Triple murderer Lauren Dickason is deported after serving a sentence for murdering daughters

Lauren Dickason was found guilty of three counts of murder in the High Court in Christchurch on August 16, 2023.
Photo: Pool / NZ Herald / George Heard

Convicted triple murderer Lauren Dickason has been granted a deportation order that will take effect once she is released from prison.

Dickason, 43, was sentenced to 18 years in prison in June after a Christchurch High Court jury found her guilty of murdering her twin girls Maya and Karla, 2, and their older sister Liané, 6, in Timaru in 2021.

She smothered the children in their bed three weeks after the family arrived from South Africa, but claimed she was so mentally unwell she could not be held criminally responsible for their deaths.

On Tuesday, Fadia Mudafar, the national compliance manager at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, confirmed that Dickason had been served with the deportation notice.

“Immigration New Zealand intends to proceed with her deportation once her sentence has been completed. “However, as with all deportations following release from prison, her situation will be assessed before the deportation takes place,” she said.

Dickason’s legal team mounted a defense of insanity and infanticide, but the jury found that she had murdered her daughters.

She was initially sentenced to an inpatient care and treatment unit as a special patient due to her mental illness, in accordance with the Compulsory Mental Health Assessment and Treatment Act.

Dickason is appealing her conviction.

Dickason will be eligible for parole in September 2027.

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