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SBS Australia
4 days ago
- SBS Australia
'I captured her misery': Courtroom artist on drawing killer Erin Patterson
For most of Australia, it's just a regular Monday. But two hours' drive from Melbourne, a courtroom in the small country town of Morwell is buzzing. Media from across the country have assembled, armed with notepads, ready to devour every detail of the day's proceedings. Among the sea of journalists, artist Anita Lester stands out. "Someone like me comes in and I'm like, sweating on the iPad ... frantically sketching," she says. The surrounding press pack has spent the last five weeks attending the triple murder trial of Erin Patterson , feeding audiences hungry for details about the now-infamous mushroom cook killer. Viewing rooms for members of the press have been set up as public interest in the case outstrips capacity at Latrobe Valley Law Courts. But Lester has a front row seat to proceedings. "This particular case has just captured the nation," she says. It's like a full-on folkloric story. On the afternoon of 2 June, Patterson is about to take the stand, and Lester has her iPad and digital pencil at the ready to immortalise the moment. "The adrenaline is so high when the suspect walks out onto the stand. You suddenly get mounted with so much pressure." Her drawing of Patterson will soon become synonymous with the Mushroom Trial, thrusting Lester into the spotlight, too. Erin Patterson was convicted of murdering her estranged husband's parents, Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson. She was also found guilty of attempting to kill Heather's husband, Ian. Source: AFP / Martin Keep Becoming a courtroom artist "I have a relationship with a newspaper that just invited me to do it on a whim," she says. Other publications took a liking to Lester's art and syndicated the drawings. "Then I started getting calls from all the different networks, and now I seem to be one of the first people [that] people call." The 39-year-old multidisciplinary artist has since drawn other high-profile figures, including gangland boss Tony Mokbel and alleged Easey Street murderer Perry Kouroumblis . Notorious gangland figure Tony Mokbel is among the other high-profile figures Lester has produced courtroom sketches of. Source: AAP / Anita Lester Cameras are banned from most Australian courtrooms to protect those on trial, along with witnesses and the jury. Media outlets commission artists to fill the visual void, continuing the centuries-old tradition of courtroom art. Lester had just two minutes to draw Patterson the first time she saw her in court, at Patterson's 2023 filing hearing, but there was more time when she took the stand in June. Capturing 'curmudgeoned' Patterson Recalling the moment Patterson stepped up, Lester says she just stared for a minute, taking a mental snapshot before putting pen to paper. "I just like, do the roughest, ugliest sketch you've ever seen, just to put things down," she says. Unlike those around her who are hungry for information, Lester tries to block out details that can be "quite interesting", "full-on", and "a little bit traumatising". It's like kind of a meditation. You have to try really hard not to listen to what is actually going on in the courtroom. After 10 minutes of drawing, the courtroom closes. Lester explains: "I run outside, I find the closest seat, I put on headphones and I just draw and finish the drawing, retaining the information that I've collected in those minutes." Two hours after getting the call to come into court, her drawing is on online news sites. When Lester first saw Patterson in court in 2023, she only had two minutes to draw her. Source: AAP / Anita Lester Lester is one of the first artists allowed to draw digitally in an Australian courtroom. Although she concedes digital art lacks some of the nuances of pastel and charcoal, she says they are "so impractical" to use. Instead, she customises digital brushes with a trail of "digital dust" to mimic physical art supplies. "The first time I was in court, there was someone who had this amazing little portable station, but I was looking at him half the time thinking, 'what a nightmare'." Instead of copying exactly what she sees, Lester focuses on getting the emotions of the subject. "If I'm being critical about my earlier drawings, I was fixating a lot on trying to get accurate representations of the person. "Perhaps why this particular drawing that I've done of Erin has been so visceral for people is because I captured her misery." While there are no hard and fast rules for courtroom art, Lester says she sticks to tradition, allowing some of her style to come through without being overly impressionistic and always prioritising getting a likeness of the subject. "I think part of the thing that people really like about courtroom art is there is a predictability to what you're looking at." She says court artists need to put their "journalist hat" on. "You are giving the people what they want. You're giving them this experience that you're having, but the experience of the story that is being told as well," she says. Distress was at the heart of Lester's courtroom experience with Patterson. "I was sitting there and she looked so curmudgeoned the whole time." Anita Lester focuses on capturing the emotions of the subjects of her courtroom sketches, rather than copying exactly what she sees. Source: SBS News / Rania Yallop So Lester chose to exaggerate the emotions she saw on the stand. "You don't cheat the details," she says. I think you have to be as honest as you can. Lester's earlier court portraits have depicted subjects along with details of the surrounding courtroom, which she feels detracted from the emotion of the subject. So she decided to take a different approach to Patterson in June. "I just wanted to focus on her. She was so distressed this day in court, I actually felt a bit bad for her, if I'm being totally honest," Lester says. "I wanted to take away any distractions." Balancing storytelling and sensitivity Lester is often exposed to details hidden from the public, but the intimacy of the courtroom exposes something else, too. "I think what people don't realise when people are on trial [is that] they're terrified. They're being put under a microscope," she says. Even when people are the "guiltiest in the world", Lester says something sensitive is revealed in the courtroom setting. "When the lines are a bit blurred, you are privy to seeing something more vulnerable and almost childlike." Anita Lester is a multidisciplinary artist based in Melbourne. Source: SBS News / Rania Yallop Lester says the weirdest part of the job is being noticed by the accused, often being stared at the whole time. But the whole experience of the Mushroom Trial has been surreal, with people contacting her daily about the case, including sending fan art. "That was just a tiny little snippet of my life, but now I'm intrinsically tied to this conversation," she says. "It's wild, it's two hours of my life [that] has become the thing that I am now associated with, which is so weird."
The Guardian
5 days ago
- The Guardian
Mushroom trial spores toxic media hot takes after Erin Patterson's guilty verdict
The media were constrained in what they could report during Erin Patterson's 10-week trial. But after the mushroom trial guilty verdict was handed down on Monday, all bets were off. The extraordinary photographs of the triple murderer in a prison van in May were published by every media outlet, bought from the wire agency AFP for more than $1,500 each or a discounted rate for the set of six. The trial exhibits were published, including footage of 'the deadly beef wellington'. And then came the hot takes. It's hard to recall a criminal case that has prompted this much commentary and so many angles. The Australian illustrated its online mushroom coverage with several colourful gifs featuring Patterson superimposed on psychedelic-style fungi. Its associate editor John Ferguson summed up what he described as 'the full Erin. Cold, mean and vicious.' His colleague Claire Harvey did more than analyse Patterson's personality: 'Cold. Snarky. Too smart by half. Cynical. A liar'. Harvey said the motive was 'obvious', accusing Patterson of 'domestic violence coercive control'. She suggested the prosecution was wrong by not attempting to prove a motive. 'The fact this crime was committed by a woman, and involved poison, and not a gun or a knife, has confused what should be crystal clear – and should have been a motive clearly presented to the jury,' Harvey wrote. But it was left to the Daily Mail to produce the standout first-person piece from the trial, written by the veteran crime reporter Wayne Flower in what he believed was gonzo-style journalism. Forced to stay on the ground in Morwell by his editors, Flower encountered 'full-on Walking Dead-style zombie stuff – the kind you think only exists in America'. He wrote about how gruelling it was attending court every day while dodging 'junkies, and degenerates'. He was holed up in 'cramped hotel rooms' and 'terrorised further by the locals who stalked us in the daylight hours'. 'I bought multi-vitamins and fish oil in the hope of pushing through a little longer,' Flower wrote at the end of his epic almost 4,000-word tale. 'At home, a long way away, my life and family were imploding. Sign up to get Guardian Australia's weekly media diary as a free newsletter 'The grind and my absence had made my partner of 24 years – the mother of my two children – come to realise she no longer needed me in her life. 'Days after my 50th birthday, for which she had organised a surprise party with all my friends and family in attendance, she told me she no longer loved me and I was discarded like yesterday's newspaper. 'But the trial went on and so did I. Perhaps the last sad victim of Erin Patterson.' Daily Mail Australia's editor, Felicity Hetherington, was asked about Flower's claim of victimhood and his slur on the citizens of Morwell. 'This is a colour piece by a reporter who covered the trial from the very start,' she said. 'He is entitled to his opinion.' It only got worse. On Friday one Daily Mail headline read: The toxic web of lesbian trysts in the hellhole women's prison that awaits mushroom killer Erin Patterson – including a jail affair even the guards find 'unsettling'. There was some light on Thursday, however, in an ABC story that remembered the murder victims for their altruistic natures and kind hearts. Don and Gail Patterson and Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson were described by locals interviewed by the ABC as people who lived selfless lives, acting with 'humour, good grace and humility'. 'The world would be a better place if we could all be a bit more like them,' one said. The 30-year-old editor of the Latrobe Valley Express, Liam Durkin, can barely believe a trial that attracted international attention was held around the corner from his office. Running a small country newspaper does not usually mean covering the biggest story in Australia. The free local weekly paper with a staff of four, including Durkin, did not have to look far for news during the hearing. 'To be on the ground with journalists who are the best in the business was a great learning experience,' Durkin told Weekly Beast. 'To be at the epicentre of it all, and being the figurehead of the local paper, everyone kind of diverted a bit of their attention to us.' As well as covering the trial, helping out visiting journos and mentoring his three 'raw' reporters, Durkin was in demand as an interviewee: for BBC News, national television and a documentary. The ABC has asked staff for feedback on its restructuring plans, inviting them to fill out a form on the intranet. Since the managing director, Hugh Marks, unveiled plans to restructure screen, digital and audio content and make about 40 positions redundant, staff have raised concerns about a lack of transparency and communication. Some staff told Weekly Beast that when they submitted their feedback they were surprised to receive an individual response from a human resources manager, sent via email in an unusually timely manner. Initially impressed by the fact that the feedback had been read and responded to, one staffer grew suspicious on looking more closely at the language the email used. While not confirming that its HR managers were using AI to answer staff, the ABC did say they were provided with Microsoft Copilot to assist them in writing emails. Sign up to Weekly Beast Amanda Meade's weekly diary on the latest in Australian media, free every Friday after newsletter promotion One staffer told Weekly Beast: 'Using AI for work in general is fine, but it is galling and disrespectful to be using AI to automate responses to a staff-listening exercise that's intended to address staff concerns about management's failure to listen.' It wasn't great timing, coming as it did two days after the Patterson verdict, but there was something off about the ABC's announcement that it was thrilled to commission a show that combined true crime and comedy called Crime Night! Described as a 'comedy true-crime panel show where real-life cases are examined through the lens of criminology and comedy', the concept is hard to get one's head around, although it is hosted by Julia Zemiro – always good value. 'Australians can't get enough of True Crime, and we're excited to join forces with Dreamchaser and Maverick to bring this innovative and original format to ABC screens,' said the ABC's head of entertainment, Rachel Millar. 'For anyone who loves bingeing the latest true crime podcast, or playing detective in the group chat, this is the show for you.' Aunty has had great success with true crime, including Rachael Brown's podcast Mushroom Case Daily, and has commissioned a drama, Toxic, about the Patterson trial. One other detail caught our eye about Crime Night! Dreamchaser is the production and distribution studio co-founded by Marks between running Nine Entertainment and the ABC. He set up the company with the former Endemol Shine boss Carl Fennessy and so far it has produced Death Cap, a three-part documentary on the mushroom trial, for Stan, and The Role of a Lifetime, about parenting, for the ABC. An ABC spokesperson said: 'The ABC commenced development of Crime Night! in May 2024. Hugh Marks' association with Dreamchaser ceased when he was appointed as Managing Director of the ABC in March 2025. Hugh was not involved in the decision to commission the series.' We have to hand it to the Courier-Mail and the Daily Telegraph for combining two classic newspaper genres, court reporting and fashions in the field, in one juicy package. 'No one wants to end up in court … but if you do, at least go in style,' an online feature in the Brisbane outlet began. 'See how these people rocked their look.' It even asked 'who wore it best?' in the 'trendiest court attire lineup'. One young man who was sentenced to five years' jail suspended with time served was described as 'sporting a coloured manbag'. 'Sporting classic grey workwear, a former Cairns business owner … fronted Rockhampton District Court on January 31 after choking his partner while on a family holiday at Port Douglas on February 10, 2024.' Last month the Tele ventured down this clickbait path with a story headlined 'Eastern suburbs socialites face court in designer fashion' which included nine photographs. 'A court appearance is generally a solemn occasion but Sydney's socialites always ensure it is a fashionable one – donning thousands of dollars in designer clothes to face the music,' the Murdoch masthead said. The reporter seamlessly weaved news about the crimes with details of the outfits. One defendant 'toted a $12,500 Chanel handbag when she was sentenced for cocaine supply and carrying $1,450 in crime proceeds'. And then there was the Phillip Bay hairdresser who 'wore an $800 red Gucci belt to court after she was charged with contravening an apprehended domestic violence order'. We were only surprised there were no 'shop this look' links.
ABC News
07-07-2025
- ABC News
12 strangers, one verdict, the hidden dynamics of jury deliberation
Twelve strangers, one life-altering decision. The so-called 'mushroom trial' underway in Victoria is a powerful reminder of just how intense jury duty can be. Strong voices can dominate, quieter ones fade, and the pressure to conform can silence doubt. It's a high-stakes exercise in group psychology where instinct, emotion, bias and the human urge to belong all collide in one deliberation room. Guest:
