An Australian woman in trials for murder says that she launched the toxic mushroom meal that killed her relatives, after the dessert of the frenzy.
Erin Patterson pleaded not guilty to four counts – three of murder and one of the attempted murder – above the lunch of Beef Wellington in his regional Victorian house in July 2023.
Prosecutors allege that Ms. Patterson deliberately served the toxic mushrooms for death, but only for her guests. His defense team said that the contaminated meal was a tragic accident and said that they also made their client sick.
Ms. Patterson told court that she had eaten only a small part of the lunch but that she had later consumed two thirds of a cake, before becoming “too full” and vomiting.
The doctors previously said that the Ms. Patterson trial did not have the same intense symptoms as the other people who had eaten at home.
During her third day of large -scale testimony, Ms. Patterson also admitted that she had lied about a cancer diagnosis – that prosecutors say that she used to coax guests at home – instead of revealing that she was really planning to undergo weight loss surgery.
She said that she had thrown a food dehydrator and had suffered her phone in the days following the incident for fear of being blamed for the death of her parent, telling the court that her excited husband had accused her of poisoning them.
Three people died in the hospital in the days that followed the meal, including the former brother-in-law of Mrs. Patterson, Don Patterson, 70, and Gail Patterson, 70, as well as Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, 66.
Only one lunch survived, the 71 -year -old local pastor Ian Wilkinson, after weeks of hospital treatment.
The trial of the Victorian Supreme Court – which started almost six weeks ago – heard more than 50 witnesses and attracted enormous global attention.
In the Morwell courthouse, Ms. Patterson gave a detailed account of the fatal lunch, saying that she had invited her guests under the premise, she wanted to talk about health problems.
The 14 -member jury learned that Ms. Patterson had passed “a process long enough to try to decide what to cook” for lunch before choosing to make Wellington beef.
The dish – usually prepared with a long band of net steak, wrapped in pastry and mushrooms – was something that Ms. Patterson’s mother was made when she was a child, to mark special occasions, she said.
After having decided mushrooms that she had prepared for “bland” taste, she said that she had added drieders – bought from an Asian grocer in Melbourne for months earlier – in a container in her pantry.
When asked if this container may have other types of mushrooms, Ms. Patterson, choking, said: “Now, I think there was a possibility that there is also from there.”
Yesterday, the court learned that Ms. Patterson had started chasing mushrooms in places close to her house in Leongatha in 2020, and her longtime love for mushrooms had expanded to include wild varieties because they had “more flavor”.
Ms. Patterson told the jury that she had served food when she was ready and asked her guests to take a plate themselves when she finished preparing the sauce.
There were no seats or attributed plates, she said.
Mr. Wilkinson previously declared to the trial that the guests had each received gray plates while Ms. Patterson had eaten an orange. Ms. Patterson said on Wednesday that she had no gray plates.
During lunch, Ms. Patterson recalled that she had not eaten a lot of her food – “a quarter, a third, somewhere” – because she was busy talking.
She conceded that she had told her guests that she had cancer, but in court explained that she had said that this lie to make sure that she had help with child care when she underwent a gastric surgery.
“I remember thinking that I didn’t want to tell anyone what I was going to do. I was really embarrassed,” she said.
After the guests left, she cleaned the kitchen and ate a slice of orange cake that Gail had brought.
“(I ate) another piece of cake, then another piece,” she said, before finishing the rest of the dessert.
“I felt sick … full of boom so I went to the toilet and brought it back again.”
“After doing this, I felt better.”
Yesterday, the court learned that Ms. Patterson had secretly fought with bulimia since her adolescence and was subject to regular loops and vomit after meals.
Patterson told court that she had started to develop gastro -like symptoms a few hours after lunch and took to the hospital to “get liquids” two days later. She was “shocked but confused” when the medical staff asked if they could have eaten mushrooms of death caps.
At the hospital for observation during the night, Ms. Patterson said that her former husband Simon had asked her questions about a dehydrator she owned.
“This is how you poisoned my parents?” She said to the trial he told her – something Mr. Patterson denies.
After this meeting, she had been “frantic,” said Patterson, and after being sent home, had eliminated her food dehydrator at the local tip.
“I had prepared the meal and served it and people had fallen ill.”
“I was afraid that they were blaming me.”
The court also learned that Ms. Patterson had erased the data on one of her phones several times – including while the police were rummaging – because she did not want detectives to see her photos of mushrooms and dehydrator.
Ms. Patterson will continue to testify Thursday, before prosecutors will have the opportunity to oppose her.
