Erin Patterson murder trial as it happened: Disagree. Disagree. Disagree. Final denials in mushroom cook cross-examination

Accused triple murderer Erin Patterson turned to thank the judge as she left the witness box for the final time after eight days of grilling.

Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers, SC, had finished with three questions that got to the heart of the case after 31 days in courtroom four of the Supreme Court sitting at Morwell.

Nanette Rogers, SC, has concluded her cross-examination of Erin Patterson.Credit: Marija Ercegovac

Sighs could be heard from the packed public court, and from some of the 14 jurors. Relief in the form of tears also spread across Patterson’s face as she sat, dressed in a navy and white spotted top, with tissues in her right hand.

“You’ll be relieved to know I’ve only got three final questions,” Rogers announced at 11.35am.

“I suggest that you deliberately sourced death cap mushrooms in 2023. I suggest you deliberately included them in the beef Wellington you served to [your four guests]. You did so intending to kill them.

“Disagree,” Patterson replied three times, after each accusation.

Patterson is accused of murdering her in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, by serving them death cap mushrooms in a beef Wellington meal at her Leongatha home on July 29, 2023.

Don and Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson died in the days after the lunch from the effects of mushroom poisoning. Heather’s husband, Ian, also ate the lunch, but survived after weeks in hospital.

Patterson has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder and one of attempted murder in the Supreme Court at Morwell, claiming it was all a terrible accident.

Read Erin Pearson’s wrap of the last day of Erin Patterson’s cross-examination here.

Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale has now acknowledged that the evidence in the case has concluded.

“All right. Well, ladies and gentlemen, that’s the completion of the evidence in this case,” Beale told the jury.

Beale told the jurors he needed to have some discussions with legal counsel in their absence. He said those discussions would commence this afternoon but “could take a while”.

Erin Patterson’s defence team arriving at court last week.Credit: Jason South

“It may be that those discussions continue tomorrow. We have a half-day scheduled,” Beale said.

“If you could just check your phones this evening ... we will let you know if you will have a long weekend or whether we will require you to return tomorrow.”

And that concludes Erin Patterson’s eight-day stretch in the witness box.

As she was excused at 12.41pm on Thursday, Patterson turned to thank the judge.

Erin Patterson.Credit: Jason South

After eight days in the witness box, Erin Patterson’s voice began to break as she was asked questions about her daughter’s ballet lesson and her son’s flying lessons.

She became teary when asked why she wanted to take her son to lessons in Tyabb the day after the mushroom lunch on July 29, 2023.

“He was really passionate about it, and I didn’t want to cancel lessons,” Patterson. “I didn’t want to disappoint him.”

A court sketch of Erin Patterson earlier in the trial.Credit: Anita Lester

Defence lawyer Colin Mandy, SC, then asked Patterson about her sister-in-law Tanya Patterson’s evidence about overhearing a conversation between the mother of two and a toxicologist in hospital about her potassium levels.

“I’d been told they were very low overnight. I had been feeling a bit unwell around 10 or 11 [pm] and I expressed that to a nurse,” Patterson said.

Patterson said that at the time her potassium levels were at 2.6, but had returned to normal by morning, after she received treatment overnight.

Colin Mandy, SC, has asked Erin Patterson about records of her purchases in the lead-up to the lunch that show five transactions listed as beef eye fillet.

“They are a twin pack of eye fillet steaks,” Patterson said.

Asked if she had cooked a sixth individual beef Wellington on July 29, 2023, Patterson said she put two twin packs of beef eye fillet in the freezer and used the rest to make the meal.

Erin Patterson’s defence barrister Colin Mandy, SC.Credit: Jason South

Patterson said she had decided to make an extra one to eat another time.

Mandy has asked Patterson about her conversations with her online friends, which were contained in 600 pages of messages put by the prosecution into the brief of evidence.

The defence barrister told the court the messages covered a period of about two weeks from December 5 to December 19, 2023, and did not contain any mention of foraging for mushrooms.

Patterson said she was holidaying in New Zealand with her children for about half of that period, and told the court she never foraged for mushrooms in December.

Following a mid-morning break, defence barrister Colin Mandy, SC, has started his re-examination of Erin Patterson.

He asked about the evidence Patterson gave about a pre-surgery appointment made at the Enrich Clinic in Melbourne in September 2023 for gastric bypass surgery, and a statement from the office manager at the clinic stating they never offered the surgery.

Mandy has taken Patterson to phone records included in the brief of evidence that he says show that Patterson contacted the Enrich Clinic on April 19, 2023, and May 31, 2023.

Erin Patterson in August, 2023.Credit: Marta Pascual Juanola

“I was of the understanding that they offered treatments concerning weight loss and I believed that to be surgeries like gastric bypass and liposuction and anywhere in between,” Patterson said.

Patterson said the appointment in September 2023 was a first consultation to discuss her needs and potential treatments.

Mandy has also shown Patterson a record of a text message from the clinic to Patterson on September 11, 2023, asking her to confirm an appointment on September 13, 2023.

“I think I rang them but I am not sure ... but I did respond,” Patterson said.

Patterson confirmed she never attended the clinic for a consultation.

The jury has also been shown a screenshot of a web search of the Enrich Clinic obtained by the defence in recent days, which states the clinic moved to South Yarra and explained that as of June 2024, Dr Michael Rich would no longer be offering liposuction.

Patterson said that as of July 2023, she understood the clinic to offer liposuction and the full range of weight-loss surgeries, including a gastric bypass and a gastric sleeve.

Patterson said she cancelled the appointment. “It was a very difficult time,” she said.

The mother of two agreed she was mistaken about the clinic offering the surgery.

Nanette Rogers, SC, has concluded her cross-examination of Erin Patterson by asking her the following questions:

Nanette Rogers, SC, (right) has concluded her cross-examination of Erin Patterson (left).Credit: The Age

Rogers: I suggest that you deliberately sourced death cap mushrooms in 2023.

Patterson: Disagree

Rogers: I suggest you deliberately included them in the beef Wellington you served to [your four guests].

Patterson: Disagree

Rogers: You did so intending to kill them.

Patterson: Disagree.

Rogers: Thank you, I’ve got no further questions.

Patterson’s defence barrister, Colin Mandy, SC, will now re-examine the mother of two.

Nanette Rogers, SC, has shown Erin Patterson records of phone activity on August 3 and August 4, 2023, which Patterson agreed indicated that she continued to use phone A on those days.

“It does show use, yes,” Patterson said.

The prosecutor then took Patterson to the records for August 5, 2023, which she said showed that Patterson was still using phone A on that date. The jury heard that was the day police executed a search warrant at 11.40am at Patterson’s Leongatha home.

Erin Patterson in August last year.Credit: Chris Hopkins

Patterson said she had “no idea” whether she had used data on that day.

“At an unknown time between 12.01pm and 1.45pm the number ending in 783 lost connection with the network,” Rogers said.

Rogers said it was an agreed fact in the trial that the loss of connection could be caused by the SIM card being removed from the handset, the battery being removed without turning off the device, and the handset being damaged.

Rogers: I suggest that you removed the SIM from phone A between 12.01pm and 1.45pm [on August 5, 2023].

Patterson: Disagree.

Rogers: I suggest that you had physical possession of this phone when you did that.

Patterson: Disagree.

Rogers: I suggest you removed the SIM card when you were afforded privacy [by police to contact a lawyer].

Patterson: That happened at 2pm.

Rogers: I suggest that your claim that the black item on the window seal is phone A is simply nonsense.

Patterson: Disagree.

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

Rogers suggested to Patterson that she told the police on August 5, 2023, that her phone number ended in 835, the phone number linked to phone B. And that she lied about that being her usual number.

Patterson agreed the number ending in 835 was linked to phone B but she said she wasn’t asked by police if that was her usual phone number.

“Your usual phone number was the one ending in 783,” Rogers said.

“It was until that day, yeah. Or the day before,” Patterson responded.

Rogers said Patterson had only used that phone number to make three phone calls since resetting the device on August 2, 2023, to which Patterson responded: “I don’t know how many it was.”

“Those three phone calls occurred around 2pm on August 5 [2023] when you were given privacy to contact a lawyer,” Rogers said.

Rogers suggested to Patterson that she was happy to provide the device to the police and tell them this number was her regular number because she knew there was no data on the phone.

“I did it because they asked for my phone and I gave it to them,” Patterson said.

Rogers then took Patterson to records showing a series of factory resets on phone B, including one on August 2, 2023, the day after she was discharged from Monash Medical Centre with her children.

The records showed a second factory reset on August 5, 2023, at 1.20pm.

Patterson agreed she had carried out the reset while police were at her house to execute a search warrant, but denied it was while she was given privacy at 2pm to make arrangements via the phone.

Asked by Rogers about a final factory reset of the device the following day – August 6, 2023 – Patterson agreed she had carried it out herself, remotely.

Rogers suggested she had carried out the three factory resets on phone B following the lunch to conceal the true contents of phone B, and to pass off the device as her usual mobile phone without police realising.

“Disagree,” Patterson said.

Rogers suggested phone B was an attempt by Patterson to hide the contents of her usual mobile phone – phone A – and said the mother of two had deliberately concealed that phone from the police because she knew the data on the device would incriminate her.

“Disagree,” Patterson said.

Nanette Rogers, SC, is now asking Erin Patterson about two mobile phones she used in 2023 – referred to as phone A and phone B during the trial.

Patterson agreed that from about February 2023 she had used phone A as her communication device to send and receive texts, make phone calls and take photographs.

Rogers suggested she also used that device to research death cap mushrooms and to look up the iNaturalist website in 2023, including a post by Tom May on May 21, 2023, and a second post by Christine McKenzie on April 18, 2023.

“Disagree,” Patterson said.

Rogers suggested to Patterson that police had not recovered phone A during their search of Patterson’s home on August 5, 2023 because the mother of two had deliberately concealed the phone.

“Disagree,” Patterson said.

Rogers took Patterson to evidence heard earlier in the trial that about August 2, 2023, she realised phone A “wasn’t cutting it any more” so she did a factory reset of phone B.

“I remember doing the factory reset. I thought I did it on the same day I put the SIM [card] in it, which was August 3,” Patterson said.

Rogers suggested that at the time there was nothing wrong with phone A, which Patterson had purchased less than six months earlier, and that she had lied about that being the reason for the reset.

Patterson disagreed.

Rogers then took Patterson to a series of phone records, which she says show Patterson used phone A, with a number ending with 783, frequently to make phone calls, use data and send SMS messages until about 11pm on August 2, 2023.

“This is a possible day, on your evidence, that you realised phone A was not cutting it any more,” Rogers said.

Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers, SC, has asked Erin Patterson about evidence previously heard by the court about a conversation between Erin and her estranged husband Simon Patterson in the days after the lunch.

Rogers said to Patterson that Simon had accused the accused of using the dehydrator to poison his parents, lunch attendees Don and Gail Patterson, during a conversation at Monash Medical Centre.

Don and Gail Patterson.

“You heard that was put to Simon in cross-examination and he denied saying such a thing ... I suggest that Simon never accused you of using the dehydrator to poison his parents,” Rogers said.

Rogers went on to suggest this was a lie to explain why she dumped the dehydrator at the Koonwarra transfer station the following day.

Patterson denied that was the case.