Lauren Anne Dickason in the High Court at Christchurch on 17 July 2023. Photo: Pool / NZME/ George Heard
Warning: This story contains content some readers might find distressing.
Lauren Dickason's mother has told the court her daughter seemed absent in the final months before she left Pretoria, South Africa, for Timaru.
Wendy Fawkes gave evidence in her daughter's murder trial in the High Court in Christchurch on Wednesday.
Dickason denies she murdered her three children, Maya, Karla and Liané, in Timaru in 2021 - instead seeking a verdict of infanticide and insanity.
Fawkes said she had never seen her daughter in such a bad mental state as in the months leading up to her family's move to New Zealand in 2021.
"I was really worried about Lauren. She had lost lots of weight, she wasn't communicating, she was totally absent," she told the court.
But she had no doubt in her mind that her daughter loved her children. Dickason took them for play dates, art classes and gymnastics, would throw meticulously planned birthday parties and regularly helped out at their school and preschool, she said.
"As a mother, I would say that Lauren was overprotective, perhaps even neurotic. Lauren was very safety-focused. We had a jungle gym in the garden that all the grandchildren played on - however, Lauren did not want the girls to play on it because she did not think it was safe."
A farewell barbecue with extended family was held for the Dickasons at the end of July, Fawkes told the court.
"We basically just said, 'Let's just try and keep this a happy time and not talk too much about the immigration, which could be upsetting for us,'" she said.
Crown lawyer Andrew McRae asked a close family member, who cannot be identified, if they tried to brush Dickason's obvious struggle under the carpet at the barbecue.
"The family was tip-toeing around Lauren and how she was at that time… so was there a commonly held fear of talking to Lauren about anything that she might be feeling at that time?"
They were more concerned about not adding to Dickason's stress and wanted to try and keep the barbecue positive for the children's sake, the family member said.
Maya, Karla and Liané Dickason. Photo: Supplied
A month later, the day before the family left South Africa, Fawkes saw them to say goodbye. Her daughter's appearance shocked her.
"Lauren came and gave me a hug and she didn't say much. She was very distant and seemed out of it, disconnected," she said.
"Lauren had lost an extreme amount of weight. She looked frail, and that this whole process could push Lauren over the edge. By that, I mean she could have some form of mental breakdown."
Fawkes was also worried about how they would cope without the support of both sets of grandparents, who regularly helped care for the girls.
One of the final messages she received about her grandchildren - three days before they died - was that they missed her a lot.
Dickason's lawyer Anne Toohey read it out to the court.
"It says, 'The kids are very emotional over their grandparents, so we are just waiting for them to settle a bit more and then we can FaceTime on the weekend. Karla and Maya walk around with bananas and talk to Opa Malcolm and Oma Wendy and Betty as if they have telephones'," she said.
Another told of how the eldest, Liané, would cry for her grandparents.
Reports on Dickason's mental health will begin to be entered into evidence later on Thursday morning.
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