Erin Patterson murder trial LIVE: Lead detective returns to witness box in mushroom case
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10.53am
Why is Erin Patterson's trial being heard in Gippsland?
By Marta Pascual Juanola
Erin Patterson's murder trial is being heard in the Latrobe Valley justice precinct in Morwell, about 150 kilometres from Melbourne.
While some major criminal trials are heard in the Supreme Court of Victoria in Melbourne, Patterson is being tried in Morwell because that's the closest suitable courtroom to where the alleged crime was committed.
Australian criminal law recognises the rights of local communities to observe court proceedings related to crimes committed in their area, and the right of an accused person to be judged by their peers.
Morwell is about 60 kilometres from Leongatha, where the deadly lunch took place in 2023.
10.53am
Who is who in the family tragedy
By Marta Pascual Juanola
For those unfamiliar with the case, here is a family tree showing the relationship between Erin Patterson, her estranged husband and the family.
10.51am
By Marta Pascual Juanola
Victoria Police's Detective Leading Senior Constable Stephen Eppingstall, will return to the witness box this morning to continue his evidence for a fifth day.
Eppingstall, the lead homicide detective and informant in the case, has been in the witness box since last Tuesday afternoon.
10.51am
Welcome to our live coverage
By Marta Pascual Juanola
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of day 24 of the murder trial of accused mushroom cook Erin Patterson at the Latrobe Valley law courts in Morwell.
My name is Marta Pascual Juanola, and together with my colleague Erin Pearson, we will bring you the latest information from courtroom 4.
Patterson is accused of murdering her in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, as well as Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson, by serving them a lunch of beef Wellington containing death cap mushrooms at her home in Leongatha on July 29, 2023.
Don and Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson died in hospitals in the days after the meal. Heather's husband Ian also fell ill after eating the meal but survived after weeks in hospital.
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Erin Patterson's evidence about eating wild mushrooms
Sam Hawley: For a second day, the accused in the keenly watched mushroom murder trial has been questioned in court. Erin Patterson is on trial for murdering her former in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, along with Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson, with death cap mushrooms served at a lunch in 2023. She denies the charges. Today, Stephen Stockwell, co-host of the Mushroom Case Daily podcast, on Erin Patterson's testimony and the key evidence in the case so far. I'm Sam Hawley on Gadigal land in Sydney. This is ABC News Daily. News report: All eyes will be on the Victorian town of Morwell today as the woman charged over a fatal mushroom lunch returns to the witness stand. News report: Articulate and composed, wearing a favoured paisley shirt with her dark hair around her shoulders, Erin Patterson telling her story to the jury for the first time. News report: She's pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder and one of attempted murder over the Beef Wellington lunch served to four relatives at her regional Victorian home in 2023. Sam Hawley: Stephen, for the past six weeks, you've been covering this fascinating case and now we're at the point where Erin Patterson, the accused, who, of course, denies all of these charges, has taken to the stand. We didn't know, did we, that this would happen, so it was a bit of a surprise. Stephen Stockwell: Yeah, this is something we've been wondering about for weeks in this trial, whether or not Erin Patterson would get on the stand. Monday afternoon, as we were nearing the end of the prosecution case, we went through some agreed facts, that process finished, and Justice Christopher Beale, the judge presiding over this case, asked the defence what their plan was, if they were going to call any witnesses, and Colin Mandy, DSC, Erin Patterson's defence barrister, said they would call Erin Patterson. Sam Hawley: So, just tell me, before we move on to what she has actually said in the courtroom, how did she appear, Stephen? Stephen Stockwell: So, she was calm and she seemed confident. You know, she was answering the questions. You know, they were short answers. She wasn't going beyond what she was asked. She seemed confident, calm, and she's kind of maintained that over the last couple of days of evidence. There have been moments of emotion, though, when she's been talking about, you know, relationships with the Pattersons, her children, things like that. Sam Hawley: Mm, all right. And the questioning from her defence team, it's been really personal, hasn't it? Stephen Stockwell: Yes, it has. There was a conversation around her health, her body image, and there were moments there where she broke down discussing, you know, issues she's had with binge eating that no one knew about. You know, they were getting her, initially, in her evidence, to describe what her life was like in mid-2023. This is just before the fateful lunch. You know, the relationship she had with her estranged husband. Also, you know, her struggles with low self-esteem and body image as well. Sam Hawley: Yeah, and they really, you know, talked a lot about the several separations that she'd had with Simon Patterson and about a traumatic birth that she'd had with her son. Stephen Stockwell: Yeah, incredibly personal stories. And Gail Patterson and Don Patterson, these are her mother and father-in-law, travelled over to care for her. She gave birth to her son in Perth. So, other side of the country to where her in-laws were living in Victoria. And they travelled over to help her kind of settle and recover from the birth and, you know, settle into raising her son. And Erin spoke about how Gail had kind of helped her become a mother. You know, teaching her how to interpret the cries of her son and also just reminding her to enjoy the moments of being a mum. Sam Hawley: Yeah, all right. Well, Stephen, the defence, they also asked Erin about her claims of having cancer because the court has previously heard that she'd actually invited her relatives to that lunch to discuss a cancer diagnosis, but the court had also heard that she never actually had cancer. She was also asked about that by Colin Mandy, the defence barrister. Stephen Stockwell: Yes, she was. Colin Mandy put this to Erin Patterson quite directly. He said "have you ever been diagnosed with ovarian cancer?" Erin Patterson's reply was quite short. "No." Colin Mandy then took Erin Patterson to sort of a deeper level of questioning about this. He said "Have you ever been worried about having ovarian cancer?" and Erin Patterson said, "yeah, quite worried." You know, she talked about how she'd had a lot of symptoms. She'd been very fatigued. She had ongoing chronic pain. She'd put on a lot of weight in a short period of time and had been Googling her symptoms. And we also saw earlier in the trial screenshots of Google searches relating to ovarian cancer symptoms and the like. Sam Hawley: Mm. All right. Well, the court also has spent a fair bit of time previously discussing arguments that Erin and Simon had had over child support and school fees, and she was questioned about all of that as well. And also what came up during this defence questioning is a message she sent to her Facebook friends. Stephen Stockwell: So there's a couple of messages we've seen that Erin Patterson has sent to a group of friends that she had on Facebook. She raised these grievances about the family and she used some quite strong language. You know, she said "this f-ing family. I swear to f-ing god," saying she was sick of them. There was another message that was read out to the court. "I'm sick of this shit. I want nothing to do with them, so F them." And these messages were, you know, put to Erin Patterson. She was asked how she felt about those messages and she was incredibly remorseful about them. She was dabbing her eyes with a tissue at this point, quite emotional. And Colin Mandy asked her why she needed to write that and she said she needed to vent. She said it was either go into the paddock and shout at the sheep or talk to the sheep or talk to these women. And she knew that those women in the Facebook group, her Facebook friends, would rally around her. Sam Hawley: Stephen, then the defence questioning turned to mushrooms. Stephen Stockwell: Yeah, we heard Erin Patterson talk about how she developed an interest in mushrooms in 2020, during COVID. There was a period during the first COVID lockdown where you're only allowed out of the house an hour a day and she said she would force her children to go outside, get them off their screens and they would go to the Korrumburra Gardens or the Rail Trail. And that's when she first noticed mushrooms popping up along the side of the path she was walking around. And that's when her interest was drawn to them. She would see them in the garden. And then from that point, he asks if Erin Patterson always liked eating mushrooms. And she says, yes, they taste quite good. They're very healthy. And there were some that she'd found in a paddock that she picked and took photos of and put on a Facebook group to ask what they were. There were some that she was worried about that she wanted to avoid. But one mushroom, after a period of time, she realised it would be safe. These were field mushrooms and horse mushrooms. And over the process of several months, she led up to a point where she was confident in what they were. She cut a bit off, fried it with some butter, ate it and saw what happened. And they tasted good. She didn't get sick. Sam Hawley: And after that, Erin Patterson did concede in the court that the meal she cooked must have contained death cap mushrooms. And when she was asked, where did they come from? She said the vast majority came from a local Woolworths and some from a grocer in Melbourne. But the specific purchases of the mushrooms isn't clear in her mind. All right, well, Stephen, as we said, we're six weeks into this trial, but let's just step back for a moment and consider some of the key evidence that the court has heard up until this point. There's been more than 50 witnesses called by the prosecution, including the detective who led the initial police interview with Erin Patterson. What did we glean from him in the court? Stephen Stockwell: Yes, Detective Stephen Eppingstall. He spent a number of days being questioned in the witness box. He conducted the police interview. And we heard in that a number of lies from Erin Patterson. She was asked quite directly if she had owned a food dehydrator. She said no. This is after police have recovered from a search just hours beforehand the manual from a dehydrator in her house. Earlier in the trial, we've also seen evidence of Erin Patterson dumping something at the tip. Also in the agreed facts at the end of the prosecution's case, we heard about how there were fingerprints off of the food dehydrator recovered from the tip that matched Erin Patterson's. Also within that dehydrator, there was evidence of death cap mushrooms. And we also heard in that interview that Erin Patterson had never foraged. And this is another point that the defence has spoken to already in the opening statements. Colin Mandy said that Erin Patterson has foraged for mushrooms in the past. And one of the things that Erin Patterson's defence has said throughout this trial, that these are the actions of someone who has panicked. They're the words of Erin Patterson's defence team. And isn't that behaviour entirely consistent with someone who might have panicked? Sam Hawley: Also, some of the evidence presented to the court, Stephen, relates to when Erin Patterson presented to hospital after the lunch. Stephen Stockwell: So we've heard evidence and we've seen video of Erin Patterson presenting to the Leongatha Hospital following the lunch. And she is not at the hospital for very long initially. The hospital staff realised that she is the fifth member of this lunch. They're already treating in the Leongatha Hospital two members of that lunch. So they are very keen to have her in. They know how sick these other people are. They want her to stay and do some tests. And Erin Patterson is not keen to stay in the hospital. And so she signs a discharge against medical advice form and leaves the hospital. One of the doctors at that hospital, Dr. Chris Webster, was furious when this happened. He actually called police to track her down and bring her back to the hospital. Erin did come back. She presents, she's admitted. We also heard throughout some of that evidence how sick Erin Patterson was. And it seemed as though she's not as sick as the other people who attended the lunch. You know, we heard that people respond differently to Amanita toxin poisoning. Now, Amanita toxins are the poisons within death cat mushrooms. And we've heard that someone's age, weight, general health can mean that the impact of those toxins are different on others. We've also heard evidence that Erin Patterson did have a number of loose bowel movements. And the nurse who recorded them, when questioned by the defence, said, look, that can be what you see when someone is suffering from a gastrointestinal issue. Sam Hawley: We also heard evidence, didn't we, that she had eaten off a different coloured plate than the other guests? Stephen Stockwell: Yes, we did. This is evidence that Ian Wilkinson gave when he was in the witness box. Ian's the only person outside of Erin Patterson that knows what happened at that lunch. And he talked about how the guests were served off of four large grey plates, while Erin's serve was on a different reddish, reddy brown coloured plate. Now, this is relevant because the Beef Wellington was served as individual parcels. Everyone had their own Beef Wellington around that table. We also saw video and photos of Erin Patterson's house when it was searched by police. In those photos, there was no evidence of four large grey plates and another red plate that Ian Wilkinson described. Sam Hawley: Mm. And what about Erin's alleged knowledge, then, Stephen, about death cap mushrooms? What's the court previously heard about that? Stephen Stockwell: There's two things the court has heard about death cap mushrooms, and Erin Patterson allegedly travelling to places where they have found. So, the first is a website called iNaturalist. Now, this is a citizen science website where people can go on and post photos and locations of different flora and fauna. Now, there were posts of death cap mushrooms made in areas of Loch and Outtrim. Now, these are places that, you know, in the scheme of Australia, aren't particularly far from where Erin Patterson lived. And the evidence that the prosecution presented was that devices that were from Erin Patterson's household had visited those listings, that a phone of Erin Patterson's had connected to mobile phone towers near those locations shortly after those visits. Now, under questioning, the expert who was talking about the mobile phone towers, Dr Matthew Sorrell, did concede that just a connection to those towers does not place you in those locations. There's a number of other things that could mean you're connecting to that. It could be, you know, a place you're standing in your house, it's not necessarily always connecting to the tower closest to you. There's a number of other factors that mean you could connect to that mobile phone tower. Sam Hawley: Stephen, the other thing that the court has heard quite a lot about is Erin Patterson's mobile phones. Stephen Stockwell: Yeah, we have. And so, for this, place yourself at the search of Erin Patterson's home a week after the lunch. So the police get to her house, and while they're searching it, the prosecution alleges that a phone is factory reset while they were in the house, and then a SIM card from a tablet is put into that device. At the end of the search, Erin Patterson is asked to hand over her phone, and that is the phone that is slid across the table to police. She's asked if it needs a pin, and she said, yes, it's either this four- or six-digit pin. And then when she goes to unlock it, it just opens. And this is a device that police are calling Phone B. There's another phone the prosecution allege was Erin Patterson's primary phone, that is Phone A. That phone has never been recovered. Sam Hawley: All right. So, Stephen, the trial is continuing, of course, and it could go for a few more weeks yet. We don't know for sure. But the prosecution alleges that Erin Patterson deliberately poisoned, with murderous intent, each of her lunch guests, which she, of course, denies. Erin's defence flagged at the beginning of this case that it must hinge on that issue of intent. That is what matters most. Stephen Stockwell: That's correct. Yeah, so there's no motive presented in this case. The prosecution doesn't need one. It is not one of the four points of murder. But from the opening statements, Colin Mandy SC told the jury, "as you listen to the evidence, you should consider when it comes to that fundamental issue of Erin's intention, did she have the motive to kill these four family members? What was her relationship with them, especially Don and Gail Patterson? What relationship did her children have with them?" So that issue, the issue of intention, is the critical issue in this trial. Sam Hawley: Stephen Stockwell is the co-host of the ABC's Mushroom Case Daily podcast, which you can find on the ABC Listen app. This episode was produced by Sydney Pead. Audio production by Adair Sheppard. Our supervising producer is David Coady. I'm Sam Hawley. Thanks for listening.
ABC News
2 hours ago
- ABC News
Erin Patterson murder trial live: Witness testimony of accused continues in mushroom case
Erin Patterson is expected to return to give evidence for a third day at her murder trial in Morwell. She's accused of murdering three relatives by serving them a meal that contained poisonous death cap mushrooms. Follow the trial in our live blog.
