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Lauren Dickason has been sentenced to 18 years in a New Zealand mental hospital for the murder of her three children. (Facebook/Lauren Dickason)
- South African doctor Lauren Dixon Will spend 18 years in a mental hospital in New Zealand.
- In August she was found guilty of murdering her three children at their home in New Zealand.
- Dickason could be transferred to prison and become eligible for parole after six years, according to reports.
South African doctor Lauren Dickason has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for murdering her three children.
However, the High Court in Christchurch, New Zealand, ruled on Wednesday that she should not be jailed but should serve her sentence in the mental health unit of Hillmorton Hospital, where she has been living since her arrest.
However, prison is not completely out of the question. New Zealand Publications thing Dixon will reportedly be transferred to prison later. She will be eligible for parole after six years.
Crown prosecutor Andrew McRae had reportedly asked the court to sentence Dickason to life in prison with a minimum term of 17 to 18 years before he would be eligible for parole. He reportedly called the murders “brutal and callous” and “unprecedented” in New Zealand.
but New Zealand Herald Judge Cameron Mander reportedly ruled that a life sentence with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years or more was “manifestly unjust”.
Instead, he imposed three 18-year prison sentences, to be served concurrently.
Mander said he believed Dickson’s actions were the result of her mental disorder and that she was a loving mother, Stuff reported.
Read | After a jury found Lauren Dickason guilty of murder, some believe she needs a new trial
Dickason was charged with murder after she strangled 6-year-old Leanne and 2-year-old twins Maya and Kara while her husband was out to dinner with co-workers on September 16, 2021. She pleaded not guilty to the charge, but a jury found her guilty on August 16, 2023.
During the five-week trial, the jury heard arguments from the prosecution that new stresses in Dixon’s life had caused her to become depressed and that her actions on the night of the murder were “an angry and frustrated reaction to the child’s misbehavior” which led to her collapse.
The state said Dickason harbored anger and resentment toward the children when he was depressed. The prosecution said Dickason knew his actions were morally wrong.
However, the defence argued that Dickason had not fully recovered from postpartum depression, which was exacerbated by the family’s move to New Zealand, civil unrest in South Africa, the coronavirus lockdown and Dickason stopping her medication.
Mander said the defence claimed Dickson was “so ill that she had lost touch with reality… that she was no longer able to recognise that what she was doing was morally wrong”.
Five expert witnesses testified about Dickson’s mental state, including three experts — Dr. Erik Monasterio, Dr. Simone McLeavey, and Dr. Justin Barry-Walsh – Agreed that although she suffered from a “mental disorder”, she knew what she was doing was wrong.
Two experts, Dr. Susan Harts-Friedman and Dr. Ghazi Metuyi, believed Dickason had a defense for infanticide.
At Wednesday’s sentencing, Dixon’s husband, Graham Dixon, reportedly said he had forgiven his wife for what she had done.
Dickason’s father, Malcolm Fox, pleaded with the judge for a lighter sentence, saying she had “already been punished enough” and had “everything to lose.”
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