South African Woman Found Guilty Of Murdering Three Daughters In New Zealand

A New Zealand jury on Wednesday found a South African woman guilty of murdering her three young daughters after a month-long trial, Sky News reported.

Notably, Lauren Anne Dickason, 42, strangled her two-year-old twins and their six-year-old sister in September 2021 at their home in Timaru, a city on the South Island, about a month after the family had migrated from South Africa. At the time, the girls' father was out to dinner with colleagues.

Though she admitted to killing the girls, she argued she was suffering from severe depression. She also said that she was mentally disturbed and didn't know what she was doing at the time

During the trial, Dickason's lawyer Kerryn Beaton KC explained the woman's severe depression, saying, ''Mothers don't kill their children the way that Lauren did just because they're angry, or resentful, or stressed or anxious. So the girls' deaths have nothing to do with anger and resentment, and everything to do with what was clearly a severe mental illness.''

Though prosecutors acknowledged Dickason suffered from depression but said it wasn't enough to warrant a medical defense. Further, her online search history included comments about wanting to kill her children and Google searches for "most effective overdose in kids".

After examining Dickason's history of mental health and fertility issues, the majority of the jury found the mother guilty of all three charges of murder, AFP reported. She faces a sentence of life imprisonment.

After the verdict, Detective Inspector Scott Anderson said in a statement that police extended their ''sympathies to the families who will never get to see Liane, Maya, and Karla grow up.''

The judge, Cameron Mander, remanded Dickason to custody in a hospital psychiatric unit until her sentencing.