Prosecutors have accused a 50-year-old Australian woman of deliberately lying about a cancer diagnosis to lure her in-laws to a poisoned lunch that she thought they would not survive.
The prosecution told the court on Monday that Erin Patterson deliberately lied to her in-laws about having cancer, fabricating medical appointments and test results.
“She knew how to tell convincing lies when it came to the cancer because she had put in the research,” chief prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC told the court.
“The prosecution says the accused put considerable thought and effort into this fake cancer claim and she deliberately set the trail in motion with Don and Gail.”
She said that Ms Patterson had carefully crafted the false claim.
According to the prosecution, Ms Patterson had no intention of ever being questioned about the lie, because she believed her lunch guests would not survive.
“Her lie would die with them,” Dr Rogers said, adding that Ms Patterson admitted in court she was never diagnosed with cancer.
Ms Patterson has admitted that death cap mushrooms were in the meal but claimed they were added accidentally and denied any intent to harm her guests.
On 29 July 2023, Ms Patterson had her in-laws, Gail and Don Patterson, and local pastor Ian Wilkinson and his wife Heather (Gail’s sister) over for lunch. Ms Patterson served beef Wellington to the Pattersons and Wilkinsons, after which the four guests became ill with vomiting and diarrhea.
By 30 July, all four were hospitalised, and within the next day they were transferred to Melbourne hospitals where doctors diagnosed them with death cap mushroom poisoning.
On 31 July, Ms Patterson herself went to the hospital reporting she had eaten the same meal and felt unwell but discharged herself without treatment.
Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson died on 4 August, followed by Don Patterson on 5 August. Ian Wilkinson was released from the hospital on 19 September 2023 after seven weeks, most of which he spent in a coma.
Ms Patterson is being tried for three charges of murder and one charge of attempted murder. She has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
On Monday, in closing arguments, prosecutors in Ms Patterson’s triple-murder trial outlined four calculated deceptions at the heart of their case: a fabricated cancer diagnosis used to lure her guests, the deliberate poisoning of their meal with lethal death cap mushrooms, a false claim that she too had fallen ill, and an ongoing cover-up to hide the truth.
Dr Rogers called the alleged poisoning “the critical deception” in the case.
However, the prosecution argued she had full control over the lunch, from the guest list to the ingredients, and deliberately made individual beef Wellingtons instead of a single dish, suggesting she wanted precise control over who ate what.
“It is a control she exercised, the prosecution says, with devastating effect,” Dr Rogers said.
Prosecutors also argued that Ms Patterson failed to help identify the source of the poisoning that left her family critically ill. Instead of aiding investigators, she gave inconsistent accounts about where she bought the dried mushrooms, claiming they came from an Asian grocer but offering vague and shifting details, Ms Rogers told the court.
“For the sake of your very ill family members … you’d do everything you could to try and remember the store, but the accused sat on her hands while Don, Gail, Ian and Heather were all in comas,” she said.
“She was slow to respond to the Department of Health, even totally non-responsive at times.
“As time passed, her description of the Chinese food store [where she allegedly bought dried mushrooms] shifted and grew broader.”
Dr Rogers told the jury: “The evidence shows that the accused had the knowledge to locate death cap mushrooms, the opportunity to have sourced death cap mushrooms at a time proximate or close to the lunch, the knowledge, skill and equipment to dehydrate mushrooms, blitz them into powder and hide them into food.”
“She had complete control over the ingredients that went into the lunch,” she added.
The prosecution alleged that Ms Patterson deliberately framed the lunch as a serious, adults-only gathering, even arranging for her children to be away at McDonald’s and the cinema to avoid them being harmed.
When her ex-husband Simon declined to attend, Ms Patterson tried to persuade him by stressing the lunch’s importance and rarity, Dr Rogers told the court.
“This was an elaborate lie. The evidence shows the accused planted the seed of this lie far in advance, she told Don and Gail well before the lunch that she had been having medical tests on her elbow,” Dr Rogers said.
“She knew how to tell convincing lies when it came to cancer because she put in the research.”
Prosecutors alleged that Ms Patterson deliberately laced individual beef Wellington parcels with lethal doses of poison on 29 July 2023. Though she claimed to follow a recipe from RecipeTin Eats, the court heard she altered it by preparing individual servings, allegedly to avoid poisoning herself, without informing her guests that she had used wild mushrooms.
“The sinister deception was to use a nourishing meal as the vehicle to deliver the deadly poison,” Rogers said.
“Why deviate so significantly from an unfamiliar recipe for a special lunch?”
Dr Rogers said that computer records support the allegation that Ms Patterson accessed the iNaturalist website and looked up sightings of death cap mushrooms, suggesting she may have intentionally sought out the poisonous fungi.
Another element of the alleged lunch deception, Dr Rogers said, was Ms Patterson’s use of a food dehydrator just days before the meal.
She reportedly did a “test run” with button mushrooms, photographed the process, and shared it with online friends. Ms Rogers also pointed to survivor Ian Wilkinson’s testimony, describing how Ms Patterson served the beef Wellington on matching grey plates for her guests, while plating her own meal separately on an orange-tan dish, suggesting an effort to avoid poisoning herself.
“You will have no trouble in being satisfied that he is a reliable witness and you can confidently accept what he told you about the details of the lunch, including the four grey plates,” Dr Rogers said.
“Ian was not the only person to notice the different plate. Heather said … [she] saw Erin serve herself of a different coloured plate.”
The third alleged deception, according to Dr Rogers, was Ms Patterson’s effort to falsely present herself as a victim of death cap mushroom poisoning. Dr Rogers said Ms Patterson pretended to be “very unwell” to family and medical staff, in an attempt to suggest she had eaten the same meal as her four guests, a move designed to deflect suspicion.
“She did this to disguise her crimes,” Dr Rogers said.
The fourth alleged deception, Dr Rogers said, was Ms Patterson’s ongoing cover-up to hide the truth. This included lying about giving her children leftovers from the lunch, the source of the mushrooms, disposing of the food dehydrator, and deliberately hiding her usual mobile phone from police.
Dr Rogers pointed out that Ms Patterson’s claim of feeding the leftovers to her kids was one of her first lies and contradicted witness evidence that she knew her lunch guests were hospitalised sick before reheating the dish for her children.
Dr Rogers told the jury the children likely ate steak, mashed potatoes, and beans, not the mushroom-contaminated meal.
“People would more readily believe this was all a shocking accident if she’d fed it to her beloved children. This was a lie to help cover her tracks.”
The trial continues.
