Not guilty verdict leaves Hillcrest families devastated
Not guilty verdict leaves Hillcrest families devastated | SBS News
Published 6 June 2025, 8:24 am
The operator of a jumping castle involved in a fatal incident in Tasmania has been found not guilty in its criminal case. Six children died when a gust of wind tossed the inflatable object into the air and across the school in a 2021 event. The court decision has left families devastated, with one mother yelling inside the court as the verdict was handed down.
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ABC News
34 minutes ago
- ABC News
Joseph Dunstan
The 50-year-old, who has pleaded not guilty to three charges of murder and one of attempted murder, admitted several times she had used lies and exaggeration in the past. 2h ago 2 hours ago Fri 6 Jun 2025 at 9:22pm Erin Patterson didn't tell a "single person" that she may have accidentally added foraged mushrooms to a lunch that eventually killed three of her relatives, her murder trial has heard. 20h ago 20 hours ago Fri 6 Jun 2025 at 3:22am The prosecution will continue their cross-examination of Erin Patterson, who has been accused of killing three relatives by serving them a meal that contained death cap mushrooms. Follow the trial as it happened 12h ago 12 hours ago Fri 6 Jun 2025 at 11:17am Health issues "planted" and mushrooms weighed to determine fatal doses. Here's how accused triple-murderer Erin Patterson responded to a number of accusations the prosecutions put forward during cross-examination. 23h ago 23 hours ago Fri 6 Jun 2025 at 12:16am Accused triple-murderer Erin Patterson has denied telling guests at her fatal lunch that she had cancer, despite evidence to the contrary given earlier in the trial by the sole surviving guest. Yesterday at 7:19am Thu 5 Jun 2025 at 7:19am Accused killer Erin Patterson faces more questions on the witness stand at her triple-murder trial. She's accused of killing three relatives by serving them a meal that contained death cap mushrooms. Follow the trial live. Yesterday at 7:22am Thu 5 Jun 2025 at 7:22am Erin Patterson has detailed to a jury how foraged mushrooms may have ended up in a beef Wellington dish that killed three relatives and made another seriously ill. Wed 4 Jun Wed 4 Jun Wed 4 Jun 2025 at 7:19pm Erin Patterson tells her triple-murder trial she first began foraging wild mushrooms during Victoria's COVID lockdowns, years before hosting her in-laws for a fatal meal. Tue 3 Jun Tue 3 Jun Tue 3 Jun 2025 at 8:37am Erin Patterson is giving evidence for a second day in her triple-murder trial. She's accused of murdering three relatives by serving them a meal that contained death cap mushrooms. Look back at how Tuesday's hearing unfolded in our live blog. Wed 4 Jun Wed 4 Jun Wed 4 Jun 2025 at 12:48am Accused triple-murderer Erin Patterson is called to give evidence in her trial, where she stands accused of deliberately poisoning her in-laws with a meal containing death cap mushrooms. Mon 2 Jun Mon 2 Jun Mon 2 Jun 2025 at 9:04am Erin Patterson's triple murder trial continues in Morwell. She's charged with three counts of murder over the deaths of three relatives who died from after eating a meal she prepared containing death cap mushrooms. Mon 2 Jun Mon 2 Jun Mon 2 Jun 2025 at 11:35pm A SIM card in one of accused triple murderer Erin Patterson's mobile phones was being swapped over while homicide detectives were searching her home a week after she hosted a deadly mushroom lunch, a jury has been told. Wed 28 May Wed 28 May Wed 28 May 2025 at 5:30am A week after hosting her in-laws for a deadly mushroom lunch, Erin Patterson told police officers she was still trying to understand what had gone fatally wrong, a murder trial jury has heard. Tue 27 May Tue 27 May Tue 27 May 2025 at 7:33am Erin Patterson has pleaded not guilty to murdering her estranged husband's parents and his aunt by feeding them poisonous death cap mushrooms in July 2023. Follow the evidence as it happened. Tue 27 May Tue 27 May Tue 27 May 2025 at 10:36am An investigator looking into a deadly 2023 lunch told the court that details in Ms Patterson's account of events changed over the course of several conversations. Mon 26 May Mon 26 May Mon 26 May 2025 at 7:44am Erin Patterson's triple murder trial continues from Morwell. She is charged with murdering three relatives who ate a meal she prepared which contained death cap mushrooms. Follow the trial live. Mon 26 May Mon 26 May Mon 26 May 2025 at 7:51am Erin Patterson is accused of murdering three relatives by serving them a beef Wellington that contained death cap mushrooms. Look back at how the day in court unfolded. Fri 9 May Fri 9 May Fri 9 May 2025 at 4:32am Medical staff who examined Ms Patterson in the aftermath of a deadly mushroom meal at her home have given evidence to a murder trial jury. Look back at how Thursday's hearing unfolded in our live blog. Thu 8 May Thu 8 May Thu 8 May 2025 at 7:14am A Supreme Court murder trial hears Erin Patterson was initially "reluctant" to have her children brought to hospital for medical checks after they allegedly ate leftovers from a lunch contaminated with death cap mushrooms. Look back on how the day's hearing unfolded in our blog. Wed 7 May Wed 7 May Wed 7 May 2025 at 6:55am Ms Patterson is accused of murdering three relatives by serving them a beef Wellington laced with poisonous death cap mushrooms. Follow the trial in our live blog. Tue 6 May Tue 6 May Tue 6 May 2025 at 6:44am Erin Patterson's Facebook friends took to the witness box in her murder trial over a lunch served to her in-laws containing death cap mushrooms. Look back at how the hearing unfolded in our live blog. Mon 5 May Mon 5 May Mon 5 May 2025 at 7:04am Senior Liberal figures say the party must review the way it ran its election campaign, after it was reduced to just a small handful of seats across the Melbourne region. Sat 3 May Sat 3 May Sat 3 May 2025 at 2:28pm Accused triple-murderer Erin Patterson's estranged husband Simon Patterson appeared for the second day as a witness in her trial. Look back on how it unfolded in our live blog. Fri 2 May Fri 2 May Fri 2 May 2025 at 3:54am The jury in Erin Patterson's murder trial hears the accused tried to persuade her estranged husband to attend the lunch where four guests ate meals containing death cap mushrooms. Look back on how the hearing unfolded in our live blog. Thu 1 May Thu 1 May Thu 1 May 2025 at 7:23am Organisers of Melbourne's Invasion Day rally say they have no plans to disrupt the Australian Open, and misinformation suggesting they did has caused "harm and distress". Thu 23 Jan Thu 23 Jan Thu 23 Jan 2025 at 5:37am
News.com.au
36 minutes ago
- News.com.au
Erin Patterson trial: Four takeaways from alleged beef Wellington poisoner's week in the witness box
The Victorian mother-of-two at the centre of a mushroom poisoning case had the opportunity to tell her own story this week as she took the stand at her triple-murder trial. Erin Patterson, 50, is facing trial after pleading not guilty to the murders of her husband's parents and aunt, and the attempted murder of his uncle. Simon Patterson's parents, Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson, died in the week after the lunch after falling ill from mushroom poisoning. Prosecutors alleged she deliberately poisoned the beef Wellington lunch on July 29, 2023, with death cap mushrooms intending to kill or seriously injure her four guests. Her defence, on the other hand, has argued the case is a 'tragic accident' and Ms Patterson also consumed the death caps and fell sick, though not as sick as her guests. Over five days this week Ms Patterson sat in the witness box about 7 m from the 14 jurors selected to hear her case, answering questions, firstly from her barrister Colin Mandy SC and then from Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC. Her opportunity to tell her own story came after the jury spent five weeks hearing from more than 50 witnesses for the prosecution as Ms Patterson sat in silence at the back of the Morwell courtroom. In her testimony to the jury, Ms Patterson conceded death cap mushrooms 'must' have ended up in the beef Wellington lunch she prepared and served for the four guests. The morning of the lunch, she told the court, she started to prepare the duxelles, or mushroom paste, by cooking down two punnets of fresh sliced mushrooms she had purchased from Woolworths. 'So, as I was cooking it down, I tasted it a few times and it seemed a little bland to me, so I decided to put in the dried mushrooms that I'd bought from the grocer that I still had in the pantry,' she said. Ms Patterson told the jury she had purchased a packet of dried mushrooms in April the same year from an Asian supermarket in Melbourne, initially intending to use them for a pasta dish but deciding against that because they had a strong flavour. She said she now accepts it was possible she had stored wild mushrooms she foraged from her local area and dehydrated in the same Tupperware container. 'At that time, I believed it was just the mushrooms that I'd bought in Melbourne … Now I think that there was a possibility that there were foraged ones in there as well,' she said. Ms Patterson told the jury she first became interested in foraging for wild mushrooms during Covid and educated herself online. Over a period of months, she said she grew confident to identify 'field mushrooms and horse mushrooms' growing on her property before deciding to eat some. 'When I got to a point I was confident what they were, I cut a bit off, fried it up with butter, ate it and saw what happened,' she said. 'They tasted good and I didn't get sick.' Ms Patterson said she had purchased a dehydrator on April 28, 2023, to begin experimenting with preserving mushrooms because they had a short shelf life. Crown alleges photo shows Ms Patterson calculating 'fatal dose' Under questioning from Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC, Ms Patterson was taken to a photograph of sliced mushrooms on a dehydrator tray being weighed. The weight recorded was 280.0g and metadata from the photo showed it was last modified on May 4. Ms Patterson agreed the photo was 'likely' taken by her and contains her kitchen bench. Previously, the jury heard from mycologist Dr Tom May that the mushrooms pictured were 'consistent with amanita phalloides (death caps) at a high level of confidence'. Questioned on if she accepted the mushrooms pictured were death caps, Ms Patterson said: 'I don't think they are'. She also denied she had foraged these mushrooms in the nearby town of Loch on April 28 after seeing a death cap mushroom sighting post on citizen science website iNaturalist on April 18. Dr Rogers suggested the image recorded Ms Patterson weighing the mushrooms to calculate the 'weight required for the administration of a fatal dose'. 'Disagree,' Ms Patterson responded. Mushroom cook tells jury she lied to health authorities because she was scared Ms Patterson said she first learned her in-laws had fallen ill the day after the lunch on a phone call with her estranged husband on July 30. The following day, she told the court, she attended the local Leongatha Hospital too seek treatment for gastro when the resident doctor, Dr Chris Webster, said 'we've been expecting you'. 'I think I said to him, 'Why? Why are you asking?', and he said that there's a concern or we're concerned you've been exposed to death cap mushrooms,' she said. 'I was shocked but confused as well … I didn't see how death cap mushrooms could be in the meal.' Ms Patterson told the court she first began to suspect foraged mushrooms may have ended up in the lunch at Monash Medical Centre when Simon accused her of poisoning his parents. In his own evidence, at the start of the trial, Simon Patterson told the jury he did not say this to his wife. Ms Patterson told the jury on August 2, the day after her release from hospital, she disposed of her dehydrator at the Koonwarra Transfer Station. 'I was scared that they would blame me for it,' she said of the decision. 'Surely if you loved them (her in-laws) you would have notified health authorities about the possibility of the foraged mushrooms in the container?' Dr Rogers asked. 'Well I didn't,' Ms Patterson replied. 'I had been told people were getting treatment for possible death cap mushroom poisoning so that was already happening.' Ms Patterson confirmed she did not notify anyone of her suspicions and lied to both police and health authorities in the following days by claiming she did not forage for mushrooms. She was taken to a series of messages exchanged with public health officer Sally Anne Atkinson, where Ms Patterson insisted the only mushrooms in the meal were from Woolworths and an Asian grocer. Asked what her state of mind was in relation to the Asian grocer, she said she 'still thought it was a possibility, but I knew it wasn't the only possibility.' Ms Patterson told the court she first learned of Heather and Gail's deaths as police searched her home on August 5 and continued to lie. 'It was this stupid knee-jerk reaction to just dig deeper and keep lying. I was just scared, but I shouldn't have done it,' she said. Ms Patterson claims she vomited after deadly lunch Ms Patterson also told the jury she had long struggled with both her weight and relationships to food since childhood – describing it as a 'rollercoaster'. 'Mum would weigh us every week to make sure we weren't putting on too much weight … I went to the extreme of barely eating then to, through my adulthood, going the other way and bingeing,' she said. She told the court she had engaged in binge eating until she was sick then 'bringing it back up' since her 20s and no one knew. In the lead up to the July 29, 2023, lunch, Ms Patterson said she had been engaging in this behaviour 'two or three times a week'. She told the court that at the lunch with Don, Gail, Heather and Ian, she only ate some of her serving, but consumed about two-thirds of an orange cake after her guests left. 'I had a piece of cake and then another piece of cake and then another,' Ms Patterson said. 'I felt sick. I felt overfull, so I went to the toilets and brought it back up again.' Ms Patterson is expected to return to the witness box and continue giving evidence when the trial resumes on Tuesday.
ABC News
42 minutes ago
- ABC News
Hillcrest jumping castle not-guilty verdict sparks grief and anger
A tense atmosphere quickly settled over the Devonport court as Magistrate Robert Webster announced Rosemary Gamble was not guilty in the only criminal case to come from the Hillcrest Primary School tragedy. But, just as quickly, the tension was broken as one of the parents of the victims began yelling at Ms Gamble and sharing her disappointment in the verdict. For the past three and a half years, her grief has been shared by the parents of five other children who died, and three others who were seriously injured in the tragedy on the Hillcrest Primary School oval in north-west Tasmania on December 16, 2021. Zane Mellor, Peter Dodt, Jalailah Jayne-Maree Jones, Addison Stewart, Jye Sheehan and Chace Harrison died and three of their classmates were seriously injured when a dust devil tossed a jumping castle across the school's oval. Almost two years later, Ms Gamble was charged with failing in her work health and safety duty as the operator of the jumping castle. The children's parents and family members began streaming out of the courtroom, very few not visibly crying or distressed, after what had been a relatively, and surprisingly, quick court appearance. After a two-week hearing in November last year, and a full day of submissions by the lawyers in February, Magistrate Webster spoke for fewer than five minutes before court was adjourned. The Devonport Magistrates Court had opened at 9am on Friday and quickly filled with family members, lawyers, security and enough media for one guard to declare it a "full house" as she stared around the packed foyer. Given what was about to happen inside, many may have preferred to stay out if it was not such a frigid, overcast morning. And then courtroom one was opened and those waiting began filing in, ready for Magistrate Webster to appear at 10am. However, he appeared only on screen from Hobart, as he told the court he had a full list to attend to after delivering his verdict, which he did quickly. He explained that he would not read it out in full, as it was 130 pages, but that it would be provided for the parties and published on the Magistrates Court website. But, he said, the charge was not proven and the case was dismissed. "You are free to go," he said to Ms Gamble. Ms Gamble did not leave the courtroom for another 20 minutes, allowing the family members and members of the public to leave ahead of her. The family members were ushered into a private room, leaving many of the rest of those in attendance standing around, unsure how to process what had just happened, or what to do next. Two golden retrievers — assistance dogs — were brought into the courthouse for "anyone who needed it", and some of those present quickly took advantage while waiting for whatever happened next. When Ms Gamble did leave the courthouse she stood in front of a large scrum of media and appeared distraught outside the streetside entrance as her lawyer Bethan Frake read from a prepared statement on her behalf. "I don't ask for people's understanding," she said. "I accept that people will feel anger and animosity toward me. I know there is nothing I can ever do which will change that. She took no questions, and as she walked to a waiting car her partner Robert Monte said: "Come on guys, give it a break." A short time later, two of the victims' parents appeared on the other side of the courthouse and gave statements to the media. Andrew Dodt, Peter's father, said his hopes were "shattered" in the wake of the ruling. His voice broke as he spoke about his son, who would have turned 16 later this year. Through tears Georgie Burt, the mother of Zane Mellor, said she was "deeply disappointed in the Tasmanian justice system". "This outcome does not reflect the weight of our loss, nor the reality we live with every single day," she said. Sometime during that somewhat frantic, frigid hour Magistrate Webster's ruling was published online. As he had told the court, it was "not short". Throughout the 130-page decision he detailed the bulk of the evidence the court had heard throughout the 10-day hearing. He discussed the expert evidence of climatologist Nicholas Earl Jones, who said he was "absolutely certain" the tragedy was the result of a dust devil, which was "essentially impossible to predict". During the hearing, Magistrate Webster said it was up to him to decide how many pegs had been supplied by East Inflatables, as conflicting evidence was presented to the court, and that there were issues with the company's credibility. "In spite of East Inflatables claim that it 'usually' supplied eight pegs, with this model of inflatable device, it produced no record or proof that in fact occurred," Magistrate Webster said. "The absence of that evidence … result in a finding that only four non-compliant pegs were delivered to Ms Gamble with the jumping castle." During the hearing, Professor Eager said even if eight pegs had been supplied and used by Ms Gamble, the result would have been the same. "Eight pegs wouldn't have done it, 12 pegs wouldn't have done it, 16 pegs wouldn't have done it, 20 pegs wouldn't have done it," Professor Eager said. Ultimately, Magistrate Webster found that it was possible that Professor Eager's opinion was correct. "As the [Director of Public Prosecutions] properly conceded the dust devil was unforeseen and unforeseeable," he wrote. "Ms Gamble could have done more or taken further steps however given the effects of the unforeseen and unforeseeable dust devil, had she done so, that would sadly have made no difference to the ultimate outcome." The charge under the Work Health and Safety Act 2012, a category 2 offence of failing to comply with her work health safety duty, specified that a person commits a category 2 offence if: Magistrate Webster found that parts (a) and (b) were proven, but he was not convinced beyond reasonable doubt of part (c). "The evidence does not permit me to exclude, as a reasonable hypothesis, the possibility that Professor Eager's opinion is correct," he said. "I am therefore required to find a reasonable doubt as to the guilt of Ms Gamble. This is the end of the criminal case. However, it is expected a coronial inquest will be carried out. And the families, represented by law firm Maurice Blackburn, have also filed a civil class action in the Supreme Court of Tasmania. Principal lawyer Dimi Ioannou said today's outcome was "disappointing" and the families would push for a public coronial inquest. "They want to see people be held accountable for this awful tragedy that's occurred," she said. In a statement on Facebook, the day after losing a no-confidence vote, Premier Jeremy Rockliff said "today politics must be put aside". "We will never forget the precious lives taken and those injured, as we collectively wrap our arms around everyone who have lost so much."
