Barrister for triple-murder accused tells jurors they should accept mushroom cook’s account of panic about blame for fatal lunch

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Erin Patterson was assumed to be guilty within days of the beef wellington lunch, and the jury in her triple-murder trial should reject “ridiculous” and “convoluted” propositions to ensure she is not wrongfully convicted, the Victorian supreme court has heard.

Patterson’s barrister, Colin Mandy SC, completed his closing address in her trial on Thursday, telling the jury there was not enough evidence to find her guilty, as the prosecution had assumed “she’s guilty from the start, and then [picked] the pieces of evidence that meet that theory”.

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