Dickason children killed by mom: Enduring pain for families left behind

The Dickason and Fawkes families shared the emotional trauma of much-loved children being murdered by their mother in victim impact statements to a New Zealand court on Wednesday.

Lauren Dickason, 43, strangled and smothered Liané, six, and two-year-old twins Karla and Maya in September 2021 within weeks of emigrating from Pretoria to New Zealand with her husband Graham, a surgeon who had a secured a job there.

New Zealand media outlets report that rather than the usual life imprisonment term for murder, she has been ordered to serve 18 years in a mental health hospital until authorities think she is well enough to cope with prison conditions, and is eligible for parole after six years. The court accepted she had a severe mental health disorder at the time of the triple murder and was in distress.

Her parents, Malcolm and Wendy Fawkes, have regularly attended her trial and led a vigorous defence of her. They said she had received inadequate support for her anxiety and depression, which had first manifested when she was a teenager and worsened after repeated fertility treatments.

“Our family was devastated by what happened to the three precious little girls and to our daughter Lauren to have caused this tragic saga,” her father said.

“We have forgiven her but are struggling to understand the maternal mental health issues which caused this tragedy.

“All we know is a simple statement, that nobody in their right mind would have done something like that.”

Fawkes said he and his wife were “stable, functional and coping” and relying on “faith, family friends, pastor, psychiatrist, psychologist and pills”.

“We did not know of the turmoil continually churning inside a lonely Lauren while she put on a brave face. We did not know she had been diagnosed with major depressive disorder, and we also did not know about the infertility, which required donor eggs. We are disappointed Lauren does not appear to have been correctly diagnosed, treated and managed for her mental health problems,” Malcolm Fawkes said.

He said his daughter had not been heard.

“We are not saying Lauren was totally blameless, but she has lost everything. She will possibly and probably lose her husband as well.

“We feel she has already been punished in full by her disease and by herself. In our many conversations with her over the past nearly three years Lauren has expressed remorse, grief, shame and incredulity over what has happened. She has to live with what has happened for the rest of her life.”

Bettie Dickason, 78, mother of Lauren’s husband Graham, told the court about the never-ending pain of losing her three grandchildren.

“ I don’t have the words in my vocabulary to accurately describe the pain this has brought upon me and my family.

”I once trusted someone, took someone into my home, and that someone is now a convicted murderer. Some days it feels unbelievable, like I’m living in some horror film that I won’t be able to wake up from.”

Graham Dickason’s sister Hermien said the loss of the girls turned her family’s lives upside down.

“My heart was ripped from my chest. We still cannot make sense of the murders of Liane, Karla and Maya,” she said.

“They represented life and love and brought sunshine to the family. Since their deaths a dreadful sadness struck our family. We long for them every day.”

In her statement Graham’s sister Elisabeth said she would cut ties with her sister-in-law.

“Sometimes I think about that night, how the innocence was corrupted, how afraid they must have been the disbelief and betrayal they must have felt. We miss them and we miss them forever.”

Speaking directly to Lauren Dickason, she said: “It’s time to cut those strings and let Graham go. There is nothing that binds us. I forgive you. But for now it is time for goodbye.”

Graham’s sister Cecelia said initially she was “very sympathetic towards Lauren”.

“I loved her like my sister and did not want to believe she could do something like this. But having sat through most of the trial with my sister,  I was shocked by the details that emerged about how the girls were murdered.

“It would be nice to hear Lauren apologise for her actions.”

Dickason's legal team issued a statement on her behalf after sentencing, in which she said: “I would like to take this opportunity to convey the deepest and most sincere remorse for the extreme pain and hurt caused to my children and my family by my actions.

“I owe it to everyone and myself to get mentally healthier. I will do whatever it takes, though I know that will never change the past.”

Graham Dickason, an orthopedic surgeon who returned to Pretoria after the murders and joined proceedings virtually, told the court he “lost everything” with the murders of his girls and his life with his wife.

“I have been grieving the loss of my daughters ever since. I have witnessed my family and Lauren’s family grieving the loss. Never would we have imagined having to deal with a situation like this.

“I have not only lost my life with my children but my life with my wife Lauren,” he said.

“I’ve had to make peace with this. I have managed to accept my current position in life.

“Lauren has lost everything I have lost. I made the decision very early on in this tragedy to forgive Lauren. She will have to live with what she did for the rest of her life. Her punishment is already severe.”

NZ Herald, 1News and The Press