Latest news with #VictorianSupremeCourt
Otago Daily Times
3 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
Alleged mushroom murderer accused of lying
Accused triple-murderer Erin Patterson has been accused of lying about throwing up remains from a beef Wellington and serving herself on a different plate. On her sixth day in the witness box, the 50-year-old has disputed evidence from a doctor, nurse, her estranged husband Simon and what the only surviving lunch guest told the jury in her trial. Patterson has entered week seven of a Victorian Supreme Court trial accused of three murders and one attempted murder over a toxic mushroom dish she served up to Simon's family in July 2023. Her former in-laws Don and Gail Patterson, 70, and Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson, 66, all died in hospital days after eating death cap mushroom-laced beef Wellingtons cooked by Patterson. She has pleaded not guilty to all charges and claims the poisonings were a terrible accident. Patterson last week admitted foraging for wild mushrooms and accepted they may have been in the individual beef Wellingtons that she had prepared. Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC, at the beginning of her third day cross-examining Patterson on Tuesday, accused her of more lies. Patterson on Friday said she'd a pre-surgery appointment for gastric bypass procedure at Enrich Clinic in Melbourne. But Dr Rogers put to Patterson that Enrich "does not offer gastric bypass or sleeve surgery". "I don't know," Patterson replied. "I had an appointment with them ... It was for weight-loss surgery but maybe it was a different kind." The prosecutor suggested she had lied about that appointment but Patterson said: "It wasn't a lie, that's what my memory was". Dr Rogers quizzed Patterson about sole surviving lunch guest Ian Wilkinson's evidence to the jury about being served the beef Wellington on one of four large grey plates. He also told the jury, in week two of the trial, Patterson had served herself on a smaller orange or tan plate. Patterson said she did not own any grey plates, and did not serve herself on a plate that was orange, tan and small. Dr Rogers asked Patterson about evidence that Heather Wilkinson said she noticed the cook had served herself the food on a "coloured plate which was different from the rest". "I didn't serve myself at all," she replied, before adding she wanted to "clarify" she did not own any matching sets of plates. "Somebody would've had different plates and I don't have four plates the same," Patterson said. Dr Rogers suggested her "whole story is untrue" about plating the food, to which Patterson replied: "You're wrong". She directly put to Patterson that she lied to medical professionals about vomiting to "try and account for why you didn't get seriously ill". "I wish that was true but it's not," Patterson said. Patterson further disputed evidence from Simon, saying she did not tell him she was worried she may "poo her pants" if she drove her son's friend home after the lunch. She disputed evidence from Leongatha doctor and nurse, Chris Webster and Kylie Ashton, about what they discussed when she admitted herself to hospital two days after the lunch. She said Leongatha hospital staff would not tell her what had happened to the other lunch guests. Patterson said she "probably was very stressed" when she went to the hospital because doctors had suspected death cap mushroom poisoning in the meal she prepared. "I was anxious at the idea we might've eaten those things," she said. The trial continues.
NDTV
5 days ago
- NDTV
Explained: Australian Woman Accused Of Poisoning In-Laws With Toxic Mushrooms
The Victorian Supreme Court is hearing the high-profile "mushroom murder" trial involving an Australian woman accused of killing her estranged husband's parents and aunt by serving them a meal laced with poisonous mushrooms. In July 2023, 50-year-old Erin Patterson hosted a lunch for her former mother-in-law, Gail Patterson, and father-in-law, Don Patterson, both 70, Ms Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson, 66, and Heather's husband, Reverend Ian Wilkinson. She allegedly served them a homemade Beef Wellington pastry dish at her home in Leongatha in Melbourne. The dish reportedly contained death cap mushrooms, said to be among the most toxic mushrooms in the world. Gail, Donald, and Heather died after consuming the meal, while Mr Wilkinson survived. Ms Patterson has been charged with the murder of the three relatives and the attempted murder of Mr Wilkinson. What Survivor Reverend Ian Wilkinson Said About The Incident Recalling the deadly lunch, Mr Wilkinson said Ms Patterson invited all four, along with her estranged husband, Simon Patterson, for lunch on July 29, 2023. Simon decided to give it a miss. Heather and Gail offered to assist with plating up the meal, but Ms Patterson turned them down, Mr Wilkinson told the court. He said a portion of mashed potatoes, green beans, and a single beef Wellington were served on each plate. While all four guests were served their meals on large, grey dinner plates, Ms Patterson had it on a smaller, tan-coloured plate, he said. Mr Wilkinson said he and his wife ate all of their food and Don ate his own and also half of his wife's portion. He told the court that after lunch, Ms Patterson made up the story, alleging that she had cancer and planned this lunch to ask for advice on how to break the news to her children, who were not at home. Was Erin Patterson Suffering From Cancer? No, Erin Patterson lied about her illness. She told the court that she did this to gain sympathy from her husband's relatives, as she felt they were growing apart during her separation from her husband. During the trial, she said, "I didn't want their care of me to stop, so I kept it going. I shouldn't have done it. I did lie to them." She further said, "I had become a little worried that perhaps ... that there might be some distance growing between me and the Patterson family." When asked why she lied about her illness, Ms Patterson said that during lunch, her father-in-law was talking to his brother, who was fighting cancer. So, at the end of the meal, she told the guests that she had a health issue from a year or two ago and might soon need cancer treatment. But instead, she was planning to undergo weight-loss surgery. Ms Patterson thought if the family believed that she was suffering from a serious disease and undergoing treatment, they might offer to help take care of her children. Did Erin Patterson Intentionally Serve Poisonous Mushrooms? Ms Patterson said that the mushrooms she used in the lunch were a mix of two types. One was a fresh button mushroom she bought from a supermarket, Woolworths, and the other was dried mushrooms she purchased from the Asian grocery store a few months ago. She mentioned that she started preparing the lunch the night before by salting the meat. On the morning of the lunch, she made a mushroom paste using the one she bought from Woolworths. While cooking the paste, she tasted it a few times and felt it was too bland. So, she decided to add some dried mushrooms which she bought earlier from a grocery store. Initially, she thought that these dried mushrooms were bought from a store, but later admitted that some of them might have been foraged. She told the court, "Now I think that there was a possibility that there were foraged ones in there as well." Why Did She Dispose Of The Food Dehydrator? Ms Patterson told the court that she had a little bit of lunch and later had two-thirds of the cake. After that, she felt too full and ended up throwing up. So, when she was in the hospital, her estranged husband came to see her and blamed her for killing his parents with a food dehydrator. She told the court that during the Covid-19 lockdown, she started searching for mushrooms in her nearby areas. She would then dry and store them using a food dehydrator. She told the court that Simon asked her, "Is that how you poisoned my parents?" She felt worried and decided to throw the food dehydrator at a nearby dump. She also deleted data from her phone in panic because it contained photos of mushrooms and the dehydrator. The dehydrator was later traced by police and found to contain a death cap mushroom. The court will continue the hearing on Thursday and prosecutors will get the opportunity to cross-examine her.
West Australian
5 days ago
- West Australian
Erin Patterson live trial updates: Accused mushroom killer's admission, evidence over beef Wellington lunch
Accused triple murderer Erin Patterson will give her final defence evidence on Thursday before being cross-examined by the prosecution over her deadly, mushroom-laced, fatal beef Wellington lunch. Scroll down for the latest updates, live from inside the courtroom of Erin Patterson's triple murder trial. A power issue at the Morwell court in regional Victoria has delayed this morning's proceedings. It is understood this has been resolved and the trial will resume shortly. Erin Patterson has told the court how she disposed of her food dehydrator at a tip as she feared her children would be taken away from her, as authorities circled following the death cap mushroom-laced lunch. Ms Patterson claimed the majority of mushrooms in her beef Wellington were from a local Woolworths in Leongatha; however, after tasting her 'bland' mix, she added dried mushrooms from a container in her pantry. The accused told the court how that container could have included mushrooms she had picked and dehydrated during her 'experiments', or potentially 'pungent' mushrooms she bought from a mystery Asian grocer in Melbourne. While she was in hospital after the lunch, Ms Patterson told the court how her ex-partner, Simon Patterson, asked her point blank: 'Is that how you poisoned my parents? Using that dehydrator?' Read the full story on Erin Patterson's evidence so far. Accused triple murderer Erin Patterson will on Thursday give her final evidence as a witness for the defence. After that, the alleged killer cook will face cross-examination from the prosecution. Ms Patterson denies intentionally killing her ex-partner Simon Patterson's family with death cap mushrooms that were inside a fatal beef Wellington lunch. Don and Gail Peterson, and Heather Wilkinson died following the lunch, with sole-surviving lunch guest, Ian Wilkinson, watching on as the accused gives evidence at the Victorian Supreme Court trial in Morwell. Ms Patterson returns to the witness box at 10.30am AEST Thursday.
The Advertiser
27-05-2025
- The Advertiser
Woman allegedly murdered after ending relationship
A retired British carpenter allegedly murdered a woman and set her house alight after she tried to break off their relationship, a court has been told. Timothy Loosemore has pleaded not guilty to arson and murder following a blaze at Maree Vermont's home in the rural town of Goldie, north of Melbourne, in the Macedon Ranges in 2023. He arrived in Australia in 2022 to travel when he met Ms Vermont, who was offering free accommodation on Airbnb in exchange for work being done around the house. They struck up a friendship and at one point, that relationship became intimate. Ms Vermont had been planning overseas trips and wanted to break things off, describing the relationship to friends as "just sex" and a "fling", Crown prosecutor Grant Hayward told the Victorian Supreme Court jury trial on Tuesday. Mr Hayward said she texted her son on July 31, 2023 saying Loosemore had "taken it bad" after she tried to end things. On August 5, Ms Vermont picked Loosemore up from the dentist and they went to the shops before having dinner at home and consuming a lot of alcohol. "At some stage there was argument and Loosemore murdered Ms Vermont," Mr Hayward told the jury. Prosecutors allege he killed her and then set fire to the house or assaulted her and tried to conceal the assault by setting the house alight. Ms Vermont was found laying face down in the lounge room with such severe burns that her legs and arms were reduced to fragments, the jury was told. Arson investigators believe the fire began in the lounge room and quickly spread, possibly due to a flammable liquid or multiple ignition points, the prosecutor said. Loosemore said he had gone to gather firewood and returned to find the house engulfed in flames before running to alert neighbours and emergency authorities. A paramedic who treated him identified a "strong smell" of petrol while another observed blood on his face, hands and shirt, the jury was told. Loosemore said he had put petrol in the lawnmower that afternoon, but also told doctors he had a poor memory because he had been drinking and was taking painkillers after his dental visit. Defence barrister Dave Cronin urged the jury to consider the circumstances around the situation. He asked them to be cognisant of the length of time Loosemore was away from the house, his rush in rural bushland to alert neighbours potentially explaining scratches, and Ms Vermont had been taking anti-depressants at the time. The trial continues. 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) Lifeline 13 11 14 Men's Referral Service 1300 766 491 A retired British carpenter allegedly murdered a woman and set her house alight after she tried to break off their relationship, a court has been told. Timothy Loosemore has pleaded not guilty to arson and murder following a blaze at Maree Vermont's home in the rural town of Goldie, north of Melbourne, in the Macedon Ranges in 2023. He arrived in Australia in 2022 to travel when he met Ms Vermont, who was offering free accommodation on Airbnb in exchange for work being done around the house. They struck up a friendship and at one point, that relationship became intimate. Ms Vermont had been planning overseas trips and wanted to break things off, describing the relationship to friends as "just sex" and a "fling", Crown prosecutor Grant Hayward told the Victorian Supreme Court jury trial on Tuesday. Mr Hayward said she texted her son on July 31, 2023 saying Loosemore had "taken it bad" after she tried to end things. On August 5, Ms Vermont picked Loosemore up from the dentist and they went to the shops before having dinner at home and consuming a lot of alcohol. "At some stage there was argument and Loosemore murdered Ms Vermont," Mr Hayward told the jury. Prosecutors allege he killed her and then set fire to the house or assaulted her and tried to conceal the assault by setting the house alight. Ms Vermont was found laying face down in the lounge room with such severe burns that her legs and arms were reduced to fragments, the jury was told. Arson investigators believe the fire began in the lounge room and quickly spread, possibly due to a flammable liquid or multiple ignition points, the prosecutor said. Loosemore said he had gone to gather firewood and returned to find the house engulfed in flames before running to alert neighbours and emergency authorities. A paramedic who treated him identified a "strong smell" of petrol while another observed blood on his face, hands and shirt, the jury was told. Loosemore said he had put petrol in the lawnmower that afternoon, but also told doctors he had a poor memory because he had been drinking and was taking painkillers after his dental visit. Defence barrister Dave Cronin urged the jury to consider the circumstances around the situation. He asked them to be cognisant of the length of time Loosemore was away from the house, his rush in rural bushland to alert neighbours potentially explaining scratches, and Ms Vermont had been taking anti-depressants at the time. The trial continues. 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) Lifeline 13 11 14 Men's Referral Service 1300 766 491 A retired British carpenter allegedly murdered a woman and set her house alight after she tried to break off their relationship, a court has been told. Timothy Loosemore has pleaded not guilty to arson and murder following a blaze at Maree Vermont's home in the rural town of Goldie, north of Melbourne, in the Macedon Ranges in 2023. He arrived in Australia in 2022 to travel when he met Ms Vermont, who was offering free accommodation on Airbnb in exchange for work being done around the house. They struck up a friendship and at one point, that relationship became intimate. Ms Vermont had been planning overseas trips and wanted to break things off, describing the relationship to friends as "just sex" and a "fling", Crown prosecutor Grant Hayward told the Victorian Supreme Court jury trial on Tuesday. Mr Hayward said she texted her son on July 31, 2023 saying Loosemore had "taken it bad" after she tried to end things. On August 5, Ms Vermont picked Loosemore up from the dentist and they went to the shops before having dinner at home and consuming a lot of alcohol. "At some stage there was argument and Loosemore murdered Ms Vermont," Mr Hayward told the jury. Prosecutors allege he killed her and then set fire to the house or assaulted her and tried to conceal the assault by setting the house alight. Ms Vermont was found laying face down in the lounge room with such severe burns that her legs and arms were reduced to fragments, the jury was told. Arson investigators believe the fire began in the lounge room and quickly spread, possibly due to a flammable liquid or multiple ignition points, the prosecutor said. Loosemore said he had gone to gather firewood and returned to find the house engulfed in flames before running to alert neighbours and emergency authorities. A paramedic who treated him identified a "strong smell" of petrol while another observed blood on his face, hands and shirt, the jury was told. Loosemore said he had put petrol in the lawnmower that afternoon, but also told doctors he had a poor memory because he had been drinking and was taking painkillers after his dental visit. Defence barrister Dave Cronin urged the jury to consider the circumstances around the situation. He asked them to be cognisant of the length of time Loosemore was away from the house, his rush in rural bushland to alert neighbours potentially explaining scratches, and Ms Vermont had been taking anti-depressants at the time. The trial continues. 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) Lifeline 13 11 14 Men's Referral Service 1300 766 491 A retired British carpenter allegedly murdered a woman and set her house alight after she tried to break off their relationship, a court has been told. Timothy Loosemore has pleaded not guilty to arson and murder following a blaze at Maree Vermont's home in the rural town of Goldie, north of Melbourne, in the Macedon Ranges in 2023. He arrived in Australia in 2022 to travel when he met Ms Vermont, who was offering free accommodation on Airbnb in exchange for work being done around the house. They struck up a friendship and at one point, that relationship became intimate. Ms Vermont had been planning overseas trips and wanted to break things off, describing the relationship to friends as "just sex" and a "fling", Crown prosecutor Grant Hayward told the Victorian Supreme Court jury trial on Tuesday. Mr Hayward said she texted her son on July 31, 2023 saying Loosemore had "taken it bad" after she tried to end things. On August 5, Ms Vermont picked Loosemore up from the dentist and they went to the shops before having dinner at home and consuming a lot of alcohol. "At some stage there was argument and Loosemore murdered Ms Vermont," Mr Hayward told the jury. Prosecutors allege he killed her and then set fire to the house or assaulted her and tried to conceal the assault by setting the house alight. Ms Vermont was found laying face down in the lounge room with such severe burns that her legs and arms were reduced to fragments, the jury was told. Arson investigators believe the fire began in the lounge room and quickly spread, possibly due to a flammable liquid or multiple ignition points, the prosecutor said. Loosemore said he had gone to gather firewood and returned to find the house engulfed in flames before running to alert neighbours and emergency authorities. A paramedic who treated him identified a "strong smell" of petrol while another observed blood on his face, hands and shirt, the jury was told. Loosemore said he had put petrol in the lawnmower that afternoon, but also told doctors he had a poor memory because he had been drinking and was taking painkillers after his dental visit. Defence barrister Dave Cronin urged the jury to consider the circumstances around the situation. He asked them to be cognisant of the length of time Loosemore was away from the house, his rush in rural bushland to alert neighbours potentially explaining scratches, and Ms Vermont had been taking anti-depressants at the time. The trial continues. 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) Lifeline 13 11 14 Men's Referral Service 1300 766 491
Perth Now
27-05-2025
- Perth Now
Woman allegedly murdered after ending relationship
A retired British carpenter allegedly murdered a woman and set her house alight after she tried to break off their relationship, a court has been told. Timothy Loosemore has pleaded not guilty to arson and murder following a blaze at Maree Vermont's home in the rural town of Goldie, north of Melbourne, in the Macedon Ranges in 2023. He arrived in Australia in 2022 to travel when he met Ms Vermont, who was offering free accommodation on Airbnb in exchange for work being done around the house. They struck up a friendship and at one point, that relationship became intimate. Ms Vermont had been planning overseas trips and wanted to break things off, describing the relationship to friends as "just sex" and a "fling", Crown prosecutor Grant Hayward told the Victorian Supreme Court jury trial on Tuesday. Mr Hayward said she texted her son on July 31, 2023 saying Loosemore had "taken it bad" after she tried to end things. On August 5, Ms Vermont picked Loosemore up from the dentist and they went to the shops before having dinner at home and consuming a lot of alcohol. "At some stage there was argument and Loosemore murdered Ms Vermont," Mr Hayward told the jury. Prosecutors allege he killed her and then set fire to the house or assaulted her and tried to conceal the assault by setting the house alight. Ms Vermont was found laying face down in the lounge room with such severe burns that her legs and arms were reduced to fragments, the jury was told. Arson investigators believe the fire began in the lounge room and quickly spread, possibly due to a flammable liquid or multiple ignition points, the prosecutor said. Loosemore said he had gone to gather firewood and returned to find the house engulfed in flames before running to alert neighbours and emergency authorities. A paramedic who treated him identified a "strong smell" of petrol while another observed blood on his face, hands and shirt, the jury was told. Loosemore said he had put petrol in the lawnmower that afternoon, but also told doctors he had a poor memory because he had been drinking and was taking painkillers after his dental visit. Defence barrister Dave Cronin urged the jury to consider the circumstances around the situation. He asked them to be cognisant of the length of time Loosemore was away from the house, his rush in rural bushland to alert neighbours potentially explaining scratches, and Ms Vermont had been taking anti-depressants at the time. The trial continues. 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) Lifeline 13 11 14 Men's Referral Service 1300 766 491
