MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A woman accused of serving her ex-husband’s parents and an aunt poisonous mushrooms with lunch appeared in an Australian court on Monday charged with three counts of murder and five of attempted murder.
Erin Patterson, 49, appeared briefly in the Latrobe Valley Magistrates Court by video link from a Melbourne prison where she has been held since she was arrested in November last year.
Magistrate Tim Walsh said he would announce on May 7 whether Patterson will face a committal hearing in the same court in Morwell or in Melbourne. Morwell is a rural town near Patterson’s home about 150 kilometers (90 miles) east of Melbourne, the Victoria state capital.
Committal hearings determine whether prosecutors have sufficient evidence to put charges before a jury in a Victorian Supreme Court trial.
It was Patterson’s second court appearance on the charges. She has yet to enter any pleas and has not applied to be released on bail.
She is accused of killing her former parents-in-law, Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, and Gail Patterson’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, 66.
All three died in a hospital days after consuming a meal at Patterson’s home in July last year.
She is also accused of the attempted murder of her ex-husband, Simon Patterson, at that lunch and on three previous occasions dating back to 2021. Simon Patterson did not accept an invitation to attend the lunch.
She also is charged with the attempted murder of Wilkinson’s husband, Ian Wilkinson, 68.
Ian Wilkinson spent seven weeks in a hospital following the lunch.
Police say the symptoms of the four sickened family members were consistent with poisoning from wild Amanita phalloides, known as death cap mushrooms.
The potential maximum sentence in Victoria for murder is life imprisonment, and for attempted murder is 25 years in prison.
Patterson appeared in court on Monday wearing a blue prison sweater.
Walsh asked if Patterson could hear at the outset of the hearing, and she replied, “Yes, thank you.”
Her lawyer, Colin Mandy, said his client wanted the committal hearing held in Morwell, even if that meant a delay until next year.
“If it happens next year, then Ms. Patterson’s content to wait for that,” Mandy told the magistrate.
Mandy said she wanted the hearing to take place close to her home.
Defense lawyers have provided prosecutors with a list of anticipated witnesses to be called at the committal.
Mandy said he expected the hearing would last three weeks.
In this courtroom sketch, Erin Patterson appears in Latrobe Valley Magistrates Court, Australia, on Nov. 3, 2023. Patterson, accused of serving her ex-husband's parents and an aunt poisonous mushrooms with lunch appeared in an Australian court on Monday, April 22, 2024 charged with three counts of murder and five of attempted murder. (Anita Lester/AAP Image via AP)
LONDON (AP) — Britain's governing Conservative Party suffered heavy losses in local election results Friday, further cementing expectations that the Labour Party will return to power after 14 years in a U.K. general election that will take place in the coming months.
Labour won control of councils in England that the party hasn’t held for decades, and was successful in a special election for a seat in Parliament.
If those results are repeated in the general election, it would lead to one of the Conservatives' biggest-ever defeats.
Though the results overall, admittedly on a low turnout, make for grim reading for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, he was able to breathe a sigh of relief when the Conservative mayor of Tees Valley in the northeast of England was reelected, albeit with a depressed share of the vote. The victory of Ben Houchen, who ran a very personal campaign, may be enough to cushion Sunak from any revolt by Conservative lawmakers.
For Labour leader Keir Starmer, it's generally been a stellar set of results, though in some areas with large Muslim populations, such as Blackburn and Oldham in northwest England, the party's candidates appear to have suffered as a result of the leadership's strongly pro-Israel stance in the war in Gaza.
Perhaps most important in the context of the general election, which has to take place by January but could come next month, Labour won back the parliamentary seat of Blackpool South in the northwest of England. The seat had gone Conservative in the last general election in 2019, when then Prime Minister Boris Johnson made big inroads in Brexit-supporting parts of the country.
In the contest, triggered by the resignation of a Conservative lawmaker following a lobbying scandal, Labour’s Chris Webb secured 10,825 votes, against the second-placed Conservative opponent's 3,218. The swing from Conservative to Labour, at 26%, was one of the biggest since World War II — more than enough to see the party return to power for the first time since it was ejected in 2010.
Starmer went to Blackpool, a coastal resort town, to congratulate Webb and urged Sunak to call a general election. Sunak has the power to decide on the date, and has indicated that it will be in the second half of 2024.
“This was directly to Rishi Sunak to say we are fed up with your decline, your chaos and your division and we want change," Starmer said.
Thursday’s elections in large parts of England were important in themselves, with voters deciding on who runs many aspects of their daily lives, such as garbage collection, road maintenance and local crime prevention, in the coming years. But with a national election looming, they are being viewed through a national prism.
John Curtice, professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde, said that the Conservatives are losing around half of the seats they are defending.
“We are probably looking at certainly one of the worst, if not the worst, Conservative performances in local government elections for the last 40 years,” he told BBC radio.
By early evening Friday, with more than half of the 2,661 seats up for grabs counted, the Conservatives were down by more than 300 while Labour was up by nearly 150. Other parties, such as the centrist Liberal Democrats and the Green Party also made gains. Reform U.K., which is trying to usurp the Conservatives from the right, also had some successes, notably in Blackpool South, where it was less than 200 votes from grabbing second place.
Labour won in areas that voted for Britain's departure from the European Union in 2016 and where it had been crushed by Brexit-backer Johnson, such as Hartlepool in the northeast of England, and Thurrock in southeast England. It also seized control of Rushmoor, a leafy and military-heavy council in the south of England where it had never won.
One bright spot for Sunak was the result in Tees Valley, which prior to Brexit had been a traditional Labour stronghold.
Sunak struck a defiant note in Teesside as he congratulated Houchen, whose share was down nearly 20 percentage points from 2021 to 54%, while admitting “disappointing” results elsewhere.
“I’ve got a message for the Labour Party too, because they know that they have to win here in order to win a general election, they know that," he said. "They assumed that Tees Valley would stroll back to them, but it didn’t.”
Sunak will be hoping Andy Street will remain mayor of the West Midlands when that result is announced on Saturday. Labour's Sadiq Khan is expected to remain London's mayor, though there are some concerns being voiced that a low turnout may see him lose to Conservative opponent Susan Hall.
Sunak became prime minister in October 2022 after the short-lived tenure of his predecessor, Liz Truss, who left office after 49 days following a budget of unfunded tax cuts that roiled financial markets and sent borrowing costs for homeowners surging.
Her chaotic — and traumatic — leadership compounded the Conservatives' difficulties following the circus surrounding her predecessor Johnson, who was forced to quit after being adjudged to have lied to Parliament over coronavirus lockdown breaches at his offices in Downing Street.
Nothing Sunak has tried to do has shifted the political dial, with Labour consistently 20 percentage points ahead in opinion polls. Whether anyone else can do better than Sunak is a question that may occupy the minds of nervous Conservative lawmakers in Parliament heading into the weekend.
Conservative party candidate Lord Ben Houchen, left, with Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak following his re-election as Tees Valley Mayor in Teesside, England, Friday May 3, 2024. (Owen Humphreys/PA via AP)
Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak presents an award to a member of the Parachute Regiment as he visits the Helles Barracks at the Catterick Garrison, a military base in North Yorkshire, Britain, Friday, May 3, 2024. (Molly Darlington/Pool photo via AP)
Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak looks on as he inspects the Passing Out Parade of the Parachute Regiment recruits as he visits the Helles Barracks at the Catterick Garrison, a military base in North Yorkshire, Britain, Friday, May 3, 2024. (Molly Darlington/Pool photo via AP)
Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks as he takes part in broadcasting a clip during his visit to the Helles Barracks at the Catterick Garrison, a military base in North Yorkshire, Britain, Friday, May 3, 2024. (Molly Darlington/Pool photo via AP)
Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak smiles as he inspects the Passing Out Parade of the Parachute Regiment recruits during his visit to the Helles Barracks at the Catterick Garrison, a military base in North Yorkshire, Britain, Friday, May 3, 2024. (Molly Darlington/Pool photo via AP)
Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks as he takes part in broadcasting a clip during his visit to the Helles Barracks at the Catterick Garrison, a military base in North Yorkshire, Britain, Friday, May 3, 2024. (Molly Darlington/Pool photo via AP)
A woman holds an umbrella as she walks on Westminster Bridge over the River Thames with the clock face of Queen Elizabeth Tower in the background in London, Friday, May 3, 2024. Britain's governing Conservative Party is suffering heavy losses as local election results pour in Friday, piling pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ahead of a U.K. general election in which the main opposition Labour Party appears increasingly likely to return to power after 14 years. The Queen Elizabeth Tower holds the bell known as Big Ben. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Tourists on a cycle tour in wet weather plastic macs, cycle past the Houses of Parliament, in London Friday, May 3, 2024. Britain's governing Conservative Party is suffering heavy losses as local election results pour in Friday, piling pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ahead of a U.K. general election in which the main opposition Labour Party appears increasingly likely to return to power after 14 years. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
A general view of the Houses of Parliament from across the River Thames in London, Friday, May 3, 2024. Britain's governing Conservative Party is suffering heavy losses as local election results pour in Friday, piling pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ahead of a U.K. general election in which the main opposition Labour Party appears increasingly likely to return to power after 14 years. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
A woman holds an umbrella as she walks along the banks of the River Thames opposite the Houses of Parliament in London, Friday, May 3, 2024. Britain's governing Conservative Party is suffering heavy losses as local election results pour in Friday, piling pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ahead of a U.K. general election in which the main opposition Labour Party appears increasingly likely to return to power after 14 years. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Newly elected British Labour MP Chris Webb, right, with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer celebrating at Blackpool Cricket Club, England, Friday May 3, 2024 after being declared winner in the Blackpool South by-election. The by-election was triggered after the resignation of Scott Benton. (Peter Byrne/PA via AP)
Labour candidate Chris Webb celebrates after winning the Blackpool South by-election following the count at Blackpool Sports Centre in Blackpool, Britain, Friday, May 3, 2024. (Peter Byrne/PA via AP)
Labour candidate Chris Webb celebrates after winning the Blackpool South by-election following the count at Blackpool Sports Centre in Blackpool, Britain, Friday, May 3, 2024. (Peter Byrne/PA via AP)
FILE - A woman leaves a polling station after voting in London, Thursday, May 2, 2024. Britain's governing Conservative Party is suffering heavy losses as local election results pour in Friday, piling pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ahead of a U.K. general election in which the main opposition Labour Party appears increasingly likely to return to power after 14 years. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)
Counting begins at the Blackpool South by-election at Blackpool Sports Centre in Blackpool, England, Thursday, May 2, 2024. The by-election was triggered after the resignation of Scott Benton. (Peter Byrne/PA via AP)
FILE - A woman pushes a buggy as she arrives to vote at a polling station in London, Thursday, May 2, 2024. Britain's governing Conservative Party is suffering heavy losses as local election results pour in Friday, piling pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ahead of a U.K. general election in which the main opposition Labour Party appears increasingly likely to return to power after 14 years. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)
