Erin Patterson trial: Update on trial progress as alleged poisoner poised to return to witness box
The Supreme Court judge overseeing Erin Patterson's triple-murder trial has given jurors an update on what to expect in the coming weeks.
Addressing the 14-person panel about midday on Thursday, Justice Christopher Beale told jurors the trial length had 'probably been on your minds'.
Justice Beale said at the start of Ms Patterson's trial six weeks ago he'd given jurors an estimate of six weeks and, while he would not provide an updated time frame, he would summarise 'how things will play out from here on'.
'It's likely that Ms Patterson will be in the witness box for the rest of the week and probably into early next week,' he said.
'After she has completed giving evidence, it will be necessary, or the law requires it for me to have some legal discussions with the parties.
'And those discussions could take a couple of days.'
Justice Beale said this could see out the hearings next week, which will be a day short due to the King's Birthday public holiday in Victoria.
Justice Beale said the discussion would include whether there is to be any more evidence in the case and what directions of the law would be necessary for him to give at the end of the trial.
After all evidence had been adduced, the judge said the prosecution and defence would deliver their closing addresses which could take a couple of days.
'And then my final directions to you, which involves three parts: giving you directions about legal principles that apply in this case, which takes quite a bit of time; identifying for you the key issues in the case and summarising for you the evidence and arguments in relation to those issues; that also takes a fair time,' Justice Beale said.
'So I haven't put a figure on it, but I have tried to put you in the picture as to how this is going to play out and it may be necessary for you to make some arrangements.'
Following this, Justice Beale said the jurors would be given 'all the time you need' to decide the facts of the case.
Ms Patterson is facing trial after pleading not guilty to the murder of her husband's parents and aunt, and the attempted murder of his uncle.
Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson, died in hospital in the week after eating a beef wellington lunch at Ms Patterson's home on July 29, 2023.
Heather's husband, Ian Wilkinson, survived after spending about a month and a half in hospital.
Prosecutors allege the accused woman deliberately spiked the lunch with death cap mushrooms.
Her defence accepts there were death cap mushrooms in the meal but argues she did not intentionally poison anyone and the case is a 'tragic accident'.
The trial continues.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
News.com.au
13 minutes ago
- News.com.au
‘Different type of grief': Jelena Dokic opens up about her father's death, vulnerability and her future
It's been nearly a month since Jelena Dokic announced her abusive father's passing, and she is still trying to work out how she feels. In May, Jelena confirmed the death of her 67-year-old father, Damir, on social media, who subjected her to years of torment, abuse and physical violence on and off the courts. Sitting in the booth of a cafe in Melbourne, the former No. 4 tennis player-turned-commentator and public speaker told NewsWire she knew her father's death 'would happen at some stage' but is still 'working through' her grieving process, which is more complicated than she anticipated. 'I've been estranged from my father for nearly 10 years, and it is what it is,' she said. 'The one thing I'm realising … whether you've had a good experience with a parent or a bad one, it comes with a complicated kind of grief, closure, or the way that chapter ends.' She found out about her estranged father's death while she was 'right in the middle of work and a lot of commitments', leaving her without much room to process the loss. 'For me, it's different type of grief,' she told NewsWire. 'Maybe not even grief, but more so like closure or a chapter that's kind of finished, but from an estranged parent.' But it's in the quiet times with her small circle of friends, who she refers to as her 'ride or dies', where she can peel away the layers and let the grief settle. Growing up concealing the abuse and suffering she lived with every day led to feelings of shame and fear, building up emotional walls to shield her painful experience from others as she tried to fight the battle alone. A self-admitted introvert, it hasn't been easy for her to develop trustworthy and loyal relationships over her career, as a combination of constantly travelling the world in tennis tournaments and the abuse she was subjected to by her father put a pin in any chance of forging meaningful connections with others her own age. 'Some victims of and survivors of domestic violence and abuse … are not allowed to make friends,' she told NewsWire. 'Anyone that gets close, (the abuser will) get rid of them, especially when we're young.' 'Making friends for a very long time was not even possible, but then later it was difficult because I didn't kind of have those social skills,' she said. While she can't turn back the clock, Jelena hopes to inspire others who may be suffering alone, and encourage them to speak out. She is currently in the process of writing a third book – which will hit bookshelves late next year – this time revealing the mindset and self-development she has gained. Jelena has been very outspoken about the abuse she has received over the years, be it from her father through the first two decades of her life, where she was subjected to unnerving physical violence and loathsome verbal attacks, to hateful messages from bullies on social media. She told NewsWire she isn't afraid to 'block and delete' the online trolls that try to weasel in and pollute her positive mission. 'I see one vile sentence, I delete straight away,' she said. 'I don't even read the rest of it, and that's the best way to go about it.' Hit with crashing waves of depression, anxiety, eating disorders and PTSD throughout her life, Jelena has always found a way to stand back up, brush herself off and face every battle head-on, determined to keep moving forward. 'It was my goal in life, especially post-tennis, to do everything with kindness, to do it with grace and dignity,' she said. She wants others who may have experienced or currently living through similar circumstances to know they are 'not alone', and they're braver than they realise. 'I always believed I can get to that stage where one day I can smile, where one day I get through (the abuse) and I … always try to believe that I am worthy and that it's not my fault,' she said. Her strength and passion for raising awareness about mental health, bullying and childhood and domestic violence continues to drive her forward and inspire others to speak out. 'I can't change the world alone, none of us can, but we can change someone's world,' she said. 'If we can change things for that one person and be there for them, be kind and loving and accepting, you can literally not only change someone's life, but save their life.' Jelena is one of two panellists taking part in the QV 50 Awards, which celebrated and brings a spotlight to everyday Aussies who make an impact on the world around them. The QV 50 Awards is honouring three people who have made an effort to care for an individual, the community and other causes, and giving them a chance to win $10,000 and an all-expenses paid trip to the ceremony in Melbourne, which takes place in August 2025. It's a cause close to Jelena's heart. 'For me, it's a massive honour to be a judge, and to be part of a campaign that is so amazing, iconic and Australian,' she said. 'What these QV awards are about is really celebrating … an individual, a community, or a charity that takes care of others.'
ABC News
31 minutes ago
- ABC News
Erin Patterson's week on the stand in her mushroom murder trial
For weeks, the trial of Erin Patterson has moved carefully through vast expanses of at-times highly technical evidence. It's included contested data from mobile phone towers, reports of digital analysis carried out on seized electronic devices and tables tracking the movement of SIM cards between phones. It's even included a run-through from a fungi expert on how to distinguish the deadly Amanita phalloides (or death cap) mushroom variety from its more benign relatives. But it was in the sixth week of the Supreme Court trial that a packed courtroom in Morwell heard hours of evidence directly from the person who organised the 2023 beef Wellington meal that led to three deaths. The trial of Erin Patterson, who stands accused of using a poisoned meal to murder three relatives, continues. Look back at how Friday's hearing unfolded in our live blog. To stay up to date with this story, subscribe to ABC News. In her evidence, Erin Patterson told the jury she never intended to harm the four relatives she invited to Saturday lunch at her Leongatha home. She said she now believed foraged mushrooms had accidentally made their way into the meal in a mix-up that had seen them blended with other dried mushrooms purchased from an Asian grocer in Melbourne's south-east. 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. But she maintained she was telling the truth when she rejected one of the prosecution's central claims: that her lie to her lunch guests about possibly requiring cancer treatment in the future was part of a carefully laid plot to murder them. "I suggest that you never thought you would have to account for this lie of having cancer, because you thought that the lunch guests would die and your lie would never be found out," Dr Rogers said to Ms Patterson. "That's not true," she replied. She also said while she may have indicated cancer treatment lay ahead, she never told them a diagnosis had been made. This week, Ms Patterson gave deeply personal evidence as she discussed the context in which the lunch had taken place. The evidence went as far back as her childhood, when Ms Patterson told the court her mother would weigh her "weekly". She said she had grown up with significant body image issues, engaged in binge eating and by the time of the lunch, she was planning to undergo gastric-band surgery as a way to control her weight. Ms Patterson said she was too embarrassed to tell her relatives about this, so instead she fed her parents-in-law Gail and Don Patterson a lie. The court heard Ms Patterson told them in several messages sent before the lunch that she was undergoing a biopsy and MRI for a lump on her elbow. "I remember thinking I didn't want to tell anybody what I was going to have done, I was really embarrassed about it, so I thought perhaps letting them believe I had some serious issue that needed treatment might mean they would be able to help me with the logistics around the kids and I wouldn't have to tell them the real reason," Ms Patterson said. It was a lie she expanded on at the lunch, although Ms Patterson told the court while she had indicated she may need ovarian cancer treatment, she did not believe she had told them a diagnosis was made. Her history with illnesses and the medical system was also explored in evidence. The court heard several traumatic experiences with her children's health and hospital staff had built a sense of distrust. "I just lost so much faith in the medical system that I decided that, anything to do with my health and the children's health, I'm going to have to solve that problem myself," she said. Earlier in the trial, the court heard from medical staff who said Ms Patterson needed to be persuaded to bring her children (who had eaten leftover meat from the meal) in to be tested for death cap mushroom poisoning. Ms Patterson said any perceived reluctance wasn't because she did not want her children to be treated, but because she was wary of the "drastic step" of hospital admission. "I wanted to understand that that was really necessary, because of their anxieties about being in hospital," Ms Patterson said. But she said ultimately, she understood "the logic" of that course of action. Ms Patterson also gave detailed evidence on the family dynamics at the time of the lunch. Tensions over financial matters had flared between her and her estranged husband in late 2022 and she had feared it was damaging her relationship with the Patterson family. In a bid to bring them closer, Ms Patterson had organised a lunch in June, 2023, with Gail and Don Patterson and the children, where she served up shepherd's pie. "The kids and I had such a good time seeing nanna and papa," she said. Ms Patterson said the positive engagement with her in-laws had inspired her to organise another lunch, this time with Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson and her husband Ian. "Her and Ian have been really good to me over the years, I wanted to have some more connection with them," she said. It was against this backdrop that Ms Patterson said she approached Gail and Heather after a church service in Korumburra one Sunday. "Would you like to come to lunch at my house?" Erin said she asked them. "They said 'we'd love to'." Ms Patterson told the court she decided a "special" dish was required for the event, and so decided to attempt beef Wellington for the first time. A few "deviations" were made to the RecipeTin Eats cookbook method, she said. Due to meat availability, Ms Patterson said she made individual pastry parcels rather than the one log called for in the recipe. A prosciutto layer was dropped because Don Patterson didn't eat pork, the mustard was left out and a crepe layer was swapped for the simpler option of filo pastry. Crucially, Ms Patterson told the court she believed the deadly addition to the meal likely came during the preparation of the mushroom paste, or duxelle, that coats the meat. She said on the morning of the lunch, she had cooked down Woolworths-bought mushrooms when she tasted the duxelle. "It seemed a little bland, to me," she said. "So I decided to put in the dried mushrooms that I'd bought from the grocer that I still had in the pantry. "So I put them in, like a little … strainer with a handle … and just roughly poured water over them to get the crispness out of them. "I chopped them up and I, like, sprinkled them over the duxelle and pushed them in with an egg flip." She said at the time, she had believed the dried mushrooms were the ones she'd bought from an Asian grocer in Melbourne's south-east. "Now I think that there was a possibility that there were foraged ones in there as well," she said, closing her eyes and blinking as her voice cracked. After guests arrived, Ms Patterson said the individual Wellingtons were plated up and put on the table with no great thought as to who ended up with which portion. "I said, you know, 'grab a plate guys, I'm just going to finish off the gravy.' I turned around," she said. Ms Patterson told the court she only had part of her meal and shortly after the guests had left, she binged on two-thirds of an orange cake her mother-in-law had brought, before vomiting it all up. The events after the guests left the dining table have been raked over in hours of court evidence and detailed in briefs running into tens of thousands of pages. On Friday, lead prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC questioned the "love" Ms Patterson has maintained she held for her in-laws: Rogers: You agree that you told police in your record of interview that you loved Don and Gail? Patterson: Correct. Rogers: Surely if you had loved them .. You would have immediately notified the medical authorities that there was a possibility that the foraged mushrooms had ended up in the meal. Patterson: Well I didn't. I had been told that … people were getting treatment for possible death cap mushroom poisoning. So that was already happening. The prosecution noted that these questions related to Ms Patterson's mindset on the Tuesday after the lunch, days before anyone had died. But, Dr Rogers told the court, Erin didn't tell "a single person" that foraged mushrooms may have been in the meal. "Correct," Ms Patterson replied. Further, Dr Rogers put to Ms Patterson that she had "two faces" when it came to her relationship with her in-laws. A public face of loving them, and a private face shared with her Facebook friends, where she shared anger and mocked her relatives' religious views. Ms Patterson denied it, telling the court she had "a good relationship with Don and Gail" and sobbed as she recounted how she had invited Heather Wilkinson to the lunch to thank her for the kindness she had shown her over the years. This week in court the prosecution also alleged that in the lead-up to the lunch, Ms Patterson had seen iNaturalist listings of death cap mushrooms at nearby Loch and Outtrim, and knowingly foraged the poisonous fungi. They alleged that photos taken from devices seized at her home showed she had been weighing dehydrated death cap mushrooms in the lead-up to the lunch, to determine what the lethal dosage would be for her guests. The prosecution said that her elaborate cancer lie was carefully constructed to create a pretence for a lunch without her children, and that had her estranged husband Simon attended the lunch, she would have knowingly fed him a sixth beef Wellington laced with death cap mushrooms. And they alleged her decision to dump the dehydrator and lie to police about it was done because she knew admitting to the dehydrator would have revealed her murderous plot. Ms Patterson denies it all. And the trial's not over yet. This week, Justice Christopher Beale told jurors the hearings could stretch towards the end of June, before they would be asked to deliberate and return a verdict. How long the jury will need to weigh the mountain of evidence and arrive at a verdict is impossible to know. "None of you can tell me how long you will be in deliberations … how long is a piece of string?" Justice Beale said.
SBS Australia
an hour ago
- SBS Australia
Bronté escaped a life confined to the home, only to face a 'chasm' on the other side
Women who have experienced domestic violence are often at a disadvantage when it comes to their finances. Source: Getty, iStockphoto / Primipil The Humans of Purpose Academy provides training in digital tech skills for domestic violence survivors. It aims to empower women to upskill and help them become more financially secure. At the same time, changes to the Family Law Act recognise the financial impact of domestic violence on women affected by it. This article contains references to domestic violence. Bronté got married before her 18th birthday and was expected to stay home to take care of the house and family. She felt controlled by her husband, who she said "believed a woman's place is in the house, taking care of the children and maintaining the house". Bronté (not her real name) told SBS News she was not permitted to work or make financial decisions for her family. So when she left her husband after seven years of marriage, she was not in a good financial position. Findings in a report by Australian researchers released in February highlighted employment and education gaps between the general population of women and those who have experienced domestic violence. It noted how these gaps contributed to a "large financial chasm", with victim-survivors having reported financial problems at higher rates than other women. Earlier this month Bronté celebrated a year in a job in digital marketing, something she said she could never have imagined herself doing a couple of years ago. But it was not a simple road to get there. Bronté said she had thought about leaving her husband many times but she had been fearful about how she would get by financially, as he was the family breadwinner and she had not been allowed any role in organising the family's finances. "The fear of: 'I don't have any extra income, how am I going to manage the finances, all of the bills?' I never really had experience with that." After years of being controlled and abused, she took her two children and they escaped the situation. While Bronté may have finally felt safe, she faced many challenges in trying to set up a new life. She said it was not only her finances that were lacking, she also did not have a great deal of confidence and no real experience to put on a resume. "There had been a lot of mental and emotional abuse, nothing I ever did was good enough, lots of name-calling, my self-esteem had plummeted massively," Bronté said. "I found myself stuck in a trauma fog," she said. By the time she reached a point where she felt she had the capacity to look for work, she had a work gap of more than a decade. "I think I spent a year-and-a-half straight applying for jobs that were within my capabilities, without luck," Bronté said. The Cost of Domestic Violence to Women's Employment and Education report, by researchers from the University of Technology Sydney and the Australian National University, found victim-survivors reported financial problems at much higher rates than other women. In 2021 43.9 per cent of women who experienced physical or sexual violence by a partner in the past five years had cash flow issues compared to 7.2 per cent of women who have never experienced partner violence. Financial hardship was also an issue for 31.4 per cent of women who experienced partner emotional abuse and 37.7 per cent of women who experienced partner economic abuse. It was a referral to do job skills training with a not-for-profit that finally gave Bronté a stepping stone to a career and the many extra benefits she said come with that. Melanie Globo started the Humans of Purpose Academy in 2023, offering free online training in digital technologies. The virtual hub not only provides digital skills training for survivors of domestic and family violence but connects women to career mentoring and personal development coaching. A total of 64 women have completed skills training through the academy and 22 of those have done six-month work placements following that training, either with Globo's own company or other businesses affiliated with the academy. Globo's digital marketing agency has 15 staff members, 13 of who are domestic violence survivors who have gone through the academy's training pipeline. "It's an aspirational model but it's working for us, we want these women to have highly skilled and highly paid careers," she said. "It's about lifting our gaze and looking beyond what can help them day to day, this is about creating careers they thrive in and long-term financial independence. "What we also see as a part of this retraining is a huge uplift in their self-esteem and self-confidence as well." Globo said there was "huge potential for upskilling and training particularly around digital skills and platforms." "AI is poised to significantly transform the global labour market over the next decade and by equipping women with these skills we can accelerate them towards well paid careers," she said. Globo noted that one of the benefits of the tech industry was the ability to have flexibility and remote work options, as "women who have fled an abusive partner and often face multiple and complex challenges to attending a physical workplace". She said one of these challenges was sometimes ongoing court proceedings. Globo welcomed changes to the Family Law Act from 10 June that better acknowledge the use and impact of financial abuse as part of domestic violence. The changes will mean the economic effect of family violence are considered, where relevant, when decisions about property and finances after separation are to be made. According to the attorney-general's department, the amendments also make clear that economic or financial abuse may constitute family violence. "This might include where a person has controlled all of the finances or spending," a fact sheet from the department reads. "The impact of family violence could be relevant when assessing a party's contributions to the property pool and to the welfare of the family (for example, if they were not allowed to work), and when assessing their current and future circumstances." Law Council of Australia president Juliana Warner said the council supported the changes. "It is critical that victim-survivors of family violence can readily understand how, and when, family violence considerations may be raised, and how these may be relevant during proceedings, including in respect of the division of property," Warner said. "Numerous inquiries into the family law system in Australia have referenced evidence that people affected by family violence may struggle to achieve a fair division of property and suffer long-term financial disadvantage. "The Law Council strongly supports measures that seek to eradicate family violence in society, and that strengthen the capacity of our family law system to recognise the harmful, and often long-term impacts, of family violence on victim survivors". However, Warner said the council was concerned that appropriate investment in resources to support the changes had not been made. "The profession holds considerable 'floodgates' concerns about the effect the changes will have on the costs of litigation, the availability of experts and the resources of the courts applying the Family Law Act because of the high prevalence of family violence in society, and the proportion of matters where family violence is reported," she said. She said cases that include consideration of financial and property matters were typically more expensive, harder to resolve, took longer to get to trial and extended the duration of trials. "Therefore, they must be accompanied by appropriate, ongoing resourcing and funding, not only of the courts, but also the legal assistance sector, and programs such as the Family Violence and Cross-Examination of Parties Scheme," she said. "Litigants' costs will increase at each stage of litigation, both in preparation of material and in trial costs, including a need for increased numbers of expert witnesses, including medical professionals and psychologists. "These costs may further disadvantage the victim-survivor of family violence, who is more often than not in a financially weaker position than the perpetrator." A spokesperson for the attorney-general's department said the department would "monitor any impacts of the reforms on the family law system after they commence," and there would be a statutory review of the amendments three years after they start. The spokesperson also pointed to the $3.9 billion of funding across the next five years for legal assistance providers under the National Access to Justice Partnership 2025-2030 under which family law and people experiencing family violence are a priority area. According to Humans of Purpose, women who have undergone six months of training and a paid employment placement are being paid on average $600 more a fortnight than they were before their training. Bronté, who is now a mother of three, works part-time, so still gets some financial support. "But it is nice to be starting to shift away from government support, it's more financially freeing," she said. Bronté said her aim was to eventually work full-time, earn more money and no longer have to rely on Centrelink at all. She said her increased financial stability brought her increased peace of mind and a sense of security for her future. "That independence is now something that I crave and love, it gives me the chance to be my own person and not an extension of someone else." If you or someone you know is impacted by domestic or family violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or Lifeline – 13 11 14.
