Erin Patterson trial: Mushroom cook grilled on ‘lies’ and leftovers in final hours of murder trial

Disagree. Disagree. Disagree.

Those were Erin Patterson’s responses to the prosecution’s final three questions in her murder trial.

Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC rounded out her marathon cross-examination on Thursday with three suggestions: that Ms Patterson deliberately sourced death cap mushrooms in 2023, deliberately included them in the beef Wellington she served her former in-laws and did so intending to kill them.

Ms Patterson has pleaded not guilty to the murders of her estranged husband Simon’s parents, Don and Gail Patterson, 70, his aunt Heather Wilkinson, 66, and the attempted murder of Heather’s husband Ian.

She denies deliberately poisoning her lunch guests on July 29, 2023, when she served them meals that included death cap mushrooms.

Ms Patterson was accused of more lies on her eighth and final day in the witness box at the Supreme Court in Morwell in regional Victoria.

The 50-year-old was asked about her evidence that she dehydrated dried mushrooms she had bought from an Asian grocer before adding them to the beef Wellingtons.

She agreed she never said this to anyone at the time and didn’t mention putting the fungi into the dehydrator when she earlier admitted adding them to the lunch.

“I suggest this is another lie you made up on the spot,” Dr Rogers said, accusing Ms Patterson of hedging her bets to try to make it sound like there were multiple possible sources for the death cap mushrooms.

“Incorrect,” the accused killer responded.

The prosecutor also suggested Ms Patterson lied about taking diarrhoea treatment following lunch after the 50-year-old had earlier claimed one reason she went to the hospital was because she thought they would have something stronger.

Ms Patterson agreed she did not tell medical staff at the hospital she had taken the medication, maintaining no one had asked.

“If you were looking for something stronger, you would’ve told medical staff you had already taken Imodium and it didn’t work,” Dr Rogers said.

“I don’t agree,” Ms Patterson responded.

She was also questioned about her evidence that she had to stop by the side of a road and go to the toilet in the bushes while driving her son to a flying lesson, something the boy denied during his testimony.

“I suggest he did not recall you stopping by the bushes on the side of the road because it did not happen ... I suggest this is another lie you told the jury about how you managed the trip to Tyabb,” Dr Rogers said.

“Disagree,” Ms Patterson said.

The mother-of-two said she had served her children reheated beef Wellington with the mushroom and pastry scraped off, while she had a bowl of cereal the night after the deadly lunch.

But Dr Rogers referred to her children’s evidence, in which they suggested their mother had the same meal of leftovers the night after the fatal lunch.

One of Ms Patterson’s children said she “ate the same as us”, but Ms Patterson told the court they were incorrect and denied eating the leftover food.

She also denied that she “deliberately concealed” one of her phones, referred to at the trial as phone A, from police when they searched her house.

Ms Patterson said she switched from phone A to another, referred to as phone B, because the former was “not cutting it anymore”.

But the prosecution pointed to records that showed regular use of a SIM card in phone A until days after the mushroom lunch.

Ms Patterson said she conducted a factory reset of phone B because she wanted to use it, and that was the phone she gave police.

“I suggest to you that there was nothing wrong with phone A and this is another lie,” Dr Rogers said.

“Disagree,” Ms Patterson responded.

Under defence barrister Colin Mandy SC’s re-examination, Patterson became emotional as she talked about her daughter’s ballet lessons and son’s flying lesson.

With all the evidence in the trial concluded, Justice Christopher Beale told jurors about discussions they could expect before dismissing them for the day.