Mushroom poison murder suspect's kids 'ate leftovers’ of fatal dish, court hears
8 May 2025, 14:26
The daughter of a woman accused of serving her ex-husband's parents and an aunt a poisoned Beef Wellington lunch told police she ate leftovers of the toxic dish, a court has heard.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
Erin Patterson is on trial facing three counts of murder for allegedly feeding the mushroom-laced meal to her former in-laws.
Her daughter, who has not been named, gave evidence to police in a video recorded on 16 August 2023,
In the clip, shown in court on Thursday, she tells police how her mother said she was sick on the morning of 30 July 2023. That's the day following the fatal lunch.
She said Patterson had a stomach ache and diarrhoea, spotting her going to the toilet around 10 times.
Later on, the accused served her two children and herself “leftovers” from the meal, her daughter claimed.
The dish reportedly including steak, mashed potato, and green beans.
She told officers when pressed on what happened on the night: “I wasn’t there, so I don’t know”.
The girl added that her mother had told her “she wanted to have a lunch with my grandparents and Heather and Ian”, adding that they were going to talk about “adult stuff”.
Patterson has pleaded not guilty to all counts of murder.
Don and Gail Patterson, her former parents in law, both died after eating a meal she had cooked. Gail Patterson's sister, Heather Wilkinson, also died.
The trail has previously heard prosecutors say Ms Patterson deliberately poisoned her guests.
Meanwhile, the defence told the jury the meal was a "tragedy, a terrible accident" and she did not mean to hurt anyone.
Police say the fatal meal 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.”
