The trial of Lauren Dickason, the woman on trial for the murder of her three young daughters, began on Monday in the High Court in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Dickason has pleaded not guilty to the murder charges, arguing that she was mentally ill at the time of the murders and is therefore unaccountable.
On Monday, the state argued on the first day of the trial that Dickason suffocated her three daughters with cable ties and their blankets on the evening of 16 September 2021, after which she tried to take her own life, reports Stuff.co.nz.
According to the state’s version of events, Dickason probably suffered from a major depressive disorder, but she knew what she was doing when the murders were committed.
According to Stuff.co.nz’s report, Public Prosecutor Andrew McRae argued that Dickason harbored anger and resentment towards her children and that she had sent messages to friends that proved this and that she had carried out internet searches about how to possibly kill them. .
The trial is being heard by judge Cameron Mander and a jury of four men and eight women, reports the New Zealand Herald. The trial is expected to last two weeks.
Dickason was treated in a psychiatric unit at Hillmorton Hospital in Christchurch after she allegedly killed her daughters – Liané (6) and the two-year-old twins, Maya and Karla – at their home in Timaru.
Her husband, Graham Dickason, an orthopedic surgeon, came across the bodies of his three daughters after work. Lauren, also a medical doctor, was taken to hospital after the incident and appeared in court two days later in connection with the children’s death.
The Dickason couple arrived in Timaru with their children from South Africa about a week before the murders and were initially quarantined in New Zealand.
