The deadpan defendant denies mushroom witnesses' accounts
Demeanour.
It is the quality of the accused in a criminal trial that prosecutors seek to exploit and the defence hopes might help. Members of the jury strain their senses to match it with the flow of evidence.
It is a source of the strange fascination that draws members of the public to line up outside courtrooms in the hope of a seat in the gallery and their opportunity to deliver inexpert judgment on the state of the trial, and it is the stuff of pub chatter afterwards.
And so it was on the 29th day of the trial of Erin Patterson, accused of murdering three of her lunch guests – two of them her parents-in-law – by poisoning them with death cap mushrooms added to her home-cooked beef Wellington, and of attempting to murder a fourth. She has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
And her demeanour, as always, was inscrutable.
As the hours passed, she was accused again and again by the prosecution of lying.
And her response? It was to calmly disagree with the prosecutor's suggestions.
A doctor, a nurse, a pastor who survived the mushroom poisoning, her estranged husband Simon, who declined to attend the fatal lunch … even Erin Patterson's son. She disagreed with aspects of their evidence, which the prosecutor put to her during cross-examination.
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ABC News
6 hours ago
- ABC News
The moments from Erin Patterson's evidence that didn't make headlines
In a courtroom cross-examination, the questions largely flow one way. A lawyer for the defence or prosecution gets the chance to ask questions of the other side's witness, to test the evidence they have given to the court. It was a principle crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC was quick to highlight to accused killer Erin Patterson this week, as they locked horns over evidence drawn from a computer in Ms Patterson's home. Dr Rogers had put to Ms Patterson that she'd used her computer in May 2022 to visit iNaturalist website pages containing information about death cap mushrooms. The court was shown a log of individual URL visits prosecutors said were made on Ms Patterson's PC over a period of time. Dr Rogers's questioning turned to the "visit count" recorded in the log for one particular URL. Dr Rogers: You had visited this URL once before on this device, correct? Ms Patterson: Yes, correct, and I believe it was two seconds earlier. Dr Rogers: I suggest you're wrong about that; correct or incorrect? Ms Patterson: Ah, I'm correct. A short time later, the prosecutor indicated she would move on from the exhibit of URLs visited by the PC. Dr Rogers: Now I'm moving on to a different topic. Ms Patterson: Before you do, Dr Rogers, within this record is that second [website] visit … that I was talking about, 7:23:16, 7:23:18. Dr Rogers: Ms Patterson, I am the person who asks the questions. If there's something that needs to be clarified in re-examination, then your barrister will do so. Ms Patterson: No problem. In her evidence, Ms Patterson also told Dr Rogers she did not recall if it was her who was operating the computer when it visited the page. "Somebody did, and that somebody could have been me," she told the prosecutor. The exchange was not the only one where Ms Patterson pointed out details she believed to be incorrect. One example was when she was given a date in 2023 with the incorrect day of the week: Dr Rogers: [Mobile phone tower expert Matthew Sorrell's] evidence was: "On Monday, 28th of April 2023, the mobile service records for you indicate a possible visit to the Loch township." Ms Patterson: I'm really sorry, Dr Rogers, could you just repeat the date? ... I just lost focus. Dr Rogers: On Monday, 28 April … his evidence was: "The mobile service records for you indicate a possible visit to the Loch township." Ms Patterson: I don't mean to be argumentative, but I think the 28th of April was a Friday. The only reason I remember that, is [my daughter] had two ballets on the 29th and 30th of April and they were that weekend. Dr Rogers: Ok, I'll change it Ms Patterson: Ok. It was an exchange Dr Rogers did not forget, referencing it later that day as she sought to inject a moment of levity into the hours-long examination. Dr Rogers: I better check with you. Monday, 22 May, it's a Monday? Ms Patterson: I don't know about that one. Dr Rogers: It's a joke. It's a joke. I take out the 'Monday'. Throughout her cross-examination, Ms Patterson was focused on Dr Rogers, blinking rapidly and speaking with a level voice as she rejected the suggestion her actions after the lunch were those of a guilty woman covering her tracks. She repeatedly denied to the Supreme Court jury that she was guilty of the murder of three in-laws and the attempted murder of a fourth. She rotated through outfits which have been widely described in media reports and sketches: a paisley-coloured top, a dark-coloured top with white polka dots and a pink shirt. The 50-year-old kept her glasses in her hands during her hours on the stand, so they were ready if she was taken to one of the many trial exhibits on the computer monitor before her. Her questioner, Dr Rogers, kept a brisk pace as she sought to make the most of the opportunity to ask questions of the accused. At times, responses became more personal as Dr Rogers suggested the evidence of Ms Patterson strained credibility. When questioning turned to the Monday after the Saturday lunch, Ms Patterson was asked about her movements after she discharged herself from Leongatha Hospital against medical advice. The court heard she arrived about 8am that day but left about 10 minutes later, before returning after a roughly 90-minute absence. Ms Patterson told the jury she had needed that time to see to things like putting the lambs away to protect them from foxes and packing her daughter's ballet bag, before she could be admitted to hospital for full treatment. She told the court this week that after returning home she also laid down "for a while". Dr Rogers: How long did you lie down for? Ms Patterson: I don't know. Dr Rogers: That's untrue, isn't it? … It's untrue that you lay down? Ms Patterson: No. Dr Rogers: Surely that's the last thing you would do in these circumstances? Ms Patterson: It might be the last thing you'd do, but it was something I did. Dr Rogers: After you'd been told by medical staff that you had potentially ingested a life-threatening poison, isn't it the last thing that you would do, is to lie down in those circumstances? Ms Patterson: They didn't tell me it was life-threatening. By any measure, Ms Patterson's time in the witness box was a lengthy one, stretching over eight days of hearings. And in a case where the complex brief of evidence has ranged from computer and mobile phone data to the science of differentiating fungi, moments have often been needed by all of the parties conducting the trial to double-check the facts on record. But by the end of the week, the time for questioning Ms Patterson was over, and the evidence phase of the trial drew to a close. Now the prosecution and defence will trawl through the hours of transcripts and reams of documents as they prepare to deliver their final arguments in one of Australia's most closely watched trials in years.
The Age
8 hours ago
- The Age
A garden tour, small talk and an illness confession. The mushroom lunch according to Erin Patterson
Ian Wilkinson told the jury he was in the main body of the church when his wife told him they'd been invited for a meal at Erin Patterson's. 'She was fairly excited,' the pastor recalled. 'We were very happy to be invited. Seemed like maybe our relationship with Erin was going to improve.' Wilkinson said there was no reason given for the lunch and that he wondered aloud to his wife about why suddenly, they were invited. Erin Patterson says she extended the invitation to Simon despite a relationship they both agreed had become less friendly and more formal. By this time, she says, she'd long held an interest in foraging for mushrooms, borne out of pandemic lockdown walks with her children. Years later, Patterson told the jury she bought a dehydrator in April 2023 from the local electrical store as she was eager to learn how to dehydrate wild and store-bought mushrooms to ensure she could eat them, and other foods, year round. It became somewhat of an experiment, she told the Morwell jury, working out how to best dehydrate the fungi, and she said she would later eat them or blend them into a powder to hide in her children's food for added nutrition. It was during this time, she said, that she shared details of her life with a group of Facebook friends, who spoke regularly about everything from recipes to their children, politics and world events. Their conversations were frequent, and the court heard 600 pages of messages were obtained from early to mid-December 2022 alone. In them, Patterson spoke about issues with her separation from Simon, described him as a 'deadbeat' father and complained that her attempts to get her in-laws to intervene were falling on deaf ears. 'This family I swear to f---ing god,' one post read. 'Nobody bloody listens to me, at least I know they're a lost cause,' another read. 'I'm sick of this shit I want nothing to do with them,' a third post read. 'F--- them.' Patterson, the court heard, later told police she loved and had a great relationship with Don and Gail Patterson. 'They got on very well I think,' Simon told the jury. 'She especially got along well with Dad. They shared a love of knowledge and learning and an interest in the world, and I think she loved his gentle nature.' Erin Patterson said by the time she organised the lunch she feared Simon was creating distance between her and his parents. 'They did love me and I did love them,' she said. 'I had felt for some months my relationship with the wider Patterson family, particularly Don and Gail, had a bit more distance and space put between us.' In the days before the lunch, Erin Patterson says she wanted to cook her guests something special, better than the shepherd's pie she'd last served the Pattersons. She said she remembered her mother cooking beef Wellington and used the RecipeTin Eats cookbook to help guide her preparation. Shopping receipts show Erin Patterson made repeat trips to the supermarket to buy pastry, mushrooms and steak. The night before the meal, Simon Patterson sent her a text message and the former couple had a terse exchange. 'I feel too uncomfortable about coming to the lunch with you, Mum, Dad, Heather and Ian tomorrow, but I'm happy to talk about your health and implications of that at another time. If you'd like to discuss on the phone, just let me know,' Simon texted. Erin replied: 'That's 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 on beef eye fillet to make beef Wellingtons because I wanted it to be a special meal, as I may not be able to host a lunch like this again for some time. It's important to me that you're all there tomorrow, and that I can have the conversations that I need to have. I hope you'll change your mind. Your parents, and Heather and Ian are coming at 12.30. I hope to see you there.' Erin Patterson told the jury she'd been unable to buy a single large piece of steak so decided instead to make individual parcels of beef Wellington for each guest, six in total. She began preparing the meal by making a mushroom duxelle, or paste, using the mushrooms she bought from Woolworths. But when she tasted it, she was worried it was too bland. She says she grabbed a Tupperware container she believed contained 'pungent' dried mushrooms she bought three months earlier from an unidentified Asian grocery store in the City of Monash area of Melbourne. As her guests' arrival drew nearer, Erin Patterson says she dropped her children and their friend off in town to eat McDonald's and watch a movie. When the Wilkinsons and her in-laws arrived, Gail carrying an orange cake and Heather a fruit platter, the group toured her garden and the women Erin Patterson's new pantry. They then gathered in the open-plan kitchen and dining area where the host plated up mashed potatoes, green beans and individual beef Wellingtons about 12.30pm. Erin Patterson told the jury that when she turned her back on the group to heat pre-made gravy satchels, the women began carrying the plates to the table. One, Erin Patterson says, remained on the kitchen bench and that's the one she took to eat from. The accused says the group chatted as they ate, and she talked so much she ended up eating little of her meal. She says they spoke about politics and current affairs before she led them to believe she had an illness, but never used the word 'cancer'. Her guests left in time for Ian Wilkinson to attend a 3pm appointment. Erin was left home on her own until Simon picked the children up from their movie and dropped them home. The following morning, the accused says, she learnt from her estranged husband that his parents were unwell. She says she too was suffering from diarrhoea but took imodium so she could take her son to a flying lesson. The trip was interrupted, she says, when she had to stop to defecate on the side of the road, and she cleaned herself and placed tissues in a doggy bag until she could dispose of them in a bathroom toilet at the Caldermeade BP service station. Loading Patterson says that on the Sunday evening – July 30, 2023 – she scraped the mushroom paste and pastry off the leftovers and fed her two children what remained. She says as her diarrhoea worsened, she felt too unwell to eat the dinner and instead unsuccessfully attempted to eat cereal. In the following days, she says, she took herself to hospital for what she believed was gastro, and left at one point to take care of her animals and children, before returning to be admitted and transferred to a Melbourne hospital for investigation of possible death cap mushroom poisoning. She says that while in hospital, Simon said to her, 'Is that how you poisoned my parents, using that dehydrator?' She denied the allegation. The jury heard that sent her into panic as it dawned on her that there may have also been foraged mushrooms in the Tupperware container. She returned home, grabbed the dehydrator and dumped it at the local tip. The mother of two says she later factory reset her mobile phone because she did not want police to find the images she had of her drying mushrooms, and lied to police about ever foraging. She denies ever deliberately poisoning anyone, or deliberately lying to police to cover her tracks. That is how Patterson says she came to be wrongly accused of murdering Don and Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson, and attempting to murder Ian Wilkinson. Prosecutors spent five days cross-examining her about her version of events as evidence in the seven-week-long trial drew to a close. They claim the accused saw online posts about death cap mushrooms located in her area, and that mobile phone tracking shows she travelled to the sites, including Loch and Outtrim, to purposely pick death caps. Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers, SC, told the jury Patterson's version of events are a lie and that she lured the lunch guests to her home with a fake cancer diagnosis and fed them the death caps. And, prosecutors allege, if Simon Patterson had attended lunch, his estranged wife would have also fed him a poisoned pastry parcel. The prosecution alleges that in the aftermath of the fatal lunch, the accused took steps to conceal her involvement, was never unwell and lied to police in her record of interview. 'I suggest that you deliberately sourced death cap mushrooms in 2023. I suggest you deliberately included them in the beef Wellington you served to [your four guests]. You did so intending to kill them,' Rogers asked the accused this week. 'Disagree,' Erin Patterson replied three times, after each accusation.
Sydney Morning Herald
8 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
A garden tour, small talk and an illness confession. The mushroom lunch according to Erin Patterson
Ian Wilkinson told the jury he was in the main body of the church when his wife told him they'd been invited for a meal at Erin Patterson's. 'She was fairly excited,' the pastor recalled. 'We were very happy to be invited. Seemed like maybe our relationship with Erin was going to improve.' Wilkinson said there was no reason given for the lunch and that he wondered aloud to his wife about why suddenly, they were invited. Erin Patterson says she extended the invitation to Simon despite a relationship they both agreed had become less friendly and more formal. By this time, she says, she'd long held an interest in foraging for mushrooms, borne out of pandemic lockdown walks with her children. Years later, Patterson told the jury she bought a dehydrator in April 2023 from the local electrical store as she was eager to learn how to dehydrate wild and store-bought mushrooms to ensure she could eat them, and other foods, year round. It became somewhat of an experiment, she told the Morwell jury, working out how to best dehydrate the fungi, and she said she would later eat them or blend them into a powder to hide in her children's food for added nutrition. It was during this time, she said, that she shared details of her life with a group of Facebook friends, who spoke regularly about everything from recipes to their children, politics and world events. Their conversations were frequent, and the court heard 600 pages of messages were obtained from early to mid-December 2022 alone. In them, Patterson spoke about issues with her separation from Simon, described him as a 'deadbeat' father and complained that her attempts to get her in-laws to intervene were falling on deaf ears. 'This family I swear to f---ing god,' one post read. 'Nobody bloody listens to me, at least I know they're a lost cause,' another read. 'I'm sick of this shit I want nothing to do with them,' a third post read. 'F--- them.' Patterson, the court heard, later told police she loved and had a great relationship with Don and Gail Patterson. 'They got on very well I think,' Simon told the jury. 'She especially got along well with Dad. They shared a love of knowledge and learning and an interest in the world, and I think she loved his gentle nature.' Erin Patterson said by the time she organised the lunch she feared Simon was creating distance between her and his parents. 'They did love me and I did love them,' she said. 'I had felt for some months my relationship with the wider Patterson family, particularly Don and Gail, had a bit more distance and space put between us.' In the days before the lunch, Erin Patterson says she wanted to cook her guests something special, better than the shepherd's pie she'd last served the Pattersons. She said she remembered her mother cooking beef Wellington and used the RecipeTin Eats cookbook to help guide her preparation. Shopping receipts show Erin Patterson made repeat trips to the supermarket to buy pastry, mushrooms and steak. The night before the meal, Simon Patterson sent her a text message and the former couple had a terse exchange. 'I feel too uncomfortable about coming to the lunch with you, Mum, Dad, Heather and Ian tomorrow, but I'm happy to talk about your health and implications of that at another time. If you'd like to discuss on the phone, just let me know,' Simon texted. Erin replied: 'That's 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 on beef eye fillet to make beef Wellingtons because I wanted it to be a special meal, as I may not be able to host a lunch like this again for some time. It's important to me that you're all there tomorrow, and that I can have the conversations that I need to have. I hope you'll change your mind. Your parents, and Heather and Ian are coming at 12.30. I hope to see you there.' Erin Patterson told the jury she'd been unable to buy a single large piece of steak so decided instead to make individual parcels of beef Wellington for each guest, six in total. She began preparing the meal by making a mushroom duxelle, or paste, using the mushrooms she bought from Woolworths. But when she tasted it, she was worried it was too bland. She says she grabbed a Tupperware container she believed contained 'pungent' dried mushrooms she bought three months earlier from an unidentified Asian grocery store in the City of Monash area of Melbourne. As her guests' arrival drew nearer, Erin Patterson says she dropped her children and their friend off in town to eat McDonald's and watch a movie. When the Wilkinsons and her in-laws arrived, Gail carrying an orange cake and Heather a fruit platter, the group toured her garden and the women Erin Patterson's new pantry. They then gathered in the open-plan kitchen and dining area where the host plated up mashed potatoes, green beans and individual beef Wellingtons about 12.30pm. Erin Patterson told the jury that when she turned her back on the group to heat pre-made gravy satchels, the women began carrying the plates to the table. One, Erin Patterson says, remained on the kitchen bench and that's the one she took to eat from. The accused says the group chatted as they ate, and she talked so much she ended up eating little of her meal. She says they spoke about politics and current affairs before she led them to believe she had an illness, but never used the word 'cancer'. Her guests left in time for Ian Wilkinson to attend a 3pm appointment. Erin was left home on her own until Simon picked the children up from their movie and dropped them home. The following morning, the accused says, she learnt from her estranged husband that his parents were unwell. She says she too was suffering from diarrhoea but took imodium so she could take her son to a flying lesson. The trip was interrupted, she says, when she had to stop to defecate on the side of the road, and she cleaned herself and placed tissues in a doggy bag until she could dispose of them in a bathroom toilet at the Caldermeade BP service station. Loading Patterson says that on the Sunday evening – July 30, 2023 – she scraped the mushroom paste and pastry off the leftovers and fed her two children what remained. She says as her diarrhoea worsened, she felt too unwell to eat the dinner and instead unsuccessfully attempted to eat cereal. In the following days, she says, she took herself to hospital for what she believed was gastro, and left at one point to take care of her animals and children, before returning to be admitted and transferred to a Melbourne hospital for investigation of possible death cap mushroom poisoning. She says that while in hospital, Simon said to her, 'Is that how you poisoned my parents, using that dehydrator?' She denied the allegation. The jury heard that sent her into panic as it dawned on her that there may have also been foraged mushrooms in the Tupperware container. She returned home, grabbed the dehydrator and dumped it at the local tip. The mother of two says she later factory reset her mobile phone because she did not want police to find the images she had of her drying mushrooms, and lied to police about ever foraging. She denies ever deliberately poisoning anyone, or deliberately lying to police to cover her tracks. That is how Patterson says she came to be wrongly accused of murdering Don and Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson, and attempting to murder Ian Wilkinson. Prosecutors spent five days cross-examining her about her version of events as evidence in the seven-week-long trial drew to a close. They claim the accused saw online posts about death cap mushrooms located in her area, and that mobile phone tracking shows she travelled to the sites, including Loch and Outtrim, to purposely pick death caps. Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers, SC, told the jury Patterson's version of events are a lie and that she lured the lunch guests to her home with a fake cancer diagnosis and fed them the death caps. And, prosecutors allege, if Simon Patterson had attended lunch, his estranged wife would have also fed him a poisoned pastry parcel. The prosecution alleges that in the aftermath of the fatal lunch, the accused took steps to conceal her involvement, was never unwell and lied to police in her record of interview. 'I suggest that you deliberately sourced death cap mushrooms in 2023. I suggest you deliberately included them in the beef Wellington you served to [your four guests]. You did so intending to kill them,' Rogers asked the accused this week. 'Disagree,' Erin Patterson replied three times, after each accusation.
