A Victorian Supreme Court jury has found 50-year-old Erin Patterson guilty of murdering three relatives and attempting to murder a fourth by serving a deadly beef wellington mushroom lunch at her home nearly two years ago.
After 11 weeks of trial proceedings, the 12-person jury convicted Patterson of murdering her estranged husband’s parents, Don and Gail Patterson, and his aunt, Heather Wilkinson.
The jury also found the 50-year-old woman guilty of attempting to murder Heather’s husband, Ian Wilkinson, who survived the poisoning after spending weeks in hospital.
Police charged Patterson in November 2023 over the lethal lunch she hosted at her home in Leongatha, in south-eastern Victoria’s Gippsland region, on 29 July of that year.
All four guests were diagnosed with amanita mushroom poisoning after consuming poisonous death cap mushrooms, the trial heard.
Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson died on 4 August 2023. Don Patterson died the following day on 5 August. Ian Wilkinson, the pastor of the Korumburra Baptist church, recovered and was discharged from hospital to a rehabilitation ward in September 2023.
The prosecutor, Nanette Rogers SC, alleged Patterson invited the four elderly guests to her home on the “pretence” she had cancer and needed advice about how to break the news to her children.
Patterson’s estranged husband, Simon, was also invited to the lunch but cancelled the day before, messaging to say he felt “too uncomfortable” to attend. The prosecution did not allege a motive for the murders.
Patterson’s defence barrister, Colin Mandy SC, told the trial the incident was a “tragedy and terrible accident” and that his client never intended to harm her guests.
Mandy told the court Patterson panicked and lied to police about having never foraged for mushrooms or owning a food dehydrator because she was overwhelmed after the lunch. The defence agreed it was not in dispute that Patterson had never been diagnosed with cancer.
The jury, comprising seven men and five women, began deliberations on 30 June and was required to reach unanimous verdicts on all four charges.
Justice John Beale, who presided over the trial at the Latrobe Valley law courts in Morwell, made multiple comments throughout the case about the extraordinary media coverage it had received.
In his final directions to the jury, Justice Beale urged them to continue ignoring media coverage while considering their verdicts.
“This case has attracted unprecedented media attention and excited much public comment,” Beale said.
“If any of that has reached your eyes or ears, or does so in the coming days or during your deliberations, you must be particularly careful not to let it influence you in any way.”
He emphasised to the jury that they must not “guess” about what the evidence heard from more than 50 witnesses meant, but could draw reasonable conclusions from it to reach a verdict.
“Before you may return a verdict of guilty, the prosecution must satisfy you that the accused is guilty of the charges in question,”
“Erin Patterson does not have to prove anything. It is not enough for the prosecution to prove that the accused is probably guilty or likely to be guilty,”
“As I have told you it’s almost impossible to prove anything with absolute certainty when reconstructing past events, and the prosecution does not have to do so. A reasonable doubt is not an imaginary or fanciful doubt or an unrealistic possibility.” said Beale
As the verdict was handed down, Patterson did not express any obvious outward emotion, watching the process from inside the courtroom.
