Inside the mushroom trial: Death stares and cell issues

Mushroom killer Erin Patterson spent the first few nights of her trial cold and sleepless inside a police cell.

She had requested the trial be held in the small Victorian town of Morwell, where she was held underneath the local police station.

Had the trial been conducted in Melbourne, she may have been afforded more comforts from inside Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, a maximum security women's prison, where she was driven back to every weekend over 11 weeks.

On the first day of trial, Patterson's lawyers complained that she wasn't given a duvet, nor access to a computer and writing materials in her cell.

"At some stage, she was given a blanket, but she spent the night cold — and awake because she was cold — and she can't operate like that," defence barrister Colin Mandy SC said on April 29.

There had been "some suggestion to her that she wasn't going to get special treatment by custody officers", he said.

"Someone who is in police cells for five weeks, facing a murder trial... with a massive brief of evidence, should be afforded some accommodation," he said.

"Because in some ways... she requires special treatment so that we can do our job properly, so that she can provide us with proper instructions, so that she's not uncomfortable."

This was among many parts of the trial that the jury was not privy to, as these conversations occurred while they were out of the room.

But it can all now be revealed after Patterson was found guilty of murdering her estranged husband Simon's parents, Don and Gail, and his aunt Heather Wilkinson, along with the attempted murder of his uncle Ian Wilkinson.

Patterson, who only had one supporter in court — her friend Ali Rose Prior. She was known among media to give death stares if you locked eyes with her.

Media were limited to six seats in the regional courtroom due to the immense interest, and because members of the public couldn't watch it remotely and had to attend in person.

Those seats were directly in front of Patterson in the court dock and, to catch a glimpse of her reaction during the trial, reporters had to swivel around and face her.

She would often turn her head on an angle and stare directly into the eyes of reporters — leaving a menacing impression.

Photographers and camera operators outside the court were banned from photographing Patterson during the trial, with a prohibition on "any images of the accused which suggest, expressly or impliedly, that she is in custody".

One of the most bizarre moments the jury didn't see was in the early weeks of trial, when the estranged husband Simon Patterson was giving evidence.

During a break on May 1, he made a "small request" of Justice Christopher Beale.

"The legal process has been very difficult," he said. "I have a lot to grieve and am grieving a lot about all this stuff here, as I'm sure you can imagine.

"One thing that is really difficult is not being able to follow what happens."

He asked the judge if he could make available to him all of the transcripts from the trial and the pre-trial to help him "grieve the legal process".

Simon had attended court when he gave evidence with a PR adviser, Jessica O'Donnell, which led to a warning from Justice Beale after the judge was told he wanted to issue a statement to media mid-trial.

"Whatever his media adviser might be telling him, it seems to me the most prudent course for him is to defer any statement to the media until after the conclusion of the trial," the judge said.

With the world's attention on the trial, the Supreme Court's media team, the judge and his associates were monitoring coverage including daily podcasts, live news blogs, radio programmes, blogs and television news crosses.

Justice Beale issued several warnings and referred two outlets to prosecutors for potential contempt including The Kyle and Jackie O Show on June 16.

He said the radio show "shock jocks" had commented on the case while on air and used it as an example to warn others on speaking about the trial.

"I encourage all commentators to engage their brains before they open their mouths, as they may otherwise land themselves and their organisations in hot water," Justice Beale said.

A second referral to prosecutors was made by the judge about a visiting psychologist experienced in serial killers, who spoke about the case at an event in Melbourne on May 31.

Network Ten was warned by the judge about saying it had been "another day of damning evidence" in a news story put to air, and the women-focused website Mamamia was told to take down a problematic podcast episode and Facebook post.