Overview

• Prosecutors and defence have delivered final addresses as jurors prepare to weigh charges that Patterson murdered three relatives and attempted to kill a fourth with death cap mushrooms in a July 2023 lunch
• Crown counsel Nanette Rogers accused Patterson of orchestrating four calculated deceptions, including fabricating a cancer diagnosis to lure her in-laws and deliberately lacing individual beef Wellingtons while sparing herself
• Evidence cited includes phone-tower data placing Patterson near known mushroom sites, forensic traces of death caps in a discarded dehydrator, plate-switching to avoid self-poisoning and concealment of her primary mobile phone with a dummy device
• Defence barrister Colin Mandy argued the prosecution’s narrative was flawed and that Patterson lacked any motive to harm her family, insisting there is a reasonable possibility the mushroom contamination was accidental
• Presiding Judge Christopher Beale will instruct jurors before they retire to decide whether the evidence establishes intentional poisoning or supports the defence’s account of a tragic accident