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An evaluation of Erin Patterson’s cell phone information revealed she might have visited two places quickly after loss of life cap mushroom sightings had been reported, a courtroom has heard.
Patterson, 50, has pleaded not responsible to a few prices of homicide and one cost of tried homicide referring to the lunch she served at her home in Leongatha, Victoria, about 135km south-east of Melbourne.
She is accused of murdering her estranged husband Simon’s dad and mom, Don and Gail Patterson, and his aunt Heather Wilkinson. She can also be accused of making an attempt to homicide Ian Wilkinson, Simon’s uncle and Heather’s husband.
Timeline
Erin Patterson: how Australia’s alleged mushroom poisoning case unfolded — a timeline
Present
Erin Patterson hosts lunch for estranged husband Simon’s dad and mom, Don and Gail Patterson, and his aunt and uncle Heather and Ian Wilkinson. Patterson serves beef wellington.
All 4 lunch friends are admitted to hospital with gastro-like signs.
Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson die in hospital.
Don Patterson dies in hospital. Victoria police search Erin Patterson’s residence and interview her.
Ian Wilkinson is discharged from hospital after weeks in intensive care.
Police once more search Erin Patterson’s residence, and he or she is arrested and interviewed. She is charged with three counts of homicide referring to the deaths of Don and Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson, and the tried homicide of Ian Wilkinson.
Homicide trial begins. Jury hears that prices of making an attempt to homicide her estranged husband Simon are dropped.
The Victorian supreme courtroom sitting in Morwell has beforehand heard the friends died after being poisoned with loss of life cap mushrooms. The prosecution alleges Patterson intentionally poisoned her lunch friends with “murderous intent”, however her attorneys say the poisoning was unintended.
Within the prosecution opening to the case, Nanette Rogers SC stated Patterson’s cellphone information prompt she visited Loch and Outtrim within the months earlier than the lunch.
The courtroom has beforehand heard that two posts had been made on “citizen science” web site iNaturalist about loss of life cap mushroom sightings at these places in 2023.
On Monday, Dr Matthew Sorell, a digital forensics science skilled who analysed Patterson’s cell phone information for police, gave proof in her trial.
His evaluation was primarily based on a timeline of when Patterson’s cellphone related with base stations within the area, and the way lengthy they remained related to these base stations, or base stations inside the identical space, indicating that the cellphone had remained comparatively stationary for a specified time frame.
He stated that the information offered to him by police, which lined from 2019 to August 2023, present it was doable that Patterson visited and stayed in Outtrim between 11.24am and 11.49am on 22 Could 2023.
The fungi skilled Dr Thomas Could instructed the courtroom final week that he uploaded a submit on iNaturalist on 21 Could 2023 figuring out loss of life cap mushrooms in Outtrim, together with pictures and particular coordinates which outlined it was present in Neilson Avenue.
Sorell agreed that Neilson Avenue was inside the space laid out in his evaluation.
He additionally agreed that primarily based on his evaluation there was “potential” for the cellphone to have been stationary, per a go to to Loch, for about 45 minutes on the morning of 28 April 2023.
He stated the same go to was doable on the morning of twenty-two Could 2023, although famous there was an absence of information for a part of this morning.
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The courtroom heard earlier on Monday from Christine McKenzie, a retired pharmacist and former poisons info specialist on the Victorian Poisons Info Centre, who stated she found loss of life cap mushrooms in Loch on 18 April 2023.
She had been strolling along with her grandson and canine across the native oval when she noticed them below oak bushes, and pulled out two mushrooms fastidiously to {photograph} for iNaturalist, earlier than eradicating as many as she may see utilizing a canine poo bag.
She did so as a result of she knew the realm was fashionable with canine walkers and in addition an area kindergarten recurrently visited.
“You had been additionally involved as a result of didn’t need anybody to mistake the species for an edible species of mushroom and by chance forage them,” Christine Stafford, a lawyer for Patterson requested.
“That’s proper,” McKenzie responded.
McKenzie posted on iNaturalist, utilizing her username ChrisMcK, about 1pm that afternoon.
The trial earlier than Justice Christopher Beale continues.
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