The accused triple murderer, Erin Patterson, has faced court for the first time in five months on charges of poisoning her relatives with mushrooms. Reporter Sacha Payne has more from Victoria's Latrobe Valley.
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00:00 This is the first time we've seen Erin Patterson in court since she was arrested and charged
00:08 in November last year.
00:10 What's happened today is the Magistrate, Tim Walsh, has had a special hearing to discuss
00:17 how the case proceeds.
00:18 Erin Patterson was not in the court today, she appeared via video link.
00:22 She only spoke to acknowledge that she could hear the judge, or the Magistrate, and her
00:27 lawyers and the lawyers for the prosecution were also appearing via video link.
00:32 The Magistrate's concern is that it could be 14 or 15 months, so next year, until the
00:38 case is heard, if it does stay here at the Latrobe Valley Law Courts, which is south-east
00:43 of Melbourne.
00:44 He offered to fast-track the case to the Supreme Court in Melbourne.
00:48 However, the defence, lawyers for the defence, have said that they would prefer the case
00:53 to be here, as Ms Patterson is from the local community, she lives here, and many of the
00:58 witnesses that they intend to call also live here.
01:02 The prosecution have said that they would prefer the case to be fast-tracked.
01:07 The case, as we mentioned, has received a lot of international attention.
01:12 What's it been like for the community there?
01:14 Well, it's been an enormous amount of attention on the community today.
01:20 Journalists, media crews have again descended on the Latrobe Valley Law Courts in Morwell.
01:26 In November last year, it was, or from July to November last year, attention was around
01:31 Lee and Gatha in Coranburra.
01:33 As we know, there was a lunch at Erin Patterson's Lee and Gatha home on July 29 last year.
01:40 And after that lunch, about a week later, her ex-parents-in-law, Gail and Dom Patterson,
01:47 and Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson, all died about a week later after attending that
01:51 lunch.
01:52 Gail's, Heather's husband, Dom Patterson, who was a local pastor in Coranburra, also
01:58 spent many weeks in hospital after that lunch, but has since recovered.
02:02 In November last year, Erin Patterson was charged with three counts of murder.
02:06 They relate to those deaths, and five counts of attempted murder.
02:10 One of those counts relates to Pastor Ian Wilkinson, who fell ill after the lunch.
02:15 Another count of attempted murder relates to her ex-husband, Simon Patterson, who was
02:20 invited to the lunch but didn't attend.
02:22 And there are three other counts of attempted murder that all relate to Simon Patterson
02:26 and various dates in 2021 and 2022.
02:31 So that's what's happened to date.
02:33 The next hearing is going to be here on May 7.
02:36 you. You're going to be able to
02:37 get a free trial of the vaccine.
02:38 And we're going to have a link