Erin Patterson verdict live updates: Mushroom killer guilty on all charges over fatal beef Wellington lunch

We are waiting for lead prosecutor, Doctor Nanette Rogers, to exit the Victorian Supreme Court in Morwell. It is unclear yet if Dr Rogers will make a statement.

A friend of Erin Patterson ran from the Victorian Supreme Court after speaking briefly with a waiting media scrum.

“I am saddened,” she said about the guilty verdict, adding, “it is what it is.”

“I’m her friend. I will visit her.”

The friend was asked if she believed the murder was an “accident”.

“Not a question I can answer for you,” she replied before running from media.

Erin Patterson is still in the Victorian Supreme Court after a jury found her guilty of the murder of Don and Gail Patterson, and Heather Wilkinson, and the attempted murder of Ian Wilkinson, Ms Wilkinson’s husband.

Patterson was hoping to return to her Leongatha home, where she murdered her in-laws, Mr and Mrs Patterson and Ms Wilkinson. However, she will now be taken to prison.

There is a heavy police presence around the court in Morwell.

Pictures of murderer Erin Patterson that were taken in May have now been released, showing the guilty mushroom killing cook arriving at court in the back of a court transport van.

Patterson appeared startled by the camera as it captured her arriving at her trial.

Now that the jury has returned a guilty verdict, the images can be shown.

See all the photos here.

Ian Wilkinson, the sole-surviving lunch guest, said Erin Patterson used a coloured plate system to distinguish which meal was given to which guest at the fatal lunch, something the she denied.

He claimed that Patterson told her lunch guests that she had cancer, something she also denied.

Patterson didn’t deny insinuating that she was unwell with a fabricated illness, stopping short of agreeing that she said “cancer”. She said she did this to cover for side effects of weight-loss surgery she claimed she was planning on having.

After the lunch, Patterson went on with her day-to-day life, despite claiming to be suffering from a violent gastrointestinal illness before she decided that she needed to go to the hospital.

By that time, Don and Gail Patterson, along with Heather and Ian Wilkinson, were already in the hospital, with medical staff working on the suspicion that they were suffering from death cap mushroom poisoning.

Patterson told the court she told hospital staff that she had purchased mushrooms from her local Woolworths and used them in the lunch, but didn’t share that she had an interest in mushrooms, that she experimented with dehydrating mushrooms, or that dehydrated mushrooms that she had picked were in her home.

The court had been told that Erin Patterson had an interest in mushrooms, something that she said developed around the time of the first COVID-19 lockdown in 2020.

It also heard about her “experiments”, where Ms Patterson revealed she would dehydrate mushrooms, testing out different timings to see how long was needed to remove moisture.

Ms Patterson explained that she would put mushrooms that she found and dehydrated into a blender, reducing them to a dust that she could “hide” in food.

She said that she did this to give her children more vegetables.

Evidence of internet records were shown in the trial which indicated devices connected to Ms Patterson had accessed maps that showed the location of death cap mushrooms in Victoria.

Ms Patterson denied foraging for death cap mushrooms but accepted they were in the meal she made.

Erin Patterson sat emotionless in the Victorian Supreme Court as a jury confirmed they had found her guilty on all charges.

As the jury confirmed they had found her guilty of the murder of in-laws Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, and the attempted murder of sole lunch-survivor Ian Wilkinson, she barely moved or reacted.

Ms Patterson is expected to appeal the ruling.

During his final address to the jury, on day 40 of the trial, Justice Christopher Beale listed nine issues the jury would have to decide and summarised the evidence and arguments for each.

These were;

Whether Patterson deliberately included death cap mushrooms in the meal;

Whether she had the state of mind necessary for the charges;

Whether she had good reasons not to kill her lunch guests;

Whether she foraged for edible wild mushrooms;

Why her children were not at the lunch;

Why Patterson cooked individual beef wellingtons;

Whether the lunch guests had different-coloured dinner plates;

Whether Patterson allocated her own plate;

Whether Patterson engaged in incriminating conduct after the lunch.

The judge said the “ultimate” issues were whether Patterson deliberately included death caps and whether she had the state of mind necessary, but the other issues could inform their judgement on those issues.

Erin Patterson has been found guilty of three counts of murder and one of attempted murder after three relatives died and one was critically injured after a beef Wellington meal that contained poisoned mushrooms.

Over 10 weeks, details of Patterson’s actions in the lead up to the fatal lunch and afterwards were drawn into sharp focus as more than 50 witnesses – including Patterson herself – were grilled in the witness box.

Prosecutors argued the only reasonable explanation for what happened is Patterson knowingly seeking out death cap mushrooms and including them in the lunch on July 29, 2023, intending to kill her or seriously injure her guests.

Her defence, on the other hand, argued Patterson accidentally included the deadly mushrooms and acted poorly out of panic she would be wrongly blamed.

Patterson’s parents-in-law, Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson died from multiple organ failure linked to mushroom poisoning in the week following the lunch.

Read the full wrap of the Erin Patterson mushroom murder trial.

Erin Patterson has been found guilty of the murder of Don and Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson, and guilty of attempted murder of Ian Wilkinson.