Death cap webpage accessed on computer seized from Erin Patterson’s home, court told

An online post about a death cap mushroom sighting was accessed on a computer seized from Erin Patterson’s home, a court has heard.

Digital forensics officer Shamen Fox-Henry, who works for Victoria Police, told the Supreme Court jury sitting at Morwell that data records on a computer seized from the accused woman’s home showed the device was used to access the website on May 28, 2022.

Fox-Henry said the data from the iNaturalist website visit showed the computer accessed a listing about death caps at Bricker Reserve in Moorabbin in Melbourne’s south-eastern suburbs about 7.23pm that day. The listing had been posted by a person named Ivan on May 18, 2022.

He said these results came after he was asked to analyse data on the computer including web search histories.

Erin Patterson is accused of murdering her parents-in-law, Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, by serving them poisonous mushrooms in the beef Wellington lunch she cooked at her Leongatha home on July 29, 2023.

The Pattersons and Heather Wilkinson died in the days after the meal from the effects of mushroom poisoning. Heather’s husband, Ian, survived after weeks in hospital.

Erin Patterson has pleaded not guilty to three charges of murder and one of attempted murder.

After details about the website visit was aired in court, Justice Christopher Beale warned jurors not to go home and put the same words into Google to do their own internet searches.

“You’re not investigators,” Beale told the jury.

The judge’s warning on Wednesday came after Beale last week suspended a juror in the murder trial over concerns he could have discussed the case with family and friends.

Earlier, Fox-Henry told the court that he was asked to analyse electronic devices seized from Erin Patterson’s home on August 5, 2023, as part of the police investigation into the fatal lunch.

As part of his enquiries, he said he was asked to download and create a copy of the computer’s hard drive and then enter in specific search terms.

These, he said, included the words death cap, death cap mushroom, death cap mushrooms, mushrooms, and poison.

One of the records found and later given to detectives, the court heard, included a search using the Bing search engine, made on a seized computer, for citizen scientist website “iNaturalist” on May 28, 2022, about 7.20pm.

He agreed with Crown prosecutor Jane Warren that about three minutes later, data from the same computer showed that it connected to the Korumburra Middle Hotel website.

The trial continues.