MORWELL, Australia: An Australian woman promised a “special meal” for her husband’s family before dishing up a beef Wellington with death cap mushrooms that killed three of them, jurors heard on Wednesday (Apr 30).
On the opening day of a trial that has drawn global attention, Erin Patterson, 50, faced a jury accused of three murders – including her parents-in-law – and one attempted murder.
She has pleaded not guilty to all counts, with her defence saying it was all “a terrible accident”.
Patterson “deliberately poisoned” her guests, Crown Prosecutor Nanette Rogers told the jury.
The accused cooked “individual beef Wellingtons, mashed potatoes and green beans”, with her guests eating from four large grey dinner plates, while she ate from a smaller, orange plate, Rogers said.
Patterson invited her guests to lunch in late July 2023 at her home in the sedate Victoria state farm village of Leongatha, telling them she had a health issue to relate, the prosecutor said.
Her estranged husband, Simon Patterson, declined, texting her the night before that he felt “uncomfortable” going.
In a return text minutes later, Patterson said she was “disappointed”, as she wanted to prepare a “special meal and that she may not be able to have a lunch like this for some time”, Rogers said.
But her husband’s parents, Don and Gail Patterson, decided to go, along with his aunt Heather Wilkinson and her husband, local pastor Ian Wilkinson.
GUESTS DEAD WITHIN DAYS
During the lunch, Patterson claimed to have cancer and wanted their advice about how to tell her two children, the prosecutor said.
Medical tests later found no evidence she had the disease, Rogers said.
Within hours of the lunch, the four guests developed diarrhoea and vomiting, and were raced to hospital.
All were diagnosed by treating doctors with poisoning by death cap mushrooms, Rogers told the court.
Within days, Don, Gail and Heather were dead.
Ian, the pastor, survived after nearly two months in hospital.
Patterson went to the hospital two days after the lunch and complained that she, too, was unwell, the prosecution said.
She initially refused medical assistance and left the hospital, but relented and returned for treatment, the court heard.
Patterson said her children had eaten beef Wellington leftovers.
But she claimed to have scraped off the mushroom paste and pastry because they were “fussy”, Rogers said.
When medical staff demanded to see her children, Patterson resisted, saying she did not want them to “be panicked and stressed”.
“She did not appear to be concerned about children’s health but rather about stressing them out,” Rogers said.
