SA mother appeals New Zealand murder sentence

SA doctor Lauren Dickason, who was sentenced in New Zealand to an effective 18 years in jail in June for the murder of her three children, intends appealing her convictions. News24 reports that according to the New Zealand Herald, her legal team filed a ‘Notice of Appeal Against Conviction’ in the Court of Appeal on 23 July. The grounds for the appeal are not yet known and no date has been set for Court of Appeal proceedings. Dickason was accused of murder after strangling and smothering six-year-old Liané and two-year-old twins Maya and Karla on 16 September 2021 in their home in Timaru while her husband was out for dinner with colleagues. She pleaded not guilty to the charges, but was found guilty by a jury on 16 August 2023. During a trial that lasted five weeks, the jury heard arguments from the state that new stressors in Dickason's life had caused her to be depressed and that her actions on the night of the murders were ‘a reaction to the anger and frustration at her children's misbehaviour’, which caused her to snap. She has been in Hillmorton Hospital since her arrest and, instead of prison, the judge ruled in June in the High Court in Christchurch that she should serve her sentence at a mental health unit in the hospital. Stuff reported that Dickason could be moved to a prison later.

Full News24 report