Overview

• Justice Beale completed a five-day charge detailing evidence principles, the requirement for unanimous verdicts and limits on using Patterson’s admitted lies to assess her credibility.
• The panel was reduced from 14 jurors to 12 by random ballot before they retired to consider three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.
• Prosecutors pointed to phone and internet records alongside security footage of Patterson dumping a dehydrator with forensic traces of death cap mushrooms as proof of premeditation.
• Patterson’s defence maintains the poisonings were a tragic accident with no intent to harm and argues any false statements stemmed from panic rather than guilt.
• Jurors will remain in supervised accommodation until they reach unanimous verdicts beyond reasonable doubt, knowing a conviction carries a mandatory life sentence.