5 hours ago
Key events Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature
Court adjourns
Beale says he will continue outlining and instructing on the alleged incriminating conduct tomorrow.
The court has adjourned for the day.
Beale tells the jurors he will not finish his instructions to them tomorrow, meaning the earliest deliberations can begin is Friday.
The trial will resume from 10.30am tomorrow.
Patterson's history of discharging herself from hospitals
Beale begins by outlining the evidence about Patterson refusing medical treatment.
He says Simon testified that Patterson had a history of discharging herself from hospitals against medical advice.
Dr Chris Webster testified that when Patterson arrived at Leongatha hospital, he told her she had been exposed to a potentially lethal poisoning, the court hears. Kylie Ashton, a nurse, testified that she tried to convince Patterson to stay at the hospital to be medically assessed, warning “her life was at risk”. Dr Veronica Foote recalled Patterson saying if she was going to be admitted she needed to return home first.
Patterson told the jury that when she arrived at Leongatha hospital Dr Webster told her there was a concern she had been exposed to death cap mushroom poisoning. Patterson said she was confused as she could not understand why death cap mushrooms would be in the meal.
She said she arrived expecting to be at the hospital for a few hours, the court hears.
Patterson disputed Ashton’s evidence that she told the accused her life was at risk.
Beale says the prosecution argued Patterson discharged herself because she knew she was not unwell.
The defence said a reasonable explanation of Patterson’s conduct was because she had not come prepared to be admitted overnight, needed to make arrangements for her children and pets and had not been told the full picture about the guests’ illness.
The defence also said her conduct needed to be viewed in the context of her habit of discharging herself against medical advice.
The topic of incriminating conduct
Beale turns to the topic of incriminating conduct.
He says the prosecution has labelled certain conduct as incriminating, meaning it is an implied admission of guilt. The defence has argued there are other innocent explanations for the conduct the prosecution relies on, Beale says.
The prosecution has alleged Patterson’s incriminating conduct involves:
Lying about being unwell
Lying about using dried mushrooms in the beef wellingtons
Refusing treatment on first presentation at Leongatha hospital and discharged herself against medical advice
Reluctance to get treatment for herself on second presentation at the hospital
Reluctance to obtain medical treatment for her children while at Leongatha hospital
Lying by saying she had fed children leftover beef wellingtons, with mushrooms and pastry scraped off, the day after the lunch
Resetting Phone B multiple times
Lying to police during her formal interview about her usual mobile phone number
Lying to police about not foraging for mushrooms or owning a dehydrator
Judge clarifies extent to which jury can choose to accept expert opinions
Beale says the jury does not need to accept the opinions of telecommunications expert Dr Matthew Sorell or Fox-Henry.
“You are the judges of the facts in this case,” he says.
Beale says the jury should consider an expert’s qualifications and whether their evidence is in dispute.
The iNaturalist posts about death cap mushrooms
Beale says Fox-Henry testified that in May 2022 a user on the Cooler Master entered the term ‘iNaturalist” on the search engine Bing.
A user also visited the Korumburra Middle Pub website shortly after a visit to iNaturalist in the same month, Fox-Henry told the court.
Beale says the jury should consider Fox-Henry’s evidence in conjunction with other evidence in the case.
He says they can use his evidence to infer whether Patterson viewed reports of death cap mushrooms posted on the citizen science website iNatutralist in the months before the lunch.
Beale reminds the jury there is no evidence that Patterson did view these iNaturalist posts by mycologist Dr Thomas May and retired pharmacist Christine Mckenzie.
He says they could also use Fox-Henry’s evidence to infer whether Patterson deliberately put death cap mushrooms in the beef wellington she served to her lunch guests in July 2023.
Expert’s evidence on tablet images and factory resets
Fox-Henry also extracted thumbnails of images from a Samsung tablet.
The images extracted from the tablet included a photo of mushrooms on electronic scales and a screenshot of a text message about ovarian cancer, Beale says.
Beale says Fox-Henry also gave evidence about factory resets performed on one of Patterson’s mobile phones - Phone B.
Fox-Henry said one of the resets was performed remotely.
Judge outlines computer expert’s evidence
Beale tells the jury Fox-Henry testified that he extracted data from a Cooler Master computer seized from Patterson’s house.
He said he used keywords to search the data. These included “death cap”, death cap mushrooms”, “mushroom” and “poison.”
The court previously heard that electronic records taken from a computer seized by police from Patterson’s house indicated that it had been used to visit webpages listing sightings of death cap mushrooms.
Patterson said it was “possible” the visits to the iNaturalist were done by her but that she could not remember it, Beale says.
She said she wanted to know if death cap mushrooms grew in South Gippsland, the court hears.
Justice Christopher Beale begins to outline the evidence of digital forensics expert Shamen Fox-Henry, from Victoria police’s cybercrime unit.
He reminds the jury that Fox-Henry gave evidence about the data found on several devices police seized from Patterson’s house a week after the beef wellington lunch.
Jury arrives
The jury has entered the court room in Morwell.
Jury to enter court room at 2:15pm
The jury will enter the court room from 2.15pm.
Justice Christopher Beale will continue delivering his charge to jurors.
We’ll bring you live updates when the trial resumes.
We’re waiting for the jury to enter the court room in Morwell.
In the meantime, here’s how the trial played out last week during closing submissions:
Our justice and courts reporter, Nino Bucci, was in Morwell yesterday and filed this story on what Beale told the jury:
What the jury heard yesterday
Here’s a recap of what the jury heard on Tuesday:
1. Justice Christopher Beale began delivering his instructions, or charge, to the jury before it retires to consider its verdict later this week. He said the jurors were the “judges of the facts” in the case.
2. The jury should cast aside prejudices and sympathies while deliberating the verdict, Beale said. “The fact Patterson told lies must not cause you to be prejudiced against her,” he said.
3. Beale said Patterson’s trial had garnered “unprecedented media attention” and a lot of public comment. “If any of that has reached your eyes or ears or does so in the coming days ... you must be particularly careful not to let it influence you in any way,” he said.
4. If the jury accepts Patterson was of good character they can use it to assess her credibility, Beale said.
5. Beale outlined alleged prior inconsistent statements by witnesses. He said jurors could accept the earlier statement made by a witness or use the earlier statement to assess the reliability of a witness.
Welcome to day 37
Welcome to day 37 of Erin Patterson’s triple murder trial.
Justice Christopher Beale will continue instructing the jurors this morning before they begin their deliberations later this week.
Patterson, 50, faces three charges of murder and one charge of attempted murder relating to a beef wellington lunch she served at her house in Leongatha, in regional Victoria, on 29 July 2023.
She is accused of murdering her parents-in-law, Don and Gail Patterson, and her estranged husband’s aunt, Heather Wilkinson. The attempted murder charge relates to Heather’s husband, Ian.
She has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The prosecution alleges Patterson deliberately poisoned her lunch guests with “murderous intent”, but her lawyers say the poisoning was a tragic accident.
