Deadly Beef Wellington lunch ‘terrible accident’, court hears - as woman accused of murdering guests with mushrooms

1 May 2025, 01:37 | Updated: 1 May 2025, 10:00

A woman accused of murdering three people with a Beef Wellington laced with toxic mushrooms has gone on trial in Australia, with the court hearing she ate from a smaller, different coloured plate to her guests.

Erin Patterson, 50, is charged with the murders of three people - including both of her parents-in-laws.

She also faces and one attempted murder charge relating to the poisoned Beef Wellington she served at her house in 2023.

Patterson has pleaded not guilty to all counts.

A jury has been picked and opening statements at the trial have been heard. Prosecutors say Ms Patterson deliberately poisoned her guests. The defence told the jury the meal was a "tragedy, a terrible accident" and she did not mean to hurt anyone.

Ms Patterson served her guests individual beef wellington portions on grey plates, while she ate off a smaller orange plate, according to guest Ian Wilkinson, who became seriously ill after the lunch, but survived.

Gail and Don Patterson, and Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson, all died after eating the meal.

Two weeks before the poisoning, Erin Patterson had invited her husband and his relatives to lunch while she was attending a Korumburra Baptist Church service where Mr Wilkinson was the pastor.

Simon Patterson initially accepted the invitation.

"She said the purpose of the lunch was to discuss some medical issues that she had and to get advice about how to break it to the kids," Ms Rogers said.

"The accused said that it was important that the children were not present for the lunch," Ms Rogers added.

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Ms Rogers told the jury that Erin Patterson fabricated an ovarian cancer diagnosis to explain why her children did not attend the lunch.

"After the lunch, the accused announced that she had cancer and asked for advice on whether to tell the children or to keep it from them," Ms Rogers said.

"They had a discussion about it being best to be honest with the children. They prayed as a group for the accused's health and wisdom in relation to telling the children," Ms Rogers added.

Defence lawyer Colin Mandy told the jury his client never had cancer and that the guests had been poisoned by mushrooms she had served, but that the poisoning was accidental.

"The defence case is what happened was a tragedy. A terrible accident," Mr Mandy said.

Ms Rogers told the jurors that she would not provide a motive for the poisonings.

"You might be wondering now why would the accused do this? What is the motive? You might still be wondering this at the end of this trial," Ms Rogers said.

"You do not have to be satisfied what the motive was or even that there was a motive."

Heather's husband Ian was left fighting for his life and remained in hospital for two months after joining them at the meal, which police say contained death cap mushrooms.

These sprout freely across wet, warm parts of Australia and can be easily mistaken for edible strains.

Patterson has insisted she used button mushrooms and dried mushrooms bought from a supermarket and an Asian grocery shop and was unaware of their poisonous quality.

In her statement to police, she said she served the email and invited guests to choose their own plates. She took the last serving and ate the meal too.

Said she also ate the meal but has survived, later suffered stomach pains and diarrhoea, claiming her children ate the beef wellington the following day but without the mushrooms.

“I now very much regret not answering some questions ... given the nightmare that this process has become,” the statement adds.

“I am now wanting to clear up the record because I have become extremely stressed and overwhelmed by the deaths of my loved ones.

“I am hoping this statement might help in some way. I believe if people understood the background more, they would not be so quick to rush to judgement.

“I am now devastated to think that these mushrooms may have contributed to the illness suffered by my loved ones. I really want to repeat that I had absolutely no reason to hurt these people whom I loved.”

Patterson will be tried in a court south of Melbourne around an hour from where the meal was eaten.