Follow Daily Mail Australia’s live coverage of accused mushroom chef Erin Patterson‘s murder trial at Latrobe Valley Magistrates’ Court in Morwell, Victoria.
How accused mushroom murderer Erin Patterson’s trial has played out so far
The jury of 15 people have heard accusations Erin Patterson, from Victoria’s Gippsland region, intentionally prepared a meal laden with death cap mushrooms to kill four people.
Three guests including her parents-in-law Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, died horribly after eating individual beef Wellingtons cooked by Patterson during lunch at her Leongatha home on July 29, 2023.
A fourth guest, Heather’s husband and church pastor Ian Wilkinson, managed to survive the lunch after spending weeks in an intensive care unit.
The court heard Patterson’s estranged husband Simon was also invited but didn’t attend.
Witnesses told the jury Patterson ate her serving from a smaller and differently coloured plate than those of her guests, which the court heard ate from four grey plates.
The jury was also told that Patterson had been in two Gippsland areas where the lethal death cap mushrooms had been spotted and alerted via the iNatural app.
Patterson told authorities she bought dried mushrooms from an unnamed Asian store in the Monash area of metropolitan Melbourne, however health inspectors could find no evidence of this.
The health department declared the death cap poisoning was ‘isolated’ to Patterson’s deadly lunch.
Multiple witnesses including Simon Patterson (pictured below), Ian Wilkinson and other family members have given emotion-charged evidence to the jury.
Medical staff have told the jury of the horrifying symptoms the dying lunch guests and Ian Wilkinson suffered.
Patterson’s movements at hospital and her abrupt departure have also been aired in court as the trial continues this morning.
Erin Patterson’s estranged husband Simon, who was invited to the lunch but did not attend, is pictured below outside court with a supporter.
