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South African doctor Lauren Dickason, who was sentenced to an effective 18 years of incarceration in June for the murder of her three children, intends appealing her convictions.
According to the New Zealand Herald, her legal team filed a "Notice of Appeal Against Conviction" in the Court of Appeal on 23 July. The grounds for the appeal are not yet known and no date has been set for Court of Appeal proceedings.
Dickason was accused of murder after strangling and smothering 6-year-old Liané and 2-year-old twins Maya and Karla on 16 September 2021 in their home in Timaru while her husband was out for dinner with colleagues.
She pleaded not guilty to the charges, but was found guilty by a jury on 16 August 2023.
During a trial that lasted five weeks, the jury heard arguments from the State that new stressors in Dickason's life had caused her to be depressed and that her actions on the night of the murders were "a reaction to the anger and frustration at her children's misbehaviour", which caused her to snap.
READ | I forgive you, even as I long for my 'angel children,' Dickason nanny tells killer mom
She has been in Hillmorton Hospital since her arrest and, instead of prison, the judge ruled in June in the High Court in Christchurch that she should serve her sentence at a mental health unit in the hospital.
Stuff reported that Dickason could be moved to a prison later. She would be detained in a hospital as a special patient, and it would be for the medical authorities to determine when she could be transferred to prison.
She becomes eligible for parole after six years.
