THE COURTS:

PERTH: An amateur criminologist says he has evidence strong enough to strike out the guilty verdict a jury yesterday handed down against Erin Patterson in the 10-week “mushroom murder” trial in the small Victorian country town of Morwell.

Vernon Snerd (main picture) who describes himself as one of a growing worldwide number of “internet sleuths” said he had followed the case in detail since the day Ms Patterson was charged after the death of three people who ate the beef wellington lunch she had cooked.

Despite living almost 3,500 kms away from the crime scene at Leongatha he was able to carry out his own detailed investigation of the circumstances and events that led to the murder charges against Ms Patterson.

“These days the internet allows people like me to do our own investigations into cases like the so-called mushroom murders’,” Mr Snerd said in a phone interview this morning with a reporter from The Bug’s Perth bureau.

“I must say that right up until yesterday afternoon when the guilty verdict was announced, I had no reason to question the police investigation or the arguments presented in court by prosecution lawyers.

“But watching the TV news last night I saw for the first time during this trial a real-life image of Erin Patterson taken in a prison van.

“I was shocked and sat bolt upright. It is clear to me after comparing court room artists’ sketches published during the trial (below) with the image on TV last night that somehow an entirely different woman was convicted.

“This must be the greatest miscarriage of justice in Australian, if not world, history!

“I am very concerned about the damage this huge mistake might do to the reputation of our justice system and those working in it,” he said.

Mr Snerd said he had already contacted the judge in the Patterson case – Justice Christopher Beale – by using online resources and his own investigative skills to find his home phone number.

“It was very late last night, actually it was in the early hours of this morning, when I spoke to Justice Beale and said that he had made a big mistake.

“He sounded a bit upset, and I guess I would be too if I were in his position and this bungle happened.

“But he did say he’d have the WA Police visit me first thing this morning, so that’s a step in the right direction.

“Oh, hang on. There’s a knock on my door now. It might be them,” Mr Snerd said before a loud crashing sound was heard followed by screaming that followed the sound of an electrical discharge similar to a Taser gun before his phone line went dead.

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