Erin Patterson has been found guilty of murdering three of her estranged husband’s relatives and the attempted murder of another over a death cap mushroom-laced lunch.
The jury of seven men and five women took seven days to reach its verdict following a high-profile trial in the town of Morwell, in south-east Victoria, that lasted about nine weeks.
The 50-year-old mother of two blinked but appeared emotionless as the jury’s foreperson read out four guilty verdicts to a full courtroom on Monday afternoon.
Patterson was found guilty of intentionally poisoning her lunch guests by serving them a beef Wellington meal containing death cap mushrooms at her Gippsland home in July 2023.
Images published on Monday but taken in May show Erin Patterson arriving at court in the back of a prison van. Source: AFP / Martin Keep
Patterson’s former in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, 70, and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, 66, all died in hospital, days after the meal. Wilkinson’s husband Ian spent two months in hospital recovering, but survived. He gave evidence during the trial.
During the Supreme Court trial, the jury heard from a range of forensic experts, medical experts who treated those who became ill, as well as relatives of the deceased.
Prosecutors laid out an extensive circumstantial case to prove the poisoning event was deliberate.
Patterson also took the witness stand as the only witness called by the defence. She spent eight days giving evidence and being cross-examined by the prosecution.
Patterson had pleaded not guilty and had always maintained the deaths were a tragic accident.
Defence barrister Colin Mandy leaves the Latrobe Valley Magistrates’ Court in Morwell. Source: AAP / James Ross
The prosecution accused Erin Patterson of telling a series of lies to police, including that she did not forage for mushrooms in the meal and did not own a dehydrator.
She lied about it to public health investigators, who were searching to find the source of poisonous mushrooms after Patterson claimed they may be from an Asian store.
Patterson lied to doctors, nurses and toxicologists while they were trying to identify why her lunch guests were sick and save their lives at hospital.
She revealed for the first time that she enjoyed foraging for wild mushrooms when she was in the witness box, admitting she started foraging in 2020 during the pandemic.
Jury reaches guilty verdicts
After hearing more than two months of evidence, a jury of 14 was whittled down to 12 jurors who retired to deliberate on their verdicts one week ago, on 30 June.
They returned after deliberating for seven days with four guilty verdicts, convicting Patterson of three murders and one attempted murder.
Patterson now faces a sentence of up to life in prison.
She will return to the court for a pre-sentence hearing later this year.
In a statement, Victoria Police said the Patterson and Wilkinson families have requested privacy at this time.
