For the defence: Why would anyone want to kill them?

Erin Patterson’s silk asks why anyone would want to kill Don and Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson. Further, his client never intended for anything to happen to her guests.

Defence lawyers Colin Mandy, left, and Bill Doogue. Picture: NewsWire/Ian Currie

Erin Patterson’s barrister looked towards members of the jury and implored them to use their heads, not their hearts.

Which is a good line because a lot – or little – can be read into it. It was Colin Mandy SC’s turn on Tuesday to execute his closing, seeking to convince the jury that Patterson, accused triple murderer and mother of two, should be found not guilty of murdering three elderly people with a beef Wellington containing death cap mushrooms.

The law is a noble pursuit but as noble as it is, it is also part sales, part persuasion, its practitioners dressing in dark, traditional robes but sometimes looking like they could be on the nearest street corner with a loud hailer selling widgets.

Mandy made clear to the court that what had happened to the victims was awful and that they were good people.

“Why would she take wonderful, active, loving grandparents away from her own children?’’ he asked.

He asked why would Patterson, 50, of Leongatha, want to kill them, describing as a brief period of tension between her and her estranged husband Simon Patterson, of nearby Korumburra, in 2022.

Mandy questioned the lack of motive being furnished by the prosecution and defended his client’s varying accounts of events leading up to and after the beef Wellington that went wrong.

Mandy had his day in court after chief prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC finalised her closing, during which Rogers warned the jury that Patterson could not be treated as a truthful witness and that they should look at the evidence in its totality rather than isolation.

Mandy, meanwhile, painted a picture of a largely happy Patterson prior to the lunch on July 29, 2023.

“Erin was in a good place. She had a big, beautiful house,’’ he said. “She was very comfortable financially.

“She was really looking forward to study … all things considered, she was in a good place.”

Further, his client never intended for anything to happen to her guests, particularly given that she and her children were close to Simon’s mother and father. “Not only is there no motive, but there are very good reasons not to harm these people,’’ he said.

Mandy told members of the jury the key elements they needed to consider were whether there was a reasonable possibility that death cap mushrooms were put into the meal accidentally and whether it was a reasonable possibility that Patterson did not intend to kill or cause serious injury to her guests.

Patterson nodded from the back of the court when Mandy talked about the deaths being a terrible tragedy for the people who knew the victims and she became emotional when he was talking about her relationship with Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, late of Korumburra in South Gippsland.

The court has heard the pair had suffered significantly before dying about a week after the meal.

The court also has heard that Erin Patterson had a strong relationship with Don and that her son also was close to his grandfather.

Patterson also has been charged with attempting to murder Baptist pastor Ian Wilkinson, the husband of the third fatal victim, Heather Wilkinson.

The man of the cloth was again in court on Tuesday, sitting in the back row, surrounded as usual by family and friends, many of whom have been in Morwell to listen to the proceedings before judge Christopher Beale.