logo
The evidence laid before the jury in Erin Patterson's murder trial

The evidence laid before the jury in Erin Patterson's murder trial

RNZ News2 days ago
By
Joseph Dunstan
,
Madi Chwasta
and
Gabrielle Flood
Erin Patterson is alleged to have laced a meal with death cap mushrooms resulting in the deaths of three people.
Photo:
Screenshot /
ABC
As they retire to consider their verdicts, the jurors in Erin Patterson's triple-murder trial have no shortage of evidence to reflect upon.
More than 50 witnesses have given testimony and the hearings have stretched for nine weeks.
Here are the people and places at the heart of the trial.
The trial centres on a lunch hosted by Erin at her Leongatha home in Victoria's South Gippsland region on 29 July, 2023.
Erin hosted four people that day: her parents-in-law Don and Gail Patterson, along with Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson and her husband Ian.
Erin's estranged husband Simon Patterson was also invited, but turned down the offer.
Don, Gail and Heather all died from death cap mushroom poisoning after the beef Wellington lunch, while Ian survived after weeks in hospital.
How Erin Patterson is related to her lunch guests.
Photo:
ABC News
Prosecutors have alleged that Erin deliberately laced the meal with death caps.
But the 50-year-old has maintained her innocence, telling the court that foraged mushrooms made their way into the meal by mistake.
Prosecutors did not allege a specific motive for Erin Patterson to murder three relatives and attempt to murder a fourth.
But they did take the jury through what they alleged was growing anger and resentment the accused felt towards the Pattersons.
The court heard that by late 2022, there was a disagreement between Erin Patterson and her estranged husband over finances, including school and doctor's fees for their children.
At one point, the court heard Erin had tried to bring in her in-laws - Don and Gail Patterson - to help mediate the situation.
The prosecution highlighted to the jury Facebook messages in which Erin Patterson used strong language to express frustration with her parents-in-law about their reluctance to get involved in their financial dispute.
Patterson told the court while she was feeling hurt, frustrated and "a little bit desperate", her relationship with her in-laws had remained positive and she was ashamed of the disrespectful language she had used while venting to her Facebook friends.
Her defence lawyer Colin Mandy SC accused the prosecution of highlighting a handful of messages from a brief episode of tension, producing a distorted impression.
"It was such a polite, kind and good relationship that these messages stand out, but they're not consistent with the whole of the relationship," Mandy said.
Patterson said a desire to build a stronger relationship had motivated her to invite her in-laws to lunch.
In the years leading up to the lunch, Erin's life was largely based in the towns of Leongatha and Korumburra.
The two South Gippsland communities sit pretty close to one another, each with populations of a few thousand people.
It was in this region that Erin Patterson told the court she began foraging mushrooms during Victoria's Covid-19 lockdowns in 2020 and 2021.
Eventually, she said she felt she had gathered enough knowledge to taste some of the mushrooms she had foraged during walks near the two towns.
"They tasted good and I didn't get sick," she said.
Her defence lawyer said this "burgeoning" interest in foraging had led Erin to investigate whether the notorious death cap mushroom species grew in her area in May 2022.
The court heard she turned to a website called iNaturalist, where users share observations from nature to a community map. When Erin visited the site in 2022, no death caps were flagged in the South Gippsland area.
But in the months before her lunch, two sightings were posted to iNaturalist at Loch and Outtrim.
The prosecution alleged mobile phone data supported the claim that Erin travelled to Loch and Outtrim shortly after death caps were identified there to deliberately forage the deadly species.
But her defence team raised questions over the accuracy of the mobile phone tower data being used by the prosecution to reach those conclusions.
They told the jury Erin had been foraging at places like the Korumburra Botanic Gardens in the lead-up to the lunch, but not at Loch and Outtrim.
As well as foraging mushrooms before the lunch, Erin said she had bought dried mushrooms from an Asian grocer in Melbourne's south-east.
Erin told the court the grocer-bought mushrooms were ultimately mixed up with foraged mushrooms in a plastic container in her Leongatha pantry.
She said it was this container of mixed mushrooms she later drew upon to remedy a "bland" mushroom paste for the beef Wellington lunch - with disastrous consequences.
The court heard that after the lunch guests fell fatally ill, Erin was unable to identify the store to health officials, who were urgently chasing up information about potential death caps in circulation.
Instead she offered a number of suburbs to those questioning her, variously identifying Oakleigh, Clayton, Mount Waverley or Glen Waverley.
A council worker began visiting Asian-style grocery stores in the area.
However, their efforts failed to find any product matching Erin's description and the health department concluded its investigation.
Erin rejected the prosecution claim that the story about an Asian grocer was a lie created by her as part of her cover-up after the lunch.
The day of the lunch, Erin finalised the special meal of individually parcelled beef Wellingtons for her guests.
She rejected a prosecution claim that deviations to the recipe were made to ensure only her guests were served meals laced with deadly mushrooms.
Erin told the court she and her guests ate from plates that may have been black, white, and red on top and black underneath and nobody was given any one particular plate.
That account given to the court differs from that of surviving lunch guest Ian Wilkinson, who told the trial the guests had eaten from grey plates, while Erin had eaten from a smaller, orange-coloured plate.
Ian also told the court that Erin had informed her guests she had been diagnosed with cancer and was worried about how to tell her children.
Erin disputed that she had told her relatives a cancer diagnosis had been made, but agreed she had lied about possibly needing cancer treatment in the future.
She told the court she did not have cancer and had told the lie to conceal private plans to have gastric-bypass surgery.
"I was really embarrassed, I was ashamed of the fact that I didn't have control over my body or what I ate, I was ashamed of that … I didn't want to tell anybody, but I shouldn't have lied to them," she said.
In the days after the lunch, the guests began falling ill.
Erin told the court this included her, but also that she had binge eaten some cake and vomited shortly after her guests had left.
Erin Patterson's Leongatha home, where she hosted the lunch.
Photo:
ABC News
Ultimately, Erin and the four guests were transferred to hospitals in Melbourne, where Gail, Don and Heather later died. Ian survived after a weeks-long stay in intensive care.
Doctors have told the court the medical tests which revealed signs of death cap poisoning in the four lunch guests did not show the same markers for Erin.
The prosecution alleged Erin had faked her illness as part of her cover-up - a claim rejected by her lawyer, who said there were many valid reasons why she may not have fallen as ill as her guests.
On Wednesday, having already been discharged from hospital in Melbourne, Erin made a trip to the local tip.
This is where she dumped a food dehydrator.
Erin told the court she'd taken the dehydrator to the tip because she was aware by that point that death cap mushrooms were the suspected source of poisoning in the meal, and she had been using the appliance to dehydrate foraged mushrooms.
But she refuted the prosecution's suggestion that she had knowingly dehydrated toxic mushrooms.
A week after the lunch, homicide detectives visited Erin at her Leongatha home and told her they were investigating the deadly lunch.
In the 5 August search, they seized a number of devices, including a mobile phone which the court heard Erin had performed three factory resets on.
One of these was carried out on the day of the search, which came days after Erin said Simon had accused her of poisoning his parents with mushrooms prepared in her dehydrator.
"I knew that there were photos in there of mushrooms and the dehydrator and I just panicked and didn't want them [police] to see them," Erin told the court.
Hours after the police search, Erin ran the third factory reset remotely, as the phone sat in a police station in Melbourne.
"It was really stupid, but I thought I wonder if they've been silly enough to leave it connected to the internet and so I hit factory reset to see what happened, and it did," she said.
Detectives returned months later, when they ran a second search of her home, and ultimately laid murder and attempted murder charges against Erin Patterson in November.
More than 18 months later, after jurors had heard weeks of evidence in a Gippsland court, Justice Christopher Beale gave his final directions before they retired to consider the verdicts.
"You are the only ones in this court who can make a decision about these facts," he told the jury.
The jury continues to deliberate.
-
ABC
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

What we know about Scattered Spider, the hacker group targeting airlines
What we know about Scattered Spider, the hacker group targeting airlines

RNZ News

time5 hours ago

  • RNZ News

What we know about Scattered Spider, the hacker group targeting airlines

By Annika Burgess , ABC Photo: AFP Alarm bells were being sounded that Scattered Spider, a notoriously aggressive and prolific hacking group, had a new favourite target - the airline sector. The FBI and tech companies Google and Palo Alto Networks put out alerts over the weekend. They warned of multiple incidents in the airline and travel industry that resembled the group's operations. Now, it is believed Australia might have fallen victim to the cybercriminals. Qantas has announced that 6 million customer accounts had been exposed in a "significant" cyber attack. The airline would not confirm if it was the target of Scattered Spider, but experts said the attack appeared to have its signature moves. Scattered Spider, or UNC3944, is a loose-knit but aggressive hacking group. The "scattered" gang of affiliates goes by various names and aliases, such as Octo Tempest, Star Fraud, Scatter Swine and Muddled Libra. The members are believed to be mainly young native English speakers from the US and the UK. Some have reportedly been as young as 16 years old. Since emerging in 2022, together the gangs have been accused of breaking into and stealing data from some of the world's largest companies. They are alleged to be behind more than 100 targeted attacks across industries including telecommunications, finance, retail and gaming. Photo: 123RF The group goes from sector to sector, often targeting sectors that face significant customer pressure. And they aim for the big fish. In 2023, hackers tied to Scattered Spider broke into gaming companies , MGM Resorts and Caesars Entertainment, partially paralysing casinos and knocking slot machines out of commission. The $US14 billion gaming giant MGM Resorts operates over 30 hotels and casinos around the world, including in Macau and Las Vegas. The group has also caused mayhem across the UK , hitting some of the largest retail brands, including Harrods, Co-Op and Marks & Spencer (M&S). A recent cyber attack on M&S disrupted the company's online business for weeks. It has resulted in about £300 million in lost operating profit. Scattered Spider is known to use tactics such as social engineering, where hackers trick people into letting them into systems. They essentially target human vulnerabilities. The chief executive of M&S confirmed that "threat actors" had gained access to the retailer's systems via one of its contractors using social engineering techniques. The group typically exploits an organisation's IT helpdesk, using publicly available information to pose as a staff member. David Tuffley, a cybersecurity expert from Griffith University, said the tactics could be "pretty aggressive". "They would know just how to talk in the right way, to get people to do what it is they want them to do," he said. The impersonations could take place through phishing attacks, often fake emails or text messages, or the hackers may even make phone calls directly to the help desk. Daswin De Silva, a professor of AI and analytics and director of AI strategy at La Trobe University, said the tactics were "really manipulative". "Help desks want to resolve issues as quickly as possible," Professor De Silva told the ABC. "With a large organisation that has outsourced some of their business functions, they tend to be removed from the day-to-day operations of the main business. "When there is a disconnect like this … the security can be compromised." Another tactic the group is known to use is called multi-factor authentication (MFA) bombing or MFA fatigue. It involves attackers repeatedly sending MFA requests, such as notifications to a user's device, in an attempt to overwhelm them and trick them into approving a login. This could enable them to gain access to the data warehousing platform or manipulate password resets. Qantas has released a statement saying that it detected unusual activity on Monday on a third-party platform used by a contact centre. The airline said 6 million customers had service records in the platform, and it believed the proportion of stolen data would be "significant". An initial review confirmed the data included some customers' names, email addresses, phone numbers, birth dates and frequent flyer numbers, the airline said. "Importantly, credit card details, personal financial information and passport details are not held in this system," the statement read. "No frequent flyer accounts were compromised, nor have passwords, PIN numbers, or login details been accessed." The breach comes as the FBI has sent out a notification saying it has recently observed Scattered Spider "expanding its targeting to include the airline sector". "They target large corporations and their third-party IT providers, which means anyone in the airline ecosystem, including trusted vendors and contractors, could be at risk," the FBI said in a statement posted on X. "The FBI is actively working with aviation and industry partners to address this activity and assist victims." Alaska Air Group-owned Hawaiian Airlines and Canada's WestJet have both recently reported being struck by unspecified cyber incidents. Qantas said it had notified the Australian Cyber Security Centre and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. A spokesperson for CyberCX told ABC News the incident had all the hallmarks of an attack from the Scattered Spider hacker group. Tuffley said he "wouldn't be too surprised" if the group was behind the attack. "Qantas are actually pretty good as far as cybersecurity goes, but obviously their call centre in the Philippines or wherever it was wasn't quite so good," he said. Previous breaches on major Australian companies, including Medibank and Optus, have highlighted how cyber attacks can see people's data used as a bargaining threat to make companies pay a ransom. Another concern for Qantas customers is that their personal data could be onsold and then used to conduct fraud. Tuffley said that often, data from large-scale breaches would be combined to assemble enough information to impersonate someone. Criminals could then carry out scams such as SIM swapping or financial fraud. "They could contact a telco and say 'Hi, this is Dave, I lost my phone and I want to get a new SIM installed,'" he said. "The telco will go through all sorts of security vetting, but if they've got enough information about you, then they can succeed at that." De Silva said that often after a major breach, there would be a secondary round of attacks based on the data that was stolen. That could involve using the data to ask for password resets or security check-ups. "The attack was first detected on Monday, but customers and the public were informed on Wednesday. This delay translates to more than 48 hours for subsequent targeted/personalised attacks towards individual customers," De Silva said. "The Australian government and relevant authorities must do better in managing the communications, impact and loss following cyber attacks." Qantas customers are being advised to stay vigilant and check accounts and transactions regularly, including frequent flyer accounts. As a general piece of advice, experts say individuals should never reuse passwords on any system or service. - ABC

Second man charged after Melbourne childcare worker accused of 70 offences
Second man charged after Melbourne childcare worker accused of 70 offences

RNZ News

time10 hours ago

  • RNZ News

Second man charged after Melbourne childcare worker accused of 70 offences

By Danny Tran , Ben Butler and Andi Yu , ABC A police cordon in Australia. Photo: AFP/ ABC Far North - Isaac Egan Police investigating a Melbourne childcare worker accused of child sex crimes have charged a second man with serious offences, including bestiality. Michael Simon Wilson, of Wyndham Vale, is also facing charges related to child abuse material and sex offences, according to the Melbourne Magistrates' Court. He and childcare worker Joshua Dale Brown will next face the court in September. Brown is facing more than 70 charges allegedly involving children at the Creative Garden Early Learning centre in Point Cook, in Melbourne's western suburbs, between April 2022 and January 2023. Police have said there is no evidence to suggest any other staff in any other centre were involved in Mr Brown's alleged offending. It comes as the Victorian government has announced it will fast-track reforms to the childcare sector following the charges against Brown. Premier Jacinta Allan announced on Wednesday her government would create a register of childcare workers "as soon as possible" to provide extra scrutiny. "Acknowledging that there is work to create a national register of childcare workers, more needs to happen now," she said. "We will start building the Victorian register to give families an extra layer of checks and balances as soon as possible." Allan also announced the government would move to ban personal devices from childcare centres from 26 September. She said the ban could become a licence condition and could earn centres fines of up to AUD$50,000 if breached. The Victorian government has also commissioned an urgent review focused on immediate actions, which will be completed in about six weeks. "This will be a short, sharp piece of work that will focus on the immediate actions that we can take based on that body of work that is going on across state and territory jurisdictions," Ms Allan said. The review will consider whether CCTV should be installed in childcare centres. Health authorities yesterday recommended 1200 children linked to centres where Brown worked be tested for infectious disease out of caution. "The risk is low, but there's not no risk, which is why we're making this recommendation," Chief Health Officer Christian McGrath said today. Extra call-takers have also been brought on to assist families contacting a dedicated advice line, after reports of long delays. About 1300 families were supported on Tuesday. Allan said parents contacted about the investigation would be "suffering unbearable pain and uncertainty". She said immediate needs payments of AUD$5000 had been unlocked for directly affected families to cover time off work for parents, health appointments and other needs. - ABC

Qantas hit by cyber attack, 6 million customer records at risk of data breach
Qantas hit by cyber attack, 6 million customer records at risk of data breach

RNZ News

time13 hours ago

  • RNZ News

Qantas hit by cyber attack, 6 million customer records at risk of data breach

By Michael Janda and Kirsten Aiken , ABC A photo taken on August 20, 2023 shows the wing-tip of a Qantas Airbus A330 descending to land at Sydney´s Kingsford Smith Airport. Photo: WILLIAM WEST/AFP Qantas is warning a "significant" amount of customer data has likely been stolen from its records during a cyber attack. The airline has released a statement saying that, on Monday, it detected unusual activity on a third-party platform used by a Qantas airline contact centre. The airline said 6 million customers had service records in this platform. Qantas said it was investigating the proportion of the data that had been stolen, though it expected it would be "significant". An initial review confirmed the data included some customers' names, email addresses, phone numbers, birth dates and frequent flyer numbers, the airline said. "Importantly, credit card details, personal financial information and passport details are not held in this system," the statement read. "No frequent flyer accounts were compromised nor have passwords, PIN numbers or log in details been accessed." Qantas said the system had been quarantined and affected customers would be notified. Leading cybersecurity firm CyberCX has been working with Qantas over the past 24 hours to address the incident. A spokesperson for CyberCX has told ABC News the incident has all the hallmarks of an attack from the so-called Scattered Spider hacker group, which is targeting individual business sectors one by one. Most recently it has been known for attacks on the financial and insurance sectors. The CyberCX spokesperson said there were warnings from US authorities over the weekend that Scattered Spider intended to target the aviation sector. - ABC

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store