{"id":6751,"date":"2023-07-26T05:18:59","date_gmt":"2023-07-25T17:18:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=6751"},"modified":"2023-07-26T05:18:59","modified_gmt":"2023-07-25T17:18:59","slug":"child-murder-accused-lauren-dickason-sobs-as-police-interview-video-plays-in-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=6751","title":{"rendered":"Child murder-accused Lauren Dickason sobs as police interview video plays in court"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lauren Dickason sobbed in the High Court while a recording of her police interview, in which she discusses killing her three daughters, played.<\/p>\n

Dickason is\u00a0on trial in Christchurch<\/a>\u00a0for the murder of her two-year-old twins Karla and Maya and six-year-old Lian\u00e9, in Timaru in September 2021.<\/p>\n

The family, originally from South Africa, had moved to the South Canterbury township just five days earlier.<\/p>\n

Dickason denies the charges, arguing insanity and infanticide.<\/p>\n

She told police “something just snapped” the night the girls’ died, shortly after her husband Graham went out for dinner with work colleagues.<\/p>\n

Dickason sobbed in the videotaped interview as she talked about wanting to relieve the pressure.<\/p>\n

“They started playing their hijinks again, and that’s when I just couldn’t anymore. I was so tired, I was screaming, I was saying no,” she said.<\/p>\n

She had not felt normal since the\u00a0riots that had erupted in South Africa two months earlier<\/a>, Dickason said.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

An email from Immigration New Zealand the day before added more stress to a process that had already stretched for more than a year-and-a-half, she told police.<\/p>\n

“We got our visas, we did all our medicals and stuff and, and yesterday we got letters back from the immigration officer saying no, they need more medical information and I don’t, I don’t even know where to start with that. It was all so overwhelming.”<\/p>\n

Dickason was also struggling to manage her depression, stints in managed isolation and parenting her three children.<\/p>\n

“Lian\u00e9 came along and then the twins were born four years later and they really put, put a lot of strain on us, just two busybodies the whole time 24 hours a day\u2026 probably functioning on two hours of sleep per day.”<\/p>\n

Her face crumpled in the video as she stated what she had done was “irreversible”.<\/p>\n

In court on Tuesday, Dickason covered her face and cried.<\/p>\n

\"Lauren<\/p>\n

Lauren Dickason being interviewed by police in Timaru Police Station on 17 September, 2021.\u00a0<\/span>Photo:\u00a0Supplied<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Defence lawyer Kerryn Beaton pressed police witnesses on checks they had taken before the interview<\/p>\n

“What steps did the police as an organisation take to make sure that she was actually in a fit state to be able to participate in an interview?” she asked.<\/p>\n

Police said they spoke with hospital staff, who advised Dickason had been “medically cleared” and was “in a fit state to leave”.<\/p>\n

Beaton asked what further clarity was sought.<\/p>\n

“A person being medically cleared, so discharged from hospital for not needing medical treatment, isn’t the same as being in a proper psychological state to be able to participate fully in an interview by a police officer about killing children,” she said.<\/p>\n

Officers trusted hospital staff had done a psychological or mental health test prior to discharging Dickason, as part of medically clearing her, police witnesses said.<\/p>\n

A formal psychiatric evaluation was conducted while Dickason was in police cells the following morning, Beaton told the court.<\/p>\n

“That psychiatrist’s records include the following, quote ‘initial impression on brief assessment: depression, severe with possible psychosis, query concurrent PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) trauma. However, will need further longitudinal assessment to verify or otherwise as in acute shock.'”<\/p>\n

The defence was expected to make their opening arguments on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n

RNZ<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lauren Dickason sobbed in the High Court while a recording of her police interview, in which she discusses killing her three daughters, played. Dickason is\u00a0on trial in Christchurch\u00a0for the murder of her two-year-old twins Karla and Maya and six-year-old Lian\u00e9, in Timaru in September 2021. The family, originally from South Africa, had moved to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":6752,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6751"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6753,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6751\/revisions\/6753"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}