THE last thing Erin Patterson should have been worried about when she was told by a Leongatha doctor that her kids might die from eating poisoned death cap mushrooms, was whether they’d be stressed by hearing the news.
That was the proposition put by Crown Prosecutor Dr Nanette Rogers SC to the woman accused of deliberately killing three of her in-laws, and attempting to murder another, by putting death cap mushrooms into their food at a family lunch in Leongatha in July 2023.
Erin Patterson has pleaded not guilty to all charges maintaining that what happened on the day was a tragedy and a terrible accident.
It was Day 30 of the marathon triple murder trial in Morwell and Dr Rogers was into her sixth day cross-examining Mrs Patterson.
After revisiting Mrs Patterson's evidence about why she used individual steaks when the RecipeTin Eats cookbook called for a whole beef fillet in a beef Wellington, and what she told doctors and health department officials about the source of the dried mushrooms, Dr Rogers moved on to the children allegedly eating the leftovers from the family lunch.
Dr Rogers said registered nurse Mairim Cespon was present when Dr Chris Webster had a discussion with Erin Patterson, on her return to the Urgent Care Centre at the Leongatha Hospital, at 9.48am on Monday, July 31, 2023, after he became aware that the two Patterson children had eaten leftovers from the meal.
“But she was adamant that they had only eaten the meat and not the mushrooms or the pastry,” said Dr Webster in his evidence on Day 7 of the trial.
Dr Rogers put it to Mrs Patterson that Dr Webster had impressed on her the importance of getting the children to a medical facility for assessment, but that Erin was reluctant to inform the children because she thought they might become frightened.
She said it was Ms Cespon’s evidence that Erin had asked Dr Webster if it was really necessary as they didn’t eat the mushrooms and don’t have any symptoms.
But Dr Webster said, “they can be scared and alive or dead”.
“I suggest to you,” said Dr Rogers, “that would have been the last thing you would have been thinking if they had been exposed to a potentially fatal dose of poisonous mushrooms and you would have wanted them to get all the medical attention they needed.”
Erin said she was simply trying to understand the risk posed to the children.
Dr Rogers asked if she loved her children.”
“I still do,” said Erin Patterson.
But, said Dr Rogers, you didn’t take immediate action. She said it wasn’t until 11.13am that Erin finally called her husband Simon to organise for the children to be picked up from school and taken to hospital for testing.
Dr Rogers also probed Mrs Patterson about her motivation for asking Leongatha doctor Veronica Foote whether or not blood tests could answer the question as to whether the children were unwell.
But Dr Rogers put it to Mrs Patterson that she wasn’t really concerned about the children, she simply wanted to know if blood testing might confirm that the lunch guests had consumed death cap mushrooms.
Dr Rogers said Mrs Patterson had told Leongatha nurse Cindy Munro that she scraped the mushrooms off the leftover beef Wellingtons she fed to the children on the Sunday night, to which Erin agreed.
“I suggest that you lied to each of these medical personnel, Kylie Ashton, Ms Cespon, Dr Chris Webster, Dr Veronica Foote and Cindy Munro, about your children eating leftovers from the beef Wellington lunch.
“I suggest that you were reluctant to have the children medically assessed.
“And I suggest that you were initially reluctant because you knew they had not eaten leftover beef Wellington from the lunch?”
Mrs Patterson said this was incorrect.
“You knew that their lives were not at risk; correct or incorrect?” asked Dr Rogers.
“Incorrect,” said Erin Patterson.
After a round of further questioning attempting to establish that Mrs Patterson already knew the so-called leftovers she fed to the children on Sunday night were not from the same meal that she fed to the hapless lunch guests.
“But isn't it the fact that on Sunday, July 30, you had found out that Don and Gail at least were unwell?”
“Yes, I did find out about that.”
“So, why did you proceed to feed the same meal to your children when you knew, or suspected, that the meal that you'd served to the others had made them ill?”
Mrs Patterson said she didn’t know or suspect that.
“You told the lie about feeding leftovers from the beef Wellington to your children, I suggest, because it gave you some distance from a deliberate poisoning?” said Dr Rogers.
“I don't see how it could, but I disagree anyway,” said Mrs Patterson.
Erin Patterson has been charged with the murders of her husband Simon's parents Don and Gail Patterson and Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson, who with her husband Ian sat down to lunch on Saturday, July 29, 2023. Mr Wilkinson was the only one to survive after 54 days in hospital including 21 in intensive care. Erin Patterson has pleaded not guilty to the charges, saying that while death cap mushrooms somehow found their way into the meal, she did not deliberately forage for death cap mushrooms to put into the meal.
The trial continues into its 7th week in the Supreme Court in Morwell.
