Erin Patterson murder trial live: judge in mushroom case to address the jury | Victoria

Here’s a recap of what the jury heard when the court last sat on Thursday:

• Patterson’s defence lawyer, Colin Mandy SC, outlined the prosecution’s top four “convoluted” and “absurd” propositions. Mandy said these were Patterson committing murder without a motive, lying about cancer to entice her lunch guests over, expecting her lunch guests to take her medical issues claim to their graves and thinking she could p*** off the lethal meal as a “strange case of gastro”.

• Patterson’s estranged husband, Simon, accusing her of using a dehydrator to poison his parents on 1 August 2023 – three days after the lunch – was a “turning point” for the accused, Mandy said. He said this was when his client began to panic and lie. Simon denied saying this to Patterson when he testified.

• Mandy refuted the prosecution’s phone argument. He said Patterson would have either disposed of or reset her original mobile – Phone A – if she had planned the “cold, calculated murders” claimed by the prosecution, but instead she continued using it after the lunch.

• Mandy pointed to Patterson’s medical tests results from two days after the lunch as evidence she became unwell from the beef wellington meal. He pointed to her low pot***ium, elevated hemoglobin level and elevated fibrinogen, which he said did not rely on self-reports.