13-05-2025
Erin Patterson trial: Fungi expert Dr Tom May to return to witness box for mushroom murder trial
There's been a 'significant' rise in calls to the Victorian poisons centre about mushroom exposures in recent years, the jury in Erin Patterson's triple-murder trial has been told.
Mycologist Tom May was called to give evidence on Tuesday in the third week of Ms Patterson's trial over the allegedly deliberate poisonings of four of her in-laws on July 29, 2023.
Under cross-examination by Ms Patterson's barrister, Sophie Stafford, Dr May was quizzed on an academic journal article he co-authored in 2023.
The jury was told the study used available mobile and web apps to identify photographs of mushrooms that had been sent to the Victorian Poisons Information Centre — concluding there was a 'poor' accuracy in correctly identifying poisonous mushrooms.
'We showed that those apps sometimes failed to correctly identify mushrooms,' Dr May said.
'Sometimes they were misidentified as the wrong mushroom.'
Dr May told the jury the primary motivation for the study was the increasing availability of the apps, but agreed with Ms Stafford that there seemed to be an increase in people foraging for wild mushrooms in recent years.
'And accordingly, poison centre calls regarding mushroom exposures in the state of Victoria have increased significantly in recent years?' Ms Stafford asked.
Dr May responded: 'That appears to be the case.'
'There certainly was an increase in the calls during the Covid period, but it was also a rather wet year, so it was actually hard to disentangle these different factors,' he said.
Dr May is expected to return to the witness box when the case resumes on Wednesday morning.
Her husband's parents Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, and Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson, 66, died after consuming death cap mushrooms inside a beef wellington that Ms Patterson served.
Ms Wilkinson's husband Ian Wilkinson, 71, survived after a long stint in hospital.
Ms Patterson has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder relating to the fatal lunch.
At the start of the trial her barrister, Colin Mandy SC, told the jury Ms Patterson did not intentionally nor deliberately poison anyone, labelling the deaths a tragic accident.
The trial continues.
