Erin Patterson denies murdering lunch guests in triple-murder mushroom trial

RNZ News

a day ago

By
Larissa Ham
&
Joseph Dunstan
for ABC
Erin Patterson has testified that she did not intentionally kill her relatives by putting death cap mushrooms in their meals.
Photo:
ABC News
Accused triple-murderer Erin Patterson has testified that she did not intentionally kill her relatives by putting death cap mushrooms in their meals.
Patterson, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and attempted murder, has taken to the stand for the fourth day running in the trial in Morwell, in regional Victoria, Australia.
The 50-year-old is accused over the deaths of her estranged husband's parents Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson.
Mrs Wilkinson's husband Ian, who also became seriously ill, was the only guest to survive the deadly 2023 lunch.
The prosecution has begun cross-examining Erin Patterson in the Latrobe Valley Law Courts after three days of questions from her defence team.
Ian and Heather Wilkinson, and Don and Gail Patterson were all hospitalised after the lunch, with only Mr Wilkinson surviving.
Photo:
ABC / Supplied
This morning, Patterson's defence barrister Colin Mandy SC asked his client whether she murdered her relatives.
"Did you intend to kill or cause really serious injury to Donald Patterson by serving that meal?" he asked her.
"No I didn't," Erin she replied.
"Did you intend to harm him in any way?" Mandy said.
Patterson replied: "No."
The defence barrister asked the same question of the three other guests.
Patterson answered no to all questions, her voice progressively breaking as he came to the end of the names.
The court was shown a transcript of a police interview with Patterson, in which she claimed she had not dehydrated food before.
This morning, she said that was a lie, and admitted to also lying when previously denying she either owned a dehydrator or knew anything about one in the house.
"I had disposed of it a few days earlier in the context of thinking that maybe mushrooms that I'd foraged, or the meal I'd prepared, was responsible for making people sick," she told the court.
"And then on the Saturday, Detective Eppingstall told me that Gail and Heather had passed away, and, was this stupid kneejerk reaction to just dig deeper and keep lying.
"I was just scared, but I shouldn't have done it."
Lead prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC began her cross examination of Patterson by asking about her ownership and use of a food dehydrator.
Dr Rogers asserted that Patterson had used it to knowingly prepare death cap mushrooms for the lunch.
"You knew that they were death cap mushrooms that you'd been dehydrating, correct?" Dr Rogers asked.
"No, I didn't know that," Patterson replied.
"And you were very keen to dispose of any evidence that might connect you with the possession of death cap mushrooms, correct?" the prosecutor asked.
"No, I didn't."
The prosecution also put it to Patterson that she had tested how to hide dehydrated mushrooms in food without them being noticed.
"Yeah, that's fair," Patterson replied.
The trial heard Patterson had been adding powdered mushrooms to foods for her children, which she told the court was only done to boost their vegetable intake.
However, she denied she had only ever used the dehydrator on mushrooms, saying she also used it to dehydrate apple, banana and other fruits.
The trial continues.
- ABC