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Defence begins closing address to jury
Patterson’s defence lawyer, Colin Many SC, is delivering his closing address to the jury.
He says the jury’s consideration needs to come down to two issues. First, whether there is a reasonable possibility that death cap mushrooms were put into the beef wellingtons accidentally.
Second, whether there is a reasonable possibility that Patterson did not intend to kill or cause serious injury to her guests.
He says if either of these are a reasonable possibility the jury must find Patterson not guilty.
“That’s the law,” he says.
He says the prospection has a “flawed approach” in analysing the evidence.
“The prospection has just made an argument. That’s not evidence,” he says.
Mandy says the prosecution has selected parts of the evidence that suits their argument while “discarding inconvenient truths”.
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Prosecutor concludes closing address
On Monday, Rogers told the jury that Patterson had made four calculated deceptions. She says Patterson has also played a “fifth deception” in her story she told the jury.
Rogers says there are inconsistencies Patterson cannot account for so she ignores them or says witnesses, including her children, are wrong.
“Focus on the evidence,” she says.
“Remember to combine all the evidence in this case.”
Rogers says this includes Patterson preparing and allocating the meal, that she was the only one who consumed the meal and did not fall seriously ill, familiarity with the citizen science website iNaturalist and the observation map for death cap mushrooms.
She also points to cell tower evidence consistent with her phone being in the two locations in Gippsland where death cap mushrooms were seen and reported on iNaturalist in April and May 2023, photos of the mushrooms Patterson was dehydrating months before the lunch which are consistent in appearance with death cap mushrooms and remnants of death caps found in the dehydrator.
“When you consider all of the evidence in combination, we suggest, you will be satisfied that the accused deliberately sourced death caps and deliberately served death caps,” Rogers says.
“Those conclusions, we suggest, will lead you to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the accused is guilty of each of the four charges on the indictment.”
Rogers has concluded her closing address.
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Updated at 22.54 EDT
Jury ‘must not feel sorry for the accused’, Rogers says
Rogers says the jury should not let their emotional response to the events sway their verdict.
“You must not feel sorry for the accused,” she says.
“You may not want to believe that anyone is capable of what the accused has done … you might not understand it.”
“But look at the evidence. Don’t let your emotional reaction dictate your verdict.”
Rogers says there is no reasonable alternative other than Pattrson deliberating sourcing death cap mushrooms and deliberating putting them in the beef wellingtons.
She says after the lunch Patterson told multiple lies.
“She’s told lies upon lies because she knew the truth would implicate,” she says.
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‘You cannot accept the accused as a truthful, trustworthy witness’, Rogers says
Rogers reminds the jury that Patterson has no legal obligation to prove anything in the trial.
She stresses that parts of Patterson’s story, including her history of foraging wild mushrooms between 2020 and 2023, are based solely on her own evidence.
She says binge eating and purging, vomiting after the fateful lunch and stopping to go to the toilet in a bush the day after the beef wellington meal, also fall in this category.
“The prosecution says you cannot accept the accused as a truthful, trustworthy witness,” Rogers says.
“You should reject her evidence.”
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Rogers turns to lies Patterson has told
These include not owning a dehydrator and not foraging for mushrooms.
Rogers says there are also lies Patterson had told but not admitted to.
She says Patterson lied when she testified she invited her guests to the beef wellington meal because she had had an enjoyable lunch with Don and Gail the month prior.
The evidence shows Patterson indicated the lunch was to discuss a medical issue, Rogers says.
She tells the jury Patterson also lied when she testified that she never told the lunch guests she had a cancer diagnosis.
She says Patterson herself said she discussed cancer treatment at the lunch.
“That does not happen without a diagnosis,” Rogers says.
She says the “starkest lie” was when Patterson testified she was planning to have gastric bypass surgery in 2023. Rogers reminds the jury of evidence that the clinic where Patterson said she had a pre-surgery appointment has never offered this procedure.
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Updated at 22.35 EDT
Prosecutor says Patterson thought ‘she would get away with these crimes’
Rogers says the jury may wonder why Patterson shared photos of her dehydrator with her online friend if she planned to use it to dehydrate death cap mushrooms.
“It’s certainly easy to identify where she went wrong when you look back,” she says.
But she says the jury should ensure their assessment is based on the evidence of this case.
“I suggest to you, the accused did think she would get away with these crimes and she never suspected doctors would so quickly assume death cap mushrooms were involved,” Rogers says.
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‘What would you do?,’ prosecutor asks jury
Rogers asks the jury to imagine what they would do if they were in Patterson’s position.
“If you were told the meal you had served and cooked your family possibly had death cap mushrooms, what would you do?” she asks.
Rogers says they would not go into self preservation mode, be reluctant to receive medical treatment or take 2.5 hours to “eventually agree” to get their children medically assessed.
“You would do everything you could to help the people you love. You would tell the treating medical practitioners every skerrick of information,” she says.
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Rogers rebuffs innocent explanations
Rogers says the defence will probably argue there are innocent explanations of Patterson’s actions like discharging herself from the hospital within minutes of arriving, being reluctant to get her children medically tested and dumping the dehydrator.
Rogers plays the jury CCTV footage of medical staff trying to stop Patterson from discharging herself from Leongtha hospital on 31 July 2023.
She says Patterson told police she needed to leave the hospital to organise things for her children and animals. But Rogers says she had already dropped her children at the bus stop for school.
She says there were other ways she could have managed her children and animals given she had been warned she may have ingested a fatal toxin.
Rogers says the jury should reject suggestions by the defence that Patterson dumped the dehydrator because she panicked
“Panic does not explain the extensive and prolonged efforts that the accused went to in order to cover up what she had done,” she says.
Patterson continued to lie even when the lives of her lunch guests were at stake, Rogers says.
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Rogers says what Patterson “outwardly” portrayed did not always align with her “true feelings”.
She says Simon gave evidence that when he told her his parents were in hospital the day after the lunch Patterson never asked about them.
If Patterson loved her in-laws she would have immediately asked about their welfare, Rogers says.
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Relationship with in-laws not always ‘harmonious’
Rogers turns to Patterson’s relationship with her parents-in-law.
She says Patterson’s estranged husband, Simon Patterson, told the jury Patterson seemed to love his parents.
“On the surface it seemed that way, even to the family members themselves,” Rogers says.
But she says the jury has heard evidence Patterson’s relationship with her in-laws, Don and Gail, was not always “harmonious”.
She reminds the jury about evidence regarding Patterson and Simon’s dispute over child support payments. She says Simon and Patterson’s son described his parents’ relationship as negative before the lunch.
Rogers says Patterson expressed her real feelings about her parents in-law and the broader family with her online friends.
She says in messages from December 2022, seen by the jury, Patterson called her parents-in-law a “lost cause”.
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Patterson deliberately sought out death caps, prosecutor says
Rogers says Patterson deliberately sought out death cap mushrooms.
“She knew exactly what she was looking for and she targeted her search accordingly,” she says.
Rogers says the defence will probably argue that Patterson had a good relationship with her lunch guests. She reminds the jury that they do not need to know why someone did something to know that they did it.
Rogers tells the jury not to become distracted by the issue of a lack of motive.
“The question is not why she did this. The question you have to determine is has the prosecution determined, beyond reasonable doubt, that the accused did this deliberately?,” she says.
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Updated at 21.28 EDT
‘Was the accused really a mushroom forager?’
Rogers says she expects the defence will argue the jury cannot exclude the possibility that Patterson “innocently” foraged for wild mushrooms and accidentally picked death cap mushrooms.
“Was the accused really a mushroom forager between 2020 and 2023 as she claimed to you?,” Rogers asks rhetorically.
She says the only evidence about this “comes from her own evidence”.
“None of the immediate family members you heard from in this trial … knew the accused to pick or eat wild mushrooms.”
Rogers says Patterson’s two children were unaware of her foraging despite living with her during this period.
“The accused never discussed foraging for mushrooms with her online friends … even though they discussed absolutely everything.”
Erin Patterson, inset, and the exterior of the Leongatha home where the beef wellington lunch took place. Photograph: James Ross/AAPShare
Updated at 21.25 EDT
Patterson gave police ‘dummy phone’ and lied about number, Rogers says
Rogers reminds the jury about the evidence about four factory resets conducted on Phone B.
She says Phone B, which Patterson handed to police, was a “dummy phone”, with the sim card only inserted into it two days before police searched her home
“This was not her usual phone number,” she says.
“We say she lied about her phone number in the police interview.”
Rogers says the multiple factory resets, handing over a “dummy” phone and claiming she had a different phone number was “designed to frustrate the police investigation of this matter”.
“It was all done so police would never see the contents of the accused’s mobile phone,” she says.
Rogers says the only reasonable explanation for this deceptive content is that Patterson knew the contents on phone A would implicate her in the deaths of the lunch guess.
“This is another example of incriminating conduct,” Rogers says.
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Updated at 21.26 EDT
Patterson’s mobile phones
Rogers turns to evidence about Patterson’s mobile phones.
She says Patterson had a change in handset at the beginning of February. She continued to use this phone – Phone A – until after the lunch.
“This is what the prosecution says is the accused’s usual mobile phone,” Rogers says.
She says Phone A was still in use up to and while police were searching Patterson’s house on 5 August 2023.
Rogers reminds the jury the agreed fact that at an unknown time between 12.01pm and 1.45pm on this day Patterson’s original phone number – previously used for Phone A – “lost connection with the network”.
Rogers says this could be due to:
A. The sim card being removed
B. The battery being removed without the handset being off
C. The handset being damaged
Rogers says for any of these three things to occur someone – “and we say the accused” – must have been handling the mobile phone.
She reminds the jury that to this day police have never located Phone A.
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‘She wanted to hide the evidence,’ prosecutor says
Prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC is continuing to deliver her closing address.
She says the day after Patterson was discharged from Monash hospital in August 2023 she drove to a local tip, Koonwarra Transfer Station And Landfill, and dumped the food dehydrator because she “knew it would incriminate her”.
She says the only reason Patterson did this was to cover up the deadly meal.
“She wanted to hide the evidence,” Rogers says.
“This is another example of incriminating conduct.
“She knew that keeping it would be far too risky.”
Rogers says that if police had not discovered the transaction from the tip then Patterson’s disposal of the dehydrator would not have come to light.
“Erin Patterson certainly wasn’t telling anybody about it,” she says.
Rogers says Patterson lied to police when asked if she owned a dehydrator in the formal interview.
Prosecutor Nanette Rogers, left, outside Latrobe Valley magistrates court in Morwell earlier this month. Photograph: Asanka Ratnayake/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 20.55 EDT
The jurors have returned to the court room in Morwell.
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What the jury heard yesterday
Here’s a recap of the what jury heard on Monday:
Prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC told the jury Erin Patterson made “four calculated deceptions”. She said these were fabricating a cancer claim as a reason to host the lunch, secreting a lethal dose of poison in the beef wellingtons, her attempts to pretend she was also sick, and a sustained cover-up to “conceal the truth” after the lunch.
Patterson did not think she would be questioned about her cancer claim because she believed her “lie would die with them [her lunch guests]”, Rogers said.
Rogers told the jury to reject Patterson’s evidence that there were no grey plates she served the beef wellingtons on. She said Ian Wilkinson, the sole surviving lunch guest, was a “compelling witness” and recalled four grey plates. He said Patterson ate off an orange-tan coloured plate.
Not one medical professional who saw Patterson said she looked unwell, Rogers told the jury.
Patterson’s initial reluctance to have her children medically tested, after she told medical staff she fed them leftovers of the fatal meal, was because she knew they had not consumed death cap mushrooms, Rogers said.
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Updated at 20.38 EDT
Good morning
Welcome to day 33 of Erin Patterson’s triple murder trial.
Prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC will continue delivering her closing address to jurors this morning. Patterson’s defence lawyer, Colin Mandy SC, will then address the jury.
We’re expecting the trial to resume from 10.30am.
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 in-laws, 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.
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Updated at 20.40 EDT
