A jury is deciding the fate of an Australian woman accused of 3 murders by mushroom poisoning
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — A jury in Australia began deliberations Monday in the triple murder trial of Erin Patterson, accused of killing her estranged husband's relatives by deliberately serving them poisonous mushrooms for lunch.
Three of Patterson's four lunch guests — her parents-in-law Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson — died in the hospital after the 2023 meal at her home in Leongatha, at which she served individual beef Wellington pastries containing death cap mushrooms .
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UPI
an hour ago
- UPI
Erin Patterson trial: Jurors begin deliberation in case of deadly mushroom meal
Jurors on Monday began deliberations in the trial of Erin Patterson, who is accused of serving deadly mushrooms to a group of guests at a meal that ultimately killed three people. File Photo by James Ross/EPA-EFE June 30 (UPI) -- Jurors in the murder trial of Erin Patterson, an Australian woman who served a meal containing poisonous mushrooms that killed three guests, began deliberations on Monday. The final 12 jurors were decided by a ballot, and then the judge gave the remaining seven men and five women a summary of both the prosecution and defense cases. The group was then sequestered to supervised accommodations where they will mostly stay until a decision has been reached. The prosecution accused Patterson of having invited her estranged husband Simon Patterson's parents, Don and Gail Patterson, and his aunt and uncle Heather and Ian Wilkinson, over to her home in Australia in August of 2023 for a lunch of beef Wellington. Don and Gail died later that week, as did Heather, from the ingestion of poisonous death cap mushrooms. Ian was sickened and hospitalized but survived. The prosecution claimed Patterson knowingly put the toxic fungi into the home-cooked meal, then lied to police about doing so and disposed of related evidence. The defense maintains the poisoning was accidental, that Patterson had no reason to purposefully kill her guests and had originally lied because she panicked after hurting people she loved. Prosecutors have further accused Patterson of not only inviting the victims over to kill them with a lethal meal but had furthermore prepared an extra poisoned serving in case Simon, who had declined his invitation to dine that day, changed his mind and came to eat. Patterson has testified that she had only eaten a small portion of the beef Wellington lunch and later had vomited up the food because she also ate cake and has a history of binging and purging. Patterson has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder and one of attempted murder in the case.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Australian authorities say top crypto ATM users are scam victims and money mules — most transactions from victims or mules forced to deposit money into the machines
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Australian financial watchdog AUSTRAC, or Australian Transactions Reports and Analysis Centre, said that 'scam victims, money mules, and suspected offenders' are the top users of crypto ATMs in the country. According to the agency's press release, its Cryptocurrency Taskforce monitored the biggest crypto ATM transactions in each state and believed that many of these are linked to scams. Unfortunately, most of these transactions were related to victims or mules who were forced to deposit the money into the machines. 'We suspected that a large volume of crypto ATM transactions were probably illicit, but disturbingly, our law enforcement partners found that almost all the transactions we referred involved victims rather than criminals,' said AUSTRAC CEO Brendan Thomas. 'We came across a woman in her 70s who had deposited more than AU$430,000 (approximately US$280,000) into crypto ATMs after falling victim to romance and investment scams. Tragically, she has no way of recovering that life-changing amount of money.' Unfortunately, the authorities also identified another victim around the same age who lost more than AU$200,000 (almost US$130,000). She thought she was depositing the amount to a legitimate trading firm as part of an investment, but instead lost it all through the crypto ATM. Fraud and scams like these have been going on for several decades now, so traditional financial institutions now have several safeguards in place to help protect customers against them. However, since cryptocurrency is relatively new, it still hasn't developed safeguards against its illicit use. Aside from that, the inherent decentralized nature of this technology means that it's hard for nations to enforce rules on its use. Crypto ATMs are making it easier for users to convert their cash into cryptocurrency. But because it's easy to use and looks similar to the usual ATMs that many people are used to, it's also making it easier to scam those who aren't tech savvy, thinking that they're simply depositing money into a bank account. Although it's not impossible, it's insanely difficult to recover the scammed money. Even though transactions can be easily tracked, the anonymity of wallets makes it difficult to determine who owns them. Aside from that, the victims have to go through legal means to have the stolen cash returned. And even though a court might order the funds returned, the money must be parked on an exchange that recognizes the law of the state that issues the order. The increasing number of incidents like this, combined with the easy availability of crypto ATMs, suggests that the government must respond sooner or later. The Australian government said that it's 'coordinating a national prevention and education campaign', especially as many people are still likely not knowledgeable about online scams and cryptocurrencies. In the meantime, we'll have to be vigilant against scams like this and warn the people around us to be wary when someone asks them to deposit any amount of money in a crypto ATM — especially if they don't use cryptocurrencies in the first place. Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Top Asian News 7:03 a.m. GMT
Jury deliberates whether Australian woman served deadly mushrooms with intent to kill her in-laws WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A sequestered jury in Australia began deliberations Monday in the triple murder trial of Erin Patterson, accused of killing her estranged husband's relatives by deliberately serving them poisonous mushrooms for lunch. Three of Patterson's four lunch guests — her parents-in-law Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson — died in the hospital after the 2023 meal at her home in Leongatha, at which she served individual beef Wellington pastries containing death cap mushrooms. She is accused of attempting to murder the fourth, Heather's husband Ian Wilkinson, who was gravely ill but survived. During the nine-week Supreme Court trial in the state of Victoria, Patterson gave evidence in her own defense.
