The media were constrained in what they could report during Erin Patterson’s 10-week trial. But after the mushroom trial guilty verdict was handed down on Monday, all bets were off.

The extraordinary photographs of the triple murderer in a prison van in May were published by every media outlet, bought from the wire agency AFP for more than $1,500 each or a discounted rate for the set of six.

The trial exhibits were published, including footage of “the deadly beef wellington”. And then came the hot takes. It’s hard to recall a criminal case that has prompted this much commentary and so many angles.

The Australian illustrated its online mushroom coverage with several colourful gifs featuring Patterson superimposed on psychedelic-style fungi.

Its associate editor John Ferguson summed up what he described as “the full Erin. Cold, mean and vicious.”

His colleague Claire Harvey did more than analyse Patterson’s personality: “Cold. Snarky. Too smart by half. Cynical. A liar”. Harvey said the motive was “obvious”, accusing Patterson of “domestic violence coercive control”. She suggested the prosecution was wrong by not attempting to prove a motive.

“The fact this crime was committed by a woman, and involved poison, and not a gun or a knife, has confused what should be crystal clear – and should have been a motive clearly presented to the jury,” Harvey wrote.

But it was left to the Daily Mail to produce the standout first-person piece from the trial, written by the veteran crime reporter Wayne Flower in what he believed was gonzo-style journalism. Forced to stay on the ground in Morwell by his editors, Flower encountered “full-on Walking Dead-style zombie stuff – the kind you think only exists in America”.

He wrote about how gruelling it was attending court every day while dodging “junkies, and degenerates”. He was holed up in “cramped hotel rooms” and........

© The Guardian