Erin Patterson trial recap: What happened on each day of the death cap mushroom case

Erin Patterson hosted a lunch at her home in the Victorian town of Leongatha in July 2023. She invited her in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, and Heather’s husband Ian Wilkinson.

Her estranged husband, Simon Patterson, was invited but did not attend.

Erin Patterson.Credit: Jason South

Patterson served beef Wellington, and within hours of eating together, the four guests became unwell. Don, Gail and Heather died in hospital after consuming what prosecutors allege were death cap mushrooms. Ian survived after spending several weeks in an induced coma.

Patterson, 50, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Don, Gail and Heather and the attempted murder of Ian over the fatal lunch.

Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale is presiding over the trial in Morwell, a town in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley, which has been set down for five to six weeks. This is what we have heard so far during the trial:

WHAT HAPPENED ON DAY 31 OF MUSHROOM TRIAL

• Erin Patterson gave evidence for an eighth day, undergoing cross-examination from Crown prosecutor Dr Nanette Rogers, SC.
• Patterson denied Rogers’ suggestion that she was lying about taking a toilet break on the way to the Mornington Peninsula town of Tyabb on the day after the fatal lunch.
• Patterson also denied Rogers’ suggestion that she was lying when she said her estranged husband had accused her of using the dehydrator to poison his parents during a conversation at a hospital in the days after the lunch.
• Patterson also denied she deliberately hid the contents of her mobile phone when questioned by Rogers.
• Rogers concluded her cross-examination of Patterson with three final questions.
• Defence barrister Colin Mandy, SC, then re-examined Patterson – asking her about a weight loss treatment consultation booking, beef eye fillet purchases and why she felt she couldn’t cancel her son’s flying lesson.
• After eight days, Erin Patterson was excused from the witness box.

WHAT HAPPENED ON DAY 30 OF MUSHROOM TRIAL

Prosecutor Dr Nanette Rogers, SC cuts a solemn figure walking through heavy fog towards the courthouse on Wednesday morning.Credit: Jason South

• Erin Patterson gave evidence for a seventh day, undergoing cross-examination from Crown prosecutor Dr Nanette Rogers, SC.
• Rogers suggested that Patterson might have been able to source a whole cut of meat from a local butcher to prepare the beef Wellington as a log. “I may have been able to, but I don’t know,” Patterson said.
• Patterson said she bought a kilogram of sliced mushrooms from Woolworths and another 750 grams on two separate dates leading up to the fatal lunch on July 29, 2023. She said she ate a kilo of mushrooms between July 23 and July 27, leaving her with 750 grams for the recipe. Rogers suggested Patterson was lying about eating the mushrooms, which she denied.
• Rogers referred to evidence from mycologist Dr Tom May that dried death cap mushrooms smell unpleasant. Patterson said the dried mushrooms she purchased were “quite pungent” with a strong smell, but denied the odour was unpleasant.
• Patterson denied lying about purchasing mushrooms from an Asian grocery, and denied that she sent the Health Department on a “wild goose chase” to track down the shop. She acknowledged that she did not respond to phone communication from a department official.
• Patterson said she put the dried mushrooms from the Asian grocery in the dehydrator.
• Rogers suggested to Patterson that she was reluctant to have her children medically assessed because she knew they had not consumed leftovers from the lunch. Patterson said that was “incorrect”.
• Patterson denied going to Loch and Outtrim to look for death cap mushrooms, and denied Rogers’ suggestion that she used the dehydrator to blitz death caps into a powder.
• Rogers presented evidence from a computer seized from Patterson’s home of a visit to “the iNaturalist observation map and pages of death cap mushrooms” in May 2022.
• Rogers suggested to Patterson that she wasn’t known by her children to forage for wild mushrooms: “This is a story you have made up for this jury.” Patterson disagreed.
• Patterson agreed that medical records made no mention of her seeking information about gastric-bypass surgery.

WHAT HAPPENED ON DAY 29 OF MUSHROOM TRIAL

• Erin Patterson returned to the witness box for a sixth day to be cross-examined by Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers, SC.
• Patterson denied lying in her evidence about a pre-surgery appointment for a gastric bypass.
• Patterson said she can’t recall visiting a website that logged the observations of death cap mushrooms.
• Patterson rebutted the earlier evidence of lunch guest Ian Wilkinson, who had said the accused served the guests their lunch on four grey plates and hers separately on an orange-tan plate.
• Patterson denied eating all her beef Wellington lunch, insisting she ate only half of her meal.
• Patterson was questioned about the timing of when she began to feel ill and how that accorded with the evidence her children gave earlier in the trial.
• Patterson rolled her eyes and shrugged when it was suggested that she had told nurse Kylie Ashton that she wasn’t prepared to be admitted to hospital soon after she arrived there.
• Patterson said she does not remember anyone at Leongatha Hospital telling her that her life was at risk, but recalled being told it was time-sensitive that she receive treatment.
• When asked about her reluctance to bring her children to hospital for observation for fear of scaring them, Patterson said she thought the doctor’s assessment of the situation as “scared and alive, or dead” as a “pretty bizarre [thing] to say”.
• Patterson recalled the “sarcastic tone” of her estranged husband, Simon Patterson, in an exchange over who would pick up the children.
• The accused also denied the prosecutor’s suggestion that she wanted to appear ill after the beef Wellington lunch, as it might seem suspicious if she weren’t ill like the other guests.

Crown prosecutor Dr Nanette Rogers, SC, and Detective Leading Sergeant Stephen Eppingstall at court on June 5.Credit: Jason South

WHAT HAPPENED ON DAY 28 OF MUSHROOM TRIAL

• Erin Patterson returned to the witness box for a fifth day to be cross-examined by Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers, SC.
• Asked about evidence given by her son that her interactions with estranged husband Simon were “very negative”, Patterson described the relationship as being “strained”.
• Patterson denied telling Simon that she wanted to discuss “important medical news” when she invited him to the lunch. “That wasn’t the purpose of the lunch or the purpose of the invitation,” she told the jury.
• Rogers suggested that Patterson prepared a poisoned beef Wellington for Simon in case he turned up at the lunch. “No, that’s not true,” Patterson replied.
• Patterson said that she realised after the lunch that foraged mushrooms could have ended up in the beef Wellington, but she told no one.
• Patterson said of her in-laws Don and Gail Patterson: “They did love me and I did love them.”
• In her police interview, the court heard, Patterson told officers she invited the Pattersons and Wilkinsons to the lunch as she had no other family. “They are the only support I’ve got,” Patterson told police at the time. “Nothing [Simon’s] ever done to me will change the fact they are good, decent people.”
• “I suggest you didn’t love them”, said the prosecutor, who suggested Patterson had public and private faces when it came to her relationship with her in-laws. Patterson said this was not true.
• Patterson cried in the witness box as she explained why she invited Ian and Heather Wilkinson to the lunch. “Ian had been my pastor for years and years. I would see and speak with Ian and Heather a lot after church and I really liked them. And I wanted to have a stronger relationship with them,” Patterson said.

Prosecutor Nanette Rogers, SC, arrives at court in Morwell on day 28. Credit: Jason South

WHAT HAPPENED ON DAY 27 OF MUSHROOM TRIAL

• Erin Patterson tells court she didn’t intend to kill or cause serious harm by serving the beef Wellington meal.
• The prosecution’s cross-examination of Erin Patterson begins.
• Senior Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers, SC, rapidly takes Patterson through a string of exhibits.
• Patterson denies deliberately lacing beef Wellingtons with death caps.
• Rogers grills Patterson about what she told doctors after the fatal lunch.
• The prosecution quizzes Patterson about “eye-roll emojis” on a group chat message about Don Patterson.
• Patterson denies she announced she had been diagnosed with cancer at the mushroom lunch.
• Patterson said it was rare for her to host guests and that she had not had the Wilkinsons over for a meal before.

WHAT HAPPENED ON DAY 26 OF MUSHROOM TRIAL

• Erin Patterson said she did a factory reset of her phone on August, 2, 2023, to remove her son’s information from it so she could add her own information.
• Patterson said she took her dehydrator to the tip on August 2 because “I was scared that they would blame me for it, for making everyone sick”.
• A doctor suggests the Patterson children come into the hospital for testing as they had eaten some of the lunch leftovers, but Patterson said she didn’t want to unless it was strictly necessary. The children eventually did go into the hospital.
• Patterson recalled visiting urgent care at Leongatha Hospital where she was greeted by a doctor who said they’d been expecting her and that she may have been exposed to death cap mushrooms.
• On the evening of the lunch, Patterson remembers feeling “really nauseous” and between 10pm and midnight began to suffer diarrhoea and strong abdominal cramping.
• Patterson said she vomited straight after the lunch after having eaten about two-thirds of an orange cake baked by Gail Patterson and brought to the lunch as dessert.
• “I did lie to them,” Patterson admitted when she told her lunch guests that she may need some treatment for ovarian cancer that had been diagnosed “a year or two earlier”.
• Patterson said she “felt a bit hurt … a bit stressed” after receiving a message from her estranged husband Simon, advising that he wouldn’t attend the lunch at her home.
• A tearful Erin Patterson admitted she lied to her in-laws about her medical appointments because “I didn’t want their care for me to stop”.
• Patterson said at one stage she became aware of poisonous mushrooms growing in Gippsland, including some growing on her property that were probably toxic to dogs, so she photographed them.

The defence team arrives at court on Wednesday.Credit: Jason South

WHAT HAPPENED ON DAY 25 OF MUSHROOM TRIAL

• Erin Patterson detailed to the court where she would forage for mushrooms in her local area.
• Patterson told the court that she foraged for mushrooms after developing an interest in fungi from about 2020, during the COVID pandemic lockdowns.
• Patterson spoke about her lifelong battle with body image and see-sawing between restricting food and binge eating. Leading up to July 2023, she would binge on food an average of two or three times a week.
• Patterson spoke of her regret at sending a message to a Facebook friend group about the family of estranged husband, Simon Patterson, including one that said, “This family I swear to f---ing God”.
• Patterson said she had never been diagnosed with ovarian cancer or had a biopsy on her elbow, but confirmed she had raised concerns with doctors she might have cancer after experiencing some symptoms.
• A tearful Patterson described her separation from husband Simon and her enduring bond with her in-laws, saying they formally separated at the end of 2015, but no lawyers were involved, nor was there any acrimony.
• Patterson said she inherited money from her grandmother’s estate after her death in 2006. Among other things, it allowed her to offer loans of about $400,000 each to siblings of estranged husband Simon.

The head of Erin Patterson’s legal team, Colin Mandy, SC, leaves the court on Tuesday.Credit: Jason South

WHAT HAPPENED ON DAY 24 OF MUSHROOM TRIAL

• Lead detective Stephen Eppingstall continued giving evidence and recalled a search of Erin Patterson’s home on November 2, 2023.
• The defence calls Erin Patterson to give evidence.
• Patterson tells the court about having weight-loss surgery and her “never-ending battle” with self-esteem.
• Patterson is quizzed about her past and how she met her husband Simon Patterson.
• Patterson talks about her first year of married life with Simon and their post-wedding adventures.
• Patterson opens up about the “traumatic birth” of their first child.
• Holding back tears, Patterson discusses problems with her relationship with Simon and how they cared for their children during periods of separation.

Court sketch of Erin Patterson.Credit: Anita Lester

WHAT HAPPENED ON DAY 23 OF MUSHROOM TRIAL

• Lead detective Stephen Eppingstall continued to be cross-examined, but only about 30 minutes of evidence was heard before the jury.

WHAT HAPPENED ON DAY 22 OF MUSHROOM TRIAL

• Erin Patterson’s defence lawyer Colin Mandy, SC, continued his cross-examination of Detective Leading Senior Constable Stephen Eppingstall. The detective was asked about the search warrant police executed at Patterson’s home in Leongatha on August 5, 2023.
• Eppingstall was shown a series of messages sent by Erin between December 5 and 9, 2022, where she discussed her ongoing issues with Simon and his family. Eppingstall was shown a message from online friend Jenny Hay in response to a message from Erin about a text she had received from Don where Hay describes Simon’s family as “morons”. “What morons. Anyway, you weren’t asking them to adjudicate, you just wanted them to hear your story,” the message read.
• Mandy shows Eppingstall another message Erin sent the group where she said Simon was likely loving how upset she was about the situation.
• The jury was shown a series of Signal messages between Don Patterson and Erin between January 1 and 15, 2022, where they discussed some of her ongoing health issues.
• Eppingstall also explained to the court why police did not obtain more of Erin Patterson’s phone records, saying seeking the data would be too costly.

WHAT HAPPENED ON DAY 21 OF MUSHROOM TRIAL

• Detective Leading Senior Constable Stephen Eppingstall told the court that Erin Patterson’s purchases around the date of the July 29, 2023, lunch were tracked using a grocery store rewards card and her bank statement.
• The jury was shown a list of items that Patterson had bought using a self-service checkout at the Woolworths store in Leongatha. The items included kilograms of pastry, sliced mushrooms, beef eye fillet steak, mashed potato and beans.
• The court was told police also probed Patterson’s phone records, bank statements, medical appointments and a diary note from one of her alleged victims.
• Eppingstall said police believed Patterson had used four mobile phones and swapped SIM cards between devices in the months leading up to and shortly after the lunch. He said three of those devices were accounted for, but despite two searches of Patterson’s Leongatha home the remaining phone was never found.

WHAT HAPPENED ON DAY 20 OF MUSHROOM TRIAL

Detective Acting Sergeant Stephen Eppingstall.Credit: Jason South

• Erin Patterson told police she loved her in-laws and that they were the only family she had left, during a police interview in the aftermath of the deadly mushroom lunch.
• During about a 20-minute conversation with police, with some parts removed and not played in court, the accused was told she was there to speak about the deaths of her guests. At the time of the interview, the court heard, both Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson had died, and police had just searched Erin Patterson’s home.
• When told that her ex-partner, Simon Patterson, had raised questions over why Erin had invited his parents to lunch, she said: “They’ve always been very good to me. I want to maintain those relationships, despite what’s happening with Simon. I love them a lot. They’ve always been really good to me and always said they would support me,” she said.
• On August 5, 2023, Detective Leading Senior Constable Stephen Eppingstall and his team undertook a search of Erin Patterson’s home. There, he said the accused told him she’d used the RecipeTin Eats cookbook Dinner to cook a beef Wellington.
• Eppingstall said Erin Patterson had a phone with her most of the time and was allowed to use it – on at least one occasion unobserved alone in a room for about 20 minutes.

WHAT HAPPENED ON DAY 19 OF MUSHROOM TRIAL

The protester after he was removed from court on Monday.Credit: Jason South

• Before evidence began on day 19, a protester interrupted proceedings and yelled at Justice Christopher Beale about an alleged cover-up of “crimes of murder” before being swiftly removed by court staff.
• Health Department manager Sally Ann Atkinson said she struggled to get hold of mushroom lunch cook Erin Patterson as she probed the cause of an outbreak of illness.
• Atkinson told the court that Patterson’s responses had changed, and she would respond only by text message and not take phone calls.
• Patterson said she had not foraged any mushrooms but had used dried mushrooms bought from an Asian grocer in April 2023 in Melbourne’s south-east, Atkinson said. But Atkinson said that over the course of their conversations, Patterson changed the timing of the purchase and also the location.
• Over the coming days, Atkinson said she texted back and forth with Patterson as her team tried to locate the Asian grocery store. This included sending photographs of mushrooms and discussing their potential colouring.
• Patterson cried as she sat in the dock as forensic pathologist Dr Brian Beer discussed the autopsy details of three of her lunch guests.
• Beer said while Don Patterson’s remains were the only ones to test positive to Amanita, or death cap mushroom poisoning, both Heather and Gail had organ damage consistent with the same.

Sally Ann Atkinson outside court on Monday.Credit: Jason South

WHAT HAPPENED ON DAY 18 OF MUSHROOM TRIAL

• An intensive care doctor detailed how hospital staff threw everything they had at trying to save the lives of four lunch guests poisoned with death cap mushrooms.
• Professor Stephen Warrillow said the trio were critically unwell and rapidly deteriorating when they were admitted in various stages of organ failure.
• Family members of the victims broke down in tears in the public gallery as the final moments of their loved ones were detailed.

Professor Stephen Warrillow told the court hospital staff threw everything at trying to save the lives of four lunch guestsCredit: Arsineh Houspian

WHAT HAPPENED ON DAY 17 OF MUSHROOM TRIAL

• The Supreme Court in Morwell was told that in December 2022, a Facebook account allegedly linked to Erin Patterson sent messages to a chat group saying Simon Patterson was a “deadbeat” father, and Don and Gail Patterson were “a lost cause”.
• The court heard the messages were downloaded by digital forensics officers from a Samsung mobile phone seized from the accused woman’s house on August 5, 2023.
• The court was told it appeared the device had undergone a factory reset a number of times.
• Erin Patterson watched on as the messages were displayed on a screen in the dock. She showed little emotion as Crown prosecutor Jane Warren read the messages out to the jury.
• A council health officer, Troy Schonknecht, told court he searched more than a dozen Asian grocery stores across south-east Melbourne to try to identify the source of a suspected outbreak of mushroom-related “illness”.

WHAT HAPPENED ON DAY 16 OF MUSHROOM TRIAL

• A digital forensics officer who works for Victoria Police told the court he was asked to analyse digital devices seized from Erin Patterson’s home as part of the investigation into the deaths following the beef Wellington lunch.
• The officer, Shamen Fox-Henry, said data records on a laptop seized from the accused woman’s home showed the device was used to access a listing for a death cap mushroom sighting in Moorabbin, in Melbourne’s south-east.
• Fox-Henry told the court that the data showed the webpage was accessed on the evening of May 28, 2022, moments before another search was made for the website for a Gippsland pub, The Korumburra Middle Hotel.

WHAT HAPPENED ON DAY 15 OF MUSHROOM TRIAL

• Phone tower expert Dr Matthew Sorell told the Supreme Court jury that he could not eliminate the possibility that Erin Patterson’s mobile phone was taken to spots near, but not in, the two Gippsland locations where prosecutors say death cap mushrooms had been found, and the discoveries posted online, by members of the public.
• Sorell agreed Patterson’s phone might have pinged nearby towers in Outtrim and Loch, but that connections to tower base stations could change with very little movement.
• The jury heard it was also possible there was a second visit to Loch on May 22, 2023, and that pings on towers from Leongatha to Outtrim suggested Patterson’s phone was in the area between 8am and 10am on July 29, 2023, the day of the fatal lunch.

WHAT HAPPENED ON DAY 14 OF MUSHROOM TRIAL

• Erin Patterson’s mobile phone was detected near the location of death cap mushroom sightings in the months before the fatal beef Wellington lunch at her home, her murder trial heard.
• Phone tower expert Dr Matthew Sorell told the Supreme Court jury that on May 22, 2023, records showed Patterson’s phone pinged against phone towers in Leongatha before connecting to a tower in the Outtrim area. That was one day after a fungi expert posted pictures of death cap mushrooms he had discovered in the Outtrim area.
• Earlier, a poison information specialist told the trial she photographed and removed death cap mushrooms while on a dog walk at Loch, in Gippsland, because she knew how toxic they were.
• Christine McKenzie, a retired pharmacist who worked for the Victorian Poisons Information Centre for 17 years, said she spotted the mushrooms on April 18, 2023. She posted the photos and tagged the location of fungi she saw on the local iNaturalist website.
• Phone tower expert Sorell said there were also records that showed Patterson’s mobile phone possibly travelling to and spending time in the Loch area on April 28, 2023, and on May 22, 2023.

Phone tower expert Dr Matthew Sorell outside court on Monday.Credit: Jason South

WHAT HAPPENED ON DAY 13 OF MUSHROOM TRIAL

• Forensic toxicologist Dimitri Gerostamoulos continued to give evidence. He said the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine received the lunch leftovers on August 29, 2023. They were then separated onto four trays and sampled. Mushroom paste and beef samples tested positive for death cap mushroom toxins, he said.
• He said the VIFM, where the samples were tested, was an accredited facility, which meant the integrity of the results could withstand scrutiny.
• The expert agreed the following factors could impact how someone recovers from ingesting toxic mushrooms: the amount they consume, the concentration of toxins within the meal, and their general health, age and weight.
• Gerostamoulos was also asked what would happen if two adults with no pre-existing health issues ate the same amount of a meal that contained death cap mushrooms. “It would be likely that there would be some adverse outcomes for the person who survived. We have had examples where two people have consumed the same meal,” he said. “This happened last year in Victoria, one person passed away and another was ill for some time. It will depend on how much is eaten and the person’s response to the amount of toxins.”
• David Lovelock, a plant virologist at Agriculture Victoria, told the jury he was able to detect death cap mushrooms in some of the test tubes provided to him, which contained samples from the dehydrator that Patterson used to dry mushrooms.

Associate professor Dimitri Gerostamoulos outside court on May 16. Credit: Justin McManus.

WHAT HAPPENED ON DAY 12 OF MUSHROOM TRIAL

• A juror in the murder trial was discharged over concerns he could have discussed the case with family and friends. Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale said he had received information that the juror may have breached his directions not to discuss the case outside the jury room. He stressed that he had not made a positive finding that the juror had done this, but he could not dismiss the possibility that he had.
• A leading Victorian forensic toxicologist, associate professor Dimitri Gerostamoulos from the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, told the court that mushroom samples and meat collected from the lunch leftovers returned positive results for death cap mushroom toxins.
• Gerostamoulos said he had received biological samples from the lunch attendees which were collected during their time in hospital and after their deaths. Death cap mushroom toxins were detected in a urine sample from Don Patterson and in urine and serum samples from lunch survivor Ian Wilkinson. Detectable concentrations were not found in samples taken from Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson, as well as Erin Patterson and her two children.
• Child protection worker Katrina Cripps, who visited Patterson in hospital three days after the fatal lunch, told the court the accused killer described her estranged husband Simon Patterson as controlling and emotionally abusive.
• She said Patterson told her Simon had started being “nasty” to her around that time, she stopped attending or being invited to family events, and she felt her relationship with her in-laws, Simon’s parents Don and Gail Patterson, had also deteriorated. “She felt isolated from them,” Cripps said.
• The jury heard Erin told Cripps she found the beef Wellington recipe she used to prepare the deadly meal in a cookbook, and that she wanted to do something “new and special”. “She said that she had dished up all the plates. That everyone was able to choose their own,” Cripps said.

Child protection worker Katrina Cripps outside the Latrobe Valley Law Courts in Morwell on May 15.Credit: Justin McManus

WHAT HAPPENED ON DAY 11 OF MUSHROOM TRIAL

• A fungi expert from Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens has told Erin Patterson’s murder trial that she kept the leftovers from a beef Wellington meal linked to the illness of four people in her refrigerator at home after testing the food for toxic mushrooms.
• Mycologist Camille Truong said she was called to help identify the mushrooms in the meal’s leftovers. She was unable to identify it from a photo.
• A colleague dropped the zip-lock bag of leftovers at Truong’s home. She said that she set up a small microscope in her house to look at the meal but did not see death cap mushrooms. The leftovers were taken back to her workplace and tested the next day and eventually collected by the Department of Health at about 1pm on August 2, 2023.
• Truong told the jury the only mushrooms she could identify were field mushrooms, typically found in supermarkets.
• Under cross-examination mycologist Tom May was quizzed about the difficulties of identifying mushrooms.
• He agreed that accurately identifying fungi was a challenging process that often required testing under a microscope.
• He said there was no obvious odour from death cap mushrooms when they were freshly picked, although they did emanate a strong smell when dried, which he found “very unpleasant”.
• Koonwarra Transfer Station and Landfill operations manager Darren Canty said a food dehydrator was found in an e-waste bin at the station. Canty said police had asked him to at video footage from August 2nd in which he said he saw a woman attending the site in a red 4WD-type vehicle entering around 11.30am.
• In CCTV played to the jury, a woman, wearing white pants, can be seen driving across a concrete entrance over to a beige shed in the background.

Camille Truong, a mycologist at the Royal Botanic Gardens, outside the Latrobe Valley Law Courts.Credit: Justin McManus

WHAT HAPPENED ON DAY 10 OF MUSHROOM TRIAL

• A Melbourne fungi expert, Tom May, posted a photo of poisonous death cap mushrooms on a public website iNaturalist with their precise location two months before a fatal beef Wellington lunch in Leongatha.
• May said that on May 21, 2023, he was walking in the Gippsland town of Outtrim, about 20km from Leongatha, when he saw death cap mushrooms, and uploaded their information online.
• The Department of Health feared there was a public health risk unfolding due to the number of people hospitalised from eating the beef Wellington lunch.
• Department official Dr Rhonda Stuart told the jury she had visited Patterson in hospital in the days after the fatal lunch over fears a public health risk was unfolding.
• Stuart questioned Patterson over how she prepared the dish, including if she had foraged for mushrooms. “I asked if she had been mushrooming. She said no,” Stuart said.
• Toxicologist Dr Laura Muldoon visited Patterson the same day as Stuart, and told the court: “She had some chapped lips but otherwise looked clinically well. No signs of Amanita poisoning.”
• A friend of Patterson’s teenage son also gave his account of visiting the accused on the day of the lunch via a statement read to the court.
• The boy said he went into Leongatha with Patterson’s two children on the day of the lunch to watch a movie. Afterwards, Erin’s estranged husband, Simon Patterson, picked up the children and drove them to Erin’s home.
• The boy said he recalled seeing dinner plates in the kitchen sink when the children arrived at Erin’s home. He said he ate some dessert and then played computer games, and Erin drove him home after 6pm. “Erin just seemed like her normal self to me,” the friend said.

Mushroom expert Tom May arrives at court on May 14. Credit: Justin McManus

WHAT HAPPENED ON DAY NINE OF MUSHROOM TRIAL

• Erin Patterson’s 14-year-old son described his parent’s relationship as “very negative” and told police his father “does a lot of things to try and hurt” his mother in video evidence played in court.
• A tearful Patterson wiped tears from her eyes as her son recounted the events leading up to the lunch. The boy was in town during the lunch, but when he returned home Don and Gail Patterson and the Wilkinsons were still there. After they left he said he cleaned up the plates and glasses.
• The next morning he recalled his mother telling him she felt unwell and had needed to go to the bathroom several times during the night. He felt Patterson was downplaying her illness.
• The boy was also asked whether he or his mother had ever foraged for mushrooms. He said no, but he recalled seeing one growing at Korumburra Botanic Gardens in mid-2020 during a walk with the accused. “I remember Mum took a picture of them because she thought they looked nice,” the boy said.
• Although Patterson publicly projected a positive relationship with her husband’s family, encrypted text messages shown in court show family were privy to what police allege was a gradual breakdown in her relationship with estranged husband Simon.

WHAT HAPPENED ON DAY EIGHT OF MUSHROOM TRIAL

• A doctor who was working at Leongatha Hospital when Erin Patterson arrived seeking treatment for suspected gastro symptoms, said Erin asked after her lunch guests who had been hospitalised.
• Leongatha Hospital nurse Kylie Ashton told the jury she took Erin’s vital signs. She recalled that Erin had said she was adamant she couldn’t stay there and left – against medical advice – about five minutes later. Ashton said she told Erin her “life was at risk”.
• Senior Constable Adrian Martinez-Villalobos said he received a callout to do a welfare check on Erin at her home. After arriving, Martinez-Villalobos discovered Erin had returned to the hospital.
• During a phone call, Dr Christopher Webster asked Martinez-Villalobos if he could find any leftovers from the beef Wellington meal at the house. The officer said he found the leftovers at the bottom of one of the outdoor bins Erin had suggested to him, in “a brown paper Woolworths bag”. There were about 1½ beef Wellingtons inside. He then took the bagged leftovers to the hospital and handed them to staff.
• Dr Conor McDermott was working as a toxicology registrar at the Austin Hospital on July 31, 2023. The doctor said he initially thought there may have been a wider public health issue occurring with the mushrooms possibly being sold at a commercial level, so he sought information from Erin over the phone about the lunch.
• He told the court that Erin “said that they had been ... button mushrooms in ... packaging from Leongatha Safeway”. He said he was also told she had been to a Chinese food store in Oakleigh
• McDermott said he went on to do a Google search for Chinese food stores in the Oakleigh area and offered to read the names out to Erin in an attempt to track down the seller. “She said she would not be able to remember,” McDermott said.
• In video evidence played to the court, Erin’s primary school-aged daughter said her mother had dropped her and her brother in town so that she could host the fatal mushroom lunch, telling them she wanted to have an adult conversation with other family members.
• The daughter said the family stayed home the day after the lunch and did not go to church because her mother was feeling too sick. They then ate leftovers from the lunch – steak, green beans and mashed potatoes – which the child said her mother also ate. She said her mother had still been using the toilet a lot before they all went to bed.
• Read a full recap of day eight of the case here.

Dr Veronica FooteCredit: Jason South

WHAT HAPPENED ON DAY SEVEN OF MUSHROOM TRIAL

• A statement from church member Angela Child read to the court said she had seen Ian and Heather Wilkinson soon after the lunch and that the pair had raved about the beef Wellington prepared by Erin Patterson, describing it as delicious and beautiful.
• Matthew Patterson, the son of Don and Gail Patterson and brother of Simon Patterson, told the court he had called Erin two days after the lunch to ask her about the source of the mushrooms. “She mentioned they were fresh mushrooms from Woolies and dried mushrooms from a Chinese grocer or supermarket,” he said.
• A statement by a health department official said no cancer diagnosis had been registered for Erin. This conflicted with testimony given in court on Tuesday by Ian Wilkinson that Erin had told her guests at the lunch that she had cancer.
• Dr Chris Webster told the jury that when Erin arrived at Leongatha Hospital reporting gastro symptoms, he told her she would require treatment. However, she discharged herself, against medical advice, and left the urgent care centre. “I was surprised,” he said. “I had just informed her that she had been potentially exposed to deadly death cap poison.”
• Webster said he also urged Erin to get her children checked. “Erin was reluctant to inform the children. I said it was important. She was concerned that they were going to be frightened,” he told the court.
• When asked about the source of the mushrooms, Webster said Erin gave him a short response. “Single word answer: ‘Woolworths’,” Webster told the jury. “I said there’s a concern from Dandenong Hospital of death cap mushroom poisoning.”

Dr Chris Webster.Credit: Jason South

WHAT HAPPENED ON DAY SIX OF MUSHROOM TRIAL

• Darren Fox, whose store Hartley Wells Betta Home Living in Leongatha sells appliances, told the court that in November 2023, an employee told him she had sold a dehydrator to Erin Patterson.
• Ian Wilkinson, the lone survivor among the four guests who fell ill after the fatal lunch, was called to the witness box.
• Ian described his relationship with Erin as friendly and amicable, he said she “seemed like a normal person”.
• Ian told the court he and his wife, Heather, were excited about being invited to the fatal lunch and thought their relationship with Erin might improve as a result.
• Turning to the lunch, the jury heard that Heather and Gail offered to help Erin plate the food, but she rejected the offer and did it all herself at the bench. Ian said there were four large, grey dinner plates – and one smaller plate in a different colour, which Erin ate from.
• Ian recounted that after the group finished eating, Erin told them she had cancer and was very concerned. The group then prayed for Erin and her children.
• Ian and his wife Heather fell sick the evening of the lunch. “It continued right through the night. We had vomiting and diarrhoea,” he said.
• Beth Morgan, a registered doctor and an advanced infectious diseases trainee at Monash Health, was the last witness to give evidence on day six.
• Morgan recounted being told by a pharmacist that there wasn’t enough antidote for four patients, but said they would obtain it from another hospital.

Ian Wilkinson arrives at court.Credit: Jason South

WHAT HAPPENED ON DAY FIVE OF MUSHROOM TRIAL

• During his final day in the stand, Simon Patterson denied he accused Erin Patterson of poisoning at the hospital following the fatal meal.
• Simon also told the court he was puzzled by the beef Wellington lunch invitation.
• The jury was also shown messages between the pair, including some that Simon had described as inflammatory and extremely aggressive.
• The court heard from three online friends of Erin Patterson, Christine Hunt, Daniela Barkley and Jenny Hay - who knew her through a true crime Facebook group.
• One of the witnesses said Erin described Simon as “controlling” and “coercive” on several occasions.
• The court also heard that Erin told her online friends she was “hiding powdered mushrooms in everything”.

Simon Patterson outside court.Credit: Jason South

WHAT HAPPENED ON DAY FOUR OF MUSHROOM TRIAL

• Erin Patterson’s estranged husband Simon Patterson returned to the stand on Friday morning to continue his testimony inside room 4 of the Morwell courthouse, where he was cross-examined by Erin’s defence lawyer, Colin Mandy, SC.
• When asked by Erin’s lawyer about her medical history, Simon said she had “struggled” with health issues over the years, including a heart arrhythmia, as well as postnatal depression after the birth of her first child.
• Erin’s lawyer asked Simon about his discussions with his estranged wife after the deadly beef Wellington lunch, and about her discharging herself from Leongatha Hospital. “Erin hates hospitals,” Simon said, adding she had a history of discharging herself against medical advice.
• The court heard that a misunderstanding about a “missing” invitation to his mother Gail’s 70th birthday had sparked a rift in the family, and that in a message exchange Erin said she had felt “very hurt” about not being included.
• The defence lawyer asked Simon about several other tense exchange between him and Erin, including one during which he said she was being “extremely aggressive” in messages she had sent to his parents Don and Gail in a family group chat.

Defence counsel Colin Mandy, SC.Credit: Jason South

WHAT HAPPENED ON DAY THREE OF MUSHROOM TRIAL

• The first witness for the prosecution, Erin Patterson’s estranged husband Simon Patterson, was called to the stand. He discussed his marriage to Erin and said they separated in 2015 for the final time.
• Simon said they tried to remain amicable, but in 2022 a tax mistake altered their dynamic.
• Text messages between Simon and Erin in the lead-up to the fatal family lunch were shown in court. When Simon said he would no longer attend the lunch, Erin replied: “I’ve spent a small fortune on beef eye fillet.”
• Simon described his movements on the day after the fatal lunch, including his visit to Ian and Heather Wilkinson. Speaking through tears, he said his father, Don, was struggling, lying on his side, unwell in a hospital bed.
• Simon told the jury that Erin told him she had previously dehydrated mushrooms and mixed different amounts of fungi in a batch of muffins for their daughter.
• Recap the entire second day of the case here.

WHAT HAPPENED ON DAY TWO OF MUSHROOM TRIAL

• The court heard signs of death cap mushrooms were discovered in the beef Wellington leftovers found in Patterson’s bin.
• The court heard that after Heather Wilkinson became sick she wondered aloud to Simon about why Patterson had served her guests with different coloured plates to the one she used herself.
• Patterson admitted to foraging for mushrooms, lying about having cancer and getting rid of a food dehydrator in a panic.
• The jury were asked to consider what impact public scrutiny had on the accused. “Is it possible that a person might lie when they find out that people are seriously ill because of the food that they’ve served up?” Patterson’s defence counsel asked the court in his opening address.
• Recap the entire first day of the case here.