"The girls' deaths have nothing to do with anger and resentment and everything to do with what was clearly, a severe mental illness." That's what Lauren Dickason's lawyer told the jury led to the death of her daughters.
The defence has now closed its case, as the murder trial at the High Court in Christchurch came to the end of a fourth week.
The trial is nearing an end after four weeks in court. (Source: 1News)
The Crown delivered its final arguments to the jury earlier today, saying "as hard as it might be, the only verdict available is one of guilty of murder for Liane Dickason, guilty of murder for Karla Dickason and guilty of murder for Maya Dickason".
But the 42-year-old's defence team said while she did kill her three children, she has the defences of infanticide or insanity available to her.
Kerryn Beaton firmly told the court, that contrary to the Crown's case, the defendant killed the girls purely out of love.
"Mothers don’t kill their children the way that Lauren did just because they’re angry, resentful, stressed or anxious," the defence lawyer said.
"She put the girls back in their beds as you know, she tucked them in with their soft toys and their blankets one last time, and she then told them she loved them one last time and then she tried to kill herself.
"But she failed and now here we are."
Beaton told the jury it took time for Dickason to come to terms with her actions.
"It took her sometime after killing her children, and after being on medication and being in hospital, it took her sometime to understand that what she had done wasn't in-fact the right thing".
The Crown argued her recollections to experts couldn't be trusted, because of changes in her story.
But her lawyers suggested she didn't hold anything back.
"As much as the rest of us involved in this trial, Mrs Dickason has also tried to make sense of what happened, of what she did, by being as forthcoming as she can be.
"If she was trying to mislead the court, if she was trying to make her case of infanticide or insanity better then why would she not try and be more consistent?
"Why would she not try and show that she was psychotic? She understands the symptoms, the behaviour the doctors are looking for but she's not a malingerer, the experts all agree that."
Beaton was adamant that the defendants actions weren't a result of a new depression, or new stressors, but of existing depression with a postpartum aspect.
"Far from a minimal cause, I suggest postpartum depression was the cause of what occurred. She was not someone who snapped in anger, she was not an abusive mother."
"The prosecutor said she was responding to the behaviour of the children at the time and she snapped, but you know that's not what happened."
She suggested Liane, Maya and Karla would still be alive if their mother hadn't been so unwell.
"If she'd only been treated for her depression things might have been different."
She told the jury they can't find Dickason not guilty of murder because she wasn't in her right mind at the time, and believed her actions were right.
The judge will sum up the case on Monday, before sending the jury away to deliberate.
By Lisa Davies and Laura James
* This story has been updated to correct a quote which was mistakenly altered in the production process.
SHARE ME