Ms Patterson is being quizzed on her claims that she needed to talk to Simon and her relatives about her health issues.

She has previously admitted she misled them into believing she may need cancer treatment – but denies outright telling them she had a diagnosis. She told the jury she did so as a cover for weight-loss surgery she was planning to have but too embarrassed to disclose.

Dr Rogers suggests that’s untrue, and Ms Patterson did not have any medical issues she needed to discuss with her relatives.

Ms Patterson stresses that she did, and said she had an appointment booked for early September at a clinic in Melbourne to discuss the gastric bypass surgery.

She says it wasn’t for the actual surgery but for a “pre-surgery appointment”.

Simon Atkinson
reporting from Morwell

Today the prosecutor has been asking Ms Patterson to read out in court some of the text, Signal and Facebook messages and posts she had written.

Ms Patterson picks up her glasses, puts them on, and looks at the screen in front of her.

She has just been asked to read out loud for the court the message she sent to Simon Patterson after he declined coming to the lunch at the centre of the trial.

The prosecutor is breaking down the content of that message – focussing on whether the wording was designed to convey that Ms Patterson had medical issues to discuss.

Ms Patterson answers that she did have medical issues to discuss, saying she was planning to have weight-loss surgery.

Lana Lam
Live reporter

The prosecution now asks Ms Patterson if she had painted Simon Patterson – her estranged husband – as a bad father, referring again to earlier evidence from the accused’s Facebook friends.

Dr Rogers suggests that Ms Patterson’s posts described Simon as “controlling” and “coercive”, someone who she fought with a lot, and someone who failed to follow up on medical issues with the kids.

Ms Patterson rejects the claims.

She does admit she shared posts about Simon’s hygiene, claiming she had once spent two weeks cleaning his house.

Simon Atkinson
reporting from Morwell

Throughout this trial we’ve heard lots about what Erin Patterson is said to have written in Facebook groups and private online chats.

Some of it has been tendered to the court as evidence, in the form of screen grabs.

Other parts have come from testimony by some of those Facebook “friends” who – under oath – recounted things they said Ms Patterson told them.

Today Ms Patterson is disputing some of the latter, including testimony from one witness about alleged comments critical of her estranged husband Simon Patterson.

“I don’t remember saying he wasn’t a very nice person,” Ms Patterson says.

We’ve also heard the prosecutor ask about evidence given by Matthew Patterson – the accused’s brother-in-law – that in the years running up to the lunch, Erin Patterson didn’t attend family gatherings as much.

Ms Patterson disagrees with that, but says she partially agrees with her son who told police his parents interactions were “negative” in the months running up to the lunch.

“Our interactions were strained,” Ms Patterson says.

Prosecutor Nanette Rogers now suggests to Ms Patterson that she moved the children to a new school in term three of 2023 without telling their father, Simon.

“That’s not true,” she replies, saying she had told her estranged husband months earlier.

Dr Rogers later reads a Facebook message where Ms Patterson writes that if Simon wants to “walk away from his responsibilities”, then she wants to be able to choose the children’s schools herself, which she described as a “blessing in disguise”.

Katy Watson
reporting from Morwell

This line of questioning continues, and Ms Patterson keeps asking the prosecutor to repeat herself, or clarify her queries.

“I’m not trying to be difficult,” says Erin Patterson, adding she just wants to understand the question.

“Do you understand the word dispute?” asks the prosecutor.

Simon Atkinson
reporting from Morwell

Erin Patterson is being asked about a dispute with her estranged husband about school fees – and what the prosecution says was an attempt to get her in-laws involved.

“I suggest to you that you were seeking to get Don and Gail to influence Simon to pay half the school fees,” asks prosecutor Dr Rogers. “Agree or disagree?”

Erin Patterson pauses, then responds: “I was trying to ask Don and Gail to help Simon and [me] communicate about this better”.

“That’s not my question,” says Dr Rogers.

“Then the answer to your question is no,” says Ms Patterson.

After a tense exchange with the prosecutor, Ms Patterson concedes that Don Patterson did not want to get involved in the issue, but says she “wasn’t angry” about that.

Katy Watson
reporting from Morwell

Ian Wilkinson, the only survivor of that lunch, once again is in court watching Erin Patterson’s testimony.

He has attended this trial throughout, often accompanied by his daughter.

There was a bit of a queue outside the courthouse this morning too, with members of the public keen to watch Ms Patterson give evidence. Some are now regular faces, very interested in sitting in court and following this case.

Monday

• Erin Patterson made her first appearance sincethe trial started in late April, telling the court about marital problems withher then-husband Simon Patterson and the feeling she was being cut off from thewider Patterson family
• She also spoke about the traumatic birth of her firstchild, saying she discharged herself from hospital early after the emergencycaesarean against medical advice

Tuesday

• The court heard about Ms Patterson’s long-standinglove of mushrooms and how in early 2020, she started foraging wild fungi as ahobby
• She apologised for a series of expletive-ladenFacebook messages in a private group chat that were critical of her in-laws andestranged husband
• She also said the mushrooms used in the mealwere a mix of store-bought mushrooms and some bought from a Melbourne shopmonths earlier

Wednesday

• Ms Patterson said she only ate a small portionof her meal at the fatal lunch because she was busy talking and later ate two-thirds of a cakebefore throwing up
• She claimed her lies about having cancer were tocover up her embarrassment over plans to get weight-loss surgery
• She admitted that there was a possibility thatforaged mushrooms stored in her pantry may have been added to the meal unintentionally
• There were no assigned seats or plates at the lunch,Ms Patterson said
• Hours after the meal, and after she had thrown up her food, she started feeling illtoo and later took herself to hospital
• She said she done several factory resets on herphone in the days after the lunch to prevent police seeing her collection ofmushroom photos

Simon Atkinson
reporting from Morwell

Welcome to day 5, week 6 of the trial of Erin Patterson.

For the first five weeks the accused was in the dock but has spent most of this week in the witness box.

And that’s where she will be today too.

It’ll be a shorter grilling of Ms Patterson today though.

As is usual for this trial, it is an early finish on Fridays, and for everyone involved, there’ll be a longer break than usual this weekend. Monday is a public holiday here in the state of Victoria and the court will be closed.

Today the BBC has been allocated (by ballot) one of the six media seats in the courtroom. Stay with us for the latest in this trial that is gripping Australia.

Erin Patterson was cross-examined by the prosecution for much of Thursday. Here is what happened:

• Ms Patterson said lying to police about having a food dehydrator and foraging mushrooms was a “stupid knee-jerk reaction” as she was “scared” they would blame her for making the lunch guests sick
• She claimed all six individual beef Wellingtons she made were the same and said she did not intentionally put death cap mushrooms in the dish
• Under cross-examination, Ms Patterson denied she dumped a food dehydrator used to prepare the meal because she it was evidence she knowingly poisoned her relatives
• The prosecution put to Ms Patterson that images of mushrooms – which they claim were death caps – on a scale in her kitchen prove she was researching the ideal “fatal dose” to feed her guests – Ms Patterson denied that claim

• The court also heard about disagreements between Ms Patterson and her estranged husband over finances in the months leading up to the fatal lunch
• Prosecutors suggested to Ms Patterson that she believed her lies about having cancer would never been found out because she knew the lunch guests would soon be dead, to which Ms Patterson said: “That’s not true.”
• Ms Patterson’s use of emojis was also brought up with prosecutors accusing her of mocking her in-laws religiosity with “eye-roll” emojis – Ms Patterson said they simply reflected her frustration
• The judge also told the court that the trial, now in its sixth week, will likely continue for several more

This case centres around a lunch that Erin Patterson hosted at her Leongatha home in regional Victoria in July 2023.

Her in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, died in the days after they ate Ms Patterson’s home-cooked beef Wellington which had poisonous death cap mushrooms in it.

Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, 66, also died while her husband, local pastor Ian Wilkinson, 71, survived after spending weeks in an induced coma.

Ms Patterson – facing three murder charges and one of attempted murder – has denied she purposely poisoned the four guests with her defence team calling it a tragic accident. The prosecution, though, argues she deliberately served the toxic meal.

Tiffanie Turnbull
LIve editor

Welcome back to our live coverage of the trial of Erin Patterson, who is accused of killing three relatives and gravely injuring another by intentionally serving them a toxic mushroom meal.

The 50-year-old denies this, saying it was all a tragic accident. She has been giving evidence since Monday afternoon.

Much of yesterday was spent with the intense cross-examination of Ms Patterson by the prosecution, Dr Nanette Rogers.

Today, the BBC has been given one of the rare places inside the court room, where cross-examination is set to continue.

We will be bringing you updates as they happen throughout the day.