Only surviving guest of meal prepared by Erin Patterson gives evidence

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The only surviving guest of Erin Patterson’s deadly mushroom lunch has begun giving evidence in her murder trial. Ms Patterson has pleaded not guilty to murdering her estranged husband's parents and aunt who died after she served them a beef wellington meal containing death cap mushrooms in 2023.

Transcript

00:00He is, as you say, one of the guests at that lunch at Erin Patterson's house in 2023 at her

00:08Lee and Gatha home that was laced with death cat mushrooms. Now, Ian Wilkinson's wife, Heather,

00:15and his brother and sister-in-law, Don and Gail Patterson, all died after consuming that lunch.

00:22Ian Wilkinson became ill, but he survived after a stint in hospital. And all four of those lunch

00:28guests are relatives of Simon Patterson, Erin Patterson's estranged husband. And we've heard

00:36evidence that Simon Patterson was invited to the lunch, but the day before he rejected the offer

00:41to come. Now, so far from Ian Wilkinson, we've heard about his relationship with Erin Patterson

00:47prior to the lunch. He said that they were more like acquaintances. It was unusual for him and

00:53Heather to go for lunch at Erin's house. He said that she seemed like a normal person. And just

01:00as I was leaving the court to talk to you, Roz, they were discussing the lunch that they ate at

01:06Erin Patterson's home, a beef wellington served with green beans and mashed potato. And I should

01:12say that Erin Patterson has pleaded not guilty to the charges against her. She says that while she was

01:17foraging for mushrooms, she didn't intentionally seek out death cat mushrooms. Alex, also today,

01:24we've heard evidence from the owner of a shop in Lee and Gatha where Erin Patterson lived. What's

01:29happened there? Yeah, we heard from Darren Fox. He's the owner and manager of Hartley Wells Better

01:36Home Living Lee and Gatha. He gave evidence that in November 2023, a staff member made him aware that

01:43she had served Erin Patterson and sold her a food dehydrator. And of course, November 2023 is after

01:51the mushroom lunch occurred. So the significance of that is that the prosecution says that a food

01:57dehydrator was found after the lunch in a local tip with Erin Patterson's fingerprints on it and traces

02:03of death cat mushrooms. So the owner and manager of this store said that after he was notified by that

02:10staff member, he checked the records, he checked a tax invoice, and the jury was shown that tax invoice

02:16and it did indeed say it had Erin Patterson's name on it said that she'd bought a food dehydrator,

02:22a Sunbeam food dehydrator for $229 in April 2023. Keeping in mind that that lunch happened in July 2023.

02:32Now, this trial is set down for five to six weeks and we'll hear more from Ian Wilkinson as the day goes on.

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