Erin Patterson<\/a>‘s murder trial at Latrobe Valley Magistrates’ Court in Morwell, Victoria.<\/p>\nPhone records ‘indicate Erin Patterson’s movements’<\/p>\n
Dr Sorell has given evidence supporting the Crown\u2019s case that Patterson visited an area in South Gippsland where death cap mushrooms grew.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors have told the court Patterson’s phone records suggested she visited Outtrim on May 22 and Loch on April 28 in 2023.<\/p>\n
Fungi expert Tom May has previously told the court that sightings of death cap mushrooms were recorded in the Outtrim and Loch areas in May and April 2023 respectively.<\/p>\n
The jury heard Dr May made an online posting about the mushrooms at Outtrim on May 21.<\/p>\n
Dr Sorell said Patterson\u2019s phone records for May 22, 2023 were consistent with Patterson travelling from Leongatha, where she lived, to Outtrim that morning.<\/p>\n
Her phone handset appeared to be relatively stationary, based on its connection to Outtrim base station, from 11.24am to 11.49am.<\/p>\n
After midday, the phone appeared to be stable in Leongatha.<\/p>\n
Patterson may have visited second area where death caps grow, jury hears<\/p>\n
Dr Sorell has given evidence of a \u2018potential visit\u2019 by Patterson to the town of Loch on April 28, 2023.<\/p>\n
Dr Sorell also said phone records indicated Patterson might have travelled from Leongatha, where she lived, to Loch on May 22, 2023.<\/p>\n
Fungi expert Tom May previously told the court that sightings of death cap mushrooms were recorded in the Loch area in April 2023.<\/p>\n
Another witness, Christine McKenzie, said earlier on Monday she had spotted death cap mushrooms in the Loch area in the same month.<\/p>\n
The court has adjourned for today and the trial will resume tomorrow.<\/p>\n
Patterson’s phone records examined<\/p>\n
Dr Sorell examined four and a half years of phone records for Patterson\u2019s mobile number.<\/p>\n
Dr Sorell said he was asked by police to analyse the call records of Patterson\u2019s phone number between January 1, 2019 and August 3, 2023.<\/p>\n
He said the handset connected to that number had changed several times over that period, but the same device was used between February 12, 2023 and early August 2023.<\/p>\n
Dr Sorell had been asked to concentrate on any movements of Patterson\u2019s phone between 8am and 10am on July 31, 2023.<\/p>\n
Trial breaks for lunch <\/p>\n
Patterson’s trial has been adjourned for the lunch break and will resume at 2.15pm.<\/p>\n
Telecommunications expert Dr Matthew Sorell will resume giving evidence after lunch. <\/p>\n
Telecommunications expert takes to the stand<\/p>\n
A telecommunications expert is the latest witness to give evidence.<\/p>\n
Dr Matthew Sorell (pictured below) is the principal of Digital Forensic Services Australia, an Adelaide-based private company which provides legal evidence on telecommunications to courts.<\/p>\n
The court heard Dr Sorell had been involved in about 400 court cases across Australia, mostly for the prosecution.<\/p>\n
Dr Sorell is explaining to the jury how he can determine the location from where phone calls have been made, in relation to mobile network base stations.<\/p>\n
He has already mentioned base stations at Korumburra, Arawata, Holmes Hill and Loch South.<\/p>\n
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Death cap mushrooms could have been mistaken as edible, jury hears<\/p>\n
Defence lawyer Sophie Stafford suggested Ms McKenzie removed the death caps because she feared someone would mistake them for edible mushrooms.<\/p>\n
Ms McKenzie agreed. The jury heard even though she was concerned they could grow back, she did not return to the site.<\/p>\n
Death caps removed from Loch<\/p>\n
Ms McKenzie said she attempted to remove death cap mushrooms in the Victorian town, Loch.<\/p>\n
The jury heard she was able to identify the mushrooms because of her training, and that she was keen to remove them for safety reasons.<\/p>\n
Prosecutor Jane Warren asked if more mushrooms could have grown in the area. Ms McKenzie agreed.<\/p>\n
Poisons expert on death cap mushrooms<\/p>\n
Christine McKenzie (pictured below), a former senior poisons information specialist at the Victorian Poisons Information Centre, was the first witness to be called on.<\/p>\n
She explained death cap mushrooms usually grow between March and May in Victora. Several factors have to be right, including the temperature and moisture.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/1747622045809_lc_galleryImage_The_murder_trial_of_Erin_.JPG\")
Mushroom murder trial enters fourth week<\/p>\n
Patterson will face her fourth week of a Supreme Court trial on Monday.<\/p>\n
Patterson has pleaded not guilty to killing her three lunch guests and the attempted murder of Pastor Ian Wilkinson – the lone survivor of the deadly lunch.<\/p>\n
Erin Patterson should have experienced ‘adverse outcome’ from lunch<\/p>\n
Erin Patterson claims she ate only half of a beef Wellington laced with death cap mushrooms at her deadly lunch.<\/p>\n
Patterson made the claim to hospital staff and a child protection officer in the days following the lunch that claimed the lives of her in-laws Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson.<\/p>\n
The jury has already heard Gail Patterson ate just half of her pastie-sized beef Wellington, with her husband finishing off the rest.<\/p>\n
Unlike Patterson, the portion was enough to make Gail violently ill within hours and eventually killed her.<\/p>\n
On Friday, Dr Dimitri Gerostamoulos, head of forensic science at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, suggested Patterson’s portion should have caused an ‘adverse outcome’ for her.<\/p>\n
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\n Erin Patterson mushroom murder trial LIVE updates: Patterson visited area with death cap mushrooms a day after expert spotted deadly fungi, phone records indicate<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By STEPHEN GIBBS FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA Published: 18:46 EDT, 18 May 2025 | Updated: 02:52 EDT, 19…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[92,51478,5193,12,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-113841","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-dailymail","9":"tag-erin-patterson","10":"tag-live-blog","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114533495308462221","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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