Latest news with #MsPatterson
Perth Now
3 days ago
- Perth Now
Cook did not want husband dead: Defence
Lawyers acting for alleged mushroom poisoner Erin Patterson have ridiculed an argument put forward by the prosecution that she also wanted to kill her husband, labelling it 'absurd', the jury has heard. During his closing address to the jury on Wednesday, defence barrister Colin Mandy SC said there was 'no possible prospect' Ms Patterson wanted to kill her husband. His comment came after Dr Rogers suggested the sixth beef Wellington Ms Patterson had prepared was 'clearly intended' for her husband Simon Patterson. 'The prosecution case is: had Simon Patterson changed his mind and decided to attend the lunch after all, he, too, would have been served that sixth poisoned beef Wellington,' she said on Monday. Erin Patterson has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. 9News Credit: Supplied Previously the jury was told Ms Patterson had prepared six beef Wellingtons – one more than the number of people present at the lunch. In the witness box the accused woman disputed the sixth was intended for her husband, saying it was just an 'extra one' made because she had the ingredients and the steaks used came in twin packs. Dr Rogers pointed to the accused woman's evidence that if Simon had attended, she would have given him a beef Wellington too, and Ms Patterson's final message to her husband after he told her the night before the lunch he wouldn't come. 'I hope you'll change your mind. Your parents and Heather and Ian are coming at 12.30. I hope to see you there,' the message read. Simon Patterson told the jury the pair remain married. NewsWire / David Geraghty Credit: News Corp Australia Mr Mandy told the jury it was 'obvious from the tone of the message' his client did want him to come and was trying to guilt him into coming. 'The prosecution says the only reason she wanted him there was because she wanted to kill him as well. And that's, we say, an absurd theory,' he said. 'That would have had the result of removing from the children's lives their father, their grandparents, Simon's aunt and uncle. 'There's no possible prospect that Erin wanted in those circumstances to destroy her whole world, her whole life. Surely it's more likely that her account is true.' Also on Wednesday, Mr Mandy said he expected to conclude his remarks on Thursday morning. The update follows trial judge Justice Christopher Beale advising jurors earlier this week he would wait until Monday to begin his summing up of the case and charge, and that he expected this would take a couple of days. The jury would then be sent out to deliberate. Barrister Colin Mandy SC will continue his closing address on Thursday. NewsWire / Diego Fedele Credit: News Corp Australia Ms Patterson is facing trial accused of murdering three of her husband's family members, and the attempted murder of a fourth, with a poisoned beef Wellington lunch on July 29, 2023. Simon Patterson's parents, Don and Gail Patterson, and aunt, Heather Wilkinson, died in the week following the lunch while Heather's husband, Ian Wilkinson, survived. Prosecutors allege the 50-year-old deliberately sourced the deadly fungi and included it in the lunch intending to kill or at least seriously injure the four guests. She has pleaded not guilty, with her defence arguing she did not intentionally poison the meal, labelling the case a tragic accident. The trial, now in its eighth week, continues.
Perth Now
11-06-2025
- Perth Now
Mushroom cook denies ‘wild goose chase' claim
Alleged triple-murderer Erin Patterson has denied she led health authorities on a 'wild goose chase' as they probed the mushroom poisoning of her four lunch guests. Ms Patterson returned to the witness box at her Supreme Court trial in Morwell this week for her second week of giving evidence. The 50-year-old is facing trial after pleading not guilty to the murder of three of her husband's family members and the attempted murder of a fourth. Simon Patterson's parents, Don and Gail Patterson, and aunt, Heather Wilkinson, died after eating a meal at Ms Patterson's home on July 29, 2023, in the country Victorian town of Leongatha. Ms Patterson has pleaded not guilty, telling the jury she did not intend to harm anyone. Brooke Grebert-Craig. Credit: Supplied Heather's husband, Ian Wilkinson survived after spending about a month and a half in hospital. Prosecutors allege Ms Patterson deliberately poisoned the guests with death cap mushrooms while her defence argues it was a tragic accident. Giving evidence last week, Ms Patterson maintained she used dried mushrooms in the deadly lunch which she had bought from an Asian grocer in Melbourne's east in about April 2023. She told the court she initially planned to use them in a pasta dish, but decided they would be too overpowering and stored them in a Tupperware container in her pantry. She said she now believes she may have added foraged wild mushrooms to that container. Ms Patterson's estranged husband Simon Patterson. NewsWire / David Geraghty Credit: News Corp Australia Facing questions from Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC on Wednesday, Ms Patterson was asked if she was worried about them being too strong for the beef Wellington. 'No, I didn't think that. I thought it was the perfect dish for them,' she responded. Dr Rogers went on to probe the exchange Ms Patterson had with Department of Health officer Sally Ann Atkinson about the Asian grocer. Dr Nanette Rogers is leading the prosecution for the Crown. NewsWire/Ian Currie Credit: News Corp Australia Ms Atkinson gave evidence she communicated with Ms Patterson over several days in earlier August amid a public health probe into the poisoning. Text messages and calls between the pair showed the public health officer attempting to narrow down the location of the store. Dr Rogers suggested Ms Patterson was 'very familiar' with the area, owning a home in Mount Waverley and having previously worked for Monash City Council. The accused woman disputed this, but did say she was familiar with the adjoining areas of Glen Waverley, Oakleigh and Clayton. Dr Rogers suggested Ms Patterson was 'deliberately vague' about the location of the Asian grocer because it was a lie. 'Incorrect,' Ms Patterson responded. 'I was doing my best to remember when it happened, but I think I was clear at all times that I didn't have a memory of the actual purchase.' The trial, now in its seventh week, continues.
Perth Now
06-06-2025
- Perth Now
Key revelations from mushroom cook's testimony
The Victorian mother-of-two at the centre of a mushroom poisoning case had the opportunity to tell her own story this week as she took the stand at her triple-murder trial. Erin Patterson, 50, is facing trial after pleading not guilty to the murders of her husband's parents and aunt, and the attempted murder of his uncle. Simon Patterson's parents, Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson, died in the week after the lunch after falling ill from mushroom poisoning. Prosecutors alleged she deliberately poisoned the beef Wellington lunch on July 29, 2023, with death cap mushrooms intending to kill or seriously injure her four guests. Erin Patterson and her estranged husband Simon Patterson. NewsWire Credit: NewsWire Her defence, on the other hand, has argued the case is a 'tragic accident' and Ms Patterson also consumed the death caps and fell sick, though not as sick as her guests. Over five days this week Ms Patterson sat in the witness box about 7 m from the 14 jurors selected to hear her case, answering questions, firstly from her barrister Colin Mandy SC and then from Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC. Her opportunity to tell her own story came after the jury spent five weeks hearing from more than 50 witnesses for the prosecution as Ms Patterson sat in silence at the back of the Morwell courtroom. Mushroom cook agrees death caps in lunch may have been foraged In her testimony to the jury, Ms Patterson conceded death cap mushrooms 'must' have ended up in the beef Wellington lunch she prepared and served for the four guests. The morning of the lunch, she told the court, she started to prepare the duxelles, or mushroom paste, by cooking down two punnets of fresh sliced mushrooms she had purchased from Woolworths. 'So, as I was cooking it down, I tasted it a few times and it seemed a little bland to me, so I decided to put in the dried mushrooms that I'd bought from the grocer that I still had in the pantry,' she said. A court sketch of Ms Patterson in the witness box on Monday. NewsWire / Anita Lester Credit: News Corp Australia Ms Patterson told the jury she had purchased a packet of dried mushrooms in April the same year from an Asian supermarket in Melbourne, initially intending to use them for a pasta dish but deciding against that because they had a strong flavour. She said she now accepts it was possible she had stored wild mushrooms she foraged from her local area and dehydrated in the same Tupperware container. 'At that time, I believed it was just the mushrooms that I'd bought in Melbourne … Now I think that there was a possibility that there were foraged ones in there as well,' she said. Ms Patterson told the jury she first became interested in foraging for wild mushrooms during Covid and educated herself online. Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC is leading the case against Ms Patterson. NewsWire/ David Crosling Credit: News Corp Australia Over a period of months, she said she grew confident to identify 'field mushrooms and horse mushrooms' growing on her property before deciding to eat some. 'When I got to a point I was confident what they were, I cut a bit off, fried it up with butter, ate it and saw what happened,' she said. 'They tasted good and I didn't get sick.' Ms Patterson said she had purchased a dehydrator on April 28, 2023, to begin experimenting with preserving mushrooms because they had a short shelf life. Crown alleges photo shows Ms Patterson calculating 'fatal dose' Under questioning from Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC, Ms Patterson was taken to a photograph of sliced mushrooms on a dehydrator tray being weighed. The weight recorded was 280.0g and metadata from the photo showed it was last modified on May 4. Ms Patterson agreed the photo was 'likely' taken by her and contains her kitchen bench. Ms Patterson told the jury she loved mushrooms and would buy them one or two times a week. Supplied. Credit: Supplied Previously, the jury heard from mycologist Dr Tom May that the mushrooms pictured were 'consistent with amanita phalloides (death caps) at a high level of confidence'. Questioned on if she accepted the mushrooms pictured were death caps, Ms Patterson said: 'I don't think they are'. She also denied she had foraged these mushrooms in the nearby town of Loch on April 28 after seeing a death cap mushroom sighting post on citizen science website iNaturalist on April 18. Dr Rogers suggested the image recorded Ms Patterson weighing the mushrooms to calculate the 'weight required for the administration of a fatal dose'. 'Disagree,' Ms Patterson responded. The trial is being heard in the country Victorian town of Morwell. NewsWire / Josie Hayden Credit: News Corp Australia Mushroom cook tells jury she lied to health authorities because she was scared Ms Patterson said she first learned her in-laws had fallen ill the day after the lunch on a phone call with her estranged husband on July 30. The following day, she told the court, she attended the local Leongatha Hospital too seek treatment for gastro when the resident doctor, Dr Chris Webster, said 'we've been expecting you'. 'I think I said to him, 'Why? Why are you asking?', and he said that there's a concern or we're concerned you've been exposed to death cap mushrooms,' she said. 'I was shocked but confused as well … I didn't see how death cap mushrooms could be in the meal.' Crowds have lined up outside the court to sit in the public gallery. NewsWire/ David Crosling Credit: News Corp Australia Ms Patterson told the court she first began to suspect foraged mushrooms may have ended up in the lunch at Monash Medical Centre when Simon accused her of poisoning his parents. In his own evidence, at the start of the trial, Simon Patterson told the jury he did not say this to his wife. Ms Patterson told the jury on August 2, the day after her release from hospital, she disposed of her dehydrator at the Koonwarra Transfer Station. 'I was scared that they would blame me for it,' she said of the decision. 'Surely if you loved them (her in-laws) you would have notified health authorities about the possibility of the foraged mushrooms in the container?' Dr Rogers asked. 'Well I didn't,' Ms Patterson replied. 'I had been told people were getting treatment for possible death cap mushroom poisoning so that was already happening.' Erin Patterson appeared emotional at times on the stand. Brooke Grebert-Craig. Credit: Supplied Ms Patterson confirmed she did not notify anyone of her suspicions and lied to both police and health authorities in the following days by claiming she did not forage for mushrooms. She was taken to a series of messages exchanged with public health officer Sally Anne Atkinson, where Ms Patterson insisted the only mushrooms in the meal were from Woolworths and an Asian grocer. Asked what her state of mind was in relation to the Asian grocer, she said she 'still thought it was a possibility, but I knew it wasn't the only possibility.' Ms Patterson told the court she first learned of Heather and Gail's deaths as police searched her home on August 5 and continued to lie. 'It was this stupid knee-jerk reaction to just dig deeper and keep lying. I was just scared, but I shouldn't have done it,' she said. Simon's parents Don and Gail Patterson died a day apart in early August. Supplied Credit: Supplied Ms Patterson claims she vomited after deadly lunch Ms Patterson also told the jury she had long struggled with both her weight and relationships to food since childhood – describing it as a 'rollercoaster'. 'Mum would weigh us every week to make sure we weren't putting on too much weight … I went to the extreme of barely eating then to, through my adulthood, going the other way and bingeing,' she said. She told the court she had engaged in binge eating until she was sick then 'bringing it back up' since her 20s and no one knew. Erin Patterson legal team including Colin Mandy SC, Sophie Stafford and Bill Doogue. NewsWire / Luis Enrique Ascui Credit: News Corp Australia In the lead up to the July 29, 2023, lunch, Ms Patterson said she had been engaging in this behaviour 'two or three times a week'. She told the court that at the lunch with Don, Gail, Heather and Ian, she only ate some of her serving, but consumed about two-thirds of an orange cake after her guests left. 'I had a piece of cake and then another piece of cake and then another,' Ms Patterson said. 'I felt sick. I felt overfull, so I went to the toilets and brought it back up again.' Ms Patterson is expected to return to the witness box and continue giving evidence when the trial resumes on Tuesday.
West Australian
06-06-2025
- West Australian
Erin Patterson trial: Four takeaways from alleged beef Wellington poisoner's week in the witness box
The Victorian mother-of-two at the centre of a mushroom poisoning case had the opportunity to tell her own story this week as she took the stand at her triple-murder trial. Erin Patterson, 50, is facing trial after pleading not guilty to the murders of her husband's parents and aunt, and the attempted murder of his uncle. Simon Patterson's parents, Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson, died in the week after the lunch after falling ill from mushroom poisoning. Prosecutors alleged she deliberately poisoned the beef Wellington lunch on July 29, 2023, with death cap mushrooms intending to kill or seriously injure her four guests. Her defence, on the other hand, has argued the case is a 'tragic accident' and Ms Patterson also consumed the death caps and fell sick, though not as sick as her guests. Over five days this week Ms Patterson sat in the witness box about 7 m from the 14 jurors selected to hear her case, answering questions, firstly from her barrister Colin Mandy SC and then from Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC. Her opportunity to tell her own story came after the jury spent five weeks hearing from more than 50 witnesses for the prosecution as Ms Patterson sat in silence at the back of the Morwell courtroom. Mushroom cook agrees death caps in lunch may have been foraged In her testimony to the jury, Ms Patterson conceded death cap mushrooms 'must' have ended up in the beef Wellington lunch she prepared and served for the four guests. The morning of the lunch, she told the court, she started to prepare the duxelles, or mushroom paste, by cooking down two punnets of fresh sliced mushrooms she had purchased from Woolworths. 'So, as I was cooking it down, I tasted it a few times and it seemed a little bland to me, so I decided to put in the dried mushrooms that I'd bought from the grocer that I still had in the pantry,' she said. Ms Patterson told the jury she had purchased a packet of dried mushrooms in April the same year from an Asian supermarket in Melbourne, initially intending to use them for a pasta dish but deciding against that because they had a strong flavour. She said she now accepts it was possible she had stored wild mushrooms she foraged from her local area and dehydrated in the same Tupperware container. 'At that time, I believed it was just the mushrooms that I'd bought in Melbourne … Now I think that there was a possibility that there were foraged ones in there as well,' she said. Ms Patterson told the jury she first became interested in foraging for wild mushrooms during Covid and educated herself online. Over a period of months, she said she grew confident to identify 'field mushrooms and horse mushrooms' growing on her property before deciding to eat some. 'When I got to a point I was confident what they were, I cut a bit off, fried it up with butter, ate it and saw what happened,' she said. 'They tasted good and I didn't get sick.' Ms Patterson said she had purchased a dehydrator on April 28, 2023, to begin experimenting with preserving mushrooms because they had a short shelf life. Crown alleges photo shows Ms Patterson calculating 'fatal dose' Under questioning from Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC, Ms Patterson was taken to a photograph of sliced mushrooms on a dehydrator tray being weighed. The weight recorded was 280.0g and metadata from the photo showed it was last modified on May 4. Ms Patterson agreed the photo was 'likely' taken by her and contains her kitchen bench. Previously, the jury heard from mycologist Dr Tom May that the mushrooms pictured were 'consistent with amanita phalloides (death caps) at a high level of confidence'. Questioned on if she accepted the mushrooms pictured were death caps, Ms Patterson said: 'I don't think they are'. She also denied she had foraged these mushrooms in the nearby town of Loch on April 28 after seeing a death cap mushroom sighting post on citizen science website iNaturalist on April 18. Dr Rogers suggested the image recorded Ms Patterson weighing the mushrooms to calculate the 'weight required for the administration of a fatal dose'. 'Disagree,' Ms Patterson responded. Mushroom cook tells jury she lied to health authorities because she was scared Ms Patterson said she first learned her in-laws had fallen ill the day after the lunch on a phone call with her estranged husband on July 30. The following day, she told the court, she attended the local Leongatha Hospital too seek treatment for gastro when the resident doctor, Dr Chris Webster, said 'we've been expecting you'. 'I think I said to him, 'Why? Why are you asking?', and he said that there's a concern or we're concerned you've been exposed to death cap mushrooms,' she said. 'I was shocked but confused as well … I didn't see how death cap mushrooms could be in the meal.' Ms Patterson told the court she first began to suspect foraged mushrooms may have ended up in the lunch at Monash Medical Centre when Simon accused her of poisoning his parents. In his own evidence, at the start of the trial, Simon Patterson told the jury he did not say this to his wife. Ms Patterson told the jury on August 2, the day after her release from hospital, she disposed of her dehydrator at the Koonwarra Transfer Station. 'I was scared that they would blame me for it,' she said of the decision. 'Surely if you loved them (her in-laws) you would have notified health authorities about the possibility of the foraged mushrooms in the container?' Dr Rogers asked. 'Well I didn't,' Ms Patterson replied. 'I had been told people were getting treatment for possible death cap mushroom poisoning so that was already happening.' Ms Patterson confirmed she did not notify anyone of her suspicions and lied to both police and health authorities in the following days by claiming she did not forage for mushrooms. She was taken to a series of messages exchanged with public health officer Sally Anne Atkinson, where Ms Patterson insisted the only mushrooms in the meal were from Woolworths and an Asian grocer. Asked what her state of mind was in relation to the Asian grocer, she said she 'still thought it was a possibility, but I knew it wasn't the only possibility.' Ms Patterson told the court she first learned of Heather and Gail's deaths as police searched her home on August 5 and continued to lie. 'It was this stupid knee-jerk reaction to just dig deeper and keep lying. I was just scared, but I shouldn't have done it,' she said. Ms Patterson claims she vomited after deadly lunch Ms Patterson also told the jury she had long struggled with both her weight and relationships to food since childhood – describing it as a 'rollercoaster'. 'Mum would weigh us every week to make sure we weren't putting on too much weight … I went to the extreme of barely eating then to, through my adulthood, going the other way and bingeing,' she said. She told the court she had engaged in binge eating until she was sick then 'bringing it back up' since her 20s and no one knew. In the lead up to the July 29, 2023, lunch, Ms Patterson said she had been engaging in this behaviour 'two or three times a week'. She told the court that at the lunch with Don, Gail, Heather and Ian, she only ate some of her serving, but consumed about two-thirds of an orange cake after her guests left. 'I had a piece of cake and then another piece of cake and then another,' Ms Patterson said. 'I felt sick. I felt overfull, so I went to the toilets and brought it back up again.' Ms Patterson is expected to return to the witness box and continue giving evidence when the trial resumes on Tuesday.
RTÉ News
05-06-2025
- RTÉ News
Accused mushroom killer says she lied to police
An Australian woman accused of murdering three people with poisonous mushrooms has told a court that she lied to police because she feared being held "responsible". Erin Patterson is charged with murdering her estranged husband's parents and aunt in 2023 by spiking their beef Wellington lunch with lethal death cap mushrooms. She is also accused of attempting to murder a fourth guest - her husband's uncle - who survived after a long stay in hospital. Ms Patterson maintains the lunch was poisoned by accident and has pleaded not guilty to all charges. An Australian court was told how she used a food dehydrator to prepare mushrooms that she had collected while foraging. Ms Patterson later told police she did not own a food dehydrator, the prosecution said. "You lied about dehydrating food and mushrooms because you knew that if you told police the truth, then that would implicate you in the poisoned lunch," prosecution lawyer Nanette Rogers said. "Agree or disagree?" "I agree that I lied because I was afraid I would be held responsible," Ms Patterson responded. The court previously heard that Ms Patterson used a food dehydrator to preserve store-bought and foraged mushrooms, which she then kept in her pantry. Days after the deadly lunch, security cameras allegedly captured Ms Patterson discarding the dehydrator at a local rubbish dump. Detectives said they found traces of death cap mushrooms in the dehydrator, the court previously heard. "I didn't deliberately put death cap mushrooms in the meal," Ms Patterson told the court. The prosecution alleges she intentionally poisoned her lunch guests and took care that she did not consume the deadly mushrooms herself. Her defence says Ms Patterson ate the same meal as the others but did not fall as sick. Ms Patterson asked her estranged husband Simon to the family lunch at her secluded rural Victoria home in July 2023. Simon turned down the invitation because he felt too uncomfortable, the court heard previously. The pair were long estranged but still legally married. Simon's parents, Don and Gail, were happy to attend, dying days after eating the home-cooked meal. Simon's aunt, Heather Wilkinson, also died, while her husband Ian fell seriously ill but later recovered. Ms Patterson told the court that if Simon had attended the lunch, she would have "given him a beef Wellington too". "But not one with death cap mushrooms in it intentionally," she said. Ms Patterson's defence lawyer, Colin Mandy, asked if she intended to kill or cause serious injury to her lunch guests that day. Ms Patterson replied she did not.
