‘You lied’: Rapid-fire accusations as mushroom cook faces the prosecution

The questions came thick and fast. The denials did, too.

After three days and 30 minutes of softly spoken, slow questioning from defence lawyer Colin Mandy, SC, accused killer cook Erin Patterson was now under cross-examination.

Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers, SC, arrives at the court.Credit: Jason South

Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers, SC, rose to her feet quickly, on her lectern a blue binder folder filled with A4 notes.

In quick succession she took Erin Patterson through a string of exhibits. More than a dozen flicked across screens in the courtroom – invoices, photographs.

With about five metres between them, Rogers’ voice carried easily across the room. The accused, on the other hand, was asked to speak up.

Rogers cut to the chase in the first 10 minutes. She took the 50-year-old to the dehydrator dumped at a local Gippsland tip.

Patterson agreed it was her on CCTV images arriving at the transfer station, that it was her appliance recovered by police and she’d used it to dehydrate mushrooms.

Rogers: “You knew they were death cap mushrooms that you [dehydrated].”

Erin: “No, I didn’t know.”

Rogers: “You were very keen to dispose any evidence that would connect you with the possession of death cap mushrooms. That’s why you rushed out after your release from Monash [hospital] to [dispose of it].”

Defence barrister Colin Mandy, SC.Credit: Jason South

Erin: “No.”

Rogers: “You lied because you knew if you told the police the truth it would implicate you in the deliberate poisoning of your four lunch guests.”

Erin: “No, no, it’s not true.”

By contrast, just minutes earlier the jury had heard Mandy’s final questions to his client, taking her to each of the poisoning victims who lost their lives after lunch at her Leongatha home on July 29, 2023. Towards the end she appeared to become teary as she denied she ever intended to kill or otherwise cause harm to her lunch guests.

Mandy: “Did you intend to kill or cause really serious injury to Don Patterson by serving that meal?”

Patterson: “No, I didn’t.”

Mandy: “Did you intend to harm him in any way at all?”

Patterson: “No.”

The same questions and answers were repeated for Gail Patterson, Heather Wilkinson and sole survivor Ian Wilkinson.

At 12.30pm, two men were ushered from the court for using mobile phones. Tipstaff Stuart Hastings removed the pair, who were seated on a wooden bench in the room. There was no interruption to the proceedings, as Rogers continued to fire off questions.

And as the questions kept coming, Erin Patterson, who denies three charges of murder and one of attempted murder, fiddled with her glasses in the witness box.

“The cancer was a lie?” Rogers asked.

“Correct,” the accused killer replied.

There was a delayed start to proceedings on Thursday after a power outage in the area that also interrupted phone and internet connections.

After a mid-morning break, Justice Christopher Beale also took the opportunity to advise the jurors about how much longer evidence in the case might take.

Beale said Erin Patterson was likely to be in the witness box for the remainder of this week and into next.

“After all the evidence is completed, we’ll then hear closing addresses from the prosecution and the defence,” he said, with each expected to take a couple of days.

The judge’s final directions would take several more, putting the trial length at eight weeks.

Rogers will continue questioning Patterson on Friday. What the answers will be remains to be seen.

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