Erin Patterson live trial updates: Accused mushroom killer’s admission, evidence over beef Wellington lunch
Accused triple murderer Erin Patterson is under cross-examined by the prosecution over her deadly, mushroom-laced, fatal beef Wellington lunch.
Scroll down for the latest updates, live from inside the courtroom of Erin Patterson’s triple murder trial.
Key Events
RECAP: Erin Patterson’s morning evidence
On Thursday, accused mushroom killer Erin Patterson again denied she intentionally put death cap mushrooms in her fatal beef Wellington lunch.
The alleged killer cook also told the court that she would have fed a sixth beef Wellington to her ex-partner, Simon Patterson, if he had attended.
That sixth beef Wellington was later fed to Ms Patterson’s children, with the mushrooms and pastry scraped off.
Ms Patterson also admitted to lying to police about owning a food dehydrator and destroying multiple pieces of evidence.
The 50-year-old mother of three told the jury she hid mushrooms in food for her children on multiple occasions, adding it secretly to “spaghetti, lasagna, stew (and) brownies” to get “extra vegetables” into her “kids’ bodies”.
Court has been adjourned for lunch.
Erin Patterson will return to the witness box at 2.15pm AEST.
‘Going mushrooming’: The question Erin Patterson doesn’t remember
Erin Patterson has been grilled on answers she gave to Professor Rhonda Stuart from Monash Health about “mushrooming”, meaning the exercise of going out and looking for mushrooms.
“Do you accept that Professor Stuart asked you if you’d been mushrooming?” Dr Rogers of the prosecution asked.
“I accept that that’s what she said,” Ms Patterson replied.
The prosecution asked whether “in effect” Ms Patterson said “no” to “going mushrooming”.
“I don’t remember that conversation,” Ms Patterson told the court, adding that some questions she answered only in the context of the fatal lunch.
Erin Patterson ‘did pick wild mushrooms’ before fatal lunch
Ms Patterson told the court: “I did pick wild mushrooms.”
She admitted to picking wild mushrooms between April 28 and the fateful lunch.
This evidence came despite Ms Patterson allegedly telling police and health authorities that she didn’t.
Those mushrooms were foraged from Ms Patterson’s property, the “botanical gardens” and potentially a rail track, the accused told the court.
'Would have given him a beef wellington too‘: Ex-partner could have been fed fatal meal
Ms Patterson said it was “probably true” that if she told police about her dehydrator, she would become a suspect in a “poisoning bid”.
The prosecution suggested that Ms Patterson would have fed the sixth beef Wellington to her ex-partner, Simon Patterson, if he had turned up to lunch.
“If he had come, I would have given him a beef Wellington too,” Ms Patterson said.
“Not one with death cap mushrooms in it intentionally,” she added.
Patterson doesn’t think mushroom in dehydrator photos are death cap
Prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC asked Ms Patterson if the picture of mushrooms in her dehydrator were death cap mushrooms.
“You deny that these are death cap mushrooms?” Dr Rogers asked.
“I don’t think they are,” Ms Patterson said.
Asked if she went to Loch in regional Victoria after seeing a Facebook post that stated there were death cap mushrooms in the area in April, Ms Patterson said, “I don’t know”.
Ms Patterson “disagreed” to the accusation that she went to Loch to find death cap mushrooms.
The court has been sent on a short morning break.
We will return with Erin Patterson’s cross-examination in a few minutes.
‘These were death cap mushrooms that you foraged,’ Prosecution alleges
The prosecution has shown Erin Patterson photos of her food dehydrator in her kitchen, with mushrooms on its shelves.
Ms Patterson accepted it was her dehydrator and “believed” she took the photo.
“Who else could it have been?” the prosecution asked, before Ms Patterson explained she “didn’t recall” taking the photos but understood it was likely taken by her.
“I suggest these were death cap mushrooms that you foraged,” the prosecution said.
“That is not correct,” Ms Patterson replied.
‘Spaghetti, lasagne, stew, brownies’: Where Patterson hid mushrooms
Ms Patterson said she tested hiding “dried mushrooms” in her children’s meals.
“Spaghetti, lasagne, stew, brownies,” she listed off, explaining where she would hide mushrooms.
“I was trying to get extra vegetables into my kids’ bodies.”
Patterson admits she was experimenting with ways to hide mushrooms in food
Ms Patterson told the court she also dehydrated “apples” and “bananas” in her Sunbeam device; however, she couldn’t recall if she took photos of it.
She then confirmed she told her Facebook friends that she dried mushrooms, used a Thermomix to reduce them into powder and hid them in food.
She said it “was fair” to say she was testing ways to hide mushrooms in food.
The prosecution accused Ms Patterson of only using the food dehydrator to dry mushrooms.
“I do disagree,” Ms Patterson said.
