Jurors in mushroom murder trial told they will be sequestered next week at local accommodation and bussed back to Latrobe Valley Law Courts
Justice Christopher Beale has told a jury when he expects to finish his “charge” in the Erin Patterson murder trial.
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The deliberations in the high-profile trial of accused triple murderer Erin Patterson have been pushed to next week as a Supreme Court judge continues to address the jury.
Justice Christopher Beale has been delivering his “charge” or his instructions to the jury since Tuesday, which involves him explaining the law and summarising the evidence.
But he told the 14 jurors on Thursday he expects to finish his charge on Monday before two jurors are balloted off and the final 12 start deliberating.
He said they will then be “sequestered” at local accommodation and bussed back to Latrobe Valley Law Courts the next day to continue deliberating.
Ms Patterson is standing trial in Morwell, accused of murdering her estranged husband’s parents Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, along with Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, 66.
The prosecution alleges she served them individual beef wellingtons she had deliberately laced with lethal death cap mushrooms at her Leongatha home on July 29, 2023.
Heather’s husband, pastor Ian Wilkinson, 71, was the only guest to survive.
Ms Patterson, 50, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder and one of attempted murder, claiming she may have accidentally added foraged mushrooms into the meal with dried mushrooms she purchased from an Asian grocer.
Justice Beale spent Thursday breaking down the “incriminating conduct” allegedly committed by the accused in the wake of the lunch, including lying about feeding her children a leftover beef wellington with the mushrooms and pastry scraped off.
But he told the jury the prosecution had “overstated” the evidence by suggesting that death cap toxins would have penetrated the meat, instructing them to “disregard that argument”.
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