A toxicologist has told the supreme court he found traces of death cap mushrooms in food samples taken after a lunch which killed three people. Ms Patterson is standing trial charged with the murder of three relatives and the attempted murder of another after a beef wellington lunch at her Leongatha home.
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00:00Victoria's chief toxicologist has told the triple murder trial his testing revealed traces of death
00:08cap mushroom toxins in food samples taken from a bin at Erin Paterson's home. Dimitri Garestamoulis
00:15says he received the samples for analysis a month after the lunch, telling the court he found toxins
00:22in both the meat and mushroom paste. The toxins were also detected in vegetable matter taken from
00:28the dehydrator Erin Paterson dumped at a local refuse station. Dr Garestamoulis told the court how
00:34much death cap mushroom matter would constitute a lethal dose, saying it was 0.1 milligrams of
00:41mushrooms per kilogram or about three tablespoons for a 70 kilo adult. Earlier in the day a child
00:48protection officer told the court she had several conversations with Erin Paterson in the days after
00:53the lunch. Katrina Cripps saying Ms Paterson complained that her estranged husband Simon
00:59Paterson had recently become nasty towards her. He was at times controlling and emotionally abusive
01:05and that he would say things to her that would make her question herself as a mother. Ms Cripps said Ms
01:11Paterson described Don and Gail Paterson as the parents she never had and feared her ex-husband was
01:17trying to isolate her from the rest of the family. The court heard Erin Paterson told Ms Cripps
01:23she had been trying to reconnect and decided on the beef wellington from the recipe tin eats cookbook
01:29because she wanted to do something new and special. The trial resumes tomorrow but minus one juror
01:35who was discharged this morning by Justice Christopher Beale amid reports he discussed the case with family and friends.