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<\/a><\/p>\nDuring the early stages of the trial, Patterson\u2019s defence team made an impassioned plea to Justice Christopher Beale about the conditions of her \u201ccold\u201d cell that made it difficult for her to sleep.<\/p>\n
In the wake of her November 2023 arrest, Patterson has predominantly been housed at Dame Phyllis Frost Centre \u2014 a maximum security prison in Melbourne\u2019s western suburbs.<\/p>\n
But throughout the course of her Supreme Court hearing, Patterson spent weeknights inside the cells at Morwell Police Station to allow her to be closer to Latrobe Valley Magistrates Court.<\/p>\n
In the first week of the trial, defence barrister Colin Mandy SC told the court Patterson had been cold throughout the night because she did not have a doona or a pillow.<\/p>\n
![\"Patterson](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/cb4d5a7613f5bb23785232443e54a7f1a3e1a303.png\")
Patterson stayed in a call at Morwell Police Station on weeknights throughout her trial. Credit: Google<\/p>\n
He also said she had not received a computer that she had requested to assist her with the case.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis brief is massive and she has a good understanding of it, but she needs to have access to it \u00adbecause she\u2019s providing us with instructions about various things as we go,\u201d Mandy said.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe had an agreement with Corrections about the things that she would be permitted to take into her cell, and last night, for whatever reason, that wasn\u2019t the case.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe didn\u2019t have access to her brief, she didn\u2019t have access to writing materials.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019d agreed with Corrections that she could have a doona and a pillow, and she wasn\u2019t given those things.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt some stage she was given a blanket, but she spent the night cold \u2014 and awake because she was cold, and she can\u2019t operate like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mandy said Patterson required \u201cspecial\u201d treatment to be able to give legal instructions to her defence team.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is our submission that someone who is in police cells for five weeks, facing a murder trial, with a massive \u2014 several murder trials \u2014 with a massive brief of \u00adevidence, should be afforded some accommodation because, in some ways, she does deserve special \u2013 not deserve, but she requires \u00adspecial treatment so that we can do our job properly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Throughout the trial, journalists were banned from reporting on the fact Patterson was being kept in custody to prevent prejudicing members of the jury.<\/p>\n
![\"Dame](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/bc424315151faf82d92e24f5473890ff731c007f.png\")
Dame Phyllis Frost Centre is located in Ravenhall, in Melbourne\u2019s western suburbs. Credit: YUT FILM & VIDEO<\/p>\n
Rather than face Melbourne Supreme Court, Patterson had requested to shift her trial to her local Gippsland region \u2014 a move which saw the hearing delayed by months.<\/p>\n
Patterson was transported from Melbourne to Morwell early on Monday and driven back to Melbourne on Friday afternoon for the duration of her 10-week trial.<\/p>\n
Patterson will in August be sentenced for the murders of Don Patterson, Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson, and the attempted murder of Ian Wilkinson.<\/p>\n
She has been taken back to Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, where she could spend the rest of her life serving out her sentence.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n All the evidence that brought down triple murderer Erin Patterson<\/p>\n