Cape Town — Former South African doctor currently living in New Zealand, Lauren Dickason has been served with a deportation order.
Dickason received an 18-year jail sentence after she was found guilty of killing her three daughters – Liané, 6, and 2-year-old twins Maya and Karla – in September 2021 while her husband was out to dinner with colleagues. He found the bodies of his children when he returned home.
The family had moved to New Zealand from South Africa just weeks before. During last year’s trial, Dickason admitted killing her daughters and said she had failed them.
According to IOL, Dickason was sentenced to a medical facility by a New Zealand court in August 2023 and after she pleaded not guilty to charges of murder by reason of insanity.
Dickason was sentenced to 18 years in a mental healthcare facility. She had pleaded not guilty to charges of murder by reason of insanity. While Dickason started serving her sentence in a mental facility, she could be moved to a prison.
According to Fadia Mudafar, the National Manager of Compliance at Immigration New Zealand said they had planned to proceed with Dickason’s deportation once her sentence was completed.
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“We can confirm that Lauren Dickason has been served with a deportation order. Immigration New Zealand plans to proceed with her deportation upon her release,” The Citizen reported Mudafar saying.
Mudafar would not be drawn on her deportation status at that time, saying there were “additional factors to consider” around her mental health detainment at Hillmorton Hospital. It is standard practice for people convicted of serious criminal offences to be deported from New Zealand after a prison term.
“Immigration New Zealand serves deportation liability notices and deportation orders, where appropriate, to people who may be liable for deportation because of criminal activity, other public interest factors, or for being unlawfully in New Zealand,” according to its website.
According to News24, Dickason intends to appeal her convictions. The defence argued that Dickason had not fully recovered from her postpartum depression and it was exacerbated by the July 2021 unrest, Covid-19 lockdowns and that she stopPed taking her medication.
During sentencing, Justice Cameron Mander ruled that life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years or more “would be manifestly unjust”.
Mander said he believed Dickason’s actions were the product of her mental disorder and that she was a loving mother.
She is eligible for parole in September 2027.
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Compiled by Matthew Petersen
