Sentencing for convicted triple-murderer Lauren Dickason may finally be held in March.
After a high profile five-week long trial last year, the South African doctor was found guilty of murdering her three young daughters just 19 days after arriving in New Zealand.
Dickason, 41, smothered Liane, 6, and 2-year-old twins Maya and Karla to death at their new home in Timaru on September 16, 2020.
The family had emigrated from South Africa, arriving in New Zealand on August 28.
Dickason admitted killing the girls but denied charges of murder - mounting a defence of insanity or infanticide on the basis she was so mentally unwell at the time she could not be held fully responsible for her actions.
After an intense and exhaustive five-week trial in the High Court at Christchurch, a jury found Dickason guilty of three counts of murder.
She was sent to be sentenced on December 19 but the hearing was adjourned.
Today Dickason’s case was called this week - a phone conference between the judge and lawyers with her physical attendance excused - and a new nominal date was scheduled for March 20.
If for any reason the hearing cannot proceed on that date, a new date will be allocated further in the future.
When Dickason is sentenced it will be to mandatory life in prison and Justice Cameron Mander will set a minimum non-parole period.
He will also decide where she spends the start of her sentence - in prison or at the forensic psychiatric facility where she has been held since shortly after the murders.
Anna Leask is a Christchurch-based reporter who covers national crime and justice. She joined the Herald in 2008 and has worked as a journalist for 18 years. She writes, hosts and produces the award-winning podcast A Moment In Crime, released monthly on nzherald.co.nz
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