Mushroom trial: First came the lies, then came the tears

Erin Patterson, the cook behind the lethal mushroom lunch that killed three people, was overcome with emotion in the dock as her murder trial began.

A court sketch of accused mushroom cook killer Erin Patterson. Picture: NewsWire / Paul Tyquin

The tears flowed as the murder trial of mushroom cook Erin Patterson began.

Sitting in the dock, Ms Patterson was overcome as the jury began hearing the prosecution case about the lunch that poisoned her estranged husband’s family.

Then, as she composed herself, the heavens opened up.

Wearing a blue and white striped shirt, similar in style to the pink one she wore as the jury was empanelled on Tuesday, Ms Patterson stiffened as the prosecution outlined its case over three hours.

Barrister Colin Mandy SC, Barrister Sophie Stafford, Lawyer Ophelia Holloway, and Lawyer Bill Doogue arrive at Latrobe Valley Magistrates' Court. Picture: AFP

By the end of the day, it was conceded the 50-year-old mum of two was a liar.

Even the reason she gave for wanting to have the lunch at her Leongatha home on July 29, 2023, was a lie.

It was the big C, cancer.

That is what Ms Patterson told them she was fighting as she sat with Don and Gail Patterson, Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson and her husband Ian who she served up a lethal beef Wellington.

There had been a lump on her elbow and the diagnosis had confirmed the worst, she told them after they said Grace.

In response, they prayed again.

Ms Patterson told more lies as her guests became intensely sick – to doctors, nurses, to a health department official and to police.

Erin Patterson at her Leongatha home in 2023. Picture: Brooke Grebert-Craig

They included that she did not own or use a dehydrator to cook dried mushrooms up and that she had never foraged for mushrooms in her life.

In fact, Ms Patterson is a forager.

This was conceded by her barrister, Colin Mandy SC.

But his client, he told the Supreme Court sitting in the regional town of Morwell, was no murderer.

“Erin Patterson does not dispute that the medical testing, the scientific testing, shows it was death cap mushrooms that caused these tragic deaths,” he said.

“This case is all about Erin Patterson’s intention. It’s about what she meant to do. Did she intend to kill these four people?

“The defence case is that Erin Patterson did not intend to serve poisoned food.

“That she didn’t intend to cause any harm to anyone on that day. This was a tragedy, a terrible accident.

“That issue, the issue of intention, is critical to this trial.”

And with that sentence, the battleground was fixed.

Don and Gail Patterson died after ingesting poisonous mushrooms. Picture: Supplied

In the back row of courtroom four, Victoria Police homicide Inspector Dean Thomas and Sen Sgt Nigel L’Estrange looked on, occasionally exchanging a few words.

At the bar table, Crown prosecutor Dr Nanette Rogers SC, gave her opening address with an even, precise tone.

It was chronological, not bombastic.

Dr Rogers laid out in great detail the events the prosecution allege led up to the three deaths, and one near death, and what it alleges occurred afterwards.

Among the pieces of evidence the prosecution will rely on is that Ms Patterson used two phones and reset one of them (the second phone has not been found) as part of their case to prove she intended to kill.

And that phone data will show she went to two areas not far from her Leongatha home where death cap mushrooms had been sighted, and posted on to a site called iNaturalist.

Some of the family of her former husband, Simon Patterson, were in court too.

They sat with their eyes fixed forward, as did most of the 40-odd people in the courtroom.

The woman in the dock, Ms Patterson, also looked on intently, only squinting to see the exhibits brought up on the courtroom screens.

She is on trial for her life.

Erin Patterson has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.