Australian ‘mushroom murderer' allegedly tried to poison husband on other occasions

Irish Times

4 days ago

An
Australian
woman who
murdered three of her in-laws with a meal of toxic mushrooms
also allegedly tried to murder her husband using poisoned pasta, a chicken curry and a sandwich wrap, evidence showed on Friday after a judge allowed its disclosure.
A jury last month found Erin Patterson lured her mother-in-law Gail Patterson, father-in-law Don Patterson and Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson, to lunch at her home and poisoned them with servings of Beef Wellington that contained death cap mushrooms.
They also found the 50-year-old guilty of the attempted murder of Ian Wilkinson, Heather's husband, who survived the 2023 meal at Erin Patterson's home in Leongatha, a town of about 6,000 people some 135km southeast of Melbourne.
Patterson was initially charged with three counts of murder and five counts of attempted murder in 2023, with the four additional counts relating to her estranged husband, Simon Patterson.
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Justice Christopher Beale previously ruled the charges should be split into two separate trials, before the prosecution dropped the attempted murder charges relating to Simon Patterson on the eve of the first trial.
That meant details of the alleged attempts on her husband's life in 2021 and 2022 were never heard by the jury.
'After the first time I got sick, I had the idea I got sick from Erin's food,' Simon Patterson told a pretrial hearing in Melbourne in October 2024.
He eventually began keeping a spreadsheet of his illnesses that the court heard all happened after eating his estranged wife's cooking, including a penne bolognese, a chicken curry and a sandwich wrap.
The alleged poisonings, on two camping trips and a walk, left him close to death, and he became so ill he was temporarily paralysed and had part of his bowel removed, the court heard at the time.
In each case, doctors were unable to conclusively determine the cause of his illnesses.
Simon Patterson raised his suspicions with his doctor and with his family, including his father Don, who died at the lunch.
Don Patterson was so certain he had been poisoned at the July 2023 lunch he arrived at hospital with a container of his own vomit for medical professionals to test.
Evidence from a computer seized from Patterson's home showing searches for other kinds of poisons was also excluded from the trial.
After Patterson was found guilty last month, judge Beale ordered the suppression of the pretrial material to protect Patterson's appeal rights.
But on Friday he ordered the restrictions be lifted, rejecting an argument by her defence team, who said that the release of the material combined with intense media interest would jeopardise any potential of an appeal.
'Open justice is a fundamental concern of our criminal justice jurisdiction,' judge Beale said on Friday.
Patterson has 28 days from the as-yet unknown date of her sentencing to appeal, though she has not indicated whether she will do so.
Any appeal by Patterson was unlikely to succeed, though it could not be ruled out, Beale said on Friday.
Patterson maintained her innocence throughout the case that has gripped Australia, with her defence calling the deaths a 'terrible accident'. She pleaded not guilty to the counts of attempted murder against her husband.
The court will next hear the case on August 25th, the first of a two-day plea hearing where victim impact statements will be read. – Reuters