4 days ago
Prosecutor asks accused triple-murderer Erin Patterson why she didn't alert authorities over foraged mushrooms
Erin Patterson didn't tell a "single person" that she may have accidentally added foraged mushrooms to a lunch that eventually killed three of her relatives, her murder trial has heard.
The accused triple-murderer has given evidence for a fifth day in the Supreme Court trial in the Victorian town of Morwell.
She has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and attempted murder after three relatives — her parents-in-law Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson — died from death cap mushroom poisoning following a lunch at her house on July 29, 2023.
The trial of Erin Patterson, who stands accused of using a poisoned meal to murder three relatives, continues.
Look back at how Friday's hearing unfolded in our live blog.
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Another relative, Heather's husband Ian Wilkinson, fell seriously ill but survived.
Lead prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC, who continued her cross-examination of Ms Patterson today, pointed to a police interview in which she spoke lovingly of her in-laws.
"You agree that you told police in your record of interview that you loved Don and Gail?" Dr Rogers asked.
"Correct," Ms Patterson said.
The prosecutor then asked why she wouldn't have thought to tell authorities of her worries that she may have added foraged mushrooms to her guests' lunches, given they had fallen seriously ill.
Ms Patterson earlier told the trial she had become "scared" and began to worry that authorities would think it was "intentional".
"Well I didn't," Ms Patterson responded. "I had been told that … people were getting treatment for possible death cap mushroom poisoning. So that was already happening."
Dr Rogers noted that this was days before anyone had died, but that Ms Patterson didn't tell "a single person" that foraged mushrooms may be in the meal.
"Correct," the 50-year-old mother came after Dr Rogers detailed a conversation that took place between Ms Patterson and her estranged husband Simon in a hospital on the Tuesday after the Patterson previously said he had confronted her and asked her if she'd used the dehydrator to poison his parents. Mr Patterson denies he said that.
In evidence earlier this week, Ms Patterson said that after the conversation, "it got me thinking about all the times that I'd used it [the dehydrator]".
"And how I had dried foraged mushrooms in it weeks earlier. And I was starting to think, what if they'd gone in the container with the Chinese mushrooms," Erin said.
On the Wednesday after the lunch, the court heard Ms Patterson, got up, drove her children to school, then came home.
"Then you got rid of the dehydrator," Dr Rogers said.
Ms Patterson confirmed that was what days ago, Ms Patterson admitted to disposing of the food dehydrator at the Koonwarra told the court she knew that child protection workers were on their way to her house, and she feared being blamed for making her guests Patterson said this feeling of anxiety also led her to carry out a factory reset on her phone because she "panicked" about photos it contained of foraged mushrooms.
The trial continues.
