The trial of an Australian woman accused of murdering three of her estranged husband’s elderly relatives using toxic mushrooms entered its final stages yesterday, with the jury to begin its deliberations in a case that has gripped the nation.
Erin Patterson, 50, is charged with the murders of her mother-in-law, Gail Patterson, father-in-law, Donald Patterson, and Gail Patterson’s sister Heather Wilkinson, along with the attempted murder of Ian Wilkinson, Heather Wilkinson’s husband, in July 2023.
The prosecution accuses her of foraging for poisonous death cap mushrooms and knowingly adding them to individual portions of beef Wellington that she served to her guests at her home in Leongatha, a town about 135km southeast of Melbourne.
Photo: Reuters
Patterson denies the charges, which carry a life sentence, with her defense calling the deaths a “terrible accident.”
Justice Christopher Beale, the presiding judge, yesterday began his second day of instructions to the jury at the Latrobe Valley Magistrates Court in Morwell, a former coal mining town whose best-known tourist attractions until the trial were a rose garden and a regional art gallery.
Beale said that the process would take until at least the end of the day, meaning that the 14-member jury were to retire to consider their verdict today at the earliest.
Their decision must be unanimous.
Outside, despite the winter cold and rain, members of the public began lining up for the limited seats in the court hours before proceedings began.
“I am a true crime fanatic,” said Philip Mayers, a social worker who got up at 5am and drove two hours from Melbourne, the state capital, to get his place in the court. “It’s the uniqueness of it, you don’t hear it every day.”
The trial has caused a sensation in Morwell, where Patterson requested to be tried rather than Melbourne.
Laura Heller, the owner of Jay Dee’s Cafe across the road from the modest two-story court building, said that business had tripled since the trial began on April 29.
“Even though it’s not great circumstances, it has been very good for our community because it’s brought people from outside the area,” she said.
Journalists, podcasters and documentary crews from domestic and international media have descended on the town for the proceedings, which British magazine The Spectator dubbed “Australia’s trial of the century.”
Public broadcaster ABC’s daily podcast on the trial is currently the most popular in Australia, while streaming platform Stan said it would soon be airing a documentary on the trial and “media frenzy” surrounding the case.
The Cedar Lodge Motel next to the court is fully booked, unusual outside the peak summer season, duty manager John Nicoll said.
“It has been a bit of a boom for the motel and for the area in general,” he said.
‘TERRORIST ATTACK’: The convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri resulted in the ‘martyrdom of five of our armed forces,’ the Presidential Leadership Council said A blast targeting the convoy of a Saudi Arabian-backed armed group killed five in Yemen’s southern city of Aden and injured the commander of the government-allied unit, officials said on Wednesday. “The treacherous terrorist attack targeting the convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri, commander of the Second Giants Brigade, resulted in the martyrdom of five of our armed forces heroes and the injury of three others,” Yemen’s Saudi Arabia-backed Presidential Leadership Council said in a statement published by Yemeni news agency Saba. A security source told reporters that a car bomb on the side of the road in the Ja’awla area in
PRECARIOUS RELATIONS: Commentators in Saudi Arabia accuse the UAE of growing too bold, backing forces at odds with Saudi interests in various conflicts A Saudi Arabian media campaign targeting the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has deepened the Gulf’s worst row in years, stoking fears of a damaging fall-out in the financial heart of the Middle East. Fiery accusations of rights abuses and betrayal have circulated for weeks in state-run and social media after a brief conflict in Yemen, where Saudi airstrikes quelled an offensive by UAE-backed separatists. The United Arab Emirates is “investing in chaos and supporting secessionists” from Libya to Yemen and the Horn of Africa, Saudi Arabia’s al-Ekhbariya TV charged in a report this week. Such invective has been unheard of
‘SHOCK TACTIC’: The dismissal of Yang mirrors past cases such as Jang Song-thaek, Kim’s uncle, who was executed after being accused of plotting to overthrow his nephew North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has fired his vice premier, compared him to a goat and railed against “incompetent” officials, state media reported yesterday, in a rare and very public broadside against apparatchiks at the opening of a critical factory. Vice Premier Yang Sung-ho was sacked “on the spot,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, in a speech in which Kim attacked “irresponsible, rude and incompetent leading officials.” “Please, comrade vice premier, resign by yourself when you can do it on your own before it is too late,” Kim reportedly said. “He is ineligible for an important duty. Put simply, it was
US President Donald Trump on Saturday warned Canada that if it concludes a trade deal with China, he would impose a 100 percent tariff on all goods coming over the border. Relations between the US and its northern neighbor have been rocky since Trump returned to the White House a year ago, with spats over trade and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney decrying a “rupture” in the US-led global order. During a visit to Beijing earlier this month, Carney hailed a “new strategic partnership” with China that resulted in a “preliminary, but landmark trade agreement” to reduce tariffs — but
RSS