By Mikaela Ortolan, Tim Callanan and Kristian Silva for ABC
Erin Patterson is facing three murder charges and an attempted murder charge. Photo: ABC News
A defence lawyer representing accused triple-murderer Erin Patterson has told a jury she lied about a cancer diagnosis and foraging mushrooms, but is innocent of murdering three relatives with a poisoned meal.
Patterson is on trial facing three murder charges and an attempted murder charge relating to a deadly beef Wellington meal she prepared and served relatives in July 2023.
Don and Gail Patterson, the parents of Patterson's estranged husband Simon, fell ill and never recovered after attending the gathering at a home in Leongatha, about 135 kilometres from Melbourne.
Gail Patterson's sister Heather Wilkinson also died, although her husband Ian Wilkinson pulled through after a long stint in hospital.
During his opening address on Wednesday, defence barrister Colin Mandy SC said it was not disputed that the lunch guests fell sick and three died as a result of eating death cap mushrooms contained in the meal.
But he said Patterson "did not deliberately serve poisoned food to her guests", and the poisoning was a "terrible accident".
"The defence case is what happened was a tragedy and a terrible accident," Mandy told the jury.
"She's innocent."
Guests served on different-coloured plates to Erin Patterson
The court heard Patterson had told her lunch guests she had organised the meal to discuss a cancer diagnosis.
Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC told the jury that her estranged husband, Simon Patterson, had also been invited but declined because he felt "uncomfortable" about attending.
The court heard that at the lunch, Patterson told her guests that she had been diagnosed with cancer - a diagnosis both prosecutors and defence agreed had not occurred.
"There is not sufficient evidence… to support the assertion that the accused was diagnosed with cancer," Rogers said.
The prosecutor said Patterson sought advice from her guests about whether to tell her children about the diagnosis.
Patterson's children were seeing a movie at Leongatha and were not present at the lunch, where Rogers said guests were served their meals on different plates to Patterson.
Rogers told the court Wilkinson recounted the guests being served their meals on grey-coloured plates, while Patterson served herself a meal on an orange-coloured plate.
The prosecutor told the court Heather Wilkinson later reflected on this fact after falling ill.
"Yeah I noticed Erin put her food on a different plate to us. Her plate had different colours on it. I wondered why it was," Wilkinson is alleged to have said.
Guests rapidly fell ill and were taken to hospital
Roughly 12 hours after the lunch, Patterson's guests became severely ill with gastro, Rogers told the court.
"All four were each diagnosed by treating doctors with amanita mushroom poisoning," Rogers said.
"What was initially thought to be a mass food poisoning event was investigated by police."
Rogers detailed the extensive hospital treatment given to the four guests, including a drug designed to counteract the death cap toxin and activated charcoal.
Eventually, all four patients were transferred to the Austin Hospital for further treatment.
Within days, Don and Gail Patterson had died, along with Heather Wilkinson.
Two days after the lunch, Patterson went to Leongatha Hospital's urgent care centre, where a doctor who had treated the other guests explained she had been exposed to a potentially lethal dose of the mushrooms, Rogers said.
"The accused repeatedly said she needed to leave," the prosecutor said.
"She was adamant she would not stay."
Rogers said Patterson told doctors concerned about the risk of mushroom poisoning for her children that she had "scraped off" the mushrooms when the children ate leftovers from the meal.
Blood tests taken during one of Patterson's hospital stays did not show signs she was seriously unwell, Rogers said.
Patterson lied about food dehydrator and foraging, court hears
The court heard that as a Victorian health department investigation gathered pace, questions were asked of Ms Patterson about the source of the mushrooms.
Patterson initially told investigators some of the mushrooms were purchased from an unspecified Asian grocer in the Oakleigh area, Rogers said.
But both prosecutors and Patterson's defence lawyer agreed that the mushrooms were sourced by Patterson and had been foraged.
Her defence lawyer Mandy told the jury that lies she had told to police about foraging the mushrooms and owning a food dehydrator had occurred because she had "panicked".
Patterson's defence lawyer said his client had been overwhelmed that people had died because of a meal she had served - and that she did not deliberately seek out death cap mushrooms while foraging.
At her police interview on 6 August, the court heard Patterson initially said she had never owned a food dehydrator but later said she may have owned one "a year ago".
- ABC
