New photos show Erin Patterson's killer Beef Wellington as four major deceptions explained

Yahoo

3 days ago

New photographs have been released of the poisonous mushroom-laced Beef Wellington used by Erin Patterson to murder three elderly relatives of her estranged husband.
After a week of deliberation, the jury found Patterson, 50, lured her mother-in-law Gail Patterson, father-in-law Donald Patterson and Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson, to lunch at her home and poisoned them.
The mother-of-two, from Leongatha, a small town southeast of Melbourne, Australia, fed them individual servings of Beef Wellington that contained death cap mushrooms.
Jurors at the trial in Morwell, Victoria, also found Patterson guilty of attempted murder of Ian Wilkinson, Heather's husband and a Baptist church pastor, who survived the meal in the summer of 2023.
During the trial, Wilkinson told jurors that Patterson had served her own separate meal on a different coloured plate.
Her estranged husband had also been invited to the meal, but turned down the invitation the day before, according to messages shown to the court.
Prosecutors told jurors that Patterson had employed four major deceptions in order to murder her guests.
She first fabricated a cancer diagnosis to lure the guests to the lunch, then poisoned their meals while serving herself an untainted portion, the prosecution's leading barrister Nanette Rogers told the court.
Patterson then lied that she was also sick from the food to avoid suspicion, before finally embarking on a cover-up when police began investigating the deaths, attempting to destroy evidence and lying to investigating officers, the prosecution said.
Patterson, who said during the trial she had inherited large sums of money from her mother and grandmother, was the only witness in her defence, spending eight days on the stand, including five days of cross-examination.
Patterson told the court about a life-long struggle with her weight, an eating disorder and low self-esteem, frequently becoming emotional as she spoke about the impact of the lunch on the Patterson family and her two children.
She told the court she had lied about having cancer to her guests because she was embarrassed to admit she was actually having weight loss surgery.
The defendant said she wanted her relatives' advice on how to tell her children about the surgery. She told the court she had also not become as ill as her guests because she secretly binged on a cake that her mother-in-law had brought to the lunch and then made herself sick.
Patterson had pleaded not guilty to the four charges, claiming the deaths were accidental. She will be sentenced at a later date and could spend the rest of her life in prison.
Read more
As Erin Patterson is found guilty, how deadly are death cap mushrooms? (Yahoo Life)
How Australian death cap mushroom trial unfolded - as Erin Patterson found guilty of murder (Sky News)
Sweet-smelling fungi at centre of Australian triple-murder trial (AFP)