The image, Rogers said, was recorded in metadata as being last modified on May 4, 2023.
The prosecutor suggested these were death cap mushrooms Patterson collected from the nearby town of Loch after seeing a post on citizen science website iNaturalist.
“That is not correct,” Patterson replied.
Rogers suggested the image depicts her weighing the mushrooms so she could “calculate the lethal dose”.
“Disagree,” Patterson said.
Patterson, 50, is facing trial accused of murdering her Simon Patterson’s parents and aunt and the attempted murder of his uncle after the four guests fell critically ill after a lunch at her Leongatha home on July 29, 2023.
She has pleaded not guilty, with her defence arguing the case was not deliberate poisoning but a tragic accident.
Judge gives update on trial
After a short break, jurors were given an update on the trial, now in its sixth week, by trial judge Justice Christopher Beale.
The judge said it was likely Patterson would remain in the witness box until at least the end of the week and after that there would need to be a break for legal discussions.
“Those discussions may take a couple of days,” he said.
Beale said there was a “possibility” there may be more evidence called in the trial before closing addresses from the prosecution and defence.
“Each of those could take a couple of days, which would see out that week,” he said.
Jurors would then be given directions, he said, before they were sent off to deliberate.
“So my final directions to you could take a couple of days, then the boot is on the other foot because none of you can tell me how long deliberations will take,” Beale said.
Prosecution begins with rapid-fire questions about lies to police
Rogers started her line of questioning at a rapid pace, asking Patterson to confirm she lied to police about owning a dehydrator, dehydrating food stuffs and foraging for mushrooms.
Patterson confirmed this was the case.
The prosecutor took the accused woman through a series of exhibits, including photos found on her tablet of mushrooms and a dehydrator, an invoice showing she purchased the dehydrator on April 28, 2023, and photos of her disposing of it at a tip on August 2.
“You rushed out to get rid of the evidence, you lied to the police because you knew you had used the dehydrator?” Rogers asked.
“No, I didn’t know that,” Patterson replied.
“You knew if you told the police it would implicate you in the deliberate poisoning?” the prosecutor said.
“No, it’s not correct,” Patterson responded.
Patterson denies deliberately harming lunch guests
Defence barrister Colin Mandy, SC, then took Patterson through a series of propositions he said related to the prosecution case.
She was asked if she lied about only cooking one batch of beef wellingtons and responded: “No, I didn’t lie.”
Mandy then ran through a series of questions, including whether she lied about purchasing mushrooms from an Asian grocer, her children eating the leftovers, and pretending to be sick after the lunch.
Patterson denied each statement.
The barrister carried on asking whether Patterson ever deliberately picked death cap mushrooms and intentionally included them in the lunch.
Again, Patterson denied this was the case.
Going through the four lunch guests, Don and Gail Patterson, and Ian and Heather Wilkinson, Mandy first asked if she intended to kill, seriously injure or harm them.
Her voice faltering, Patterson replied to each: “No, I did not.”
Mandy closed his examination in chief and handed Patterson over to Rogers.
Giving evidence earlier on Thursday, Patterson was asked by her barrister if she had lied to police in her record of interview when she denied owning a dehydrator, dehydrating things and ever foraging for mushrooms.
She confirmed she had.
Asked why, Patterson said it occurred “in the context of thinking mushrooms I had foraged… had made people sick”.
“It was this stupid knee-jerk reaction to dig deeper and keep on lying, I was scared,” she said.
Mushroom cook admits lies to husband, in-laws
Taking the stand after the closure of the prosecution case this week, Patterson was asked by Mandy about a message exchange with her estranged husband, Simon Patterson.
Earlier in the trial, the jury was told the pair separated in 2015 but remained amicable as they continued to co-parent their two children.
Reading the messages, Mandy said the evening before the lunch Simon declined an invitation he’d earlier agreed to.
“Sorry, I feel too uncomfortable about coming to the lunch with you, mum, dad, Heather & Ian tomorrow, but am happy to talk about your health and implications of that at another time if you’d like to discuss on the phone. Just let me know,” the message read.
Patterson responded: “That’s really disappointing. I’ve spent many hours this week preparing lunch for tomorrow which has been exhausting in light of the issues I’m facing and spent a small fortune on beef eye fillet to make beef wellingtons because I wanted it to be a special meal as I may not be able to host a lunch like this again for some time.
“It’s important to me that you’re all there tomorrow and that I can have the conversations that I need to have. I hope you’ll change your mind. Your parents and Heather and Ian are coming at 12.30. I hope to see you there.”
Asked about her reaction, Patterson told the jury she felt a bit hurt and stressed by Simon’s message.
Questioned by Mandy if the reply was true, she said: “Apart from the fact that I’d spent a small fortune on beef eye fillet and I wanted it to be special, the rest was exaggeration.”
She told the court she exaggerated because she wanted him to attend so she could discuss an upcoming medical procedure, specifically about sorting out plans for the care of their son and daughter.
Earlier in the day, Patterson told the jury she had misled Simon’s parents, Don and Gail Patterson, about needing a series of tests on a lump on her elbow.
She said earlier in 2023, she had a lump but it resolved itself and she was planning to use it as a cover to get gastric bypass surgery.
“I had come to the conclusion that I wanted to do something for once and for all about my weight and my poor eating habits. So I was planning to have gastric bypass surgery and so I remember thinking I didn’t want to tell anybody what I was going to have done,” she said.
“I was really embarrassed about it, so I thought perhaps letting them believe I had some serious issue that needed treatment might mean they’d be able to help me with the logistics around the kids and I wouldn’t have to tell them the real reason.”
The jury was shown a series of messages between Patterson and Gail Patterson over a few weeks in June where she kept up the charade, writing to her mother-in-law that she was waiting for the results of a biopsy and then needing an MRI.
Asked “were those lies?” by Mandy, Patterson confirmed “yes”.
“They had shown quite a lot of care about that, which felt really nice... I didn’t want their care of me to stop, so I just kept it going. I shouldn’t have done it,” she said.
Patterson told the court she “shouldn’t have” said those things to Simon but wanted him to feel bad about cancelling at the last minute.
Asked by her barrister whether it was true when she said she’d spent “many hours” preparing for the lunch, the accused woman confirmed it was not.
“I didn’t do any preparing other than shopping and researching the recipe, so I guess the answer to your question is, no, it wasn’t true,” she said.
“I didn’t mean to do any of that. I shouldn’t have done any of that, but that’s what I was thinking at the time.”
Don and Gail Patterson and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson died in early August 2023 from organ failure linked to death cap mushroom poisoning.
Heather’s husband Ian Wilkinson recovered after about a month and a half in hospital.
The trial continues.
