The first psychiatric expert to interview Lauren Dickason after she allegedly murdered her children is today giving evidence at her High Court trial.
Dr Simone McLeavey assessed Dickason six days after she arrived at Hillmorton Hospital’s forensic psychiatric unit.
Dickason had been remanded to the unit after appearing in court for the first time - two days after she smothered her three little girls to death at their Timaru home.
McLeavey told the court Dickason “had the capacity to engage meaningfully” and spoke at length about her engagement with mental health specialists in South Africa due to her feelings of being a bad mother, depression and anxiety.
The 42-year-old South African woman admits she killed Liane, 6, and 2-year-old twins Maya and Karla in September 2021.
But she has pleaded not guilty to three charges of murder and has mounted a defence of insanity or infanticide.
So far, extensive evidence has been presented about Dickason’s life - her upbringing, marriage, the gruelling fertility treatment she underwent to have children and her long battle with anxiety and depression.
The jury watched footage of police interviews with Dickason and her husband Graham - who found his children dead in bed and his wife in need of medical attention when he returned from a work function.
In total, five experts will be called to give evidence - three for the defence and two for the Crown - about Dickason’s mental state at the time of the alleged murders.
So far the jury has heard from forensic and reproductive psychiatrist Dr Susan Hatters-Friedman for the defence and Dr Erik Monasterio for the Crown.
The former says Dickason’s case is one of insanity and infanticide, but the latter rejects both and supports the Crown case of murder.
McLeavey is a consultant psychiatrist at Hillmorton Hospital for Te Whatu Ora Waitaha Canterbury, formerly the Canterbury District Health Board.
She is the sole treating clinician responsible for the oversight and treatment of mentally disordered offenders like Dickason and works with a “diverse” range of mental illnesses.
She interviewed Dickason a number of times and spoke with her husband, parents and psychiatrist in South Africa.
In her first “encounter” with Dickason the alleged offending was “a taboo topic” and was not addressed.
She said it was more important to “build a rapport” and “therapeutic alliance” with the accused and gather crucial background information for the courts.
Her priority was assessing “why” Dickason was there in the context of her mental health, and it was too “traumatic” to revisit the girls’ deaths that soon.
Dickason was told at the time McLeavey was to be providing a legal opinion for the court - and she could choose not to disclose any information.
Her evidence continues.
By Anna Leask
