Australia mushroom trial live: Erin Patterson denies foraging death caps two hours before buying dehydrator | Victoria

Trial hears computer records suggest Erin Patterson visited webpages listing death cap mushroom sightings in May 2022

Prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC says Erin Patterson has made “new” claims about foraging for mushrooms in the trial. Patterson asks what she means by “new”.

Rogers says in Patterson’s police interview on 5 August 2023 she told the detectives she had never foraged mushrooms. Patterson agrees.

She says she did not say this to other witnesses. She said she told people she had not put foraged mushrooms in beef wellington meal.

Rogers says when police executed the search warrant on her house this day they seized two desktop computers. Patterson says there were three.

Rogers says electronic records from a Cooler Master computer, seized by police, indicated it had been used to visit webpages listing death cap mushroom sightings in May 2022.

The jury has returned to the court room in Morwell.

The jurors have been sent out of the court room for a slightly earlier lunch break.

Patterson’s cross-examination will resume from 2.15pm.

Erin Patterson denies turning death cap mushrooms into powder ‘to hide them’ in beef wellingtons

Rogers says Patterson “blitzed the death cap mushrooms in a powder to hide them” in the beef wellingtons.

“Disagree,” Patterson says.

Rogers says this is similar to her hiding powdered mushrooms in food she gave her daughter to see if she noticed them.

Patterson says she did this once.

Erin Patterson says she does not believe she travelled to Outtrim after mycologist posted sighting of death cap mushrooms on iNaturalist

Sorell said on 22 May 2023 Patterson’s mobile phone records indicated a possible visit to Neilson Street in Outtrim, the court hears.

The court has previously heard evidence that mycologist Dr Thomas May posted a sighting of death cap mushrooms on iNaturalist on 21 May 2023.

Patterson denies she travelled to Outtrim on 22 May 2023.

She denies Rogers’ suggestion that she read May’s post on the iNaturalist website.

Do you agree you had no legitimate reason to travel to Outtrim on 22 May?

No, I don’t agree with that.

Patterson says:

I don’t believe I travelled to Outrim as a destination on 22 May.

Patterson says it’s a possibility she passed through Outtrim on this date.

Prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC begins questioning Patterson about evidence by telecommunications expert Dr Matthew Sorell.

Rogers says Sorell’s evidence was that on 28 April 2023 Patterson’s mobile records “indicate a possible visit to the Loch township.”

The court previously heard evidence that a post about a death cap mushroom sighting in Loch was posted on the citizen science website iNaturalist on 18 April 2023.

Patterson denies that she visited Loch after seeing this post by retired pharmacist Christine McKenzie.

Rogers puts to Patterson: “I suggest you read Christine McKenzie’s post that she posted on iNaturalist on 18 April.”

“Disagree,” Patterson says.

Patterson disagrees that she drove to Loch specifically for the purpose of finding death cap mushrooms.

She denies that within hours of finding death caps she drove to an appliances store in Leongatha to buy a dehydrator.

Pattersons says she did buy a dehydrator on this date. She denies the purpose of the purchase was to dehydrate death cap mushrooms.

Erin Patterson denies saying she scraped mushrooms off the leftovers to explain why her children weren’t ill

Nanette Rogers SC says Patterson told multiple people she had scraped the mushrooms off to “explain why your children were not sick”.

Rogers says:

You told the lie about feeding the leftovers to your children, I suggest, because it gave you some distance from a deliberate poisoning.

“I don’t see how it could, but I disagree,” Patterson says.

Erin Patterson says she ‘didn’t know or suspect’ beef wellington had made Don and Gail Patterson sick when she gave leftovers to children

Rogers says Atkinson gave evidence that Patterson said her children consumed leftovers on Sunday night for dinner.

Atkinson recalled Patterson saying she had removed the pastry and mushrooms, Rogers says.

Patterson agrees.

Rogers says Patterson told child protection worker Katrina Cripps her children only ate the meat from the beef wellington because they did not like mushrooms.

Patterson agrees she said this.

Rogers says Patterson told over a dozen people including her children, child protection workers and medical staff that she had fed her children the same meal.

Patterson says she was “pretty clear it was the meal minus the mushrooms and pastry,”

Rogers says on Sunday 30 July 2023 Patterson found out Don and Gail were unwell. Patterson agrees.

“So why did you proceed to feed the same meal to your children when you knew or suspected the meal you had served had made them ill?” Rogers says.

“I didn’t know or suspect that,” Patterson says.

Erin Patterson denies she knew her children’s lives were not at risk

Rogers says Patterson told multiple medical staff at Leongatha hospital that she fed her children leftovers of the beef wellington with the pastry and mushrooms scraped off.

Rogers says while at Leongatha hospital Patterson said she did not want to take her children out of school when medical staff said they needed to be tested due to eating leftover beef wellington.

Rogers says the “last thing” Patterson would have been worried about was pulling her children out of school if she thought they had eaten a fatal poison.

Patterson says:

I didn’t think they’d eaten a fatal poison because it was made clear to me the issue was mushrooms and they hadn’t eaten the mushrooms.

I wanted to understand the concern and the risk to them.

Patterson agrees on 31 July 2023 she told Dr Veronica Foote, a GP at Leongatha hospital, that she scraped off the mushrooms and pastry from the beef wellington she fed her children.

Under questioning by Rogers, Patterson denies she did not want her children to be tested because she knew their lives were not at risk.

Erin Patterson questioned over what her children ate the day after fatal lunch

Prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC begins to ask Erin Patterson about evidence regarding what her children ate the day after the lunch.

In a pre-recorded police interview, Patterson’s children said their mother told them they were eating leftovers from the meal the following night. Patterson agrees she told her children they were eating leftovers for dinner on Sunday 30 July 2023.

Patterson says she told her children they were eating “leftovers” but not lunch leftovers.

Erin Patterson denies sending authorities on ‘wild goose chase’ over Asian grocer

Rogers reads out answers from Patterson’s formal police interview on 5 August 2023 when she said she was “very, very helpful” with the Department of Health.

Rogers says this was not true. Patterson rejects this.

“You sent them on a wild goose chase trying to locate this Asian grocer,” Rogers says.

“Incorrect,” Patterson replies.

Erin Patterson denies she said dried mushrooms were in clear packaging to make it more believable they weren’t commercially available

Rogers says Patterson told Sally Ann Atkinson the dried mushrooms were in clear packaging to make it more believable that the mushrooms were not commercially available.

Patterson rejects this.

Rogers says Patterson ignored a call and voicemail message from Atkinson on 2 August 2023.

In a text message on this day, shown to the court, Atkinson sent a series of questions asking about the source of the dried mushrooms.

In the messages, Atkinson referred to Oakleigh, Clayton and Mount Waverley as possible locations for the Asian grocer. Rogers says this is a reflection of what Patterson had previously told Atkinson.

Patterson says she had told everyone she spoke to that week it was Glen Waverley and not Mount Waverley.

Rogers shows the court text messages between Patterson and Department of Health official Sally Ann Atkinson in the days after the lunch.

Rogers says Atkinson’s evidence was that in a phone call on 1 August 2023 Patterson told her the beef wellington contained dried mushrooms bought from an Asian grocer around April that year. Atkinson said Patterson told her they smelled “funny” and she feared they would be too overpowering in a dish.

Patterson says Atkinson is wrong about the word “funny”. She says she told authorities she bought the dried mushroom around April 2023 but never gave an exact date as she cannot recall the purchase.

Under questioning by Rogers, Patterson says at one point she placed the dried mushrooms in her dehydrator.

She says she did this once after purchasing them.

Rogers says if Patterson believed the mushrooms were overpowering she would have worried about this for the beef wellington dish.

“No,” Patterson says.

I thought it was the perfect dish for them.

Rogers turns to answers Patterson gave to medical staff about the source of the mushrooms contained in the beef wellington.

Rogers says Patterson did not mention an Asian grocer when she first spoke to Dr Chris Webster at Leongatha hospital on 31 July 2023 – two days after the lunch. Rogers says Patterson later mentioned the Asian grocer because she had time to come up with her story.

Patterson rejects this.

Rogers says Dr Connor McDermott, a toxicology registrar at the Austin hospital, asked Patterson if she had the original packaging of the dried mushrooms she says she bought from an Asian grocer.

Rogers says the “mushrooms contained in the beef wellingtons were not from an Asian grocer”.

“Disagree,” Patterson replies.

Rogers says she told a paramedic en route to Monash hospital that she had bought dried mushrooms from an Asian grocer in Melbourne and fresh mushrooms from Woolworths.

Patterson agrees she said this.

“I suggest this is a lie,” Rogers says.

“Incorrect,” Patterson says.

Patterson asked about mushrooms bought for beef wellingtons

Rogers shows Patterson the beef wellington recipe she told police she used at the lunch. It is contained in the RecipeTin Eats Dinner cookbook.

Rogers says on two occasions in the week before the meal Patterson bought 1.75kg of sliced mushrooms from Woolworths.

Rogers asks where the other kilogram of mushrooms went, as the recipe only asks for 700g of sliced mushrooms.

“I ate them,” Patterson says.

Rogers says this is a lie. Patterson rejects this.

Rogers puts to Patterson:

You never mentioned to the lunch guests that the beef wellington contained dried mushrooms from an Asian grocer.

Patterson:

We never discussed any of the ingredients.

Rogers says Patterson also never told her guests the beef wellingtons contained foraged mushrooms.

“I didn’t think they did at the time,” Patterson says.

Patterson questioned about beef wellington recipe

Prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC is cross-examining Patterson. She begins by asking questions about the beef wellingtons she prepared.

Rogers suggests Patterson choose to make the meals with individual eye fillets instead of a single piece of meat because she wanted to serve individual beef wellingtons. She says this allowed Patterson to include death cap mushrooms in the beef wellingtons of her guests but not her own.

Patterson rejects both assertions.

Rogers says in conversations prior to the lunch with her Facebook friends, Patterson did mention adding foraged mushrooms to the beef wellington.

I was not planning to add foraged mushrooms.

The jurors have returned to the court room in Morwell.

Erin Patterson, seated in the witness box, is dressed in a pink shirt.

Here’s a recap of what the jury heard on day 29 of Erin Patterson’s trial:

1. Under cross-examination, Patterson denied she was thinking of ways to cover her tracks after she discharged herself from Leongatha hospital against medical advice two days after the lunch.

2. Patterson disputed evidence by Ian Wilkinson, the sole lunch guest survivor, that she served the beef wellington for her guests on large grey plates and her own on a smaller orangey-tan coloured plate. Patterson said there was “no smaller plate”.

3. Patterson denied she made a sixth poisoned beef wellington for her estranged husband, Simon, in case he attended the lunch.

4. Patterson rejected the evidence of multiple witnesses including medical staff. This included disputing evidence by Leongtha hospital nurse Cindy Munro that Patterson said she did not want her children involved when staff said they needed to undergo medical testing.

5. Patterson recalled feeling “anxious” when medical staff at Leongatha hospital raised the possibility of death cap mushroom poisoning on 31 July 2023 – two days after the lunch. “I was anxious at the idea that we may have eaten those things [death caps],” she said.

Erin Patterson will return to the witness box for a sixth day.

Prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC will continue cross-examining Patterson.

The trial, which is in its sixth week, will resume from 10.30am.

Patterson, 50, faces three charges of murder and one charge of attempted murder relating to a beef wellington lunch she served at her house in Leongatha in regional Victoria on 29 July 2023.

She is accused of murdering her in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, and her estranged husband’s aunt, Heather Wilkinson. The attempted murder charge relates to Heather’s husband, Ian.

She has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The prosecution alleges Patterson deliberately poisoned her lunch guests with “murderous intent”, but her lawyers say the poisoning was a tragic accident.