Director of Public Prosecutions Brendan Kissane, KC, is now responding to arguments from Erin Patterson’s lawyers.
He rejected their submission that there was a “fundamental irregularity” in Patterson’s trial as the jury briefly stayed in the same hotel as some prosecutors and police, which the defence argued “fatally undermined the integrity of the verdicts”.
“There is actually no substance to it,” Kissane just said.
“Far from being some sort of catastrophic failure … there’s no evidence in our submission to support this ground.”
Kissane said the evidence showed there was “no social contact between any juror and any other person”.
He pointed out the hotel put jurors on a separate floor with a separate dining room. He jury keepers had sworn to prevent improper communication with jurors too.
