Erin Patterson accused of cancer ‘lie’ and chemotherapy claims to fatal lunch guests
The accused mushroom killer has rejected suggestions she hoped she would never have to justify her ovarian cancer claims because she believed her lunch guests would die.
Erin Patterson is unsure whether she told her lunch guests she needed lifesaving chemotherapy and possible surgery but rejected a prosecution suggestion she never believed her so-called cancer diagnosis would be exposed because her visitors would die.
The Victorian Supreme Court heard another full day’s evidence from Ms Patterson, 50, of Leongatha, where she was quizzed over whether or not her alleged ovarian cancer was the precursor for the beef Wellington meal that killed three people due to death cap mushrooms.
The prosecution alleges Ms Patterson invited four relatives of her estranged husband for lunch on July 29, 2023 to tell them about a false cancer diagnosis.
Senior crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC on Thursday suggested Ms Patterson never thought her cancer diagnosis would be found out as false.
“I suggest you never thought you would have to account for this lie about having cancer because you thought the lunch guests would die,” Dr Rogers said.
She replied: “That’s not true.’’
Ms Patterson faced repeated questioning over ovarian cancer and whether it was used to encourage the guests to come over for lunch.
The court was shown messages from her late mother-in-law Gail Patterson who was concerned about Ms Patterson’s health.
In one message the accused replied that a medical appointment went “OK’’ and that she needed a biopsy and was returning for an MRI the following week.
But she told the court on Thursday: “I didn’t have an appointment and I didn’t have a needle biopsy.’’
Ms Patterson is charged with the murders of three of the four guests – Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, and Heather Wilkinson, 66. The court has heard that all three died of the effects of death cap mushrooms, Ms Patterson detailing on Thursday that she foraged for wild mushrooms in the weeks leading up to the beef Wellington lunch after buying a food dehydrator.
But Ms Patterson told the court that she had never deliberately foraged for death cap mushrooms and they weren’t placed deliberately in her meal, leading to three deaths.
It is the crown case that Ms Patterson invited the guests under the guise of needing their advice on how to inform her children of her ill-health, to ensure they were not present for the meal.
Ms Patterson has denied she told the lunch guests she had invited them to her home to discuss a medical issue, and has denied saying she had a cancer diagnosis.
She claims she told them she was “undergoing investigations” for cancer and might need treatment.
Dr Rogers on Thursday suggested Ms Patterson never thought her cancer claims would be found out.
Dr Rogers: “And you thought your lie would never be found out?”
Ms Patterson again denied the suggestion.
It was Ms Patterson’s third day in the witness stand, on day 27 of the trial.
Dr Rogers asked Ms Patterson about evidence the sole surviving guest, Ian Wilkinson, had given, and said Mr Wilkinson had recalled Ms Patterson telling the lunch group she was “very concerned” because her illness was “very serious, life-threatening”.
“I don’t remember using those words,” Ms Patterson said.
“I can’t remember the precise words but I do know what I was trying to communicate was that I was undergoing investigations around ovarian cancer and might need treatment in that regard in the future.”
Dr Rogers: “I suggest to you that you told your lunch guests that you had received a cancer diagnosis, agree or disagree?”
Ms Patterson: “Disagree.”
It was Ms Patterson’s third day in the witness stand.
The court heard that on or after April 28, 2023, Ms Patterson had foraged for mushrooms along a Leongatha rail trail, at the Korumburra Botanic Gardens and from her house at Leongatha. Having bought the dehydrator on April 28, 2023, Ms Patterson said she had then foraged for mushrooms but denied visiting the regional township of Loch because of allegedly learning there were death cap mushrooms there. She also rejected any suggestions she weighed the mushrooms to determine the dose required to kill a human.
Defence counsel Colin Mandy SC asked her about the dehydrator and why she had lied during an interview with police on August 5, 2023, when news broke of an alleged mass poisoning.
“Why did you tell the police those lies on the 5th of August?” he asked. She replied: “I had disposed of it a few days earlier in the context of thinking that maybe mushrooms that I’d foraged or the meal I’d prepared was responsible for making people sick.
“Then on the Saturday, Detective (Stephen) Eppingstall told me Gail and Heather had passed away and it was this stupid kneejerk reaction to just dig deeper and keep lying. I was just scared, but I shouldn’t have done it.”
The court has previously heard that Ms Patterson had cooked the beef Wellington sourced with mushrooms from Woolworths and an unnamed grocer.
Ms Patterson has also told the court she became worried that the mushrooms may have included some foraged by her in the South Gippsland region.
Dr Rogers suggested to Ms Patterson that she saw a post on the iNaturalist website about death cap mushrooms growing in Loch, but Ms Patterson responded: “I disagree.”
Dr Rogers suggested to Ms Patterson that she went to Loch – near Leongatha – on April 28, 2023, but Ms Patterson was unable to say.
“I don’t know if I did go to Loch that day or not,” she said, adding that she did not go to Loch to find death cap mushrooms.
Dr Rogers has suggested images of mushrooms taken by Ms Patterson were of death caps. Dr Rogers showed the court a series of photos of dried-out mushrooms lying on a dehydrator rack sitting on top of kitchen scales.
She suggested mycologist Tom May had given evidence the mushrooms in the photos were highly consistent with death caps.
Dr Rogers: “I suggest to you these were death cap mushrooms that you foraged on or after 28 April 2023.”
The court was also shown images of dried-out mushrooms lying on a dehydrator tray on top of electronic scales on Ms Patterson’s kitchen bench.
Dr Rogers suggested to Ms Patterson that she saw an iNaturalist post made by retired pharmacist Christine McKenzie on April 18, 2023 of death cap mushrooms in Loch.
Ms Patterson disagreed. She also disagreed she used her dehydrator to test whether she could hide mushrooms in food without someone noticing.
Dr Rogers asked Ms Patterson about “taste tests” she performed by drying mushrooms in her dehydrator, blitzing them into a powder, and hiding them in food.
Dr Rogers showed the court Facebook messages Ms Patterson sent to her online friends about reducing the mass of mushrooms.
Dr Rogers suggested Ms Patterson was “testing how you could hide mushrooms in food without someone noticing, correct?”
Ms Patterson said she put “dried mushrooms in quite a lot of the food” her children ate.
“Spaghetti, lasagne, stew, brownies, that sort of things,” she said. “I was trying to get extra vegetables into my kids’ bodies.”
Dr Rogers: “I suggest that your reason for doing that is to see if you could successfully hide mushrooms in food that you served.”
Ms Patterson: “In regards to my children’s food, yes.”
Ms Patterson has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
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