ERIN Patterson is a 50-year-old woman without a criminal history.

Turns out good character is something you can fall back on.

Over the course of many years, the court was told this week, she has been caring, generous and loving to her estranged husband Simon’s family, even after separation, and a devoted mother to her children.

These statements of good character, made by a number of relevant people during the trial, can be used by the jury, according to Justice Christopher Beale, when considering the likelihood or otherwise of Erin Patterson committing the offences for which she has been charged and when considering the accused’s own evidence in the case.

Justice Beale said a person of good character was more likely to be trustworthy when giving sworn evidence than someone without good character.

And he used the accounts of Patterson family members, including Simon and his siblings, to support the case that Erin had a loving and respectful relationship with Simon’s parents, Don and Gail Patterson, especially Don with whom she was something of a kindred spirit. He also referred to the generous loans of between $250,000 and $400,000 she had provided to the three Patterson siblings to build or renovate their homes.

It was Day 36 of the mushroom murder trial in the Supreme Court in Morwell, a case according to Justice Beale, which has attracted unprecedented media coverage and incited widespread public opinion.

The judge was into the first day of his ‘charge’ to the jury, including instructing them on the relevant laws and the guiding principles on how to approach their deliberations.

But, by the end of the day, on Tuesday this week, Justice Beale gave a strong indication that he doesn’t expect to meet his own guidelines, and wrap up his instructions by the end of the day on Wednesday.

Asked about the progress being made, Justice Beale said, I can say this, you don’t need to bring your toothbrush tomorrow, a sure sign he will continue his charge in the complex case into Thursday as well.

There is now the prospect that the marathon mushroom trial will go into a 10th week.

His assistance to the jury, involving information about the legal principles and an account of some but not all of the evidence in the case, and some of the arguments, is now expected to take at least some of the day on Thursday, clearing the way for the jury to retire and consider their verdict on Friday and into the weekend, if required.

It must be a unanimous verdict, he said, from 12 members of the jury, balloted down from the 14 who are still presently empanelled.

Justice Beale spoke about the jury’s role, how they are solely responsible for accepting or rejecting the evidence in the case, and deciding whether the prosecution has proven their case beyond a reasonable doubt. And that, because they had listened to all of the evidence, across the whole trial, they were best placed to do so.

They should ignore anything they might have seen in the media or heard from others outside the court over the course of the trial, and make their decision purely on the evidence in the case.

He said that they should also not allow any sympathy they might reasonably feel for the Patterson and Wilkinson families to influence their decision or exercise any bias towards the accused over the lies she told, because it was a court of law not a court of morals.

He also said that while it was accepted that Erin Patterson had cooked the fatal meal that caused the deaths of Gail and Donald Patterson and Heather Wilkinson and also the hospitalization of Ian Wilkinson, the prosecution has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she was criminally responsible for that.

One of the first issues addressed by Justice Beale, when considering the evidence and the arguments of the prosecution, were the claims that Mrs Patterson had a history of foraging for mushrooms going back to early 2020 during the COVID lockdown period, when she would “get the kids off their devices”, and head out to the botanical gardens in Korumburra or the rail trail for some exercise.

She’d tried wild mushrooms, said Justice Beale, while reviewing the evidence, saying she said she loved mushrooms, bought them at Woolies, from Asian grocers, at village markets and the like and used them in cooking including curries and other food because she found them to be more tasty in food than commercial mushrooms.

He said it was Mrs Patterson’s evidence that she found mushrooms at the family property in Shellcot Road, initially picking mushrooms there because she was worried about the dog.

“She told you she was worried about a mushroom call inocybe,” said Justice Beale.

She identified field and horse mushrooms at her Korumburra property, tried them over a period of time, including cutting off a small piece and frying it up with butter and found them good to eat so she continued to collect them.

Erin Patterson, he said, also cut up mushrooms to put into the children’s food.

“She told you she accepted that death cap mushrooms were in the meal of beef Wellington but that it also included mushrooms purchased from an Asian grocers and mushrooms she bought from Woolies.”

Erin Patterson, he said, also gave evidence that while she bought mushrooms, she also sought to preserve them due to the short season for wild mushrooms.

“She said she foraged for mushrooms on the rail trail, at the botanical gardens and at the property she bought at Leongatha. She said she was foraging for mushrooms in the months leading up to the lunch, after she bought the dehydrator, in April 2023.”

Justice Beale also referred to the photos on a Samsung tablet seized by police on August 5, 2025, depicting mushrooms Erin Patterson had allegedly collected from botanical gardens and Shellcot Road. He said it was Erin Patterson’s evidence that she weighed the mushrooms, depicted in several of the photos, to see how long she needed to put them in the dehydrator.

He said she acknowledged foraging for mushrooms in the period between April 2023 and July 2023, the time of the beef Wellington lunch, near oak trees, but not under the oak trees in the Korumburra Botanical Gardens.

He continued in this vein, also speaking about how Erin Patterson acknowledged that it was likely she searched the iNaturalist website in May 2022, to find out if death cap mushrooms could be found in South Gippsland but discovering that no sightings had been posted.

He discussed what is termed “hearsay evidence”, that is the account by witnesses of what they were allegedly told by others who could not give that evidence in court, where it might be subject to the rigors of a trial, including examination by counsel.

Among the examples he used were the evidence given by Simon Patterson and Ian Wilkinson about conversations they had with Don and Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson about the type of plates used to serve the meals at the family lunch on July 29, 2023 out of which the charges against Erin Patterson have arisen.

Justice Beale made steady progress in revisiting both the evidence and what witnesses and opposing counsel said about it, but after eight weeks of evidence and closing addresses, there’s likely to be considerably more ground to cover.

The trial continues in the Supreme Court at Morwell on Wednesday, June 25.

Erin Patterson has been charged with three counts of murder and one of attempted murder, resulting from a family meal of beef Wellington and death cap mushrooms at her home on Saturday, July 29, 2023.

Mrs Patterson has pleaded not guilty, maintaining that what happened on the day was a tragedy and a terrible accident.