Mushroom cook Erin Patterson ‘freaked out’ after blame laid on her, says defence

Erin Patterson’s defence counsel has told the jury that if they believe there is even a small chance she did not mean to kill three lunch guests with a poisoned beef Wellington she must be found not guilty.

Erin Patterson and Colin Mandy SC. The jury will likely begin deliberations next week.

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The counsel for Erin Patterson has warned the jury sitting in her triple-murder trial that if they believe there is even a small chance she did not mean to kill three elderly lunch guests with a poisoned beef Wellington, she must be found not guilty, as the trial of the accused mushroom killer nears its end.

Colin Mandy, closing the defence case on Thursday, put three propositions to the jurors and emphasised that the onus was on the prosecution to prove Ms Patterson’s guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

“If you think that maybe she deliberately poisoned the meal, you must find her not guilty,” he said. “If you think that it’s likely that she deliberately poisoned the meal, you must find her not guilty. If you think that she probably deliberately poisoned the meal, you must find her not guilty.”

Ms Patterson has spent 34 days on trial for the murder of three relatives of her estranged husband and the attempted murder of a fourth, after allegedly intentionally feeding them a beef Wellington laced with death cap mushrooms at a lunch in her home on July 29, 2023.

She has pleaded not guilty. While she accepts death cap mushrooms were in the meal, she maintains she did not intentionally put them there.

Mr Mandy on Thursday took the jury to four “ridiculous” propositions made by the prosecution: that Ms Patterson would commit murder without motive; that she used a cancer lie to lure her guests to the lunch; that she expected them to take her fake medical issues to the grave; and that she would have committed the crime knowing an investigation would fall on her.

He referenced a metaphor used by prosecutor Nanette Rogers in the crown’s closing address, in which she referred to the case as a jigsaw puzzle to be put together.

“You can’t force jigsaw puzzle pieces together,” he told the court. “Prosecutors can, as we’ve seen in our learned friend’s address, force the evidence to fit their theory.”

Mr Mandy said it was the defence’s submission that “the prosecution cannot get over that high bar of beyond reasonable doubt”.

Victorian Supreme Court judge Christopher Beale dismissed the jury on Thursday afternoon, with instructions for the members to “come back refreshed on Tuesday”.

The jury is expected to enter deliberations late next week.

Earlier on Thursday, Mr Mandy said Ms Patterson was “freaking out” as her alleged victims deteriorated in hospital because people had begun to blame her and she was being “treated as responsible”.

He told the jury that she panicked and lied after medical practitioners had identified death cap mushrooms as the “possible culprit” that had caused her four lunch guests to fall ill.

“People react differently in situations of stress,” Mr Mandy said.

He said by August 1, 2023, “Erin was being treated as responsible” for the illness of her guests.

“People were blaming her,” he said. “Understandably, because whichever way you look at it, it was her fault.”

The court has heard Ms Patterson lied to police about owning a dehydrator or ever foraging for wild mushrooms.

The jury has seen CCTV footage of her disposing of a Sunbeam dehydrator at the Koonawarra tip on August 2, 2023.

Mr Mandy said it would be unfair for the jury to conclude her actions must indicate guilt.

“There are all sorts of reasons why an innocent person might engage in that conduct, like dumping the dehydrator and lying,” he said.

“She did those things because she panicked when confronted with the possibility her actions caused the illness of people she loved.”

Earlier, he had narrowed in on evidence given by her teenage son on the days after her fatal beef Wellington lunch, saying she “certainly” told him she was feeling unwell. Ms Patterson’s 14-year-old son, in a recorded police interview, recalled his mother insisting on driving him to a flying lesson more than an hour away from home on July 31, 2023, ­despite complaining of feeling unwell.

The crown suggested this was inconsistent with someone who had eaten a poisonous meal and was suffering from diarrhoea.

Mr Mandy on Thursday said “if she was faking being unwell, she’d go to bed”.

“Why would she go on this journey to Tyabb?” he asked the jury.

“If she was faking being unwell, she’d go to bed. She’d leave this trail for (her children) to talk about later on.”

Defence Barristers Colin Mandy SC and Sofie Stafford head into court. Picture: Ian Currie/ NewsWire

Mr Mandy also directed the jury to evidence given by Ms Patterson’s teenage son in which he said his mother “looked normal” the morning after the lunch.

“Was this 14-year-old boy watching her like a hawk this whole morning?” he said.

“Or did this 14-year-old do what you would expect him to do and play computer games?”

He said Ms Patterson “certainly” told her son she was feeling unwell, and the boy told police “she didn’t sound like her usual happy self”.

“He said he thought she was playing down how sick she was,” Mr Mandy said.

The boy, in his police interview, did not recall making any stops on the trip to his flying lesson but Ms Patterson claims she pulled over at the side of the road for an emergency bathroom stop, and the jury has been shown CCTV footage of her at a service station in Caldermeade.

The crown has suggested Ms Patterson lied about the roadside toilet break because her son did not recall making the stops but Mr Mandy said the boy did not remember the service station stop either, of which there is video footage.

Upon returning home, Ms Patterson’s son witnessed her running to the bathroom with “urgency”, Mr Mandy said.