LEONGATHA mother of two, Erin Patterson, has been found guilty of three counts of murder and one of attempted murder after a marathon trial in the Supreme Court at Morwell.
The jury returned its verdict on day six of its deliberations, on Monday this week, following a 40-day trial across 10 weeks, starting on Tuesday, April 29.
The three murder charges, and one of attempted murder, arose out of a family lunch at Erin Patterson’s Gibson Street home on Saturday, July 29, 2023, when a meal of beef Wellington, laced with death cap mushrooms, was served to four of her in-laws.
Dying in the days following the lunch, of multiple organ failure due to clinically diagnosed amanita mushroom poisoning, were the parents of her estranged husband Simon, Don and Gail Patterson, both aged 70, and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, 66.
Heather’s husband of 45 years, Ian Wilkinson, was similarly impacted by mushroom poisoning but made a miraculous recovery after 54 days in hospital.
It was the evidence of the director of intensive care at Austin Health, Dr Stephen Warrillow, that Mr Wilkinson was close to death during his 21 days in intensive care.
During the 10-week trial, the court heard from 53 witnesses, viewed 125 exhibits and run up almost 4000 pages of transcripts.
Was it the “compelling” evidence of Ian Wilkinson, the Pastor of the Korumburra Baptist Church, about the mismatched plates used by Erin Patterson, including four large grey plates for her guests and a smaller plate for herself, orangey-tan in colour, that raised the bar beyond a reasonable doubt?
Was it the choice to make individual portions of beef Wellington, allowing Erin Patterson to exercise control, according to the prosecution case, with devastating effect over who ate the poisonous meals?
Was it the fabricated cancer claim with which she lured her guests to the fatal family lunch, or the faked illness from death cap mushroom poisoning afterwards?
Was it her unwillingness to help the people she allegedly loved by telling doctors and health care staff that she had included wild mushrooms in the meal, or even asking after their condition as they lay dying in hospital?
Maybe it was because she sent health department officials on a wild goose chase around Asian grocers in the Oakleigh, Clayton and Mt Waverley areas?
Perhaps the jury accepted that the accused must have seen the only two credible sightings of death cup mushrooms ever in Gippsland, posted on the iNaturalist website by Christine McKenzie near the Loch Recreation Reserve on April 18, 2023 and/or the sighting by Dr Tom May in Neilson Street Outtrim on May 21, 2023?
And coupled with the phone and communications tower data, analysed by world-renowned expert in digital forensic science, Dr Matthew Sorell, that placed Mrs Patterson’s phone in the Loch area around that time – did that make the difference?
Or was it the possible visits to both Loch and Outtrim on May 22, 2023, the day after Dr May posted his death cap mushroom sighting?
Perhaps it was her insistence on leaving the Leongatha Hospital after just five minutes, against the medical advice of Dr Chris Webster that she may have been exposed to a deadly dose of death cap mushrooms?
Also, that she initially refused treatment not only for herself but also for her children, who she claimed ate the leftovers?
Was it the fact that she concealed her well-used mobile phone from police when they searched her house a week after the lunch, giving them a dummy phone instead, and then lying during her police interview about which phone number she used?
Was it the fact that she disposed of the deadly dehydrator at the Koonwarra tip the morning after arriving home from hospital in Melbourne, four days after the meal?
Was it her fabricated evidence that she’d been foraging for mushrooms for years, and not just in the four months leading up to the poisonous lunch date?
Or was it that the jury looked at all of the evidence, from the testimony of the 53 witnesses to the 125 exhibits in the case, as pieces of a deadly jigsaw puzzle, allowing them to reach their decision, beyond a reasonable doubt, and deliver a verdict of guilty on all charges?
We’ll never know how the jury came to their decision, but we will hear from the judge, Justice Christopher Beale, when he sums up and hands down his sentence in due course.
Having delivered their verdict of guilty on all charges Justice Beale thanked them for their exceptional service throughout the trial.