An Australian woman accused of triple murder with a toxic mushroom-laced beef Wellington had rarely invited her four guests to eat at her home before, a court heard yesterday.
Erin Patterson, 50, is charged with murdering the parents and aunt of her estranged husband in July 2023 by serving them the pastry-and-beef dish with death cap mushrooms.
She is also accused of the attempted murder of her husband’s uncle, who survived the meal after a long stay in a hospital.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Patterson has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
In a trial that has seized international attention, prosecutors played a recording of a police interview with Patterson’s son, then 14, following the lunch. The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said his mother had hosted his paternal grandparents at her house “once before,” and she had “never” previously invited over Heather and Ian Wilkinson, his father’s aunt and uncle, the boy said.
His mother’s relationship with the couple was “not a negative one, but it is not strong,” the boy told police.
The accused’s estranged husband, Simon Patterson, had declined the invitation to lunch at her home in the sedate Victoria state farm village of Leongatha.
Four members of his family attended: his parents, Don and Gail Patterson, and his aunt and uncle. While the guests had lunch, Patterson’s children went to a McDonald’s and the cinema.
Within hours after eating, the four guests developed diarrhoea and vomiting and were taken to a hospital, where doctors diagnosed death cap mushroom poisoning.
Days later, three of the guests were dead. Ian Wilkinson, a local pastor, lived after weeks of hospital treatment.
The teenager told the court that his parents had a “very negative” relationship in the months leading up to the lunch.
“Dad does a lot of things to try to hurt mum, such as messing around with the school,” he said.
On the morning after the lunch, Patterson’s son said she was “a little bit quieter” than usual, complaining of “feeling a bit sick and had diarrhoea.”
The family had missed their local church service because “mum was feeling too sick,” he said.
The teenager said that afternoon Patterson drove him for an hour to his flying lesson, which was canceled at the last minute due to weather.
When they returned home, the boy said Patterson raced inside to use the bathroom. That night, Patterson and her children ate the purported leftovers of the beef Wellington. The defendant has said she scraped off the mushrooms because her children were picky eaters.
“It was probably some of the best meat I’ve ever had,” her teenage son said. “Mum said it was leftovers.”
Jurors also heard a recording of a police interview with Patterson’s daughter, then nine, who said her mum was a good cook.
“We make cupcakes and muffins,” she said.
The girl, who also cannot be named for legal reasons, said she did not get sick from eating the claimed leftovers.
The prosecution said that Patterson deliberately poisoned her lunch guests and took care that neither she nor her children consumed the deadly mushrooms.
Her defense says it was “a terrible accident” and that Patterson ate the same meal as the others, but did not fall as sick. The trial is expected to last another five weeks.
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