Kiwis deport SA killer mom

ORDER: SERVED WITH PAPERS TO LEAVE NEW ZEALAND AFTER SERVING SENTENCE

- Cornelia le Roux

Lauren Dickason has been served with a surprise deportation order that will take effect once she has served her sentence for the triple murder of her daughters in New Zealand.

Dickason will be released on parole and then leave the country on the earliest possible flight back to South Africa.

The 43-year-old former doctor was sentenced to a finite term of 18 years' imprisonment in June after she was found guilty at the High Court of Christchurch for murdering her two-year-old twins, Maya and Karla, and their older sister, Liané, 6, in September 2021.

During the headline-grabbing trial, her defence argued Dickason was suffering from severe postpartum depression when she committed the crime.

This was allegedly exacerbated by the family's relocation to New Zealand, the events of the July 2021 unrest in South Africa, Covid lockdowns and Dickason's decision to stop taking her antidepressants.