Accused to give evidence in mushroom murder trial
Erin Patterson, who cooked the deadly meal, will give evidence in her defence. Photo: Supplied
Mushroom cook Erin Patterson will give evidence to her highly publicised triple-murder trial, after she was called as a defence witness.
The 50-year-old woman is nearing the end of a Supreme Court jury trial in regional Victoria, with the prosecution completing their evidence to a jury of 14 on Monday afternoon.
The prosecution's final witness was Detective Senior Constable Stephen Eppingstall, who spent about five days in the witness box.
"The crown formally closes its case," prosecution barrister Nanette Rogers SC told the jury.
About 3.15pm on Monday, defence barrister Colin Mandy SC told the jury he will call Patterson as a witness.
"Your Honour, the defence will call Erin Patterson," he said.
Her defence admitted Patterson told a number of lies at the beginning of the trial, including that she did not own a food dehydrator and had never foraged for mushrooms.
She has pleaded not guilty to three murders over the deaths of her estranged husband's family, after serving them a toxic beef Wellington at her Leongatha home on July 29, 2023.
Her former in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, 70, and Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson, 66, died in hospital from death cap mushroom poisoning days after the lunch.
She is also charged with the attempted murder of Heather's husband Ian Wilkinson, who became sick but survived the meal.
Mr Wilkinson has sat inside court almost every day since he gave evidence in the second week of the trial, which is sitting at Latrobe Valley courts in Morwell, about two hours' drive from Melbourne.
Mr Mandy told the jury earlier the defence case was Patterson had "panicked" and told some lies "because she was overwhelmed by the fact that these four people had become so ill because of the food that she'd served to them".
The poisonings were unintentional, "a tragedy and a terrible accident", he said.
However, the prosecution claims Patterson deliberately poisoned her lunch guests.
The trial before Justice Christopher Beale continues.
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A woman accused of three murders by serving a toxic mushroom dish has admitted she foraged for the fungi and enjoyed eating them as "they taste good and they're very healthy". "The first time I noticed them, I remember it was the dog eating some," Erin Patterson, 50, told a Supreme Court jury on Tuesday, about finding wild mushrooms growing at her property. "I picked all the mushrooms that I could see. I was trying to figure out what they were to see if they were a problem for him." Woman accused of killing three people with poisonous mushrooms in beef Wellington testifies in her defence. (Source: 1News) During her second day in the witness box in Morwell, in regional Victoria, Patterson admitted she developed an interest in picking wild mushrooms in early 2020, during the first Covid-19 pandemic lockdown. ADVERTISEMENT She said, when Victorians were allowed outside for an hour a day, she would "force the children" to get away for their devices. "For an hour or so, we would go to Korumburra Gardens for the rail trail and I first noticed them popping up then," she said. "Have you always liked eating mushrooms?" her defence barrister Colin Mandy SC asked. "Yeah, I had. They taste good and they're very healthy," Patterson said. She said she would buy "all the different types that Woolies would sell" and would also purchase mushrooms from local farmers' markets and grocers. "I'd use them in curries, or pasta dishes, or soup, spaghetti," Patterson said. "They just taste more interesting. There's more flavour." ADVERTISEMENT But she said she discovered it was hard to figure out "what a mushroom is" when she began picking them. "One species I was particularly worried about, I believe they were called Inocybe," Patterson said. She would use Facebook groups for mushroom lovers to identify different types, including ones she found on her 1.2ha property in Korumburra. "I identified the ones that were growing in the paddocks where I had the animals, to a degree was confident of them," she said. "There were field mushrooms and horse mushrooms in those paddocks." Asked by her barrister about the process of consuming wild mushrooms, she said she got to a point over several months where she "was confident about what I thought they were". "I cut a bit off one of the mushrooms, fried it up with some butter, ate it and then saw what happened," Patterson said. ADVERTISEMENT "They tasted good and I didn't get sick." Patterson and her children ate the wild mushrooms she picked and she "chopped them up very, very small". Don and Gail Patterson. (Source: Supplied) Regrets saying she wanted 'nothing to do with' her in-laws Earlier, Patterson grabbed a tissue and wiped her eyes as she apologised for sending Facebook messages to her online friends about her estranged husband Simon's family. One of those messages, which Patterson sent in December 2022, said "this family, I swear to f***ing god". "I wish I'd never said it, I feel ashamed for saying that and I wish the family did not have to hear that I said that. They didn't deserve it," she said. ADVERTISEMENT Another one read to Patterson said, "I'm sick of this shit, I want nothing to do with them" and she said she regretted that language. "I needed to vent, I needed to get my frustration off my chest and the choice was either to go into the paddock and tell the sheep or vent to these women," she said. "I knew they would rally around me and I probably played up the emotion of it a bit to get that support." She said she did not mean those words, and she was "frustrated" with her estranged husband Simon at the time. "It wasn't Don and Gail's fault. It wasn't the family's fault. It wasn't even entirely Simon's fault. I played a part in the issue too," she said. 'Overanxious mother' Earlier Patterson detailed how doctors felt she was an "overanxious mother" as she described losing trust in the medical system. ADVERTISEMENT Patterson explained how she thought she had ovarian and brain cancer and was investigating autoimmune diseases. "I think I wasted a lot of time," she told the jury, shaking her head. "Not only my time but medical people's time, through all my Dr Googling. "It's hard to justify it but, with the benefit of hindsight, I can see that I just lost so much faith in the medical system." She explained issues with her children's health, including when her daughter developed an ovarian cyst before eight months old that was not picked up earlier, and how her son had an X-ray taken of the wrong knee. "Right from when she was born, I thought there was something wrong — she cried a lot but not a normal cry," Patterson said of her daughter. "I took her to a lot of doctors and even the hospital, and what they commented to me was I was an overanxious mother, to relax and she's just a normal baby." ADVERTISEMENT Patterson said in August 2014 she was giving her baby a belly massage one day when she felt "a mass" and took her to the doctor, but she was dismissed. "They still dismissed me even then. They said she just had a very full bladder and we should wait," she told the jury sitting in Morwell, in southeast Victoria. There was not a spare seat in the regional court room, with the public filling most rows and two rows of the victims' families, including sole lunch survivor Ian Wilkinson. Patterson said her experiences with medical professionals "considerably damaged" her faith in the health system and she was left in a "hyper state of anxiety after". She also detailed her own battle with getting tests done after experiencing weight gain, fatigue, headaches, and swelling in her hands and feet. Patterson said her wedding ring "suddenly wouldn't fit" and she took it to a jeweller for resizing, but her hands had grown again when she picked it up. "I consulted Dr Google," she said. ADVERTISEMENT She said she eventually realised "doctors have medical training" and she could not solve it herself. "Not every headache is a brain tumour," she said. Patterson said she had a family history of ovarian cancer on both sides, but admitted she had never had a needle biopsy, nor been diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Earlier, she spoke about her estranged husband's parents Don and Gail Patterson and twice referred to them as "nana and papa". She said after she separated from Simon in 2015 her relationship with them "never changed". "I was just their daughter-in-law, they just continued to love me," she said and then cried. Patterson also became emotional as she described how Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson would "always go out of her way to sit with me and make sure that I had company". ADVERTISEMENT Patterson wore a navy and white spotted top, black pants and sandals when she entered the witness box for a second day. The 50-year-old has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder and one attempted murder charge over a poisonous beef Wellington lunch she made for her former husband's family in July 2023. Her former in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, 70, and Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson, 66, died in hospital days after eating the dish, while Ian Wilkinson was the only surviving guest. The trial before Justice Christopher Beale continues.
