Mushroom cook Erin Patterson’s daughter recalls eating beef Wellington leftovers

The nine-year-old daughter of Erin Patterson, wearing pink trainers and holding a tissue, told police her mum had wanted to host a lunch and talk about ‘adult stuff’ with her elderly relatives.

Erin Patterson is on trial for murder after allegedly deliberately feeding her lunch guests poisonous mushrooms

The nine-year-old daughter of Erin Patterson has recalled eating the leftovers of a meal that killed three of her ­family members, in a teary recorded police interview played as part of her mother’s murder trial.

The young girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the officer interviewing her that she remembered her mother falling ill the day after hosting her grandparents and “grand aunt and uncle” for lunch on July 29, 2023.

In the interview, filmed on ­August 16, 2023, the girl said she and her older brother were sent to McDonald’s and then the movies during the lunch, so her mother could speak freely to her guests.

“She said she wanted to talk to them about adult stuff,” the girl said.

Ms Patterson is on trial for the murder of her estranged husband Simon Patterson’s parents, Don and Gail, and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, after serving them death cap mushrooms in a beef Wellington at a lunch in her home.

She has also been charged with the attempted murder of Ms Wilkinson’s husband, Ian, who ate the meal but survived after a long hospital stay. Ms Patterson has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Ian Wilkinson watched the trial from the gallery on Thursday. Picture: David Crosling/NewsWire

About 30 minutes of a recorded police interview with Erin and Simon Patterson’s youngest child was played for the Victorian Supreme Court on Thursday.

Wearing a multi-coloured jumper, pink sneakers and holding a tissue, she was first asked to define the difference between the truth and a lie. Of a lie, she said: “Like, I guess not doing what you said you would do.”

Then, she gave evidence about the days before and after the lunch.

The young girl said she believed her parents were still in a ­relationship.

“Are they just friends, or are they like boyfriend and girlfriend?” the officer asked, to which she replied: “Husband and wife.”

“But they don’t live together?” the officer probed. “Yes,” she said.

The court has previously heard the Pattersons had been separated and living apart since 2015.

She recalled Erin Patterson telling her the day before the lunch that she was going to have Don and Gail Patterson and Ian and Heather Wilkinson over.

“I don’t remember what she said but I just remember she told me she was having a lunch with them,” she told the officer interviewing her.

She later added: “She said she wanted to talk to them about adult stuff.”

Her mother told her she should go to the movies with her brother and a friend while she met with her lunch guests.

About 11.30 to 12pm on July 29, 2023, she said, Erin Patterson drove her to McDonald’s in Leongatha, where she ate lunch and played on the playground before walking 200m down the road to the cinema.

Asked what movie they watched, she quietly replied: ­“Elemental.”

She recalled seeing meat in the oven of her mother’s home before she left the house. There was a light on in the oven, she said, so she could see the meal clearly but could not identify exactly what it was.

“I remember things in the oven and there was some things,” she said. “I don’t know what kind of meat it is but a kind of meat.”

Simon Patterson collected her once the movie was finished, she said, and she spent the rest of the afternoon with her father.

“We had a play in the park, then we had dinner, then we came back and Mum and me played on the tablets and then we went to bed,” she told the police officer.

She could not remember exactly when Ms Patterson started to feel unwell, but she recalled seeing her mother go to the bathroom “like, 10 times” the day after the lunch.

“She said that she had diarrhoea and her tummy was sore,” the girl said. She said she had “played monopoly” on Sunday, July 30, 2023, and spent some time on the computer.

“We were going to go to church but Mum was feeling too sick, but I don’t remember going anywhere,” she said.

That day she also ate the leftovers from the meal Ms Patterson had served her guests the day prior. “We had some of the steak that they had,” the girl said. “We had some mashed potatoes and some beans.”

Erin Patterson’s house in Leongatha in Victoria. Picture: Brendan Beckett

The police officer also asked Ms Patterson’s daughter about the plates used in her home.

The court has previously heard Ms Patterson ate her beef Wellington off a small, tan-coloured plate while the rest of her guests had their meals served on large grey plates.

The girl initially said of the plates: “They’re just round.”

When asked more specifically, she said: “There’s a black and red one and there’s some white ones and I think that’s all the colours that we have.”

Earlier in the day on Thursday, a nurse and a paramedic who treated Erin Patterson gave evidence that she did not appear ill two days after hosting the lunch.

Leongatha nurse Cindy Munro told the court Erin “didn’t look unwell to me” when she presented to hospital.

“I recall Ian being so unwell he could barely lift his head off the pillow and Heather was unsteady on her feet,” Ms Munro said.

“But Erin was sitting up in her bed in the trolley and she didn’t look unwell to me.”

Nurse Cindy Munro said Ms Patterson ‘didn’t look unwell’. Picture: David Geraghty/NewsWire

Paramedic Ellen Spencer gave similar evidence, saying Ms Patterson “visually appeared well, she was alert and oriented to our presence”. Ms Spencer said Ms Patterson did not need to use the bathroom on a 90-minute trip from Leongatha Hospital to Monash Medical Centre, despite complaining of regular diarrhoea.

“Ms Patterson was fairly calm and nonchalant,” she said. “It was a fairly … uneventful journey.”

The court will hear the remainder of Ms Patterson’s daughter’s evidence on Friday.