mental state and whether she was effectively fit to be formally interviewed.
The officer said Dickason had been “medically discharged” by the hospital and she expected that included she was considered mentally sound.
The officer said she spoke to Dickason after she had been in the care of medical teams for 20 hours and they told her “all medical treatment had been completed.
“I relied on the doctor saying she was medically cleared and was comfortable to be spoken with... she engaged, she was polite, there was nothing that cause me concern - notwithstanding the tragic circumstances,” the told the court.
Beaton said being medically cleared “had nothing to do with psychological state” and suggested Dickason had been medically cleared for “psychological assessment” - not to go straight to a formal police interview.
“The police didn’t make any effort themselves to see if she should be spoken with someone - even an initial screening - before the interview started,” she said.
The officer was adamant Dicakson was “in an appropriate state to be spoken with.
“There was nothing in the way that she presented that made me think she was not suitable to speak with,” she said.
The trial so far - the other evidence presented to the jury
Earlier in the trial the jury heard evidence about information found on Dickason’s phone by forensic experts after the girls died.
She had carried out a number of searches about how to overdose children and what the lethal or fatal qualities of specific drugs were for kids.
