Opening statements wrap up in Matt Wright trial
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ABC News
a minute ago
- ABC News
New Erin Patterson details revealed
A picture taken on May 12, 2025 shows Erin Patterson arriving in the back of a prison transport vehicle at Latrobe Valley Magistrate's Court in Morwell, Australia. ( AFP: Martin Keep )
West Australian
31 minutes ago
- West Australian
Evidence barred from Erin Patterson's mushroom murder trial revealed
Three years before hosting the ill-fated dinner that killed her former husband's parents and aunt, Erin Patterson allegedly posted on a Facebook group about her cat having consumed poisoned mushrooms – despite not owning a cat. In the post from 2020, which was labelled the 'so-called cat post' by her defence in the proceedings, Patterson allegedly wrote: 'My cat chewed on this mushroom just now. He is having a vomit. Was in grassland near trees, I'm in Victoria Australia.' Mushroom Cook timeline The detail was aired during pre-trial hearings in the Supreme Court of Victoria, where prosecutors flagged they wanted to use the post to prove Patterson had an interest in three things; poisons, death cap mushrooms and mushrooms growing in the wild. Allegedly made to a Facebook group titled Poisons help: Emergency identification for mushrooms and plants, prosecutors planned to use this as evidence that Patterson was trying to access information about the poisonous properties of mushrooms. Had the evidence been ruled in, prosecutors would have led further evidence that Patterson had never owned a cat and that several photos of mushrooms attached to the post were located on an SD card found in her home. However, they were barred from using the post and images by Justice Christopher Beale, who ruled that the evidence was so temporally remote from the circumstances of the poisonings that it was irrelevant. During the pre-trial, Patterson's defence had also questioned the provenance of the screenshot, noting that police had not been able to locate the original post. Instead, the court was told, it was supplied by Shelly Ridyard, who came into contact with Patterson in 2020 through a Facebook group she moderated called Keep Keli Lane Behind Bars. Patterson was a member of the group before it splintered and made a name for herself as a true-crime 'super sleuth', one former member, Daniela Barkley, said. The Facebook post reared back up in the seventh week of the trial after defence barrister Colin Mandy SC sought to lead photos found on the same SD card to show his client was interested in foraging for wild mushrooms. Prosecutors initially threatened to re-litigate the cat post but ultimately agreed with defence to show the jury all the photographs on the SD card. Prosecutor Jane Warren told the court the photos demonstrated 'at least inferentially' that Patterson's interest in mushrooms was centred on their poisonous properties. Over seven weeks, the jury in Patterson's triple-murder trial heard from more than 50 witnesses as the state laid out its case against the accused woman. The post was among a series of digital records that didn't make it into the case after Justice Beale ruled them inadmissable. Media were previously barred from reporting these details under a suppression order to preserve Patterson's right to appeal the conviction that was lifted by Justice Christopher Beale on Friday. Patterson, 50, was found guilty of three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder on July 7 by a jury following a trial that spanned 11 weeks. The charges related to a lunch she held on July 29, 2023 at her Leongatha home, where four members of her husband Simon Patterson's family were poisoned with death cap mushrooms. CCTV captured the moment Erin Patterson left Leongatha Hospital after just five minutes and against medical advice. Video: Supplied Crown barred from leading alleged records of other poisons Other computer evidence prosecutors wanted to rely on for the trial, seeking to prove Patterson had an interest in poisons, was also excluded. Prosecutors had sought to do this by pointing to a series of digital artefacts allegedly located on devices seized from Patterson's home. These included a research article allegedly found on an unused phone in one of her children's bedrooms that detailed the process to produce the natural poison Abrin from the rosary pea seed. Another cache record captured an alleged online visit to the citizen science website iNaturalist, where a user viewed a sighting for the poisonous plant hemlock in the Loch area on September 5, 2022. A third item allegedly located on a tablet was a file titled 2007bookmattercriminalpoisoningPDF, which was allegedly linked to the 2007 book Criminal Poisoning: Investigational Guide for Law Enforcement, Toxicologists, Forensic Scientists, and Attorneys. The file contained the appendix page titled Common Homicidal Poisons and was created on October 12, 2019, although the court was told there was no evidence it was accessed after that date. A fourth item allegedly located on a device by police was a scientific article about 'red kidney bean poisonings' in the UK with an analysis of 50 suspected incidents between 1976 and 1989. Prosecutor Jane Warren told the pre-trial the article itself was saved and able to be accessed on the device. Prosecutors were barred from using these items after defence barrister Colin Mandy SC successfully argued an alleged interest in poisons was not relevant and posed a risk of unfair prejudice to his client. Police also located cache data on a device that was allegedly linked to an edition of the Victorian Naturalist Magazine from May 2011. In the Magazine's 50 pages was an article titled an Overview of the Fungi of Melbourne by mycologist, or mushroom expert, Tom May. Prosecutors had intended to take the jury to an extract of the article, particularly a reference for death cap mushrooms that included the detail that they only grow under oak trees. Patterson made second tip trip At trial, Patterson admitted in front of the jury that she dumped her dehydrator on August 2 at the Koonwarra Transfer Station – a day after she was released from hospital. But jurors were not told it was her second trip to the tip, with a pre-trial hearing revealing police knew she visited less than an hour after her guests left the lunch on July 29. The incident was just 4 days after her deadly lunch that killed three people The visit was blocked from reaching the trial by Justice Beale after Mr Mandy argued that nothing had been located by police and there was only 'speculation' left to fill the void. Records from the Koonwarra Transfer Station of Patterson's visits were altered to remove the reference before they were aired in court. Justice Beale is expected to publish his pre-trial rulings at a later date.
News.com.au
31 minutes ago
- News.com.au
Optus sued over 2022 data breach that exposed data of 9.5m people
Optus is being sued for allegedly failing to protect the data of 9.5 million people. The Australian Information Commissioner announced on Friday it was launching the legal action. The case stems from a data breach in September 2022. The Information Commissioner will argue Optus failed to adequately manage cybersecurity and information security risk. 'Organisations hold personal information within legal requirements and based upon trust,' commissioner Elizabeth Tydd said. 'The Australian community should have confidence that organisations will act accordingly, and if they don't, the OAIC as regulator will act to secure those rights.' An Optus spokesperson said the company would 'consider the matters raised in the proceedings and will respond to the claims made by the AIC in due course'. 'Optus apologises again to our customers and the broader community that the 2022 cyber attack occurred,' the spokesperson said. 'We strive every day to protect our customers' information and have been working hard to minimise any impact the cyber attack may have had.' Optus would keep investing in security, the spokesperson said, and the cyber threat environment was evolving. 'As the matter is now before the Australian courts, Optus will not be commenting further at this time,' they said. Australian Privacy Commissioner Carly Kind said strong data governance and security needed to be embedded in organisations. 'To guard against vulnerabilities that threat actors will be ready to exploit,' Ms Kind said. The lawsuit alleges that from on, or around October 17, 2019 to September 20, 2022, Optus seriously interfered with the privacy of about 9.5 million Australians by failing to take reasonable steps to protect their personal information from misuse, interference and loss, and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. The case is being pursued as an alleged breach of the Privacy Act 1988. The Information Commission alleges Optus failed to adequately manage cybersecurity and information security risk in a manner commensurate with the nature and volume of personal information that Optus held, the company's size and its risk profile.
