The police interview of Erin Patterson’s young daughter is shown in court for the first time

An interview of Erin Patterson’s daughter, made after the fatal lunch at her mother’s home, has been played to the Supreme Court jury.

Erin Patterson arriving at her Leongatha home after three people died eating Death Cap mushrooms from a meal she allegedly cooked. Picture: Jason Edwards

Nearly three weeks after Erin Patterson served the death cap mushrooms meal that killed three elderly relatives, her nine-year-old daughter was in Morwell doing what no young child should have to.

She was seated in a blue armchair, opposite a kind man in another blue armchair who quizzed her in great but careful detail about what happened on the weekend of July 29, 2023.

As the girl did an admirable job not long after both her grandparents had died, the interviewer peeled through the key questions of what would become by November an alleged triple murder.

By then, her 50-year-old mother was the accused, all of the action occurring over the dinner table at Erin Patterson’s new house in Leongatha.

Part of the video played to the jury in the Supreme Court trial showed the girl, tissue in hand at times, recounting the key issues – in many ways the who, what, where, how and why of the lunch through the eyes of a child.

At first, the questioner asked the girl what it means to lie.

“I guess not doing what you said you would do,’’ she replied.

Smart kid.

As the drama – and this was proper court room drama –unfolded, Erin Patterson was seen at times, with her bottom lip shaking, struggling to hold it together in unambiguously difficult circumstances.

She might be the accused, but she’s also a mother. The court has previously heard she was a good mother who cared deeply for both her children.

On the day after the meal, the girl told the interviewer her mother had been sick. “She just needed to go to the toilet a lot,’’ she said. “She said that she had diarrhoea and that her tummy was sore.

Did she vomit?

“I don’t think she told me,’’ she added. “I saw her go like 10 times. That was the morning through to the afternoon.’’

The video was recorded on August 16, 2023, and part of it was shown to the jury on Thursday, with the rest to be broadcast on Friday.

It was hard not to be affected, the video highlighting the stakes at play when the jury finally gets to cast a verdict.

When it came to the lunch, Patterson’s daughter, who can’t be identified, made plenty of sense.

“I wasn’t there so I don’t know what happened,’’ she said of the actual lunch.

On other matters, she had clearer vision of what had unfolded at the house.

On the day before, the girl was told about the looming lunch with her grandparents Don and Gail Patterson, both of whom died after they were served beef Wellington with death cap mushrooms inside.

“She just wanted to talk to them,’’ the girl said. “And I guess have lunch with them.’

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

At 11 minutes and 26 seconds into the video, the girl blows her nose. She then tells the interviewer that Mum and Dad (Simon Patterson) don’t live together but they are still in a relationship.

“They are husband and wife … they still talk a bit,’’ she says.

The Pattersons’ daughter told her interviewer that she had seen meat in the oven before going into town to watch Elemental, an animated movie, and eating McDonald’s with her brother and one of his friends.

On the Saturday evening after spending time with her father, she had played on her tablet with her mother before going to bed.

The next day, the court heard, she had been served steak with mashed potato and beans but there had been no gravy or anything else.

The video ended just a few seconds short of 34 minutes, with the jury told more would be played on Friday.

Patterson has pleaded not guilty to all charges.