Australia news live: Erin Patterson should receive maximum sentence for mushroom murders, judge says | Australia news
Watch live: Erin Patterson sentencing hearing
Victoria’s supreme court will hand down the triple-murderer Erin Patterson’s sentence shortly. The state’s supreme court will allow a television camera inside the courtroom to broadcast the sentencing hearing – with a 10 second delay – for the first time.
Patterson, 50, faces the prospect of spending the rest of her life in prison. Justice Christopher Beale will deliver her sentence from 9.30am in a hearing expected to last about 30 minutes.
Watch the stream below:
Key events
Adeshola Ore
Beale says Patterson’s premeditation an aggravating factor
Justice Christopher Beale says Ian Wilkinson has not fully recovered from the death cap mushroom poisoning.
“He has reduced kidney function, ongoing respiratory issues and reduced energy,” he says.
Beale turns to aggravating factors of Erin Patterson’s offences. He says this includes premeditation and Wilkinson’s ongoing health issues from the poisoning.
He says when Patterson invited her guests to lunch she did so “with the intention of killing them all”.
Patterson showed “no pity” for her victims when she learned from her estranged husband, Simon, they were hospitalised.
Adeshola Ore
Judge says Patterson’s ‘vague story’ about Asian grocer a lie
Erin Patterson’s lunch guests fell seriously ill on the evening after the lunch, the court hears.
Justice Beale says when Patterson attended Leongtha hospital she showed “reluctance” to undergo medical testing and have her children tested. He says Patterson “falsely” claimed she served her children leftovers of the beef wellingtons with the mushrooms scraped off.
Beale says at the trial Patterson maintained her story that she bought the mushrooms used in the beef wellingtons from an Asian grocer. Patterson told her trial there was a possibility that foraged mushrooms may have been in the plastic container which also contained the store-bought dried mushrooms she said she used in the beef wellington meal.
“The jury rejected this elaborate explanation,” Beale says.
I am satisfied that your vague story about the Asian grocery was a lie.
Adeshola Ore
Judge recaps trial evidence
Beale is recounting evidence heard in Patterson’s triple murder trial.
He says weeks before the lunch, Patterson invited her in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson and Heather and Ian Wilkinson to the lunch.
Beale says the trial heard that Patterson’s estranged husband, Simon, initially accepted the invitation to the 29 July 2023 fatal beef wellington lunch. But he declined on the evening of the lunch, saying he felt uncomfortable about attending.
On 29 July, Patterson served her four lunch guests individual beef wellingtons that were deliberately poisoned with beef wellingtons, Beale says.
Beale says he accepts the testimony of Ian Wilkinson that Patterson served her beef wellington portion of a different coloured plate to her guests.
He says he also accepts Wilkinson’s evidence that after the meal Patterson told her guests she had cancer.
Judge says only Patterson knows why she committed crimes
Adeshola Ore
Justice Christopher Beale says he agrees Erin Patterson should receive the maximum penalty for her crimes.
He says the “main dispute” is whether he should grant Patterson a minimum sentence or non-parole period.
Beale says the jury in the 11-week trial was satisfied, beyond reasonable doubt, that Patterson committed triple murder and attempted murder.
“Only you know why you committed them,” he says.
Beale says he will not speculate about Patterson’s motive.
Adeshola Ore
Sentencing hearing under way
Erin Patterson’s sentencing hearing has begun in the Victorian supreme court.
Justice Christopher Beale will hand down the triple murderer’s sentence.
In July, a jury convicted Patterson of deliberately feeding her estranged husband’s relatives beef wellingtons laced with death cap mushrooms.
The jury found Patterson guilty of murdering her in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson. She was also convicted of the attempted murder of Heather’s husband, Ian Wilkinson.
Patterson claimed the deaths were a tragic accident.
Adeshola Ore
Erin Patterson has entered court room four in the Victorian supreme court, ahead of her sentencing.
Patterson is dressed in a paisley shirt and brown jacket.
Erin Patterson arrives at court
Erin Patterson has arrived at Victoria’s supreme court for her sentencing hearing:
Here’s survivor Ian Wilkinson arriving at court a short time ago:
Adeshola Ore
Inside the courtroom
We’re awaiting triple murderer Erin Patterson’s sentencing in the Victorian supreme court.
Inside courtroom four, Ian Wilkinson, the sole surviving lunch guest, is sitting metres away from the bar table.
The media box is filled with journalists. Reporters have also spilled over into the remaining seats in the court room. On the second level, members of the public are peering down into the court.
Earlier, court watchers lined William Street to nab a seat in the public gallery ahead of the 9.30am sentencing.
Watch live: Erin Patterson sentencing hearing
Victoria’s supreme court will hand down the triple-murderer Erin Patterson’s sentence shortly. The state’s supreme court will allow a television camera inside the courtroom to broadcast the sentencing hearing – with a 10 second delay – for the first time.
Patterson, 50, faces the prospect of spending the rest of her life in prison. Justice Christopher Beale will deliver her sentence from 9.30am in a hearing expected to last about 30 minutes.
Watch the stream below:
Has Trump succeeded in normalising American autocracy?
It’s been more than 200 days since Donald Trump’s return to power, and many have been left asking: are we seeing authoritarianism normalised in the US?
Global affairs correspondent Andrew Roth talks to Reged Ahmad about whether the US is at a point of no return for democracy under Trump.
Listen to the Full Story podcast here:
Minns’s $140m great koala national park could ‘obliterate’ regional towns, NSW Nationals leader claims
The long-awaited great koala national park in the north of New South Wales, celebrated by wildlife groups, has drawn a mixed reaction from the state’s Coalition, my colleagues Anne Davies and Lisa Cox write.
The opposition leader, Mark Speakman, has hedged his party’s support, saying while he “supports the ambition of protecting koalas”, he was concerned about job losses and the cost of the park.
But Dugald Saunders, the NSW Nationals leader, was more strident, attacking the timing of the decision as appalling and claiming the livelihoods of entire regional towns would be “obliterated” overnight.
Read more here:
Wentworth MP ‘saddened’ by pro-Palestine and pro-Israel protest standoff at Bondi
Independent MP Allegra Spender says she was “saddened” by posturing between pro-Israel and pro-Palestine groups on Bondi beach on Sunday morning.
“I don’t think anyone wants to see people shouting at each other on Bondi beach. And certainly, some of the things that were said were pretty awful,” she told the ABC, speaking about a pro-Palestinian paddle-out in Bondi that was reportedly met with anger from pro-Israel members of the area’s large Jewish community.
The gathering, organised by Jews Against the Occupation ‘48, was held as a show of support for the Sumud flotilla currently on its way to Gaza in an attempt to bring food and medical aid to starving Palestinians.
Spender said that protests and counter-protests “can end up where people feel further apart rather than when recognising where the common ground is” and suggested an alternative location for the paddle-out – such as Manly in Sydney’s north – would have been a better option, given Wentworth’s Jewish community, “because it was less likely to have ended up with a counter-protest”.
Of course they have the right to do it. And I’m not going to criticise them, but I just wish they had held it somewhere else.
She said the incident “undermines our social cohesion” and “brings conflict to the beach”.
We have the right to protest, we have the right to stand up, we have the right to do these things. But what are we achieving by that? Is our country better off? Is our community better off?
Indian community ‘upset and hurt’ by Nampijinpa Price’s commentary, Liberal senator says
Liberal senator Maria Kovacic says the Indian community was “hurt” and “disappointed” by her colleague Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s comments suggesting the Labor party’s immigration policies were attempts to garner votes from immigrants including those from India.
Speaking on Radio National a short time ago, Kovacic said she had talked “face-to-face” with the Australian Indian community in Harris Park yesterday – but did not say whether the meeting was organised after Price’s comments aired.
The senator said the community told her “they were upset and they were hurt by the comments and that they didn’t consider the comments to be true”:
I had a very open discussion with them. I think the most important thing is to be honest in your interactions and tell people that you acknowledge that the commentary was hurtful, but also acknowledge that it was untrue.
Kovacic said she did not apologise to the community but that many “were incredibly disappointed by [Price’s] comments”.
Read more here:
Stargazers marvel at ‘blood moon’ lunar eclipse around the world
As promised, an image of the blood moon as seen over Sydney early this morning:
The same phenomenon could be seen around the world. Here, a shot of the blood moon rising over the West Bank:
… and one from Beijing:
View our gallery here:
Labor exploring new protection scheme for air travellers
Sarah Basford Canales
Australian travellers could soon be compensated for cancelled or delayed flights under a new scheme that would ensure prompt rebooking, refunds and access to food and accommodation.
The Albanese government will open submissions for the new consumer aviation protection scheme today for four weeks in an effort to hear from the public.
The scheme, which would mirror similar protections overseas in Europe, would create a minimum expectation for airline carriers around the country and offer passengers clear rules on what compensation airlines should offer in the event of travel disruptions.
The scheme would be accompanied by a watchdog to deal with complaints and disputes.
The transport minister, Catherine King, said:
We’ve heard the frustration Australian aviation passengers feel when dealing with airlines and airports. When things go wrong, it can be hard to know what passengers can expect from airlines and airports, because the approach is different at every airport and with each airline.
Erin Patterson to learn fate in Victorian supreme court
Adeshola Ore
We’ll bring you live updates of triple murderer Erin Patterson’s sentencing in the Victorian supreme court this morning.
Justice Christopher Beale is expected to begin the sentencing hearing at 9.30am.
The court will allow a television camera inside the courtroom to broadcast the sentencing hearing – with a 10 second delay – for the first time in the state.
Patterson faces the prospect of life behind bars. In July, a jury convicted her of deliberately feeding her lunch guests beef wellingtons laced with death cap mushrooms in 2023.
After an 11-week trial, the 12-person jury found Patterson guilty of murdering Don and Gail Patterson, the parents of her estranged husband, Simon, and his aunt, Heather Wilkinson. The jury also convicted Patterson of attempting to murder Heather’s husband, Ian Wilkinson.
Sarah Basford Canales
2035 emissions reduction target will ‘deal with the real world’, Albanese says
Anthony Albanese will warn Australia has to “deal with the real world” on the country’s shift to cleaner energy as his government prepares to announce a 2035 emissions reduction target.
In a speech to be delivered on Monday night to the Business Council of Australia’s (BCA) annual dinner, the prime minister will outline his plans to repay voters through boosting productivity, driving investment and cutting red tape.
Albanese will point to Australia’s “ideological conflict of the climate wars”, which he will say damaged Australia’s economy and its standing internationally.
Even as 24 out of 28 Australia’s coal-fired power stations were announcing their timeline for closure, there was no coherent plan to replace them.
Business and industry don’t have that luxury of pretending change is not occurring.
You have to deal with the real world – and you have to be able to plan for the long term.
Albanese will acknowledge the global shift to clean energy is the “biggest transformation since the Industrial Revolution” but will say it is a “profound economic opportunity for Australia”.
On Friday, the BCA released a report claiming Australia would need up to $530bn in capital investment and to potentially curb coal and gas exports to achieve a 2035 emissions target of 70% or more.
The modelling does not factor in the cost of not acting on the climate crisis nor measure the economic benefits of new clean investment.
The Climate Change Authority – the commonwealth’s advisory body on emissions targets – is considering its final recommendation on a 2035 emissions target before the government announces its goal later this month.
Read more here:
Good morning
Daisy Dumas
Good morning all, and welcome to our live news coverage today.
We’re expecting triple-murderer Erin Patterson’s sentence this morning, with the Victorian supreme court hearing to be broadcast live in a historic first for the state. We’ll bring you updates as soon as they land.
Last night’s blood moon did not disappoint the early risers in Australia who made the effort to see the spectacle – we’ll bring you some of the best photos of the blazing phenomenon soon.
For now, let’s get going with other news.
