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I don't see the point of making up motives we have no evidence for - this is similar to the cake/gravy theory someone dreamed up yesterday. The post from ellyvantelli above eloquently explains the pointlessness of speculating on motive. As she says 'And as the prosecution pointed out there is...

I agree with you. I have faith in the jury and I believe the judge has been covering all possible avenues for appeal. I have no doubts at all myself. To me, the idea that there are plausible alternative explanations for what happened is far-fetched, taking everything together - and...

Yes. In fact a while ago I said I thought the opposite was true, as that person would want to evade medical testing. Pity the judge couldn't say this should be disregarded, but on the other hand, perhaps the jury will see its implausibility straight away.

Thank you for this. There is similar advice for England and Wales. So much depends on the way this sounds in the courtroom, I think people may be getting unduly anxious. The jury has all the evidence. If, say, they look at the new things EP said under cross-examination that were not...

And if there were, they might kill her.

No, I'm not thinking like that. I still don't think we can tell the way it's going.

Oops!

No, it isn't. You have to wait for the verdict. The first page of every thread on here has the details.

Very useful, thanks. This is a reminder that judges aren't just free to talk at will! I fear I won't be taking them to bed though...

I think this is very much the same procedure as in the courts of England and Wales. Summing up the evidence as well as giving legal directions is the rule https://www.defence-barrister.co.uk/crown-court-trial-judges-summing-up but there's a fair amount of discussion online about whether it's...

Good night, and thanks! Some of us are off to bed and look forward to seeing your reports in our morning,

But somehow evocative of mouldy nuts, or off mushrooms.

Have you forgotten her wonderful 'tearful' speech to reporters?

I was reading this summing up from CNN: https://edition.cnn.com/2025/06/21/australia/australia-erin-patterson-mushroom-trial-wrap-intl-hnk It reminded me how 'off' I thought this bit from Mr Mandy was: '“If you’re pretending to be sick, you’re going to be saying to the medical staff, ‘Hook me...

I've never thought that was odd. I found it odd that he phrased his refusal of the invitation so politely, given his previous experiences. 'Uncomfortable' seems like the understatement of the century.

I was off on a little research of my own about reasonable doubt to see if there had been any differences in Australia from England/Wales, and opened the website just now of a firm of defence lawyers in Victoria. After a moment one of those helpful dialogue boxes opened at the side and the...

People might be interested in some general discussions about 'reasonable doubt', since we're on a break from courtroom proceedings. These are from the English courts but as far as I know the principles are the same. The Vicky Pryce case 12 years ago caused a flurry of articles about whether...

I agree, but don't think it's really 'speculation'. I think any jury has to measure an accused's story to some extent by what is generally considered normal behaviour, whatever Mr Mandy said. He himself appealed to common sense for his own interpretations. It's not contrary to law. If the...

Just to clarify the judge's bit - I think the summing up is as you say pretty much a going over of the facts and instructing the jury what they can do, and that's usually very helpful to us as well as the jury. I don't know how you can think that in order to find EP guilty the jury would have...

(Re replies above to BreakingNews' comments that EP's grandmother was born in Egypt.) Yes: my father (contemporary with EP's grandmother) was born in India when it was under British rule, but it did not affect his English or that of his children, let alone his grandchildren! 'Scutter'...