Mushroom accused Erin Patterson back in court

The woman charged with killing three people using death cap mushrooms may learn on Tuesday where and when her committal hearing will be held.

Erin Patterson. Picture: Brooke Grebert-Craig.

The woman charged with killing three people with death cap mushrooms and attempting to murder two others may learn on Tuesday when and where the evidence against her will be tested.

Erin Trudi Patterson, 49, is due to appear in Latrobe Valley Magistrates Court via video link from prison, when the date of her committal hearing will be ­discussed.

Magistrate Tim Walsh indicated in April that it could be early next year before the committal can be conducted in the ­regional court, 155km southeast of Melbourne.

Colin Mandy SC for Ms Patterson said the accused, from nearby Leongatha, wanted the case heard near her local town rather than in Melbourne.

Mr Walsh questioned whether Leongatha, about half an hour from Morwell, was local. Mr Mandy said it had been his client’s wish to have the case heard in Morwell.

The court system has suffered a significant backlog since the pandemic, which officials have been working to address. A ­Supreme Court trial may not be held until late 2025 although the timetable is uncertain.

Ms Patterson is being held in a maximum-security wing of the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre in Melbourne’s west.

She allegedly served a beef Wellington meal last July 29 that police said killed her former in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, and Gail Patterson’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, 66.

The meal was allegedly served at Ms Patterson’s house in Leongatha, about 140km northwest of Melbourne, with Ms Patterson saying she also fell ill from the same meal that police said included death cap mushrooms.

She is charged with murdering the three elderly people and also with attempting several times to murder her former husband, Simon Patterson, 49, and Wilkinson’s husband Ian, 68.

Ian Wilkinson, a Baptist minister, was at the lunch but Simon Patterson was not, although he was allegedly invited.

The police brief was described by the magistrate as voluminous.

Asked about concerns over delays, Mr Mandy said: “We are content to wait until a ­committal.’’