Lauren Anne Dickason in the High Court at Christchurch on 17 July 2023. Photo: Pool / NZME / George Heard
Warning: This story contains distressing content.
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 on trial in Christchurch for the murder of her two-year-old twins Karla and Maya and six-year-old Liané, in Timaru in September 2021.
The family, originally from South Africa, had moved to the South Canterbury township just five days earlier.
Dickason denies the charges, arguing insanity and infanticide.
She told police "something just snapped" the night the girls' died, shortly after her husband Graham went out for dinner with work colleagues.
Dickason sobbed in the videotaped interview as she talked about wanting to relieve the pressure.
"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.
She had not felt normal since the riots that had erupted in South Africa two months earlier, Dickason said.
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.
"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."
Dickason was also struggling to manage her depression, stints in managed isolation and parenting her three children.
"Liané 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… probably functioning on two hours of sleep per day."
Her face crumpled in the video as she stated what she had done was "irreversible".
In court on Tuesday, Dickason covered her face and cried.
Lauren Dickason being interviewed by police in Timaru Police Station on 17 September, 2021. Photo: Supplied
Defence lawyer Kerryn Beaton pressed police witnesses on checks they had taken before the interview
"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.
Police said they spoke with hospital staff, who advised Dickason had been "medically cleared" and was "in a fit state to leave".
Beaton asked what further clarity was sought.
"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.
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.
A formal psychiatric evaluation was conducted while Dickason was in police cells the following morning, Beaton told the court.
"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.'"
The defence was expected to make their opening arguments on Wednesday morning.
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