A little town with a shady past is set to make the world stage when alleged mushroom killer Erin Patterson enters the court.
The first in a series of pre-trial hearings concluded last week, with more scheduled to take place in October and again in December, before her murder trial next year.
Those hearings – the details of which cannot be published to prevent prejudicing a jury trial – are all being heard at the Supreme Court of Victoria in Melbourne’s court precinct.
But Patterson’s trial will be at the Supreme Court of Victoria in Morwell – 150km east of Melbourne in the state’s Latrobe Valley in Gippsland – when it starts on April 28.
That date was set on day one of last week’s five-day pre-trial hearing, sparking the instant attention of media outlets all around the world.
Almost all available accommodation within 13km of Morwell – as far away as Traralgon – has now been snapped up by media organisations flocking to the trial.
The trial could run for up to six weeks, with crowds of photographers and camera crews expected alongside a horde of court and crime reporters in Morwell.
True crime podcasters and documentary crews will also converge on the town, which is located among lush green fields and has a population of under 15,000.
The city is known for its role as a major energy production centre for Victoria, as the centre of a major coalmining and fossil-fuel power generation industry.
The Supreme Court of Victoria has yet to reveal its plans on how it will cater for the world’s media in Morwell when Daily Mail lodged an enquiry last week.
But the region is no stranger to large-scale media circuses and has previously made global headlines at the centre of a series of unrelated high-profile crimes.
Among those was the tragic death of little Jaidyn Leskie in the Latrobe Valley town of Moe – 20 minutes’ drive from the courthouse where the Patterson trial will be held.
Greg Domaszewicz was charged with murdering 13-month-old Jaidyn in 1997 but was found not guilty at trial.
Domaszewicz, then aged 28, was babysitting Jaidyn at the home of the boy’s mum when a pig’s head was bizarrely thrown onto the home’s front yard in an unrelated dispute.
Jaidyn went missing the same night, but six months later, he was found dead in a creek with horrific injuries, including a badly broken arm that was poorly treated.
Domaszewicz admitted to police the one-year-old boy had been hurt that night and that he ‘cleaned up the blood’, but denied killing him.
Police investigators at the time thought Domaszewicz had been working on a car which may have fallen off its jack and hurt the toddler playing nearby.
They believed Domaszewicz panicked, gave Jaidyn a drug and killed him with a blow to his head before dumping his body in the dam.
But the jury rejected that theory and cleared Domaszewicz of killing the child.
The trial, which unlike the upcoming Patterson trial was held in Melbourne, attracted widespread media coverage.
A follow-up coronial inquest in 2003 heard evidence from more than 50 witnesses.
In his opening address, former Attorney-General Jim Kennan, SC, claimed there was evidence Domaszewicz had mistreated Jaidyn in the weeks before his death.
The inquiry went for nearly a month but when it came to an end, the coroner could still not determine who had killed the toddler.
In June last year, the Latrobe Valley again made headlines for the gruesome death of a ‘gentle giant’, who died after being lured to his death by a glamorous barista.
Moe man Jarrad Lovison, 38, was killed by Jake Brown, 31, and his mate Andrew Price, 50, who forcefed him a toxic overdose of GHB and left in him the bush in 2019.
Barista Samantha Guillerme, who received a non-parole sentence of just 15 months after pleading guilty to his manslaughter and agreeing to a deal to inform on the others, had set up Lovison as part of a deadly love triangle.
And just months later East Gippsland man Albert Thorn was sentenced to life in prison for the horrific murder of father-of-eight Bradley ‘BJ’ Lyons.
Mr Lyons, of Lakes Entrance, was tortured and executed after being betrayed by his meth-addled wife Jana Hooper, who falsely accused him of sexually assaulting her daughters.
The trial, which also attracted significant media attention, was also held in Melbourne.
Patterson faces three counts of murder over the deaths of her father-in-law Don Patterson, mother-in-law Gail Patterson and extended relative Heather Wilkinson, after inviting the trio to a lunch at her home in July last year.
She is accused of the attempted murder of her estranged husband Simon Patterson – who was invited to the lunch but did not attend – and two other alleged attempts on his life in 2022, and another in 2021.
Patterson is also accused of the attempted murder of pastor Ian Wilkinson, who was at the lunch but survived after a long fight for life in hospital.
The court had previously heard Patterson was keen to have the trial held near her hometown of Leongatha, which is about 60km southwest of Morwell.
Patterson has always denied any wrongdoing and broke down in tears when she broke her silence prior to her arrest last year.