Mushroom murder trial: Erin Patterson ‘deliberately concealed’ phone from police, Crown alleges
The prosecutor has accused Erin Patterson of intentionally hiding a phone to ensure police did not see incriminating data relating to deadly mushrooms she allegedly used to kill her lunch guests.
The senior Crown prosecutor in Erin Patterson’s triple-murder trial has accused her of intentionally hiding a phone from police to ensure they did not see incriminating data relating to deadly mushrooms she used to kill her lunch guests.
The alleged mushroom murderer denies using the phone to research the location of death cap mushrooms in neighbouring towns before deliberately concealing it from police, and handing them a different device while they executed a search warrant on her home.
Ms Patterson finished giving evidence after eight days in the witness box on Thursday, repeatedly denying she deliberately fed four of her estranged husband’s elderly relatives a poisonous beef Wellington meal laced with the fatal fungi.
The defence closed its case early on Thursday afternoon. Victorian Supreme Court judge Christopher Beale told the jury they had now heard all the evidence of Ms Patterson’s triple-murder trial.
Ms Patterson has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Throughout the trial, the court has heard testimony relating to two phones owned by Ms Patterson, known as Phone A and Phone B.
The prosecution allege Ms Patterson’s “usual phone” was Phone A, which was never recovered by police. The Crown also claims Ms Patterson handed police Phone B when her device was requested at the execution of a search warrant on August 5, 2023.
On Thursday, senior Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC suggested Ms Patterson “deliberately concealed” Phone A from police, because she knew the data on it would “incriminate” her.
She suggested Ms Patterson used Phone A to look up the location of death cap mushrooms before the lunch, and to visit iNaturalist website posts about the deadly fungi in nearby areas.
Ms Patterson disagreed. She has said Phone A was in her home when police executed the search warrant, but they did not seize it.
Dr Rogers also suggested Ms Patterson swapped a SIM card out of Phone A while police were in her home, and she was left alone to make a phone call to a lawyer.
She took Ms Patterson to cell phone records which she said showed “at an unknown time between 12.01pm on August 5 and 1.45pm, your (SIM card) ending in 783, which was inside Phone A, lost connection with the network”.
Ms Patterson said her call with the lawyer was at 2pm, and denied removing the SIM card.
Dr Rogers said Ms Patterson’s claim that “the black item on the window sill” in photos taken by police was Phone A was “simply nonsense”.
Ms Patterson disagreed.
Throughout the trial, the jury has heard three factory resets were performed on Phone B in the days after the lunch. Ms Patterson claims she conducted the first factory reset on August 2, 2023 because she planned on taking ownership of Phone B from her son, and needed to wipe his data from it.
She has admitted to performing a reset on Phone B on August 5, 2023, before she handed it to police. She also admitted to performing a remote reset when the phone was in police custody on August 6, 2023.
Dr Rogers suggested the factory resets on the phone after the lunch were done so as to “conceal the true contents of Phone B” and so Ms Patterson “could pass off Phone B as your usual mobile phone without police realising”.
Ms Patterson disagreed.
Dr Rogers suggested Ms Patterson performing the factory resets on Phone B and handing it to police as if it was her “usual mobile phone” was “all about hiding the contents of your usual phone, Phone A”.
Ms Patterson disagreed. She suggested her children were mistaken when giving evidence about what she served herself for dinner the night after the deadly lunch.
Ms Patterson told the court earlier in trial that on July 30, 2023, she served leftovers of beef Wellington meal with the mushrooms scraped off for her children, but she served herself only cereal. In police interviews, both Ms Patterson’s children recalled their mother plating up the leftovers for herself as well. She said both children were incorrect.
Ms Patterson became emotional when describing why she took her son to his flying lesson the day after the lunch. She had previously told the court she was suffering from diarrhoea on July 30, 2023, but she still drove her son to his flying lesson more than an hour away in Tyabb.
Asked by her defence counsel Colin Mandy SC why she was “pretty keen” to take him to the lesson, she said: “Because he was really passionate about it.”
The prosecution and defence will soon give closing addresses, after a legal argument in the absence of the jury.
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