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SYDNEY: An Australian woman accused of killing three lunch guests with deadly mushrooms should not be judged guilty just because she lied after the meal, her defense lawyer said Wednesday.

Erin Patterson, 50, is charged with murdering her estranged husband’s parents and aunt in July 2023 by spiking their beef Wellington lunch with death cap mushrooms.

She is also accused of attempting to murder a fourth guest – her husband’s uncle – who survived the lunch after a long stay in hospital.

Patterson has steadfastly maintained her innocence during a seven-week-long trial that has made headlines from New York to New Delhi.

As the trial came to its closing stages on Wednesday, defense lawyer Colin Mandy sought to explain Patterson’s behavior in the days following the deadly feast.

Patterson told police investigating the deaths that she did not own a food dehydrator, which was allegedly used to prepare the death cap mushrooms.

Security footage showed Patterson dumping a dehydrator at a nearby rubbish facility, and forensic tests found trace amounts of death cap mushrooms on the appliance.

“No one knows what they would have done in a similar situation,” Mandy told the trial.

“She is not on trial for being a liar.”

Mandy said there was nothing unusual about Patterson’s knowledge of death cap mushrooms.

She developed an interest in foraging for mushrooms during the pandemic lockdown in 2020, Mandy said, teaching herself which varieties were safe to eat.

It made “perfect sense” that Patterson would have become “aware of death cap mushrooms” during this period, Mandy said.

Patterson “loved” mushrooms, he added, because they were healthy and full of flavor.

This interest explained why Patterson visited a website listing locations of death cap mushrooms near where she lived, Mandy said.

Patterson originally invited her estranged husband Simon to join the family lunch at her secluded home in the farming village of Leongatha in Victoria state.

But he turned down the invitation on the eve of the meal, saying he felt uncomfortable going, the court heard earlier.

The pair were long estranged but still legally married.

Simon Patterson’s parents Don and Gail, and his aunt Heather Wilkinson, attended the lunch.

All three were dead within days. Heather Wilkinson’s husband Ian fell gravely ill but eventually recovered.

NEW DELHI: New Delhi had granted a license to Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite Internet service, opening India’s “next frontier of connectivity,” according to the country’s communications minister.

The launch of Starlink, which provides high-speed Internet access to remote locations using low Earth orbit satellites, has sparked fierce debate in India over issues ranging from predatory pricing to spectrum allocation.

Communications minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said he held a “productive meeting” with Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operating officer of Starlink owner SpaceX.

Shotwell “appreciated the license granted to Starlink, calling it a great start to the journey,” the minister said late Tuesday on Musk-owned social media platform X.

It follows two of India’s biggest telecom service providers – Jio Platforms and its rival Bharti Airtel – in March announcing deals with SpaceX to offer Starlink Internet to their customers.

SpaceX owner Musk has butted heads with Asia’s richest man and Jio Platforms owner Mukesh Ambani over how the satellite spectrum should be awarded.

While Musk’s business interests in India are currently limited to X, the tech mogul’s electric vehicle maker Tesla is preparing its entry into the country.