Here is a recap of the key moments from the trial today:
- Erin Patterson returned to the witness box for a sixth day to be cross-examined by Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers, SC.
- Patterson denied lying in her evidence about a pre-surgery appointment for a gastric bypass.
- Patterson said she can’t recall visiting a website that logged the observations of death cap mushrooms.
- Patterson rebutted the earlier evidence of lunch guest Ian Wilkinson, who had said the accused served the guests their lunch on four grey plates and hers separately on an orange-tan plate.
- Patterson denied eating all her beef Wellington lunch, insisting she ate only half of her meal.
- Patterson was questioned about the timing of when she began to feel ill and how that accorded with the evidence her children gave earlier in the trial.
- Patterson rolled her eyes and shrugged when it was suggested that she had told nurse Kylie Ashton that she wasn’t prepared to be admitted to hospital soon after she arrived there.
- Patterson said she does not remember anyone at Leongatha Hospital telling her that her life was at risk, but recalled being told it was time-sensitive that she receive treatment.
- When asked about her reluctance to bring her children to hospital for observation for fear of scaring them, Patterson said she thought the doctor’s assessment of the situation as “scared and alive, or dead” as a “pretty bizarre [thing] to say”.
- Patterson recalled the “sarcastic tone” of her estranged husband, Simon Patterson, in an exchange over who would pick up the children.
- The accused also denied the prosecutor’s suggestion that she wanted to appear ill after the beef Wellington lunch, as it might seem suspicious if she weren’t ill like the other guests.