By STEFAN BRADLEY
ERIN Patterson’s Supreme Court trial continued last week (Week 4) in Morwell. The trial is currently sitting for its fifth week.
Three people died following a fatal beef wellington lunch, which allegedly contained death cap mushrooms at the accused’s Leongatha home in July 2023.
Don and Gail Patterson, and Heather Wilkinson all died from the fatal meal. Gail’s husband, Ian Wilkinson fell ill, however survived the incident. The accused has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.
Day 14, May 19
CHRISTINE McKenzie was the first witness of the week – a former pharmacist and a former senior poisons information specialist at the Victorian Poisons Information Centre. She finished working in late 2022.
Ms McKenzie said her role involved answering calls from the public and professionals about poisonous substances, including fungi.
She said the death cap mushroom has caused more deaths in Australia than other fungi.
Under questioning by Jane Warren from the prosecution, the court heard that Ms McKenzie has an account on the iNaturalist website, which allows the public to post about flora and fauna.
The witness said she believes she has made about 70 posts on the website that were mostly about fungi, and two about death cap mushrooms.
The first post was made in 2022, and the second in April 2023 from the town of Loch.
Ms McKenzie was in Loch to visit her daughter, and removed death cap mushrooms she found during a walk with family members on April 18.
Later that day, she posted photos of the death caps to the iNaturalist website, and because her phone had location services on, the location of the mushrooms, where she took the photos, was available for website visitors to see.
Ms McKenzie, under questions from defence lawyer Sophie Stafford, told the court that death cap mushrooms could grow back from where she took them. Ms McKenzie said she did not return to the area where she found the mushrooms and left Loch that day.
The witness told Ms Stafford she was not a mycologist (a scientist who studies fungi), but had a fascination with fungi.
Dr Matthew Sorell was the next witness. He is the principal of a private company, Digital Forensic Sciences Australia, based in Adelaide. They provide research and consulting in matters relating to digital evidence.
For Erin’s case, Dr Sorell looked at Erin’s phone records, which showed she may have been present at two locations, Loch and Outtrim, after the death cap mushrooms were posted to the iNaturalist site.
A map of Gippsland mobile phone base stations, around Korumburra was shown to the court.
The Erin Patterson phone records he analysed, from over four years, he said were given to him by police.
The accused’s phone connected near Loch on April 28, 2023, 10 days after Ms McKenzie found the death caps, Dr Sorell said. The phone also was connected to a station near Outtrim on May 22, 2023, a day after Ms McKenzie posted on iNaturalist.
Day 15, May 20
PROSECUTOR Jane Warren continued questioning witness Dr Sorell. She pointed out the phone was picked up numerous times in 18 months to the same area, around Poowong, Korumburra, Loch, Koonwarra and Outtrim. Ms Warren pointed to July 31, 2023, two days before the deadly lunch, that phone records show the accused phone connected to base stations in Leongatha, Koonwarra, Outtim and Leongatha.
Colin Mandy SC for the defence, asked Dr Sorrell about whether a mobile phone might connect to another base station, depending on where the phone is located in a house, to which Dr Sorrell replied “yes”. A mobile phone located near the front door might connect to a different base station than one that’s on the other side of the house.
Mr Mandy said guessing the location of a phone between these various base stations would be “entirely speculation”, to which Dr Sorrell said, “within reasonable geographical limits, yes.”
The court heard that the records could pinpoint the general area of the phone, rather than its exact location.
Mr Mandy also spoke about the prosecution alleging earlier in the trial that the accused used two phones, and two SIM cards around the time the fatal lunch happened. Mr Mandy said people change their mobile phone or SIM card for various reasons, including getting a newer model, swapping phones with family or using a spare phone.
Detective Senior Constable, Khuong Tran was the next witness. He was a homicide investigator for the alleged murders.
Senior Constable Khuong Tran discussed CCTV footage, shown in court, of the accused stopping at a BP service station in Caldermeade at 3.20pm on July 30, where she had a nine second toilet break. The entire trip lasted about three minutes, and she was seen browsing in the station. She had driven a red 4WD. This was the day after the fatal lunch.
The CCTV shown to the court was an edited portion.
Day 16, May 21
SHEMEN Fox-Henry was the first witness of the day – he’s been a digital forensics expert with Victoria Police since October 2020, focusing on data recovery. In court he showed a PowerPoint presentation to explain digital forensics, with one of the first slides saying ‘what is a computer’.
Once a computer is taken by police, the court heard, the hard drive is digitally copied. Software is used to extract and/or recover the data to make it readable by authorities. It’s then exported to another hard drive and passed onto investigators.
The court heard that the accused’s electronic devices were seized by authorities on August 5, 2023, and on August 15, Mr Fox-Henry began extracting files and data from a computer taken from Erin’s house. He searched for keywords on the data drives: ‘Death cap’, ‘death cap mushroom’, ‘death cap mushrooms’, ‘mushrooms’ and ‘poison’.
The jury was shown alleged internet activity from the computer, which includes visits to the iNaturalist website, including a page featuring a death cap mushroom in Melbourne in May 2022.
Day 17, May 22
THE first witness was registered nurse, Mairim Cespon, employed by Gippsland Southern Health, who was working at Leongatha Hospital on July 31, 2023.
Ms Cespon told the prosecution that she had seen Erin Patterson that day. Dr Chris Webster, who also worked at the hospital and was a previous witness at the trial, had asked the accused to take her kids out of school to be examined for mushroom poisoning.
“Dr Webster mentioned that her kids need to be medically reviewed as they have ingested part of the meal and that, you know, toxins might be in the meal that they’ve ingested, so just to make sure that they’re actually okay,” Ms Cespon said to prosecutor Jane Warren.
“At that point, Erin became emotional, she was crying.”
Ms Cespon told the court that Erin had questioned if that was necessary, as her kids didn’t eat the mushrooms and didn’t have symptoms, and Erin said she didn’t want the kids to be stressed or panicked.
The accused’s bowel movement was collected to be analysed each time she went to the toilet. Erin went to the toilet five times from 10am to 11.50am.
The jury was shown the accused’s ‘bowel chart’ from July 31, 2023. The court heard that Erin’s bowel movements looked the same.
Ms Cespon confirmed with the defence that Erin’s blood pressure that day was 130 over 100, with that second number being a high value for blood pressure. Ms Cespon also said that Erin Patterson assisted police to search her bin for leftovers.
The next witness was Troy Schonknecht, an environmental health officer with the City of Monash Council. He’s an authorised officer under the Food Act and Public Health and Wellbeing Act. The Department of Health, on August 1, 2023 contacted him for assistance.
Mr Schonknecht visited a number of grocery stores in Oakleigh, Clayton and Mount Waverley, and a table of grocers was shown to the court. He visited 14 stores, but only 11 sold dried mushrooms. The court has heard previously that Erin said she bought dried mushrooms used at the lunch from an Asian grocer.
The court heard that the premises visited have not changed their supplier since April 2023 and that all dried mushroom products were imported, and the importers were identified. The court was shown pictures of dried mushrooms that had been repackaged from one of the supermarkets. No death cap mushrooms were found.
Mr Schonknecht finished his presentation and questioning, and Shaman Fox-Henry returned to court as a witness.
The court heard that a Samsung phone taken by police from Erin’s home had its data extracted by police. Facebook Messenger chat threads were uncovered from Erin’s friends, including some who were witnesses earlier in the trial. Dated December 20, 2022, the participants in one chat shown to the court had Dani Barkley, Jenny Hay, Bronwyn Rap, Joy Kors and Erin Erin Erin, with some “irrelevant names” removed. Erin Erin Erin is alleged to be Erin Patterson.
Some of the messages from Erin Erin Erin were complaints about Simon Patterson and his parents. After a break, photos from Erin’s phone and a Samsung tablet were shown to the court, including one of black food dehydrator. The prosecutor, Jane Warren presented what she said were photographs of “mushrooms on the dehydrator tray, photographs of the mushrooms on scales on the dehydrator tray”. It was clarified these were not death cap mushrooms.
The court heard that Erin was doing her own internet research on cancer on her devices. The court had previously heard that both the prosecution and defence agree that Erin has never been diagnosed with cancer.
The court heard one of Erin’s phones was factory reset four times in 2023 – once in February and three times within days in early August, days after the deadly lunch. The first three resets were done locally, but the last one was done remotely.
Day 18, May 23
THE last day of the week focused on the lunch guests’ time in intensive care.
Professor Stephen Warrillow was a new witness and director of intensive care at Austin Health in Melbourne, which was where Don Patterson, Gail Patterson, Heather Wilkinson and Ian Wilkinson were treated after the lunch. Ian Wilkinson was the only one to survive. Professor Warrillow confirmed with Sarah Lenthall of the prosecution that he had direct involvement in their care and reviewed their medical records.
The court heard that Don Patterson was diagnosed with acute liver failure at Dandenong Hospital before he was transferred, with the cause considered most likely to be amanita mushrooms. Professor Warrillow said Dandenong was the preferred destination for a patient like Don, and had treated amanita mushroom poisoning in the past.
Don received intense treatment, the court heard, but his condition continued to deteriorate over a number of days.
The court heard from the professor that other tests did not find any other causes for the illness, including viruses.
He had a liver transplant, but all their attempts at treatment failed.
Don Patterson died at 11.30pm on August 5, 2023 with multiple organ failure.
Don’s wife, Gail Patterson received “very similar” treatment.
The court heard Gail was not given a liver transplant because it was the view that she was “too sick to undergo the necessary surgery”.
Gail Patterson died at 5.55pm on August 4, 2023, also from multiple organ failure.
Heather Wilkinson was the third to arrive at the Austin Hospital. Her symptoms and treatments were similar to Don and Gail. She received a number of therapies to target amanita poisoning. She was also too sick to receive a liver transplant.
Asked by the prosecution if it was eventually acknowledged that Heather would not survive, Professor Warrillow said, “it was very apparent that this was not survivable, yes”.
Heather Wilkinson died at 2.05am on August 4, 2023.
Ian Wilkinson was fourth and last to arrive, on August 1 at the Austin Hospital, the same day as Heather. His symptoms and treatments were similar.
While Ian was critically ill, by August 5 his condition started to improve slowly. By August 14 he was no longer on a ventilator, and was sent to Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital for rehabilitation on September 11, and eventually discharged home.
Ms Lenthall asked the witness how responsive amanita mushroom poisoning is to the treatments they have available.
“The treatments are – well, clearly not 100 per cent effective. In fact, there’s a very high mortality – there’s a high mortality recognised even with what would be considered optimal care,” Professor Warrillow said.
With no questions from the defence, Professor Warrillow’s testimony is complete. Digital forensic expert with Victoria Police, Shamen Fox-Henry was back in court, but only for a short time for the prosecution to clarify some dates in relation to his previous evidence.
The jury was sent home, concluding Week 4.
