Forensic psychiatrist Dr Erik Monasterio said triple-murder accused Lauren Dickason cannot rely on the defences of infanticide or insanity being argued by her lawyers.
Dickason has admitted killing her three daughters Liané, Maya, and Karla in Timaru in September 2021, but said it was not murder.
Monasterio interviewed the 42-year-old four times, starting the month after the killings, spending a total of nine hours with the defendant.
When he began giving evidence in the High Court at Christchurch yesterday, he highlighted the importance of assessing her as soon as possible after the alleged crime.
Dr Erik Monasterio said Dickason described an awareness of her actions when he interviewed her shortly after the tragedy. (Source: 1News)
His findings differs from that of the defence psychiatrist who gave evidence before him.
Susan Hatters-Friedman, who interviewed the accused earlier this year, said "at the time of her offending Dr Lauren Dickason was labouring under a disease of the mind to such an extent that it rendered her incapable of knowing her acts were morally wrong".
Her diagnosis of the defendant was that "[she] presented with symptoms consistent with a major depressive disorder with psychotic features".
She found that the disorder had “a peripartum onset”.
In contrast Monasterio found that while he believed she had a major depressive disorder, “there is no evidence that this current episode of depression has a pregnancy, post partum or lactation cause".
He found her episodes of depression began as a teenager, and that she had “an anxious, obsessional, perfectionistic temperament".
He also pointed out that Dickason had sent messages about harming and killing her children while in a period of remission from her depression, which “therefore cannot be attributed to a mental illness".
The Crown witness, who has given evidence in five infanticide cases, was clear in his finding that there was no evidence of any symptoms of psychosis.
'She wasn’t that impaired'
Monasterio said that Dickason was not significantly cognitively impaired at the time she killed her girls.
He had looked at her high level of functioning in the lead up to the incident.
“She was able to organise all the requirements to travel to New Zealand and these were by no means straightforward,” he found.
He said he was “particularly impressed” with the ways in which she engaged in the two days immediately before the killings.
“In this time, she engaged in continuous correspondence with Government agencies, she sent and received text messages, she read the news, she engaged in humorous exchanges…”
He said those are the objective measures, indicating “she wasn’t that impaired".
“In my opinion, as the defendant maintained awareness and behaved systematically, there is no evidence she was in an automatistic state or that she did not understand the nature and quality of her actions at the material time.
“There is no evidence that the defendant was incapable of understanding moral wrongfulness of her actions, having regard to commonly accepted standards of right and wrong at the material time.”
He concluded: “The defendant does not have an insanity defence pursuant to section 23 of the crimes act 1971”, and “there is no evidence the defendant has an infanticide defence available".
'I felt there was no hope'
Dickason told Monasterio when the family left South Africa on August 26 2021 she felt overwhelmed by stress and anxiety to the point she started taking her regular antidepressant medication.
“The defendant reported that towards the end of the trip - quote - the journey was horrendous - unquote. To the extent that by the time she arrived in NZ - quote - I felt there was no hope – unquote.”
On September 11, they left MIQ and flew to Christchurch, where “the twins screamed the whole way”.
Dickason told Monasterio she was disappointed with how small their rental was in Timaru, as she wouldn’t be able to have time alone with her husband Graham, and felt Timaru was "old and rundown".
The children had woken at 4:30am on their first day there, and Dickason said to Monasterio the kids ran into the bedroom and pushed her out of the way, wanting to be alone with her husband Graham, leaving her feeling rejected.
She told the psychiatrist that the night before she killed the girls “she had a strong sense, quote - that I needed space from the twins to sort out my emotions - unquote".
"The defendant reported that she then had non-specific thoughts of wanting to harm the twins associated with - quote - a tight knot in my chest - unquote."
She told him she felt so cross with them she could hurt them.
"She also thought - quote - if only the kids, but mostly the twins, could be away for a while, we may be able to manage - unquote. Quote - I had this feeling inside me - I'm so cross with them I could hurt them - unquote. She reported that she can remember thinking - quote - I was like a bottle of Coke that had been shaken and about to explode with all the built up pressure from weeks of confinement."
'I couldn’t see myself going through another day'
Monasterio shared with the jury what Dickason told him about the day of the killings during three interviews in the long-term forensic unit at Hillmorton Hospital on October 21, 25 and 26. She told him she had full recollection of all of the events, until she passed out.
On the evening she killed them, they took the children to a park, when her husband walked away from them.
“The twins started screaming for Graham and this brought up negative feelings," Monasterio said. Dickason told him she "felt like a failed mother" and "they didn’t want to be with me".
She made them chicken nuggets for dinner, but the girls said there weren’t enough.
“She felt like a spring getting tighter and that 'I’m going to do something'," Monasterio said.
After Graham left for a work event, the children started playing up again.
“I didn’t feel like myself. I couldn’t see myself going through another day,” she told Monasterio.
“All I wanted was some quiet. I want this to stop. I don’t want to be kicked out of my bed by my two-year-old. I didn’t want to feel like a bad parent anymore.”
Approximately 20 minutes after her husband left the house she said she decided to kill the children.
“I am a failure to be a mother who can cope," she said.
Dickason described to him that as she proceeded to kill the children, she had an awareness of her actions throughout the period of the offence.
“Once she set about harming the children, she determined that they had to die,” Monasterio said.
She told him she didn’t phone Graham, or leave the house “because I wanted it all to finish”.
“The defendant described that she had no clear suicide plan at the time of the offences. The defendant denied any symptoms of psychosis at any time. In particular she denied any overvalued or delusional beliefs (fixed/false ideas not amenable to reason) of a nihilistic persecutory or religious nature.”
Inconsistent explanations for motive
In Monasterio’s first three interviews with Dickason he said “the defendant did not give any indication that she killed the children to protect them from harm, spare them suffering or because she felt they would be better off dead".
But the court heard that when he interviewed Dickason in April 2022, Monasterio said she was "determined to kill the children, because she felt she had to protect them from future harm and suffering”.
In that later interview, she continued to deny experiencing any psychosis, and planning the alleged offences, claiming her actions were largely impulsive.
Monasterio said: "The defendant alleged that she did not report that her intention to kill her children was to protect them from future harm and in earlier interviews with me and in the police evidential interview as at the time she failed to understand this - quote - I was in a muddle - unquote, and that she has only made sense of the situation in recent months."
In the April interview she “emphatically denied any other motivation for the alleged offences, in particular she denied anger or resentment".
Read more: Dickason changed statements on final meeting with psychiatrist, jury hears
"She reported she could not recall reporting in the police evidential interview that she chose to harm one of the twins first as she had been behaviourally disturbed and aggressive towards her," Monasterio said.
He reviewed that police interview, recorded the day after the killings, finding: “There is no indication from the defendant's mental state in the interview or the answers she provides that she experienced symptoms of psychosis, a manic mood state or dissociation, she reported that, 'I just, I see no hope for us in the future'."
Additional reporting by Laura James
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