When police came looking for evidence, they found hundreds of books at Erin Patterson’s house

The mushrooms murder trial sat for its 30th day on Wednesday. It was also Day 7 of Erin Patterson giving evidence.

Courtroom sketch of Erin Patterson

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When it came to the written word, police got much more than they bargained for when they searched Erin Trudi Patterson’s home after the mushroom lunch.

Police, the court was told, found 423 books at her house and duly catalogued them as part of their investigation.

But to borrow from the Demtel man, there were more.

“I think I’ve got a lot more than that,’’ Patterson, 50, told the jury.

Many more, in fact, maybe books in the thousands, the court heard, as Patterson was briefly on familiar and safe ground, talking about one of her true loves – books.

Nanette Rogers, for the prosecution, mentioned that among the books logged by detectives, there appeared to be none on the foraging of mushrooms.

Or on fungi.

Yet it seems that when police came on August 5, 2023, there were many other books to be found in tubs and boxes in the garage.

The court has previously heard Patterson was widely read and once owned a book shop in rural Western Australia.

It’s been a long seven days in the witness stand for Patterson, who will face at least part of another day being grilled by the prosecution as the trial edges towards the end of its seventh week.

In the morning, Morwell in the Latrobe Valley was covered in fog and interest in the case from random members of the public seemed to have subsided somewhat, with quite a few empty seats.

By the time the fog had burnt off, the punters were back in numbers to hear Rogers try to interrogate Patterson.

She spent part of Wednesday asking Patterson a series of questions to suggest that the accused was not forager or did not have a great deal of interest in mushrooms.

She said among thousands of pages of texts with her estranged husband, Simon Patterson, there had been no mention of foraging and no suggestion that she had eaten wild mushrooms.

“That’s probably true, yep,’’ Patterson said.

She has denied repeatedly having killed three elderly people at a beef Wellington lunch in 2023 at her Leongatha house and has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Having elected to give evidence, she has also become the witness to have spent most time on the stand.

More questions were raised on Wednesday on whether our not Patterson had ever sought to have gastric bypass surgery, which she named as the real reason why she had arranged the beef Wellington lunch.

Patterson previously told the jury that she had a pre-surgery appointment at the Enrich Clinic in Melbourne in September 2023.

However, the jury heard that the clinic specialises in cosmetic dermatology and doesn’t offer gastric bypass surgery.

Patterson also agreed she had not discussed weight loss with GPs at her local medical clinic.

The trial is continuing.