The final witness in the Lauren Dickason murder trial has disputed the Crown's suggestion that anger was a predominant theme in what happened.
The mother of Liane, Maya and Karla denies murdering her girls in Timaru in September 2021, using the defences of infanticide and insanity.
Forensic psychologist Ghazi Metoui, who's given evidence that supports those arguments, is being cross-examined at the High Court in Christchurch today.
Metoui said "when people have attempted to inquire about the why, what always came out this notion of being severely depressed and all the cognitions that went with that".
He described how the defendant was "feeling hopeless, feeling helpless, having suicidal thoughts, grappling with something that was happening inside about killing her children, and that very close to the offending her view of the world was that is was entirely malevolent, that her life was condemned and so was her children's and the kindest thing was for them to check out. She has consistently spoken about that".
Forensic psychologist Ghazi Metoui has given evidence that supports the defence argument that Lauren Dickason is not guilty of murder. (Source: 1News)
It's the Crown's case the 42-year-old's motive for killing her girls was anger and resentment.
Prosecutor Andrew McRae suggested to Metoui "we have that consistent theme through the police interview?"
He replied, "No," stating he doesn't see that.
During Dickason's recorded sit down with an officer the day after the alleged offending, she explained how she killed one of her twins first because she had been horrible to her.
Metoui admitted he could see how people would jump to the conclusion that anger was a theme, but he said "the theme that ran for me all the way through was a mother, a woman, in deep despair and struggling to cope".
"At times there was anger... but the predominant thing was profound sadness and disappointment, and unhappiness and desperation."
'I don't see any reframing in that'
He also disagreed with McRae that there had been a "reframing" of events in Dickason's mind.
"I wouldn't accept that that happened," Metoui said.
McRae referred to notes from Dickason's treating psychiatrist.
The notes, shared with the jury earlier in the trial state: "We discussed a way of understanding, that the extreme recurrent stresses Lauren experienced had caused profound depression which reached the point that she felt no option but to end her life".
"We discussed that this decision, having been made, thoughts about the alleged offending then arose in the context of an altruistic act.
"Lauren seemed to find this explanation helpful," the psychiatrist's notes read, "and agreed that it would be a good way for Graham to understand what had happened".
But today Metoui said "I don’t see any reframing in that".
He said the psychiatrist would not have colluded with the patient, or just told her what she wanted to hear.
"She has said things to him that sounded if there was an altruistic motive in her actions and he would have communicated that back to her," the psychologist told the court.
"He would have got that from Ms Dickason."
Metoui was also challenged over missing information in the accused's accounts to him, regarding her thoughts in the lead-up to the alleged offending.
But the witness said getting incomplete recollections from defendants is not surprising.
"That is not the real world of how people function and especially in a murder offending that is highly traumatic, that involves a mother who by all intents and purposes cared and loved her children and then murders them."
McRae suggested that because Dickason was not telling Metoui some things, he needed to be careful about the information she was giving him.
"My position in this case and its up to the jury to decide whether they agree with me or not... my position is she was cooperating and she was doing her best but even there there was omissions in what she told me."
By Lisa Davies and Laura James
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