The judge in the Erin Patterson trial was so concerned about whether the jury had been protected from outside influence during its deliberations that he instructed authorities to try to preserve CCTV from the regional hotel where jurors were sequestered for six days.
What happened when the 12-person jury was sequestered in the same Gippsland hotel alongside police, prosecutors and media in July 2025 has become a central point in Patterson’s appeal against conviction for three murders and one attempted murder from the now infamous death cap mushroom lunch.