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Erin Patterson is accused of poisoning her in-laws with a beef wellington containing death cap mushrooms.
Gail Patterson, Don Patterson and Heather Wilkinson died; Ian Wilkinson survived after a liver transplant.
Erin Patterson allegedly served herself on a different-coloured plate and pleaded not guilty to the charges.
An Australian woman accused of killing her in-laws with a poisoned beef wellington served her own lunch on a different-coloured plate to those used for her guests, a court has heard.
On the first day of Erin Trudi Patterson’s murder trial, the jury was told that Patterson had invited her estranged husband’s family to her house to tell them she had been diagnosed with cancer.
The relatives prayed together for Patterson’s recovery and later told church friends about their “delicious” meal.
Hours later, all four guests reported severe gastrointestinal upset that was later attributed to poisoning by the lethal variety of mushrooms known as the death cap.
Gail and Don Patterson, the parents of Patterson’s estranged husband, Simon, both died in hospital.
Heather Wilkinson, Gail’s sister, also died, but Wilkinson’s husband, Ian, survived the damage to his liver after receiving an organ transplant.
In her Supreme Court trial in the small Victorian town of Morwell, Patterson, 50, has pleaded not guilty to the murders of Gail and Patterson and Heather Wilkinson. She denies attempting to murder Ian Wilkinson.
She was also accused of attempting to kill her husband, but those charges were dropped before the trial started on Wednesday. Simon Patterson had reported becoming ill on a separate occasion and had been invited to the fatal lunch but declined.
Heather Wilkinson and pastor Ian Wilkinson. He survived after a liver transplant.
Prosecutors have alleged that Erin Patterson knowingly mixed toxic Amanita phalloides fungi into the lunch she served at her home in Leongatha, southeast of Melbourne, on July 29, 2023.
Mushrooms are a key ingredient in beef wellington, used to make the duxelles between the dish’s meat and pastry layers.
According to the police records, Patterson told officers that she had bought the majority of the meal ingredients from a supermarket but had also used dried “smelly” mushrooms bought months earlier from an Asian shop in Melbourne.
Police will allege that she prepared toxic mushrooms in a food dehydrator that she bought in April 2023.
A dehydrator found by police at a rubbish tip after the deaths contained samples that tested positive for Amanita mushrooms, the court was told.
Patterson allegedly told police she had never owned a dehydrator but later admitted said she may have owned one “a year ago”.
Patterson, a true-crime fan who was part of online forums that discussed murder cases, had allegedly talked to online friends about how much she enjoyed using her food dehydrator.
Police alleged that one of the devices seized from Patterson contained evidence that she had travelled to two places identified on a flora and fauna website as being sites of poisonous mushrooms.
Their suspicions were again raised when they discovered she had used different Sim cards for her phone.
Nanette Rogers, prosecuting, told jurors that both Wilkinsons had said Patterson gave each guest an individual serving of beef wellington on grey plates but served herself on an orange plate.
The jurors were told that, when Heather Wilkinson was preparing to go to hospital, she had asked Simon: “Is Erin short of crockery? I was wondering why she served herself on a different plate to the rest of us. I’ve puzzled about it since lunch.”
Erin Patterson denies three charges of murder and one of attempted murder.
Rogers said Ian Wilkinson had also described the plate from which Patterson ate as being tan or orange.
“The accused plated the meal, which consisted of individual beef wellingtons, mashed potato and green beans,” Rogers said. “The beef wellingtons were prepared as a piece of steak covered with mushrooms and completely encased in pastry.
“Donald, Gail, Ian and Heather each ate from the large, grey-coloured dinner plate, the accused ate from the smaller plate.
“Ian and Heather ate their entire portion. Gail ate approximately half of her serve and gave the rest to Donald, who ate his own serve as well as that portion of Gail’s.”
Two days after the lunch, Patterson went to hospital but her blood test results did not show signs of her being unwell.
Patterson had told her two children that it was an adults-only event and they could go to the cinema with a friend, jurors were told.
She told Simon and his family that it was important they visit her for a “special” meal, Rogers said.
“Don and Gail Patterson and Ian and Heather Wilkinson wondered about the purpose of the lunch. Ian and Heather were surprised at the invitation as they’d never before been to the accused’s house.”
At the lunch, Patterson “announced that she had cancer and asked for advice on whether to tell the children or to keep it from them”.
Rogers said: “They had a discussion about it being best to be honest with the children. They prayed as a group for the accused’s health.”
Simon had told her he did not want to attend the lunch but could talk to her about any health concerns over the phone.
“The accused replied five minutes later, saying that she was disappointed, she emphasised the effort she had put into preparing the lunch because she’d wanted it to be a special meal and that she may not be able to have a lunch like this again for some time,” Rogers said.
Simon and Erin Patterson had initially been “amicable” during their separation and even took family holidays together, the court heard.
But their relationship had been strained since late 2022 when Patterson found her estranged husband had listed himself on a tax return as separated.
“Their communication from that point started to decline,” Rogers said.
“Issues arose concerning the payment of child support, including whether Simon should make additional payments outside of child support for expenses such as school fees.”
Speaking to the jury, Rogers did not outline a possible motive.
