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Patterson was found guilty of intentionally poisoning her lunch guests by serving them a beef Wellington meal containing death cap mushrooms at her Gippsland home in July 2023.
Images published on Monday but taken in May show Erin Patterson arriving at court in the back of a prison van. Source: AFP / Martin Keep
Patterson’s former in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, 70, and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, 66, all died in hospital, days after the meal. Wilkinson’s husband Ian spent two months in hospital recovering, but survived. He gave evidence during the trial.
Patterson had pleaded not guilty and had always maintained the deaths were a tragic accident.
Defence barrister Colin Mandy leaves the Latrobe Valley Magistrates’ Court in Morwell. Source: AAP / James Ross
The prosecution accused Erin Patterson of telling a series of lies to police, including that she did not forage for mushrooms in the meal and did not own a dehydrator.
She revealed for the first time that she enjoyed foraging for wild mushrooms when she was in the witness box, admitting she started foraging in 2020 during the pandemic.
