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ABC News
5 hours ago
- Health
- ABC News
Here are the biggest takeaways so far from Erin Patterson's testimony in her murder trial
Accused triple-murderer Erin Patterson has continued to give evidence in her own trial as it edges closer to an end. Ms Patterson's defence lawyer, Colin Mandy SC, called her to the stand late on Monday to begin questioning her. The 50-year-old has been charged with murder and attempted murder after three relatives died from death cap mushroom poisoning following a meal prepared and served by Ms Patterson. Another relative, Ian Wilkinson, fell seriously ill but survived. While Ms Patterson is expected to take the stand again on Wednesday — answering questions from her defence lawyers before the prosecution has the opportunity to cross-examine her — here are some of the key things we have learned so far during her testimony. On Tuesday, Ms Patterson conceded that the beef Wellington dish she prepared for her relatives contained death cap mushrooms. "Do you accept that there must have been death cap mushrooms in [the meal]?" her defence lawyer, Colin Mandy SC, asked. "Yes, I do," Ms Patterson replied. Ms Patterson has always maintained her innocence and her lawyers argue the deaths were a tragic accident. She told the court the majority of the mushrooms used in the deadly meal had come from the local Woolworths in Leongatha and some from a grocer in Melbourne. She said mushrooms she purchased from an Asian grocer in April 2023 smelt "very pungent", so she put them in a container and took them back to her Leongatha home to store them. Earlier in the trial, the jury was shown messages sent between Ms Patterson and some of her online friends criticising her in-laws. In one of those messages, Ms Patterson wrote: "This family I swear to f***ing go". "I'm sick of this shit, I want nothing to do with them … So f*** 'em," another message read. On Tuesday, she told the court she wished she had never said those things. The court heard that Ms Patterson regretted the language she had used and "played up the emotion" to get support from her online friends. In previously heard evidence, a Facebook friend of Ms Patterson said she was openly an atheist and had described clashes with her estranged husband, Simon, stemming from his rigid religious beliefs. But on Tuesday, Ms Patterson confirmed to the jury that she was Christian. "They would gently make fun of the fact that I was religious, and I would try to, I don't know, evangelise back to them in a sense," she said when asked about the online comments she made to friends that she was an atheist. "But it was all in good humour." Ms Patterson outlined to the jury that she developed an interest in wild mushrooms while going on walks during the first COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020. She told the court she noticed lots of them popping up at the Korumburra Botanical Gardens during those walks. Eventually, she said, she became confident in her ability to identify different species of mushrooms, even eating some she picked herself. "They tasted good and I didn't get sick," she said. The court also heard that Ms Patterson would dehydrate mushrooms she foraged as well as some she purchased from the store to dry and preserve them. Previously, the court heard she lied to police about owning a food dehydrator and foraging for mushrooms. During her testimony on Tuesday, Ms Patterson recounted experiences that had damaged her trust in the medical system, including health episodes involving her children where she felt her concerns were not being listened to. She told the jury she often turned to "Doctor Google", including one time when she convinced herself that she had a brain tumour. She admitted to the jury that she never had ovarian cancer but that she had been experiencing chronic headaches, fatigue, abdominal pain, sudden weight gain and fluid retention. Throughout the trial, the court has heard a cancer diagnosis was the reason Ms Patterson invited her guests to the lunch in question. She also told the court she never had a needle biopsy on a lump on her elbow, which she spoke to her mother-in-law, Gail Patterson, about in messages shown to the jury. Ms Patterson outlined that she had had body image issues since she was a teenager and said that her mother had weighed her weekly as a child. "I've tried every diet under the sun … it's been a rollercoaster over the years," she said. Ms Patterson was visibly emotional when she spoke about being bulimic and binge eating. Ms Patterson spoke about multiple separations between her and her estranged husband, Simon. During her evidence, she said the separation was "difficult" but the pair "went back to just being really good friends". "I didn't want to separate, but I felt there was no choice," she said on Tuesday. "Our primary problem was, if we had a disagreement or any kind of conflict, we didn't seem to be able to talk about it in a way where either of us felt heard or understood. "We just felt hurt, and we didn't really know how to do that well." Ms Patterson told the court she had put three properties under her and Simon's names because she "wanted some way to demonstrate to Simon [that] I see a future for us". Simon previously gave evidence of the pair's tumultuous relationship. "I'll put it this way, she would leave each time … it was always her leaving me," he previously told the court.
The Guardian
10 hours ago
- General
- The Guardian
After weeks of silence, Erin Patterson begins to tell her side of the story to deadly mushroom lunch trial
Erin Patterson had been in the witness box for 142 minutes, a window to her right showing the rain falling outside in regional Victoria, when her barrister Colin Mandy SC said: 'I'm going to ask you some questions now about mushrooms'. Patterson had already spoken to the court about her children and her family, her hefty inheritances, her relationship with her estranged husband, Simon, and their slow and gradual decoupling, in her evidence on Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning. But this was the closest the triple-murder accused had come to being asked directly about the fateful lunch of beef wellingtons in July 2023. From the first days of her trial, it had become clear the key issue was whether Patterson meant to put death cap mushrooms in the lunch she served to her husband's relatives (including her parents-in-law), and whether she meant to kill or cause serious harm to them. Now Patterson was being asked about whether she liked to eat mushrooms more generally, and whether she had ever picked, eaten and cooked wild varieties of the popular ingredient. Yes, she told the court, to all of the above. Once, she revealed, she had found some growing outside at the property she lived at in Korumburra before moving to the house, in the nearby town Leongatha, where the fateful lunch took place. She said she had fried up what she was confident were field and horse mushrooms with butter, ate them, and, when she discovered they were safe, used them in other meals. That included in food fed to her two children, Patterson told the court. Erin Patterson hosts lunch for estranged husband Simon's parents, Don and Gail Patterson, and his aunt and uncle Heather and Ian Wilkinson. Patterson serves beef wellington. All four lunch guests are admitted to hospital with gastro-like symptoms. Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson die in hospital. Don Patterson dies in hospital. Victoria police search Erin Patterson's home and interview her. Ian Wilkinson is discharged from hospital after weeks in intensive care. Police again search Erin Patterson's home, and she is arrested and interviewed. She is charged with three counts of murder relating to the deaths of Don and Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson, and the attempted murder of Ian Wilkinson. Jury is sworn in. Murder trial begins. Jury hears that charges of attempting to murder her estranged husband Simon are dropped. Mandy's focus narrowed when he asked where the mushrooms in the beef wellington meal had come from. 'The vast majority came from the local Woolworths in Leongatha. There were some from the grocer in Melbourne,' she replied. She accepted, however, that the meal had contained death cap mushrooms. 'Do you accept there must have been death cap mushrooms in there?' Mandy asked Patterson. 'Yes, I do,' she replied. Throughout her answers, Patterson sat in an office chair faced towards Mandy, with Justice Christopher Beale to her left and the jury directly in front of her. The court room was filled with almost a dozen members of the Patterson and Wilkinson families, homicide squad detectives including the officer in charge of the investigation, Stephen Eppingstall, and about 20 members of the public. Behind those public seats was the now-empty dock where, until this week, Patterson had sat quietly observing former friends, family and experts testifying in her trial. Earlier, Mandy had taken his client to expletive-laden messages she had sent in a Facebook group chat in December 2022 expressing frustrations about her in-laws – Don and Gail Patterson, who are now deceased – about a dispute with her estranged husband, Simon. In the messages, previously shown to the jury, the Facebook user 'Erin ErinErin' wrote she was 'sick of this shit' and 'fuck em' about Don and Gail. 'Why did you write that?' Mandy asked. Patterson released a slow exhale and sniffed before she answered. 'I needed to vent,' Patterson told the jury. 'The choice was either go into the paddock and tell the sheep or vent to these women.' The group chat – which Patterson said had been running for four years by late 2022 – was a space to discuss food the women were cooking, as well as their children's lives and current affairs. Asked if she meant the words, Patterson replied 'no' as she dabbed her eyes repeatedly with a tissue. Of the message she sent which said 'this family I swear to fucking god', a visibly emotional Patterson said she wished she had never said it. 'I feel ashamed for saying it, and I wish the family didn't have to hear that I said that. 'They didn't deserve it.' For five weeks, Patterson's voice in her triple murder trial has been confined to conversations recalled by other witnesses, pages of online messages and texts, and a 21-minute formal police interview played to the jury. Dressed in a navy blue shirt with white polka dots, her reading glasses within easy reach to her right, Patterson started to tell her side of the story. The jury who will decide her fate watched and listened. Her evidence will continue on Wednesday.
The Guardian
a day ago
- Health
- The Guardian
Australia mushroom trial live: Erin Patterson to continue giving evidence on day 25 of her triple murder trial
Update: Date: 2025-06-03T00:31:51.000Z Title: What the jury heard yesterday Content: While we wait for today's proceedings to get underway, here's a recap of what the jury heard on Monday: Patterson entered the witness box to begin testifying in her triple murder trial. Members of the Patterson and Wilkinson families, including Ian Wilkinson, were in the court. The accused said in the months prior to the July 2023 lunch she felt her relationship with the Patterson family, particularly her in-laws Don and Gail, had 'a bit more distance'. She said from the start of 2023 her relationship with her estranged husband, Simon, was 'functional' and the pair communicated mainly about logistical matters. Patterson had a 'never-ending battle of low self-esteem' for most of her adult life, she told the court. She said around the time of the lunch she was planning to have gastric bypass surgery for weight loss. Defence lawyer Colin Mandy SC asked his client about the tension in her relationship with Simon, which involved multiple separations between 2009 and 2015. She said the pair 'just couldn't communicate well' when they had a disagreement. 'We would just feel hurt,' she said. The prosecution closed its case on Monday afternoon before Patterson entered the witness box. Update: Date: 2025-06-03T00:29:46.000Z Title: Welcome Content: to day 25 of Erin Patterson's triple murder trial. Patterson, who began testifying on Monday, is expected to continue giving evidence. We're expecting the trial to resume from 10.30am once the jurors enter the courtroom in Morwell. Patterson, 50, faces three charges of murder and one charge of attempted murder relating to a beef wellington lunch she served at her house in Leongatha, in regional Victoria, on 29 July 2023. She is accused of murdering her in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, and her estranged husband's aunt, Heather Wilkinson. The attempted murder charge relates to Heather's husband, Ian. She has pleaded not guilty to the charges. The prosecution alleges Patterson deliberately poisoned her lunch guests with 'murderous intent', but her lawyers say the poisoning was a tragic accident.
News.com.au
2 days ago
- General
- News.com.au
Erin Patterson trial: Alleged mushroom poisoner changed phones frequently
Alleged triple-killer Erin Patterson rotated through mobile phones at a 'frequent' pace, moving her SIM nine times over four years, her trial has been told. On Monday jurors in the trial, now in it's sixth week, continued to hear from Detective leading Senior Constable Stephen Eppingstall. Under cross examination from defence barrister Colin Mandy SC, Constable Eppingstall was taken through a 'flow chart' that tracked Ms Patterson's phones from 2019 to 2023. The record indicates she changed between seven different phones, from LG, Nokia, Samsung and Oppo, nine times until August 2023. The detective agreed the chart indicated the 'reasonably frequent setting up' of phones. Previously the jury was told prosecutors allege a Samsung A23, dubbed Phone B in the trial, was factory reset three times before it was handed over to police on August 5 and once remotely the following day. Mr Mandy took Constable Eppingstall to a section of the flow chart, that showed a factory reset on February 12 was followed by Ms Patterson's son's SIM card being placed into the phone. The barrister asked if this was 'consistent' with the son taking over the use of that phone. 'Yes, sir,' the officer responded. Next Mr Mandy took Constable Eppingstall to phone records from a second Samsung A23 dubbed 'Phone A' in the trial. Prosecutors allege this was Ms Patterson's phone used in the period preceding and immediately after the lunch. Last week, Constable Eppingstall told the jury the phone had never been located by police. Mr Mandy confirmed the Telstra records indicate the SIM card 'lost connection' with the network sometime between 12.01pm and 1.45pm on August 5. It next connected in a different handset, receiving a text message at 1.44am on August 6, he said. Constable Eppingstall agreed, saying 'that's my understanding' of the records. Constable Eppingstall, the jury was told last week, was the final witness prosecutors planned to call in their case against Ms Patterson. The 50-year-old is facing trial after pleading not guilty to murdering three of her husband's relatives and the attempted murder of a fourth. Prosecutors allege a beef Wellington lunch she served on July 29, 2023, was deliberately poisoned with death cap mushrooms, while her defence argues the case is a tragic accident. Her husband Simon Patterson's parents, Don and Gail Patterson, and his aunt, Heather Wilkinson died from organ failure in after falling ill following the meal Ms Patterson hosted at her Leongatha home in Victoria's southeast. Ms Wilkinson's husband, long-serving Korumburra Baptist Church pastor Ian Wilkinson, fell ill following the lunch but recovered after spending about a month and a half in hospital. The trial continues.
ABC News
6 days ago
- General
- ABC News
Defence casts doubts over police investigation into Erin Patterson's deadly mushroom lunch
Defence lawyers for accused killer Erin Patterson have cast doubt over the police investigation into the deadly mushroom lunch. Ms Patterson, 50, has been charged with murder and attempted murder after three relatives died and one fell seriously ill after eating a beef Wellington containing poisonous death cap mushrooms in July 2023. The trial of Erin Patterson, who stands accused of using a poisoned meal to murder three relatives, continues. Follow the updates in our live blog. To stay up to date with this story, subscribe to ABC News. Ms Patterson has pleaded not guilty and argues what happened was a tragic accident. On Thursday, Detective Leading Senior Constable Stephen Eppingstall returned to the stand to continue his cross-examination by defence lawyer Colin Mandy SC. During his cross-examination, Mr Mandy suggested to the detective that police may not have seized several electronic devices from Ms Patterson's home during a search they conducted in August 2023. The jury were shown several photographs taken during the August 5 police search of Ms Patterson's home, one of which showed a black object sitting on a windowsill. Mr Mandy suggested to Leading Senior Constable Eppingstall that the black object was a Nokia phone that Ms Patterson told police she owned as a spare in case hers broke, which has never been recovered. "I don't think that's consistent with a phone," Leading Senior Constable Eppingstall responded. Another photograph showed a plastic storage basket with an object in it which LSC Eppingstall agreed looked to be a phone box. A third photo of the same room showed white shelving with a desk in the middle of the room and items in small plastic baskets. On the shelves were black objects, which Mr Mandy suggested were laptops. "If those are laptops, this is the first time I'm learning of these items," Leading Senior Constable Eppingstall said. Leading Senior Constable Eppingstall told the court Ms Patterson was allowed to retain her phone during the police search to make arrangements for her children and to make a phone call to a lawyer, which she did in private. The defence also cast doubt over CCTV footage from a Subway restaurant that was previously shown to the jury. Earlier, the prosecution argued the vision showed Ms Patterson dropping her son off to buy a meal before returning to pick him up. Mr Mandy said it was not Ms Patterson in the footage and put to Leading Senior Constable Eppingstall that police only came to that conclusion because the vehicle was consistent with the accused's car and a teenager had gotten out of the car — a statement he agreed with. The jury was then shown a still from inside the Subway of a teenager that Mr Mandy suggested was not Ms Patterson's son, but Leading Senior Constable Eppingstall disagreed. "I believe that to be [Ms Patterson's son] but that's a matter for the jury," he said. Earlier, Mr Mandy took the jury back to Ms Patterson's bank statements obtained by police during their investigation. The statements were from July 1 to August 4, 2023. "I can't explain why we didn't go back further," Leading Senior Constable Eppingstall said when asked about the records by Mr Mandy. A few transactions were highlighted to the jury that suggest some flaws in both of Erin's children's recollection of events during their interview with police. In that interview, her son had said they only made one stop during a trip to Tyabb the day after the deadly lunch, but transactions highlighted by the defence show there was a second stop at a BP station. When asked about phone towers, Leading Senior Constable Eppingstall said he was "not interested" in exploring "line of sight" at that stage of the investigation, despite one of the experts in the investigation suggested it. "Line of site doesn't guarantee connection," he told the court. "We weren't sure if that had been tested or not in court and we didn't think it was necessary on this occasion to try and assess that." The trial continues.
