The Australian woman accused of murdering three people with poisonous mushrooms has been found guilty on all charges.
It took just three minutes for 12 jurors to enter the Latrobe Valley courtroom, deliver unanimous verdicts and leave. But a key sign as the group entered showed Erin Patterson what was coming.
Standing flanked by two burly guards in the dock at 2.15pm as the dozen Victorians returned tothe court for the first time in more than a week, Patterson tried to meet their eyes.
But as each of the seven men and five women took their seat, none would match her gaze.
Justice Beale’s associate then asked the foreperson, a woman wearing a brown cardigan, if they had agreed on verdicts.
“Yes, we have,” she said, before softly pronouncing “guilty” four times for the three murder and one attempted murder charges.
Patterson, 50, faced trial after pleading not guilty to three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder stemming from a lunch she hosted at her Leongatha home, in southeast Victoria, on July 29, 2023.
The mother of two served a beef wellington meal to four members of her husband Simon Patterson’s family containing death cap mushrooms.
Erin Patterson has maintained she did not intend to harm Simon Patterson’s family. Photo / Brooke Grebert-Craig
Simon’s parents, Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, died from death cap poisoning in the week following the lunch while Heather’s husband, Ian Wilkinson, survived.
Prosecutors alleged Patterson deliberately sought out and included the deadly fungi in the lunch intending to kill or at least seriously injure her guests.
Her defence, on the other hand, have argued the poisoning was an unintentional and tragic accident, questioning why Patterson would want to kill her loved ones.
Don and Gail Patterson died after eating the beef wellington dish in August 2023.
Over eight weeks of evidence, jurors in the trial heard from more than 50 witnesses, including family, doctors, experts and Patterson herself.
The jury, of eight men and five women, were sent out to deliberate shortly after 1pm on Monday when they were told any verdict must be unanimous.
It has been seven days since they were sent out.
Over the course of their deliberations, jurors are being sequestered at a hotel and have limited contact with the outside world having handed over their phones.
In his final remarks, Justice Beale said they would be deliberating Mondays to Saturdays and given as long as it takes.
