Lauren Dickason trial

Justice Mander then summarised both sides' cases.

“The Crown says it was the new stressors that compounded … and caused her to be depressed, and caused the unbalance of her mind on the night of the 16th of September.

"The Crown says Mrs Dickason’s actions were a reaction to the anger and frustration at her children’s misbehaviour … and she snapped."

It was the defence’s case that Dickason had not fully recovered from her postpartum depression, the judge said. The stresses of events in South Africa, Covid lockdowns, all at a time when she was not taking her medication, exacerbated the symptoms of a condition that had never gone away since the birth of her children, which caused her to be severely depressed at the time of the killings.

She should not be held responsible for her children’s deaths on that basis, the defence said.