Erin Patterson lied to detectives — but her defence argues she's not guilty of murder

Australia Broadcast Center

2 days ago

"Erin Patterson lied to the police, but she's no murderer."
In a nutshell, that's what her defence case is.
Evidence of Ms Patterson's lies to homicide detectives was shown to the Supreme Court of Victoria this week, as 21 minutes of her police interview was played to the jury.
A week after hosting the fatal beef Wellington lunch on July 29, 2023, Ms Patterson was inside a police station.
The video contained the hallmarks of the classic police interview: a plain, grey-white walled room where Ms Patterson sat at a wooden table opposite two homicide detectives. The date on the footage was August 5, 2023, but the grainy image, muffled audio and whirring police tape recorder portrayed a scene that could have been from three decades ago.
At the time of the interview, doctors suspected four of her lunch guests had ingested highly-toxic death cap mushrooms. Don Patterson was sliding towards death and his wife Gail and sister-in-law Heather Wilkinson had already passed. Heather's husband Ian was in a critical condition in intensive care.
Ms Patterson, who also claimed to have eaten the same meal, had been out of hospital for four days.
Detectives Stephen Eppingstall and David Martin-Alcaide wanted to know more about the mushrooms in the meal and items from Ms Patterson's kitchen.
"Do you know anything about a dehydrator in your house?" Mr Eppingstall asked.
"No," Ms Patterson replied.
"Do you own a dehydrator?" he asked.
"No," she responded.
Evidence shown to court during the trial would expose this as a lie. Not only had Ms Patterson sent photos of the electronic dehydrator to friends previously, but there was also security footage of her dumping the item at the local landfill after the lunch.
"We've got concerns in relation to the mushrooms and where they've come from," Mr Eppingstall said. "Is that something you've done in the past, foraging?"
"Never," Ms Patterson shot back, shaking her head.
That too was a lie, her lawyers conceded.
On the trial's opening day, defence barrister Colin Mandy SC addressed the jury.
"She lied about getting rid of the dehydrator. She admits that," he said.
"She did forage for mushrooms. Just so that we make that clear, she denies that she ever deliberately sought out death cap mushrooms."
In his opening address, typically short given the early stage of the trial, Mr Mandy did not state when and where Ms Patterson had foraged.
He asked the jury to consider Ms Patterson's feelings and her state of mind in the days following the lunch — a time when her relatives were either dead or dying, and she was under the scrutiny of health officials, police and the media.
"Might someone panic in a situation like that?" Mr Mandy queried.
After five weeks, more than 50 people have been called to testify by prosecutors, including some via video link and others who wrote statements.
The witnesses have included the sole lunch guest survivor Ian Wilkinson, Erin Patterson's estranged husband Simon, their two children, doctors, nurses, paramedics, toxicologists, public servants, an electronics store owner, a tip manager and church volunteers.
Leaders in the fields of emergency medicine, phone towers and mushroom research have also shared their expertise.
There has been examination, cross-examination and re-examination of the police who picked apart Ms Patterson's phone and computer records, those who searched her home and the officers who ran the murder investigation.
According to the defence, that evidence does not prove beyond reasonable doubt that Ms Patterson is a murderer.
She has always maintained her innocence. Ms Patterson has pleaded not guilty to the attempted murder of Ian Wilkinson, and the alleged murders of Heather Wilkinson, Don Patterson and Gail Patterson.
"The intention to kill or cause anyone any harm at all is very much in dispute," Mr Mandy said on the opening day.
The trial continues.