A forensic psychiatrist who interviewed Lauren Dickason a week after she killed her children told a court she believes Dickason's actions were out of "a need for control and anger".
Dr Simone McLeavey is the second Crown expert witness to suggest that the mother can't rely on the defences of insanity and infanticide.
Dickason has pleaded not guilty to murdering her girls, Liané, Karla and Maya in Timaru in September 2021. It is week three of the 42-year-old's trial at the Christchurch High Court.
McLeavey interviewed Dickason five times before submitting her report on October 12, 2021. She then provided a further update earlier this year after being given access to "additional collateral information".
Her interviews with Dickason totalled eight hours.
The psychiatrist told the court the triple killing was an act of anger and "manifestation" of control by Dickason. (Source: 1News)
McLeavey found there was no indication that Dickason killed her children out of love, as her defence are arguing.
The jury heard Dickason made comments to the expert about not wanting to leave her children to be mothered by another woman.
"Any altruistic motive was, in my opinion, fuelled more so by a need for control and anger, reflecting her vulnerable personality, with the prospects of another woman, if her husband was to remarry, potentially assuming the role of mother to her children beyond her planned suicide, an untenable proposition."
McLeavey called it "a manifestation of control", with Dickason clearly indicating in their interviews that her actions were in her own best interests.
McLeavey told the jury: "I am of the opinion the defendant would not be eligible for an insanity defence, pursuant to section 23 of the Crimes Act 1961 for the current charges, with my opinion unchanged from my original report."
"The extent of her abnormal state of mind was not sufficient to render her incapable of understanding the nature and quality of her actions. The defendant intended for the victims to die and was aware her actions could result in their deaths. She did not anticipate a different outcome," she said.
The forensic psychiatrist also determined "there is no evidence that the defendant has an infanticide defence available".
She came to that conclusion based on the "subjective testimony" from Dickason in their five interviews, as well as relevant messaging she was given access to, together suggesting she had recovered from post-partum depression.
"I do feel that there were weeks if not months, maybe a couple of months whereby the defendant did achieve a regaining of control in her life.
"She had disclosed herself, in messaging to others, hope for the future. She felt fulfilled in her role as far as being a parent and her relationship with her husband and it seemed to me that she was living a life that had meaning in that regard.
"I did feel there was a recovery."
Dickason became deeply upset, crying and blowing her nose as she listened to the psychiatrist.
McLeavey felt Dickason's decision to cease her antidepressant medication for a period would have increased her susceptibility to breakthrough depression and anxiety symptoms.
"Ceasing medication in a high risk woman such as the defendant, reflecting her significant history of recurrent depression, may have laid the ground work for the critical incident that turned lethal, in my opinion.
"The act of not complying with treatment, as it perhaps relates to the defendant, may have led to the very psychological breakdown she had desperately tried to avoid, with it eventually enveloping her in an overwhelming sense of despair and panic, a psychological malfunction at the time of the alleged index offending," she told the court.
Lauren Dickason: Cross-examination of Crown psychiatrist continues
Dr Erik Monasterio previously told the court that after interviewing the defendant four times over a period of nine hours, he had determined the defence of insanity and the defence of infanticide were not available to her.
August 2, 2023
2:10
McLeavey will be cross examined on day 15 of the murder trial tomorrow.
Additional reporting by Laura James
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