Australia - 3 dead after eating wild mushrooms, Leongatha, Victoria, Aug 2023 #13 *Arrest*

[MsMarple]

1m ago05.21 BST
The jury has returned to the court room in Morwell.

 

[MrJ]

Key Event
1m ago
The break is over and we turn to the topic of foraging

By Joseph Dunstan

The hearing's resumed, and lead prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC is continuing her cross-examination of accused murderer Erin Patterson.

Dr Rogers indicates she'd like to ask the 50-year-old about foraging for edible mushrooms and suggests Ms Patterson has made "new claims" to the jury about foraging.

"What do you mean by new?" Ms Patterson asks.

Dr Rogers says in her police interview a week after the lunch, Ms Patterson denied foraging for mushrooms. But she's since told the trial she has foraged.

"I told the police that I had never foraged but I didn't say that to the other witnesses, I said that I had not put foraged mushrooms in the meal," Ms Patterson says.

 

[MrJ]

1m ago
The jury is briefly sent out

By Joseph Dunstan

The defence objects to the way questions have been posed and the jury exits the room to allow for a legal discussion.

 

[brisbanemum]

Key Event
1m ago
The break is over and we turn to the topic of foraging

By Joseph Dunstan

The hearing's resumed, and lead prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC is continuing her cross-examination of accused murderer Erin Patterson.

Dr Rogers indicates she'd like to ask the 50-year-old about foraging for edible mushrooms and suggests Ms Patterson has made "new claims" to the jury about foraging.

"What do you mean by new?" Ms Patterson asks.

Dr Rogers says in her police interview a week after the lunch, Ms Patterson denied foraging for mushrooms. But she's since told the trial she has foraged.

"I told the police that I had never foraged but I didn't say that to the other witnesses, I said that I had not put foraged mushrooms in the meal," Ms Patterson says.

Oops!! Cue Panic!! Does she not think that police statements can be cross examined or something?

 

[Scooby-Doo]

But she did say before ... Erin Patterson has told a court she added what may have been foraged mushrooms into a beef Wellington dish she prepared because the meal tasted bland.

I think someone needs to check the jury's mental health

 

[katydid23]

But disagreeing with someone/everyone is a completely different proposition to saying they're lying. They're two very different things.

If my recollection when catching up friends was that i was wearing a green shirt but they all think I was wearing a red shirt, I don't refer to them as liars or think they are lying.

But if you were accused of a crime, and witnesses said the suspect was wearing a red shirt, and you were on trial, then how would those differing recollections of your shirt color be received?

If you were in the witness box, and telling the court that you remembered that you wore a green shirt on the night of the crime, but your friends were testifying that you were wearing red, would you say they were being truthful?

 

[MrJ]

Key Event
Just now
We're taken to computers seized at Erin's home before the jury is sent out again

By Joseph Dunstan

The hearing resumes and Dr Rogers picks up on a computer seized during a police search of Ms Patterson's home.

Specifically, the data extracted from the Cooler Master PC, which was found on top of a wardrobe in her son's bedroom.

"Do you accept that there were no records located on that computer related to edible or non-toxic mushrooms?" Dr Rogers asks.

Ms Patterson's defence barrister, Colin Mandy SC, objects and the jury exits the room again so a legal discussion can occur.

There's a ripple of laughter as it's noted the jury had only just minutes earlier returned from a break.

 

[Scooby-Doo]

But if you were accused of a crime, and witnesses said the suspect was wearing a red shirt, and you were on trial, then how would those differing recollections of your shirt color be received?

If you were in the witness box, and telling the court that you remembered that you wore a green shirt on the night of the crime, but your friends were testifying that you were wearing red, would you say they were being truthful?

She's even saying her son has lied about the white plates. She is just going to lie her way through this

 

[Scooby-Doo]

Key Event
Just now
We're taken to computers seized at Erin's home before the jury is sent out again

By Joseph Dunstan

The hearing resumes and Dr Rogers picks up on a computer seized during a police search of Ms Patterson's home.

Specifically, the data extracted from the Cooler Master PC, which was found on top of a wardrobe in her son's bedroom.

"Do you accept that there were no records located on that computer related to edible or non-toxic mushrooms?" Dr Rogers asks.

Ms Patterson's defence barrister, Colin Mandy SC, objects and the jury exits the room again so a legal discussion can occur.

There's a ripple of laughter as it's noted the jury had only just minutes earlier returned from a break.

I could imagine the jury isn't too happy either

Her defence is starting to feel to pressure

 

[MrJ]

want to bet the defence is saying 'Hey, not fair, don't make our client look worse than she already does!'

 

[LinasK]

? Paper plates are not a regular thing for most Americans. We use them the same way you do. I can't remember the last time I bought paper plates or had them in my home.

When my dishwasher broke and we got tired of washing them by hand. We were using alot of dishes and glassware.

 

[Cliff Hardy]

The screws are slowly but surely tightening.

 

[Oz Jen]

Quite like 2 field mushies on toast. Sometimes make stroganoff with button mushrooms for the two of us with leftovers for the next day. (250 grams sliced mushrooms)

Never have I ever sat down and eaten 1 kilo of mushrooms.

 

[katydid23]

Thanks @Lisa4 !

I think its sometimes really difficult to gauge how things are coming across for the jurors. It sounds like she has been delivering fairly calm responses.

I'm not sure that she's coming across as calm though. Som reports ar she has been rolling her eyes,
huffing, raising her voice, etc.

Mostly sounding sure of herself, which should come across well.

Also being overly defensive at times and aggressive at other times, reportedly. I don't think she has been coming across well. IMO

With regard to those two points, I think by the time the jury come to deliberate, they won't be so important. Little bits she may be giving conflicting information on may not be hugely important.

That's true. But larger examples of conflicting information will be coming into play. IMO

 

[MrJ]

I'm a vegan. I love tofu. But I'm not eating 1 kg of solid tofu. I smell porky pies

 

[Jake18]

If the prosecutions mix-up of the days is, in fact, deliberate, that is very sneaky of them.

 

[LinasK]

Two come to mind - Casey Anthony and Lizzie Borden were both acquitted of murder but to this day, most people believe that they actually committed the crimes they were charged with.

I'd add OJ Simpson to that list.

 

[MsMarple]

3m ago05.53 BST
Prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC says Erin Patterson has made “new” claims about foraging for mushrooms in the trial. Patterson asks what she means by “new”.

Rogers says in Patterson’s police interview on 5 August 2023 she told the detectives she had never foraged mushrooms. Patterson agrees.

She says she did not say this to other witnesses. She said she told people she had not put foraged mushrooms in beef wellington meal.

Rogers says when police executed the search warrant on her house this day they seized two desktop computers. Patterson says there were three.

Rogers says electronic records from a Cooler Master computer, seized by police, indicated it had been used to visit webpages listing death cap mushroom sightings in May 2022.

 

[Bats]

But if you were accused of a crime, and witnesses said the suspect was wearing a red shirt, and you were on trial, then how would those differing recollections of your shirt color be received?

If you were in the witness box, and telling the court that you remembered that you wore a green shirt on the night of the crime, but your friends were testifying that you were wearing red, would you say they were being truthful?

In that example, I would not be saying or suggesting whether or not my friends were being truthful. Nor is Erin doing that when being questioned by Dr Rogers.

 

[LinasK]

Key Event
2m ago

Erin says she put mushrooms from Asian grocer in food dehydrator​

​

By Joseph Dunstan​

The prosecutor then takes the accused to evidence previously given by health official Sally Ann Atkinson, who was leading the public health investigation into the death cap poisoning, amid fears toxic mushrooms were in the Victorian supply chain.


Ms Atkinson previously told the court that the listing of possible suburbs where dried mushrooms were purchased from an Asian grocer given by Ms Patterson changed during conversations, initially including Mount Waverley, before swapping to Glen Waverley.

Ms Patterson tells the court she believes Ms Atkinson was mistaken about that.

Dr Rogers notes that Ms Atkinson previously told the court that Ms Patterson had told her the dried mushrooms from the Asian grocer "smelled funny" when she bought them in April so she'd put them into a container, before using them months later in the beef Wellington.


She says she did it just the once, sometime after buying them.

Prosecutors turn focus to Erin Patterson's mushroom foraging — as it happened

Accused triple-murderer Erin Patterson faces more questions from prosecutors as her trial continues. Follow the proceedings as they happened.

www.abc.net.au

If you think that mushrooms are "smelling funny", why would you ever believe that storing them in a Tupperware container for ANY amount of time is going to make the smell go away? If they are going bad, the smell will only get worse.