Trial Reveals Accused Mushroom Killer Ate Deadly Meal from Separate Plate

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Accused triple murderer Erin Patterson’s alleged lies have been outlined by prosecutors, as her defence argues she “panicked” after four people became sick from her cooking.

The prosecution and defence each outlined their cases to a jury of 15 people on Wednesday, as the mother-of-two’s murder trial continues in Morwell, in regional Victoria.

Patterson has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder and one of attempted murder, over the deaths of Heather Wilkinson, Don and Gail Patterson and for allegedly trying to kill Ian Wilkinson, who survived.

One woman supported her in court, while several family and friends of the victims also attended proceedings.

A composite image showing one woman wearing a red top on the left, and a man and a woman smiling together on the right.

Erin Patterson is accused of killing her former in-laws, Don (centre) and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson (left). Credit: Supplied

She served her guests steak wrapped in pastry with a mushroom paste containing death cap mushrooms, alongside mashed potato and greens, at her Leongatha home on 29 July, 2023.

But she says she did not intend to poison her guests.

Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC detailed a series of lies which she alleges will prove her case against Patterson.

She said Patterson lied about becoming sick after the lunch and pretended to be suffering the same type of illness as her guests, to cover up what she had done, and lied about her children being given the leftovers the next day.

“She knew that, like her, they had not eaten any poisoned food,” she said.

Patterson lied about buying some of the mushrooms in the dish from an Asian grocer and about disposing of a dehydrator “to conceal what she had done”, Rogers said.

She said Patterson made a “deliberately false” claim of having cancer, to explain why the children did not need to be present for the meal.

But she said the prosecution would not be suggesting there was any “particular motive to do what she did”.

Defence barrister Colin Mandy SC said Patterson had “panicked” after the lunch.

“She was overwhelmed by the fact that these four people had become so ill because of the food she’d served to them,” Mandy told the jury.

“Three people died because of the food that Erin Patterson served that day.”

He asked the jury to consider how Patterson behaved in the context of “serving up a meal that had such tragic consequences”, amid intense police, media and public health scrutiny.

After hearing all the evidence, he said the prosecution would not be able to prove Patterson had intentionally poisoned her guests.

Mandy said Patterson, who complained of diarrhoea and abdominal pain after the lunch and went to hospital but refused to be treated, was not pretending to be sick.

He said she admitted she got rid of the dehydrator and “that makes her look guilty” and then lied about getting rid of it.

She also admitted she lied to police about foraging for mushrooms, but denied she had deliberately “sought out death cap mushrooms”, he said.

Erin Patterson’s legal team (left-right) Barrister Colin Mandy SC, Barrister Sophie Stafford, Barrister Sophie Stafford and Lawyer Bill Doogue arriving at the Latrobe Valley Magistrates Court in Morwell, Victoria on Wednesday. Source: AAP / James Ross

Earlier, Rogers said Heather Wilkinson had expressed concerns after the lunch Patterson had served the meals on different plates.

“I noticed that Erin put her food on a different plate to us, her plate had colours on it, I wondered why that was,” Wilkinson allegedly said before her death.

Rogers said Patterson told health professionals and toxicologists she had made a mushroom paste for the beef Wellington using fresh mushrooms from Woolworths and dried mushrooms from an Asian store in Clayton, Oakleigh or Glen Waverley.

But she said council investigators had found there were no dried mushrooms fitting the description Patterson had given in any of those stores.

Three of those guests, Don, Gail and Heather Wilkinson’s conditions became “unsurvivable” and all three died in hospital between 4 and 5 Augustafter being diagnosed with Amanita mushroom poisoning.

The trial before Justice Christopher Beale continues on Thursday.

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