Mushroom murder accused told cancer lie out of 'embarrassment' over weight surgery

BBC News

04-06-2025

Update:
Date: 02:57 BST
Title: Attention turns to plating up
Content: Katy Watsonreporting from Morwell
We're now hearing Erin Patterson explain how the meal was served, which has had a lot of focus in the trial.
Ms Patterson says Ian Wilkinson and Don Patterson had been chatting near her bookshelf while their wives had been looking into her pantry, impressed by the size of it.
Her lawyer asks her about the dinner plates. Earlier in the trial we heard that Heather Wilkinson, while ill in hospital, had questioned why Erin Patterson had used different plates for her guests to the one she ate off.
"I think there's a couple of black, a couple of white, one that's red on top and black underneath and then I've got one that daughter made at kindergarten," she says.
She tells the court she told the guests to grab a plate while she finished off the gravy.
Asked to clarify who took the plates to the table, she says she didn't see it happen and assumed everyone grabbed a plate, but accepts Ian's earlier evidence that Heather and Gail had taken two each.
She is asked if she remembers which plate she ate off. No, she replies.
Update:
Date: 02:44 BST
Title: 'I wanted to make estranged husband feel bad for skipping lunch'
Content: Simon Atkinsonreporting from Morwell
Ms Patterson has also been asked about a text message exchange with her estranged husband Simon, when he pulled out of the lunch the day before.
"I felt a bit hurt and I felt a bit stressed," Ms Patterson told the court.
Five minutes after Mr Paterson declined the invite saying he did not feel "comfortable", she sent a message saying it was "really disappointing".
"I've spent many hours this week preparing lunch for tomorrow which has been exhausting in light of the issues I'm facing and spent a small fortune... to make beef wellingtons because I wanted it to be a special meal."
"I may not be able to host a lunch like this again for some time. It's important to me that you're
all here tomorrow and that I can have the conversations that I need to have. I hope you'll change your mind."
She said she wanted to make Simon "feel bad" about not coming - and admitted she had not done any preparation apart from looking up the recipe and going shopping.
Update:
Date: 02:40 BST
Title: The recipe had seemed 'a little bland'
Content: Ottilie MitchellLive reporter
We are getting into detail about the preparation that went into Ms Patterson's lunch.
Step one: Prepare a "duxelle" - minced and sautéed mushrooms - that she'd bought from Woolworths, a supermarket chain.
Step two: Taste. It was "a little bland", Miss Patterson said.
And so she turned to step three: adding additional dried mushrooms from a container in her fridge, which she thought she'd bought in Melbourne.
"Now I think there's a possibility that there were foraged ones as well," she told the court, choking up.
Update:
Date: 02:35 BST
Title: Court hears about tweaks to the recipe
Content: Ms Patterson's lawyer asks about changes she made to the recipe.
She says that primarily it was about making individual wellingtons rather than one large log because she was unable to find the larger cut of meat.
"I had to adapt," she says.
"That change from the log to the individual steaks also meant that the quantities of mushroom and pastry were going to be different – I had to allow for that," she says.
She also confirmed she didn't use mustard as per the recipe, or prosciutto because her father-in-law Don Patterson didn't eat pork. She also changed the pastry type to filo and puff pastry.
Update:
Date: 02:27 BST
Title: Why beef wellington?
Content: Ottilie MitchellLive reporter
The trial has heard the deadly meal came in the form of a beef wellington - a pastry filled with meat and mushrooms.
"Why did you choose that dish?" asked Mr Mandy, Ms Patterson's barrister.
She said her in-laws Don and Gail Patterson had come for lunch on 24 June and "really liked" the shepherd's pie she served, but it "didn't seem special enough" for the upcoming meal.
Instead, she chose beef wellington, something her mum would make "on really special occasions when I was a kid".
"I thought I'd give it a go" she told the jury.
She says she used a best-selling RecipeTin Eats book - from popular Australian chef Nagi Maehashi - as the basis for the recipe.
Update:
Date: 02:22 BST
Title: Lies borne out of embarrassment, Ms Patterson says
Content: Katy Watsonreporting from Morwell
Turning to lunch in 2023, the trial has heard Ms Patterson told her guests she had a serious health issue to discuss, which after the meal she revealed was cancer. She has admitted in her evidence that wasn't true.
Asked to explain, Ms Patterson says she had come to the conclusion that she wanted to do something "once and for all" about her weight and "poor eating habits". Yesterday she told the jury she had struggled with binge-eating and body image.
"I was planning to have gastric bypass surgery so I remember thinking I didn't want to tell anybody what I was going to have done. I was really embarrassed by it," she says.
She thought that by letting them believe she had serious issues that needed treatment, they might be able to help her with logistics around the kids and she wouldn't have to tell them about the real reason.
Update:
Date: 02:13 BST
Title: Questioning turns to health lies
Content: Simon Atkinsonreporting from Morwell
Under questioning from her barrister, Ms Patterson admits she lied to to her mother-in-law Gail about having been to an appointment to have a needle biopsy done, and about plans to return for an MRI scan.
"Why did you tell lies?" she is asked.
A tearful Ms Patterson says: 'Some weeks prior I was having issues with my elbow and I thought there was a lump there. I had told Don and Gail and they had shown a lot of care which felt really nice. The issue started to resolve and I felt embarrassed I had made such a big deal about it."
'They had been really nice about it. I did not want their care for me to stop, so I kept it going," she adds.
Update:
Date: 02:11 BST
Title: Ms Patterson says she had no knowledge of toxic mushrooms in nearby towns
Content: Katy Watsonreporting from Morwell
The trial earlier heard evidence that death cap mushrooms were spotted in two nearby towns in the months before the lunch - and their existence logged on iNaturalist.
Ms Patterson's barrister Colin Mandy asks her whether or not she had ever foraged for mushrooms in Loch or Outtrim – phone records suggest her mobile may have travelled to the towns shortly after the iNaturalist posts.
She said no.
She also denies ever seeing the posts on iNaturalist reporting the death cap mushroom sightings.
Update:
Date: 02:06 BST
Title: 'I looked up death cap mushrooms on my phone'
Content: Defence barrister Colin Mandy SC now asks Ms Patterson about an online search for death cap mushrooms on the iNaturalist site, a citizen scientist database which tracks plants and fungi.
Ms Patterson says she doesn't remember viewing the page - which the court has heard was accessed on her phone in 2022 - but that it was possibly her, as she recalls wanting to know if toxic mushrooms grew in the area.
"It was possible that was part of the process I went through to see if they grew in South Gippsland."
She replies that searches about mushrooms were largely on her phone because she had it with her during her walks.
"It was just the most convenient thing."
Update:
Date: 01:52 BST
Title: Jury shown images of mushrooms found on Ms Patterson's block
Content: Simon AtkinsonAustralia producer, BBC News
And we're straight in with where we left off yesterday… mushrooms.
Erin Patterson is being taken through images of fungi that were found on a camera memory (SD) card seized from her home by police.
She says she took the pictures in early 2020.
Directed to one of them, she says: "It looks to me like some mushrooms among some grass and leaf litter."
Another she identifies as having being taken at one of her former homes, saying she recognises the kitchen bench.
She is asked why she took photographs of mushrooms.
"I was trying to figure out what was growing on my property," she replies.
Update:
Date: 01:47 BST
Title: A quick recap of what we heard yesterday
Content: Here is what we learned as Ms Patterson gave evidence on Tuesday.
You can read our wrap up of the day here.
Update:
Date: 01:44 BST
Title: Ms Patterson accepts toxic mushrooms were in the food
Content: Katy Watsonreporting from Morwell
Yesterday we heard Erin Patterson accept that there were death cap mushrooms in the meal of beef wellington she served her relatives - that was the first time we had heard her say that herself.
The defence's position has always been that the deaths of Don and Gail Patterson, her in-laws, and Heather and Ian Wilkinson, had been a tragedy.
We're expecting to hear more about that from them today.
We'll be covering the testimony from the media overflow room. Because of the huge interest in this trial, seating has to be closely managed, so only six journalists are allowed into the courtroom each day.
There's a little more space reserved for members of the public, but not much, and once again this morning there was a queue of them jostling for a seat.
Update:
Date: 01:31 BST
Title: The case in a nutshell
Content: The 14-member jury is weighing up evidence to decide whether
Erin Patterson is guilty of three charges of murder and one of attempted
murder.
The case centres around a beef wellington lunch she served
at her Leongatha home in July 2023.
Three people died shortly after the lunch - Ms Patterson's
former in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, and Gail's sister, Heather
Wilkinson, 66. Heather's husband, Ian Wilkinson, survived after being in an
induced coma for weeks.
Prosecutors say Ms Patterson intentionally served the toxic
mushrooms - she has pleaded not guilty, saying it was unintentional.
Update:
Date: 01:30 BST
Title: Where has this case been held?
Content: Simon Atkinsonreporting from Morwell
The case is being heard in Latrobe Valley Law Courts - a fairly small and unimposing modern building on the main road through the town of Morwell in regional Victoria.
It is about a 45-minute drive from the Leongatha home, where the lunch took place.
The judge, barristers and some of the court staff are travelling here each week and staying nearby (accommodation had been hard to find!). Court finishes at lunchtime on Fridays - in part to allow out-of-towners to get home for the weekend.
Jurors however have been drawn from the local area.
Update:
Date: 01:26 BST
Title: Three things to know about the trial so far
Content: Our correspondent Katy Watson has been following the case since it started, here's the key things you need to know in under 90 seconds.
This video can not be played
Watch: Three things you need to know about Australia's mushroom murder trial
Update:
Date: 01:24 BST
Title: Third day of evidence from accused
Content: Lana LamLive reporter
On Monday, we heard from Ms Patterson for the first
time since the trial began more than five weeks ago.
The 50-year-old has pleaded not guilty to killing three relatives and attempting to kill another, after she served them toxic death cap mushrooms during a lunch she hosted two years.
Her defence team claims the fatal meal at her home in
regional Victoria was a "tragic accident" and any "incriminating" behaviour that prosecutors allege in the days afterwards were the actions of a woman panicking.
Update:
Date: 01:23 BST
Title: Welcome back
Content: Tiffanie TurnbullBBC News, Sydney
We're kicking off another day of coverage of the closely watched murder trial of Erin Patterson - who cooked a beef wellington meal that left three dead and another gravely ill in July 2023.
She is expected to appear in court shortly, for a third day in the witness box, so stay with us as we bring you the latest updates.