Key events
Prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC has concluded her cross-examination of Erin Patterson.
The court has adjourned for a 30-minute break.
Erin Patterson quizzed on factory resets performed on phone in days after lunch
Prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC turns to evidence about factory resets performed on the mobile referred to as “Phone B”.
The court previously heard four resets – one in February 2023 and three in August 2023 – were performed on the phone that Erin Patterson provided to police during the search on 5 August 2023.
Rogers says one of these resets were done when she was left alone to call a lawyer while police searched Patterson’s Leongatha home.
Patterson rejects this and says she phoned a lawyer at 2pm.
Rogers says Patterson performed the three factory resets after the lunch to “conceal” the contents on Phone B.
Patterson rejects this.
Rogers then turns to her final points in the cross-examination.
She suggests Patterson deliberately sourced death cap mushrooms in 2023.
Patterson rejects this.
Rogers says Patterson deliberately included death cap mushrooms in the beef wellingtons she served her lunch guests.
Patterson disagrees.
Rogers puts to Patterson: “You did so intending to kill them. Agree or disagree.”
“Disagree,” Patterson replies.
Erin Patterson asked about her phone losing connection in days after the lunch
Prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC shows the court Erin Patterson’s call charge records.
Police arrived to search Patterson’s house on 5 August 2023 – a week after the lunch – at 11.48am, the court hears.
The records show up until 11.48am, Patterson was still using what is known as “Phone A”. But the SIM card in the phone lost connection to the network sometime between 12.01pm and 1.45pm, the court hears.
Rogers says:
It’s an agreed fact in this case…. that this [phone number] lost connection … could be due to:
a. The sim card being removed from the handset;
b. The battery being removed without turning the handset off; or
c. The handset being damaged in such a way that would disrupt power of the handset or disrupt the handset’s connection to the network.
I suggest that you removed the sim from Phone A between 12.01pm and 1.45pm on 5 August.
“Disagree,” Patterson says.
“I suggest you had physical possession of the phone when you did this,” Rogers says.
Patterson rejects this.
Rogers says Patterson removed the sim when she was left alone to call a lawyer.
Patterson says she didn’t use her phone to look up death cap mushrooms on iNaturalist
Prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC shows the court a photo of Patterson in hospital on 31 July 2023. The image shows a phone in a pink case on top of a black pack.
Patterson agrees this is the phone she used as her primary device from February 2023 until August 2023.
Rogers says this is the phone, dubbed Phone A in the trial, she used to research death cap mushrooms. Patterson disagrees.
Rogers says it is the phone used to look up the citizen science website iNaturalist. Patterson rejects this.
Rogers suggests she saw the posts on iNaturalist about sightings of death cap mushrooms posted by mycologist Dr Thomas May and retired pharmacist Christine McKenzie in the months before the lunch on this phone. Patterson rejects this.
Patterson says: “I didn’t see that post.”
Rogers says the police never located Phone A.
Patterson agrees.
Erin Patterson says she is not lying about claim Simon accused her of poisoning using dehydrator
Prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC takes Erin Patterson to her evidence that while in Monash hospital in the days after the lunch Simon asked her if she had used a dehydrator to poison his parents.
Rogers suggests Simon never accused her of using the dehydrator to poison his parents.
Rogers says this is “another lie” to explain why the next day she disposed of the dehydrator at a local tip.
Patterson rejects this.
Erin Patterson says she was drinking herbal tea, not coffee, the day after lunch
Prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC says the health department official Sally Ann Atkinson gave evidence about a conversation she had with Patterson’s estranged husband, Simon, on 31 July 2023 – two days after the fateful lunch.
Atkinson said she asked if Patterson could have picked the mushrooms herself, Rogers says.
Simon said it was not something he knew Patterson to do, the court hears.
Patterson says she cannot comment about what Simon knew.
Rogers says Patterson’s son gave evidence that on the morning after the fateful lunch he saw his mother drinking coffee at the dining room table.
Patterson says she thinks her son made an “assumption” because she generally drinks coffee. Patterson told the jury she was drinking herbal tea that morning.
“I suggest you wouldn’t be drinking coffee if you were experiencing serious diarrhoea issues,” Rogers says.
Patterson agrees with this.
Rogers says Patterson lied about drinking herbal tea on the Sunday morning.
Patterson rejects this.
Patterson shown images of mushrooms on SD card seized from her home
Prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC is cross-examining Erin Patterson.
Rogers shows Patterson images of mushrooms found on an SD card that police seized from her Leongatha home a week after the lunch.
Patterson put her glasses on as she looks at the screen in front of her in the stand.
Rogers says the photos were taken between 23 April 2020 and 5 May 2020.
“Did you eat any of these mushrooms or are you unable to remember?” Rogers says.
Patterson says she cannot remember.
Asked if she fed any of these mushrooms to her children, Patterson says she cannot remember.
The jury has entered the court room.
Erin Patterson, dressed in a dark-coloured shirt with white polka dots, is seated in the witness box.
We’re waiting for the jurors to enter the court room.
While we wait, revisit this report from our justice and courts reporter, Nino Bucci, about day 30 of the triple murder trial.
Here’s a recap of what the jury heard yesterday
1. Under cross-examination, Erin Patterson denied leading Department of Health authorities on a wild goose chase to find the Asian grocer she reported buying dried mushrooms from.
2. Patterson agreed the Enrich Clinic, where she says she was booked in for a pre-surgery appointment for gastric bypass, has never offered this procedure.
3. Patterson denied she foraged for death cap mushrooms two hours before buying a Sunbeam food dehydrator on 28 April 2023.
4. Patterson said beef wellington was the “perfect dish” for the dried mushrooms she says she purchased from an Asian grocer months before the lunch.
5. Patterson denied she made up a history of foraging edible mushrooms from 2020.
Welcome to day 31 of Erin Patterson’s triple murder trial
Erin Patterson is expected to continue giving evidence for an eighth day.
Prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC will continue cross-examining Patterson 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 parents-in-law, Don and Gail Patterson, and her estranged husband’s aunt, Heather Wilkinson. The attempted murder charge relates to Heather’s husband, Ian Wilkinson.
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.
