Thank you so much for joining us today on our coverage of the Erin Patterson murder trial.

As a reminder, due to the King's Birthday public holiday, court will resume on Tuesday.

It is expected the cross-examination of Erin Patterson will continue then.

To catch up on anything you've missed today, head to this wrap from the ABC's Larissa Ham and Joseph Dunstan:

Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC continued her cross-examination of accused murderer Erin Patterson on Friday.

Much like yesterday, the proceedings often involved Dr Rogers making suggestions to Erin regarding the prosecution's case, and Erin either confirming or denying the suggestions.

Today, Erin confirmed that:

• She made mention of medical issues when inviting Simon Patterson to lunch
• She did not inform medical professionals that foraged mushrooms might be in the meal she cooked, even after learning her relatives were ill
• It was unusual for her to host a lunch at her house, and that the Pattersons and Wilkinsons had not had a meal together in a long time
• She at one point wanted to find out if death cap mushrooms grew in Gippsland

But Erin denied suggestions that:

• She never told Simon Patterson about changing her children's school
• She was angry with Don and Gail Patterson due to a stoush over child support and school fees
• She sent inflammatory messages to a family group chat
• She had two different faces; one she presented publicly that loved the Patterson family, and another she showed privately that mocked them
• She told her Facebook friend Christine Hunt that Simon was coercive
• Her lunch invitation to Heather and Ian Wilkinson was a tactic to convince Don, Gail and Simon to also attend the lunch
• She made an extra poisoned beef Wellington for Simon, which she threw away after he did not attend

Finally, evidence was raised that Erin could not remember, such as web search history from a computer found in her home, which showed visits to the iNaturalist site.

Prefer to get your updates in audio-form?

The ABC's Rachael Brown and producer Stephen Stockwell are on the ground, bringing you all the key moments from the trial as they unravel in court. 

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As mentioned, Friday is a shortened day of proceedings.

Justice Beale jumps in and calls an end to proceedings.

Before they leave, he tells the jury that there are still some lengthy legal discussions ahead of them after the long weekend.

Justice Beale also reminds them to not discuss the case with anyone else besides other jurors.

Court is adjourned.

The court is shown a screenshot of an iNaturalist page, taken in December 2024 by police investigators.

It shows a map of Melbourne, extending into the Victorian region around it. Red dots mark out death cap mushroom sightings.

The URL is one Dr Rogers alleges Erin Patterson looked at in May, 2022 on the Cooler Master computer.

Again, Erin says it could be, but she's not sure.

That's followed by a URL for a specific listing for a death cap mushroom sighting in Moorabbin, in Melbourne's south-east.

Again, Erin says "it's possible, I don't know".

Dr Rogers puts to Erin that she was the one who used the Cooler Master computer to search for these things. She says "I don't know" when asked if it could be her children.

Dr Rogers continues to follow the report, and suggests Erin then navigated to a more specific map about death cap mushrooms on the iNaturalist site.

"I don't have a specific memory of this day or this internet search, but my evidence is it's possible," Erin says.

"Because I remember at some point wanting to find out if death cap mushrooms grow in Gippsland, and finding out that they do not.

"So it might have been this search."

Dr Rogers now asks Erin about her research skills, and Ms Patterson agrees she "can be" a good researcher, as her Facebook friends have suggested to the court.

Erin says she doesn't think finding information quickly online is "particular" to her.

Earlier in the trial, Victoria Police digital forensic expert Shamen Fox-Henry gave evidence about data found on hard drives in a Cooler Master computer in Erin Patterson's house.

Digital analysis showed records of access to the iNaturalist map of death cap mushrooms.

The court is shown a report generated as part of that analysis, which suggests that on May 28, 2022, the Bing search engine was used to look up the iNaturalist site.

"It does look like somebody did that, yes," Erin says. "I don't remember doing it. It's possible it was me. The only thing that gives me pause is I didn't use Internet Explorer or Bing, but I accept that maybe I did this time, I'm not sure."

Dr Rogers suggests she was not "randomly browing the internet" and knew what website she was looking for.

"I can't say that because I don't remember this," Erin says.

Dr Rogers says Erin knew what search term to enter to find iNaturalist because she had used the website before.

"I don't know," Erin says.

Dr Rogers suggests that Erin invited Heather and Ian Wilkinson in order to make it more likely that Don and Gail Patterson would attend the lunch.

Erin denies this, saying Don and Gail would have come to the lunch because they loved her.

Dr Rogers then suggests she also invited Heather and Ian so that Simon would attend the lunch.

Erin denies this also. 

The focus then turns to the other two lunch guests, Ian and Heather Wilkinson.

Dr Rogers reminds the court that Heather was Gail Patterson's sister and they lived in the same region.

According to Erin's son, the relationship between the Wilkinsons and Erin was neither negative nor strong as of July 2023.

"Yeah that's probably fair," Erin says.

She agrees they hadn't been to her Leongatha home before.

Dr Rogers reminds the court that Mr Wilkinson gave evidence that he and his wife were excited to get the invitation to go to lunch.

"Why is it that you invited Ian and Heather to the lunch on the 29th of July?" Dr Rogers asks.

"There were a few reasons," Erin begins.

"Ian had been my pastor for years and years, and I would see and speak with Ian and Heather a lot after church and I really liked them and I wanted to have a stronger relationship with them.

"When I had invited Don and Gail for lunch in June, Gail had said that what I had done for the garden was really nice, and Heather would really like to see it."

Erin says she saw an opportunity to bring them closer together.

"I wanted to say thank you to them for being good to me over the years. Heather helped me a lot when [my daughter] was little ... and I was shy and didn't know many people," she says.

"I wanted to say thank you to her," Erin says, sobbing before reaching for a tissue to dab at both her eyes and sniff.

Evidence given by Simon Patterson about a phone call on July 30, one day after the lunch, is raised by the prosecution. 

Dr Rogers reads out the transcript from Simon's testimony, which read:

"I told her that Mum and Dad and Heather and Ian were all crook and that they'd all been admitted to hospital."

Dr Rogers suggests Simon only informed Erin about his parents' illness, and that the conversation ended after this point.

Erin disagrees.

"We discussed how Don and Gail were, that’s how I found out about them in hospital," she says.

Dr Rogers suggests that after Simon told Erin about his parents, she did not ask any follow up questions about their health.

Erin says this is wrong.

Dr Rogers again asks if Erin ever inquired about Don's health during the phone call.

Erin maintains she did.

Dr Rogers returns to evidence from Simon, who said he was "intrigued" that Erin never asked how her in-laws were.

Erin disagrees and says she did ask how her parents-in-law were going, as well as Ian and Heather Wilkinson.