A high-profile murder trial over a poisonous mushroom meal has been interrupted by an outburst from a protester inside the court.
Erin Patterson, 50, is facing the fifth week of a trial over a toxic beef Wellington that she served up to her estranged husband’s family.
She has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder and one of attempted murder, over the July 2023 meal which caused the deaths of her former in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, 70, and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, 66.
Following a mid-morning break on Monday, moments after the jury was brought into the courtroom, a protester stood up in the public gallery and addressed Justice Christopher Beale.
“How can you be a judge?” the man, wearing a yellow T-shirt with “all we are saying is give truth a chance” written on it, said.
He made a number of allegations against the judge before he was quickly escorted out of the court, in Morwell, regional Victoria.
The trial resumed shortly after, with Victoria Police forensics officer Shamen Fox-Henry cross-examined by the defence.
In his fourth day on the witness stand, Mr Fox-Henry was questioned about his training in software used to analyse devices seized from Patterson’s home.
Mr Fox-Henry previously told the jury he used a program called Magnet Axiom to examine a Cooler Master PC seized from Patterson’s property during a police search on August 5, 2023.
Defence barrister Colin Mandy SC asked him if he had received any formal training on Magnet Axiom before using it to extract data from three storage devices found on the computer.
“No,” Mr Fox-Henry replied.
He followed the steps given by another member of the Victoria Police cybercrime unit on how to extract the material.
Under re-examination by prosecutor Jane Warren, Mr Fox-Henry confirmed he had used Magnet Axiom before this, and his training in digital software was a combination of formal training with certification and “on the job use of tools”.
“A large majority of the governing principles behind the applications we use are the same if not similar,” he said.
Mr Mandy also asked Mr Fox-Henry about “phone B”, a Samsung mobile which had been factory reset four times, including once the day after it was seized from Patterson’s home.
He did not find any data on the phone, apart from the record that it had been factory reset in February and August 2023.
“The information available to the people conducting the extraction on this phone is limited because of the fact of the factory reset?” Mr Mandy asked.
“That is correct,” Mr Fox-Henry said.
The trial continues.
Image source: AAP Photos / Paul Tyquin
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