The trial venue for the woman accused of murdering her three young daughters in Timaru last year will be moved to Christchurch.
Lauren Dickason was charged in September with murdering the young girls - Liane, 6, and 2-year-old twins Maya and Kayla - at their Timaru home. The family, including father Graham, had only recently moved to the south Canterbury town from South Africa.
Dickason was again excused from appearing at the High Court in Christchurch on Friday.
Other than her first hearing in Timaru, Dickason has been absent from all court appearances.
Dickason remains at Hillmorton Hospital, in a medium secure psychiatric unit.
In court on Friday, Justice Cameron Mander granted an application from Dickason's lawyer to have her trial moved from Timaru to Christchurch.
A trial date had been set down for March 2023 but Justice Mander said that now may need to be moved to the following year. The court would confirm the new trial date later in 2022.
The children were found dead by their dad Graham at about 10pm on September 16.
Dickason, 40, was taken to Timaru Hospital where she was later charged with murder. The family had recently completed managed isolation after arriving in South Africa to settle in the South Island town.
A vigil was held in Timaru in late September to honour the three sisters.
"My words are few at the moment,'' Graham Dickason said in a message read at the vigil by Reverend Alan Cummins. "On Thursday the 16th of September 2021 my life and Lauren's were turned upside down when our three precious angels were ripped away from us.
"It is a loss that I will carry with me for the rest of my life."
Close friends and family also gathered in South Africa's Pretoria to honour the three sisters.
