Lauren Dickason has been sentenced to 18 years in a psychiatric facility in New Zealand for the murder of her three children. (Facebook/Lauren Dickason)

• South African woman Lauren Dickason has been handed an 18-year sentence.
• In August, she was found guilty of the murder of her three children in her New Zealand home.
• Dickason will be incarcerated at psychiatric facility in Christchurch.

South African doctor Lauren Dickason will spend 18 years in a psychiatric facility in New Zealand for the murder of her three children.

On Wednesday, the High Court in Christchurch, New Zealand, ruled that she would serve her sentence at a mental health unit in Hillmorton Hospital.

According to New Zealand publication Stuff, Dickason could be moved to a prison later and will be eligible for parole after six years.

Crown prosecutor Andrew McRae reported requested the court impose a sentence of life imprisonment and a minimum period of imprisonment of 17 to 18 years before Dickason could be eligible for parole. He reportedly described the murders as “brutal and callous”, and “unprecedented” in New Zealand.

The New Zealand Herald reported that Justice Cameron Mander ruled a life imprisonment with a minimum non parole period of 17 years or more “would be manifestly unjust”. He instead handed down three sentences of 18 years, to be served concurrently.

Stuff reported that Mander said he believed Dickason’s actions were the product of her mental disorder and that she was a loving mother.

READ | After jury found Lauren Dickason guilty of murder, some believe she needs retrial

Dickason was accused of murder after strangling and smothering Liané, 6, and 2-year-old twins Maya and Karla on 16 September 2021 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.

During a trial that lasted five weeks, the jury heard arguments from the state saying that new stressors in Dickason’s life had caused her to be depressed and that her actions on the night of the alleged murders were “a reaction to the anger and frustration at her children’s misbehaviour”, which caused her to snap.

The state said while Dickason was depressed, she acted out of anger and resentment towards the children. The prosecution argued that Dickason knew what she was doing was morally wrong.

However, the defence argued that Dickason had not fully recovered from her postpartum depression. This was exacerbated by the family’s relocation to New Zealand, events of civil unrest in South Africa, Covid lockdowns and Dickason going off her medication.

Mander said the defence claimed that Dickason was “so severely unwell that she was removed from reality … that she could no longer appreciate what she was doing was morally wrong”.

Five expert witnesses provided testimony on Dickason’s mental state, with three experts – Dr Erik Monasterio, Dr Simone McLeavey and Dr Justin Barry-Walsh – agreeing that while she suffered from “mental disturbance”, she had been aware that what she was doing was wrong.

Two experts, Dr Susan Hatters-Friedman and Dr Ghazi Metoui, believed that Dickason had an infanticide defence available to her.

During the sentencing on Wednesday, Dickason’s husband Graham Dickason reportedly said he had forgiven his wife for what she had done. Dicakson’s father, Malcolm Fawkes,  pleaded with the judge to be lenient in the sentencing, saying she had “been punished enough already and has lost everything.”