Mushroom cook Erin Patterson accused of tampering with prison food

Australian convicted triple-murderer Erin Patterson has been accused of tampering with prison food, which has reportedly made a fellow inmate sick.

Patterson is reported to have been given a job in the prison kitchen while awaiting trial. Accusations that she tampered with the food in the facility emerged this week, after her conviction was announced.

The infamous mushroom cook was housed at Melbourne’s Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, a maximum-security women’s prison in Melbourne, as she waited to be trialled for poisoning her estranged husband’s family with a mushroom-laced beef wellington.

The claim was reported by the Herald Sun. The allegation was brought on by an inmate, reportedly following a dispute between the inmate and Patterson. Her legal team has dismissed it, calling it “baseless”.

According to the Daily Mail Australia, a Corrections Victoria source confirmed that Patterson had been given a job in the prison kitchen despite her reasons for being on remand awaiting trial.

Mushroom lunch leftovers taken from Erin Patterson's home. Photo / Supplied

However, there has been no official confirmation that any food has been tampered with at the prison facility.

Patterson, 50, has been in the facility since November 2023, charged with the murder of members of her estranged husband’s family, Don and Gail Patterson, both aged 70, as well as Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, 66.

She was also charged with the attempted murder of Heather’s husband, Ian Wilkinson, 71, who was the sole survivor of the fatal lunch.

Don and Gail Patterson died after eating the beef wellington dish.

This week she was found guilty of three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. Four additional attempted murder charges, relating to her former husband Simon Patterson, were withdrawn prior to the start of the trial.

She will be back in court later this year to be sentenced and faces up to life in prison.

After seven days of deliberations, jurors unanimously found Patterson guilty of the three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.

Patterson had pleaded not guilty, arguing at trial she did not intentionally poison the meal with death cap mushrooms and did not want to harm her family members.