ACCUSED Leongatha mass murderer, Erin Patterson, has petitioned the Latrobe Valley Magistrate’s Court to keep her committal hearing in the local area, that is at Morwell, where it would be heard by Magistrate Tim Walsh, even if it means delaying the proceedings until next year.
Ms Patterson made that clear, through her lawyer Colin Mandy SC, via video link from the Dame Phyllis Frost Correctional Centre, at a committal mention hearing at the Latrobe Valley Magistrate’s Court on Monday this week.
Mr Walsh had offered to try and fast-track Ms Patterson’s case to the Supreme Court in Melbourne or to shift the committal process to a Melbourne court but Ms Patterson’s instructions, according to Mr Mandy, are to keep it local.
“I’m on leave next week and we can’t accommodate it here, we are serving six courts here,” Mr Walsh said to Ms Patterson’s lawyer.
“We could move it to Melbourne or fast-track it to the Supreme Court,” he said.
“I had a look at the brief over the weekend and it is quite voluminous,” he said, indicating the committal might take up to four weeks.
“We couldn’t accommodate that here,” he said.
But Mr Mandy, a highly experienced criminal lawyer and presently the Vice-President of the Victorian Bar, said there were “powerful reasons” for wanting to keep the case in Ms Patterson’s local community, noting that many of the witnesses would be coming from the local area.
“It won’t happen in her community anyway, it will happen in Morwell,” Mr Walsh responded.
Mr Mandy returned that Morwell was still within the local community.
“We are content to wait until you can accommodate it here,” Mr Mandy said.
“I’m not content,” said Mr Walsh.
“They are her instructions,” Mr Mandy said.
“It may not be until next year,” said Mr Walsh.
“If it takes until next year, she is content to wait,” Mr Mandy said.
“That would be 14 months,” said Mr Walsh, from the time Ms Patterson was charged on November 2, 2023, until the case could be heard at Morwell in early 2025.
Asked for her opinion, the Crown Prosecutor said the committal should go ahead as soon as possible and whether it was fast-tracked to the Supreme Court or not, it could easily be accommodated in Melbourne.
“The proceedings should be held in the community where the offences are alleged to have taken place, closer to her home,” returned Mr Mandy.
In the end though, Mr Walsh adjourned the Committal Mention Hearing until Tuesday, May 7 at the Latrobe Valley Magistrate’s Court, saying he would give some thought about where the committal should be held, either locally at Morwell or in Melbourne.
A Committal Mention Hearing is a preliminary hearing before the full committal hearing, where it is decided whether there is enough evidence for the matter to go forward to trial.
Before a committal mention, the defence will receive a hand-up brief that is expected to include copies of witness statements and exhibits, and the magistrate may make orders about arrangements for the committal hearing to follow or even directly commit the accused to trial.
These arrangements will now be decided on May 7 at Morwell, prior to which Mr Walsh ordered that the proposed list of witnesses must be submitted.
There was a brief delay to the start of proceedings at Morwell on Monday shortly after Magistrate Walsh arrived at the bench at 10am.
After greeting Ms Patterson and members of the legal team, he asked if Ms Patterson’s representatives were also present.
“Ms Patterson can you hear me OK?” he asked.
Ms Patterson, seated in a sparely furnished room at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, formerly the Deer Park Metropolitan Women's Correctional Centre in Deer Park, wearing a blue jumper, responded:
“Yes, I can thank you.”
But that was the end of it.
Magistrate Walsh informed Ms Patterson that he would be adjourning proceedings briefly while he sorted out issues with Ms Patterson’s legal representation whom he said may have joined the video link for another court room.
After a brief delay, the committal mention went ahead.
Ms Patterson, 49, is charged with three counts of murder and five counts of attempted murder.
Most of the charges relate to a lunch Ms Patterson hosted at her home in Leongatha last July where attendees were served a meal of beef Wellington laced with poisonous death cap mushrooms, it has been alleged by police.
Her in-laws Don and Gail Patterson, and Ian and Heather Wilkinson, fell gravely ill after eating the food, with police saying their symptoms were consistent with having ingested the deadly mushrooms.
Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister Heather died in hospital in the days following the lunch, while Mr Wilkinson barely survived.
The other charges relate to alleged attempts by Ms Patterson to poison her estranged husband Simon Patterson.
Ms Patterson has maintained her innocence throughout, saying she has been devastated by the loss of her family members as a result of eating a meal that she has acknowledged providing.
There is intense interest in the case with a large number of reporters logging in by video link to hear the start to proceedings in a case that has fascinated the world.
Ms Patterson was remanded in custody to re-appear by video link on May 7.
