That’s it for our coverage of today’s court hearing. Read Erin Pearson’s wrap of what happened today below. We’ll continue our live coverage of the trial on Wednesday.
Accused killer cook Erin Patterson has conceded death cap mushrooms were in a beef Wellington she fed her lunch guests after telling a jury she often foraged for fungi and enjoyed buying exotic varieties because they tasted better.
Patterson, 50, spoke for the first time about the meal that killed three people and made another critically ill during a second day of evidence in her murder trial in Supreme Court at Morwell.
Erin Patterson, her in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson (bottom right), and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson (top right).Credit: Matthew Absalom-Wong
“Do you accept there must have been death cap mushrooms in it?” defence barrister Colin Mandy, SC, asked his client.
“Yes I do,” Erin Patterson replied while nodding.
When asked where the mushrooms for the meal came from, she said the “vast majority” came from her local Woolworths supermarket in Leongatha and others from an unknown Asian grocery store in Melbourne.
Erin Patterson said the mushrooms she bought from the Asian grocer in April 2023 smelled really pungent, so she put them in a container back at her home in Leongatha.
She added that she remembered also putting wild mushrooms she had dehydrated around May or June 2023 in a container that already contained other dried mushrooms.
Erin Patterson has pleaded not guilty to the murder of her in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, and the attempted murder of Ian Wilkinson, in July 2023. She claims their deaths from mushroom poisoning were a terrible accident.
The mother of two told the jury she had developed an interest in mushrooms and foraging during COVID lockdowns in 2020 and listed the Korumburra Botanic Gardens, a nearby rail trail and her own backyard as places where she remembered picking them.
Erin Patterson said she first noticed mushrooms growing at her former Korumburra home when her dog ate some. She said she was worried they could be toxic and researched them.
The head of Erin Patterson’s legal team, Colin Mandy, SC, leaves the court on Tuesday.Credit: Jason South
“The dog was eating some and I picked the mushrooms that I could see because I wanted to try and figure out what they were to see if it was a problem,” she said.
“As far as I could see they were ones that were potentially edible but there was one species I was a little bit worried about. I believe they were called inocybe. There’s Facebook groups for mushroom lovers, Facebook groups for everything, where people share what they find. I scrolled a lot of them.”
She told the jury that eventually she had sliced a piece of mushroom she had found growing at her home, cooking it in a pan with butter.
“They tasted good and I didn’t get sick. Sometimes [I would] put them in meals we all ate,” she said.
The accused told the court she later grew confident enough to try the ones she found on her own properties – in Korumburra and later Leongatha – identifying some in a paddock of her three-acre Gippsland property as field and horse mushrooms.
Erin Patterson said as she continued to forage for wild mushrooms thereafter, she would chop them up and cook them in meals she and her children ate.
The accused said bought a dehydrator in April 2023 to preserve both wild and store-bought mushrooms as well as other food.
Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers, SC, arrives at court.Credit: Jason South
“So fun fact the dehydrator reduces mushroom mass by 90%. Do you think Woolies would mind if I brought the dehydrator into their vegetable section,” she wrote in a post to friends on social media.
In one photograph she sent to her friends, she showed off the dehydrator with mushrooms drying on the shelves, telling the jury she went on to hide mushrooms in everything.
It was around May and June 2023 that she was picking wild fungi, including field, slippery jacks and honey mushrooms, from her property.
The accused said to identify them she went through a research process before eating them and was “very confident” she knew what they were.
She said she also spotted other types of fungi on her property, but she could not figure out what type of mushroom they were so did not pick them.
Erin Patterson said she really loved mushrooms and had shared this interest with her Facebook friendship group.
“I tried a lot,” she said.
“I used them in curries or pasta dishes or soups, spaghetti. They [the more exotic mushrooms] just taste more interesting, more flavour – more exotic mushrooms.”
Sipping from a paper cup as she spoke, she said the women had become like her “cheer squad” and she would talk about religion, life, children and the things they cooked, alongside news events.
Erin Patterson explained that was one reason why she “vented” to them about her problems with estranged husband Simon and his parents, messaging that she wanted “nothing to do with them”
She said at the time she felt hurt, frustrated and a little desperate, and her online friends made her feel heard, validated and understood.
“I knew that the women would probably support me being annoyed about those things,” the accused woman said.
“I wish I’d never said it. I feel ashamed for saying it and I wished the family did not have to hear that I said that. They did not deserve it.
“I needed to vent, I needed to get my frustration off my chest. And the choice was either going to the paddock and telling the sheep or vent to these women. But I regret the language that I used.”
Erin Patterson was also admitted to lying about her health, agreeing with her defence barrister that she had never been diagnosed with cancer – despite telling her lunch guests she had been – or had a needle biopsy on any lumps on her elbow.
She told the jury she had become concerned she might have ovarian or brain cancer, becoming “Dr Google” to self-diagnose her symptoms after previous experiences with hospitals left her distrusting the medical community.
Credit: Jamie Brown
Erin Patterson also gave the jury an insight into her turbulent marriage, saying that after a number of break-ups and reconciliations she and Simon had formally separated in 2015.
“In the immediate aftermath, weeks, it was difficult as it had been at other separations but that only lasted a handful of weeks, we went back to just being really good friends,” the accused said.
“I did not want to be separated but I felt there was no choice. Our primary problem was if we had a disagreement or any kind of conflict, we didn’t seem to be able to talk about it in a way where either of us felt heard or understood, we’d just feel hurt and didn’t really know how to do that well.
“We really liked each other still, it was just the living together that did not work.”
She said her relationship with her in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, didn’t appear to change and she felt they “continued to love me”, describing how she became unfairly frustrated when they wouldn’t intervene in problems she was having with their son.
Asked why she kept the couple’s houses in both their names, Erin Patterson revealed she had always wanted the family to come back together one day.
“That’s what I wanted. I did that because I wanted some way to demonstrate to Simon that’s what I really believed and wanted. [That] I see a future for us,” she said.
The trial continues.
