Erin Patterson murder trial live: Justice Christopher Beale to deliver final instructions to the jury
The jury is closer to beginning its deliberations in Erin Patterson's trial over the deaths of three relatives and the attempted murder of a fourth.
She's pleaded not guilty to deliberately poisoning Don and Gail Patterson and Heather and Ian Wilkinson with death cap mushrooms at a lunch at her Leongatha home in 2023.
After eight weeks of evidence and closing submissions from the prosecution and defence, Justice Christopher Beale is expected to deliver lengthy final instructions to the jury.
Follow his address as it happens.
To stay up to date with this story, subscribe to ABC News.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Telegraph
14 minutes ago
- Daily Telegraph
Macquarie Fields SUV crash lands on a bed, police hunt driver
Don't miss out on the headlines from Breaking News. Followed categories will be added to My News. Police are on the hunt for the driver of a luxury SUV who crashed through the wall of a Sydney home, landing on a bed. The driver reportedly fled the scene of the crash in Macquarie Fields, with the search now on. NSW Police confirmed that emergency services were called to the scene at about 4:20am on Sunday, finding a white Porsche Macan lodged in the Evelyn Street home. A Porsche has crashed into a house on Evelyn Street in Macquarie Fields. Police are searching for the driver of an SUV after it crashed into a house landing on a bed in Sydney's south-west this morning. Picture: NewsWire / Damian Shaw Police are searching for the driver of an SUV after it crashed into a house landing on a bed in Sydney's south-west this morning. Picture: NewsWire / Damian Shaw There were bizarre scenes on Sunday morning. Picture: NewsWire / Damian Shaw The car had reportedly hit an electricity transformer before it hurtled through a front fence and then the front wall of a single-storey house. The SUV careened into the bedroom, before it finally came to a rest on top of a bed. Two people are reported to have fled the scene before police arrived, while it has been confirmed that no one was in the home at the time of the crash. There are no reports of injuries, and an investigation is underway to identify the driver and cause of crash. Anyone with information has been encouraged to contact Crime Stoppers of Campbelltown Police. Originally published as SUV crashes into house, lands on bed in Macquarie Fields
News.com.au
36 minutes ago
- News.com.au
Aussie nan jailed over $400k ‘cancer' scam
A Sydney grandmother who faked a cancer diagnosis as part of an elaborate scheme to fleece almost $400,000 from her loved ones has been led away in handcuffs after a failed bid to appeal her one-year jail sentence. Viviana Varas had her appeal dismissed on Thursday in the NSW District Court after a series of lengthy delays to the case, as the 64-year-old continued to avoid custody. Varas was sentenced to one year in jail, with a non-parole period of five months in May 2024, however, was out on bail until the appeal decision was handed down. In a statement to the four victims of Varas said that the case had been a 'long and painful' chapter in their lives. 'What makes this case sad, is that even after being arrested, Viviana continued to lie and showed no remorse in court,' the statement said. 'While no sentence can undo the damage, [we] are grateful that today bring some measure of closure.' The court heard how Varas frauded the four victims, all of which considered her a friend, out of $382,000 between September 2016 and March 2021 after telling them she would 'invest' their money. Varas told her victims she had a great-great-grandfather who had set up a 'family trust' in the US before making up various excuses when they asked for the money back. One of the excuses was that she had cancer and was undergoing various treatments. Another was that her mother had died of COVID-19 and she needed the funds to organise a funeral. Both turned out to be a lie, the court heard. The full-time jail sentence came as a shock to both the victims and the police prosecutors last year, who had previously said a conviction to be served in the community would suffice. However, on Thursday Judge Paul Conlon confirmed the original sentence, with Varas appearing at the hearing unrepresented. She will first be eligible for parole on November 25. The best friend One of the four victims was the woman's best friend, who she met in 2016 while living in the same building as her in Pyrmont. She told she had even trusted Varas to help with her young family and knitted clothes for them. 'She befriended me and built up that trust,' she said. 'She just really integrated herself into my life and said you're just like a daughter to me. She just groomed me and at my most vulnerable time.' The court heard Varas first asked her for money in 2017 for storage costs. Over a two-year period, Varas managed to convince her to invest into her 'family US trust' with the victim sending her a total $145,000. When she asked for her money back, Varas gave the woman a cheque for $104,000 which bounced. She reported Varas to police in May 2018. Star casino Another victim met Varas at the Star Casino about 10 years ago. She said she sent her about $100,000 to invest across the last decade. She last heard from Varas after she deposited $30,000 into her account. 'She rang me up and said that ATO needed the tax,' she told 'It makes you feel really stupid. She makes it out that she's a multi-millionaire and then when I spoke to her best friend's family, she was just poor as anything. She's done this to a lot of people.' Another victim, a Sydney salesman, met Varas while playing poker at Star Casino. He said she was making thousand-dollar bets and asked where she got the money from. She said she was an investor, with the man sending her $32,000. He was able to get $5000 back from the bank, but is still $27,000 out of pocket. 'She's just like an immoral person. A psychopath scammer,' he said, comparing the case to that of Melissa Caddick. The court previously heard Varas told the victims she had previously 'worked on Wall Street' and that her daughter was a model, all of which turned out to be lie. The fourth victim moved to regional NSW since his run in with Varas. In his victim impact statement, he said his wife had 'suicidal thoughts' after the pair had their life savings of $105,000 taken by Varas. 'They are no longer the optimistic people they once were,' the statement said.
ABC News
42 minutes ago
- ABC News
Preventative detention laws for migrants have failed, Tony Burke concedes
Laws designed to put certain migrants behind bars if they are deemed to threaten community safety have effectively failed, the immigration minister has conceded. The preventative detention regime was set up in 2023 after the High Court ordered the release of a man, referred to as "NZYQ", who had a criminal history and no right to remain in Australia but could not be deported to his home country. The laws, which also enabled ankle monitoring and curfews, applied to NZYQ and about 250 others with similar circumstances, but the government was forced to rewrite them after a second High Court case affirmed it could not "punish" the cohort. Tony Burke told Sky News this had resulted in such a high bar that nobody in the cohort could be detained under the laws. "No-one has come close to reaching the threshold that is in that legislation," he said. "I keep meeting with the department and keep asking, 'OK what people do we have at different thresholds that we can run a case …' I'm not giving up, I'm going to keep doing it, but I'll tell you, to be honest, I would much prefer the individuals out of the country." The government passed another law last year allowing Australia to pay other countries to take members of the cohort, a law the High Court is now testing after the government paid Nauru to accept three of them. Mr Burke said the government was "winning" so far and this avenue was more promising than preventative detention. "The reality is the legal thresholds we are stuck with because of some of the decisions of the High Court are more difficult to reach than I wanted them to be … That's why we've introduced the laws for third countries," he said. One member of the cohort, Friday Yokoju, was charged over a fatal attack in Footscray earlier this month. Mr Yokoju was charged with intentionally causing serious injury to a 62-year-old man. However, Victoria Police are weighing further charges after the man's death. The incident sparked criticism from the Coalition's new home affairs spokesperson Andrew Hastie, who accused Mr Burke of being "passive" by failing to make any preventative detention applications. "The reason why the parliament rushed through these preventative detention powers 18 months ago was to prevent exactly this sort of scenario where an innocent person is [allegedly] harmed by a member of this cohort," he told the ABC at the time. "If they can't deport them, they need to exercise the powers the parliament vested in the minister to prevent this from happening." Mr Burke said he expected Mr Yokoju would now "end up in a process where there'll be a long time in jail" if he was convicted and that he would not seek to deport him while this process was ongoing, but would prioritise others in the cohort. "If you're on a visa you are a guest in the country, and almost everybody who is in Australia is a good guest … For people who breach that trust, we're entitled to say your visa is cancelled and it's time for you to leave." Many in the NZYQ cohort had their visas cancelled a long time ago but they were unable to be deported for a variety of reasons. The government has also passed a law making it an offence not to cooperate with efforts to secure deportation, which can require members of the cohort to take steps such as applying for a passport in a third country or risk jail time.
