The nine-hour window that prosecutors claim exposes Erin Patterson’s illness lie

Accused killer cook Erin Patterson said she started feeling ill after the lunch gathering at her Leongatha home, nine hours before her guests.

That gap between the onset of when Patterson said she suffered her symptoms and when her in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, and the other guests, Heather and Ian Wilkinson, began feeling the effects of death cap mushroom toxins, is evidence the prosecution says the mother of two was faking her “gastro”.

Clockwise from left: accused killer Erin Patterson and her guests who died after the 2023 lunch, Heather Wilkinson and Gail and Don Patterson.Credit: Matthew Absalom-Wong

Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers, SC, says the accused was never unwell and that her report she was ill was a lie to deflect responsibility for the increasingly perilous health state of her four guests.

In her closing address to a Supreme Court jury this week, Rogers said the timeline of Erin Patterson’s illness just didn’t fit with that of her guests, who all began feeling unwell within two hours of each other.

The Morwell jury heard Don and Gail Patterson had spoken with their daughter, Anna-Marie Terrington, about 5pm on July 29, 2023 and hadn’t reported being sick.

The Wilkinsons left the lunch for a meeting with other members of their Baptist Church and appeared well at the 4.15pm get-together.

Ian Wilkinson, the sole surviving lunch guest, outside court on Wednesday.Credit: Jason South

But the court heard that by 11pm on July 29, 2023, the Wilkinsons were experiencing gastro-like symptoms, a recollection they shared with medical staff, including Dr Chris Webster at Leongatha Hospital.

Don and Gail Patterson became unwell about 1am on July 30, 2023, 12 hours after Don had eaten all his beef Wellington and the leftovers of his wife’s meal.

Simon Patterson told Erin Patterson’s trial he recalled his estranged wife telling him she was sick with diarrhoea about every 20 minutes by the early evening – the same time she was driving a friend of the pair’s son home to Korumburra.

Ian and Heather Wilkinson, the court heard, didn’t make it to bed that night.

Prosecutors Nanette Rogers, SC (left), and Jane Warren (right) arrive at court on Tuesday with Detective Leading Senior Constable Stephen Eppingstall.Credit: Jason South

“Even early on Sunday morning, it was obvious just by looking at them that the lunch guests were very sick,” Rogers told the jury.

“According to Simon Patterson, when Ian Wilkinson answered the door, he was looking ‘grey’ and ‘stooped’ and Heather ‘looked pretty crook’.”

By that Sunday morning, Don and Gail Patterson had already been taken by ambulance to Korumburra Hospital, and nurse Lisa Shannon later told the jury she had cared for the couple as they shuffled back and forth between the toilet and their beds.

“Don was unable to tolerate any fluids, continually vomiting and going to the toilet every 10 minutes,” Rogers said to the jury.

The Wilkinsons, the prosecutor said, presented to Leongatha Hospital about 11am on the Sunday with nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea.

Webster, the doctor on call, reported seeing them both vomiting.

“Neither of them could hold down water. This is the same morning that, according to [the evidence of Erin Patterson’s son], that the accused was sitting at her dining table drinking a coffee,” Rogers told the jury.

“When Simon first saw Don Patterson at Korumburra Hospital late morning on the Sunday, Simon Patterson said ‘he was really struggling’. You might remember that he described his father as ‘lying on his side, he was hunched quite noticeably. A really discoloured face’.

The beef Wellington recipe from the RecipeTin Eats cookbook Dinner, by Nagi Maehashi.

“Speaking was an effort and taking the energy to speak was an effort and his voice was ‘strained in a way that – he wasn’t right inside. He was feeling pain’.”

By 3pm on the Sunday, the court heard, Don Patterson’s blood tests were extremely abnormal.

“This is during the period that the accused was driving [her children to her son’s] flying lesson in Tyabb,” Rogers said.

Don Patterson was transferred to Dandenong Hospital, and Dr Beth Morgan told the trial that by 8pm on the Sunday, Don Patterson had vomited and used the toilet up to 40 times.

Erin Patterson and Simon Patterson.

Organ damage, including significant kidney damage, was present and by 11.20pm, he was admitted into intensive care.

“This was the same evening that the accused apparently served herself and her children leftovers of the beef Wellington,” Rogers told the court in her closing address.

Overnight on the Sunday, Gail Patterson’s medical tests revealed she was declining, in particular her liver function. Her daughter stayed with her and helped her to the toilet many times, the trial heard.

Gail was admitted into intensive care in the early hours of Monday.

Dr Chris Webster outside court on May 7. He treated the lunch guests at Leongatha Hospital.Credit: Jason South

Around that time, the Wilkinsons were still in hospital in Leongatha.

“At 5.30am on July 31, Ian was unable to keep down water or ice. At 6.30am that same morning, Heather was reported to have active vomiting and diarrhoea,” Rogers said.

“Nurse Kylie Ashton observed that Ian was particularly unwell and did not move around, while Heather was back and forward to the bathroom.

“This is the same morning that the accused drove her two children to the bus stop and then drove herself to hospital.”

The Wilkinsons were moved to Dandenong Hospital on Monday, July 31, 2023 and staff there reported Ian being nauseous and constantly vomiting. Don and Gail Patterson were transferred to the Austin Hospital in comas.

“This is around the time that the accused had discharged herself from Leongatha Hospital and drove home, she said, to pack her daughter’s ballet bag,” Rogers told the jury.

“At 2.30pm that day, Don Patterson was critically ill and [had] multiple organ failure. He was on life support ventilation with a tube down his windpipe.

“At this time, the accused was being transported by ambulance to Monash Medical Centre and was calm and chatty.”

By that Monday, Rogers said all four lunch guests were on life support at the Austin and in advanced states of multiple organ failure.

“Gail Patterson was in an advanced state of shock,” she said.

“This is the day the accused was discharged home from the Monash Medical Centre with no clinical or biochemical evidence of Amanita mushroom poisoning or any other toxic substance and no liver damage.”

Don and Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson all died from Amanita mushroom poisoning in early August 2023. Ian Wilkinson “very nearly died” and stayed in hospital until September 21, 2023.

“Was the accused just less sick than the others?” Rogers posed to the jury.

“This is clearly an important point in this case, because from what is known, it is inexplicable why four of five people who ostensibly ate the same meal fell fatally ill and only one person, the person who prepared the meal, did not.”

Erin Patterson has pleaded not guilty to murdering her in-laws and Heather Wilkinson and attempting to murder Ian Wilkinson.

Her defence barrister, Colin Mandy, SC, said in his closing arguments that the prosecution case against his client was “illogical” and totally “absurd”.

Mandy said the accused woman loved her family and had invited them to lunch because she enjoyed spending time with them and wanted to bring them closer.

The defence barrister said the prosecution had cherry-picked evidence and that it had omitted “inconvenient truths” in trying to paint his client as a killer.

Defence barrister Colin Mandy, SC, outside court on Wednesday.Credit: Jason South

Mandy told the jury that even honest witnesses could have very different recollections of events, simply through the passage of time.

“People have imperfect and honestly mistaken memories,” he said.

“Erin Patterson had been asked about her symptoms by dozens of people over different days and variations were inevitable and part of the telling of a truthful account.”

Mandy said Patterson had always been consistent that she was unwell, and that she had told others about having loose stools on the day of the lunch before progressively feeling worse, developing nausea and diarrhoea that evening.

She voluntarily took herself to hospital for treatment when her diarrhoea would not abate, her barrister said.

He also pointed the jury to the results of medical tests taken from the mother of two that “cannot be faked” and were consistent with an acute illness.

Mandy said there were sensible reasons why Patterson became unwell earlier, but not as seriously as her other guests, and suggested she might have tasted the mushroom duxelle while cooking the beef Wellington.

She was also heavier and younger than her guests, Mandy said.

“Why on earth would anyone want to kill these people?” he asked.

Justice Christopher Beale will begin directions to the jury on Tuesday and that process is expected to take about two days. The jury will then be sent out to deliberate.

The trial continues.

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