The girls were found dead in their beds at their Timaru home in September 2021. Photo: NZ Herald By Anna Sargent of RNZ Almost three years after Timaru was rocked by the tragic death of three young girls at the hands of their mother, the district's mayor hopes her sentencing will bring some closure. Lauren Dickason was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment in the Christchurch High Court on Wednesday, the beginning of which will be served in a secure mental health facility.
Dickason smothered 6-year-old Lianè and 2-year-old twins Karla and Maya in their beds three weeks after the family had arrived in Timaru from South Africa. Justice Cameron Mander imposed no minimum non-parole period, saying her severe mental illness was not only a contributing factor to her actions, but the cause. Those closest to Dickason told the High Court they had forgiven her, but the devastating effects of her actions in September 2021 would resonate through the rest of their lives.
Jade Whaley and her husband lived next door to the Dickasons. She recalled hearing Lauren's husband Graham Dickason cry out over the fence the night he found his daughters dead, and she watched his wife be taken away in an ambulance. She was still haunted by the fact she was so close to what happened.
"All she had to do was just yell out and we would've heard her, or walked out or if I'd known, you always have those things in your mind, I was so close but there was nothing I could do," she said. Whaley and her husband plant.
