WELLINGTON, New Zealand — An Australian girl accused of murdering three of her estranged husband’s relations with toxic mushrooms advised a courtroom on Tuesday she accepted that the deadly lunch she served contained demise caps.
However Erin Patterson mentioned the “overwhelming majority” of the fungi got here from native shops. She denies three counts of homicide and one in all tried homicide over the meat Wellington meal she served to her parents-in-law and her estranged husband’s aunt and uncle at her residence in July 2023.
Don Patterson, Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson had been hospitalized and died after the lunch within the rural city of Leongatha within the Australian state of Victoria. Heather’s husband, Ian Wilkinson, was gravely sick however survived.
Patterson’s lawyer earlier advised the Supreme Courtroom trial that the poisoning was a tragic accident however prosecutors mentioned it was deliberate. If convicted, she faces a sentence of life imprisonment on the homicide prices and 25 years in jail for tried homicide.
Lengthy queues shaped outdoors the Latrobe Valley Courthouse on Tuesday after Patterson took the stand late Monday, which was the primary time she had spoken publicly for the reason that deaths.
Throughout a number of hours of proof on Tuesday, Patterson, 50, advised the courtroom she started foraging fungi in the course of the COVID-19 lockdown of March 2020, witnessed solely by her kids.
“I reduce a little bit of one of many mushrooms, fried it up with some butter and ate it,” she mentioned. “They tasted good and I didn’t get sick.”
Patterson mentioned she additionally fed foraged mushrooms to her kids, chopped up “very, very small” so that they couldn’t choose them out of curries, pasta and soups.
She developed a style for unique varieties, joined a “mushroom lovers” Fb group, and purchased a dehydrator to protect her finds, Patterson mentioned. Her lawyer, Colin Mandy SC, requested if she accepted that the meat Wellington pastries she had served to her lunch company in 2023 contained demise caps.
“Sure, I do,” mentioned Patterson.
The accused advised her lawyer a lot of the mushrooms she used that day got here from native supermarkets. She agreed she may need put them in the identical container as dehydrated wild mushrooms she had foraged weeks earlier and others from an Asian meals retailer.
Mandy in April advised the courtroom his shopper had lied when she initially advised investigators that she had by no means foraged earlier than. However he denied that she had intentionally sought out demise cap mushrooms and mentioned she disposed of her dehydrator in a panic concerning the unintended deaths.
Earlier Tuesday, Patterson grew to become tearful when she was requested about expletive-filled messages she had despatched about her in-laws in December 2022 in a Fb group chat that she described as a “protected venting house” for a bunch of girls.
“I want I’d by no means mentioned it. I really feel very ashamed for saying it and I want that the household didn’t have to listen to that I mentioned it,” mentioned Patterson. “They didn’t deserve it.”
Patterson, who mentioned she had tried to have her parents-in-law mediate a dispute along with her estranged husband, Simon, about college charges, mentioned she was feeling damage, pissed off and “slightly bit determined.”
The couple formally separated in 2015 after earlier short-term splits, the courtroom has heard. Simon Patterson was invited to the July 2023 lunch however didn’t attend.
Tuesday’s proof additionally traversed Patterson’s well being after prosecutors’ ideas that her lunch invitation was uncommon and that she’d organized it on a false pretense of receiving a most cancers prognosis. The mom of two admitted she by no means had most cancers, however had been apprehensive sufficient by signs to hunt exams.
Regardless of her separation from Simon, Patterson mentioned she had hoped to reunite along with her estranged husband and mentioned she had remained near her in-laws.
“It by no means modified. I used to be simply their daughter in regulation,” mentioned Patterson, by means of tears. “They simply continued to like me.”
The 14-member jury has heard 5 weeks of prosecution proof, together with what the lunch company advised relations earlier than they died. Heather Wilkinson mentioned shortly earlier than she died that Patterson ate her particular person beef wellington pastry from a distinct coloured plate to the opposite diners, mentioned prosecutor Nanette Rogers.
Opening her case in April, Rogers mentioned the poisoning was deliberate however that her case wouldn’t recommend a motive for the alleged killings. The prosecution says Patterson lied when she advised investigators she had eaten the identical meal as her company and fed her kids the leftovers.
Patterson is because of proceed giving proof on Wednesday. Her proof Tuesday didn’t embody her account of the day of the lunch, or cross-examination from prosecutors.
