By STEFAN BRADLEY
ERIN Patterson’s Supreme Court trial continued last week (week five) at the Latrobe Valley Supreme Court in Morwell.
The trial is currently sitting for its sixth week, but is expected to be near its completion.
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 pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.
Day 19, May 26
SHAMEN Fox-Henry, a digital forensics expert with Victoria Police since October 2020, focusing on data recovery, returned to be cross-examined by the accused’s defence lawyer Colin Mandy SC.
Mr Fox-Henry confirmed with the defence that at the time he examined a number of Erin’s devices in August 2023, he did not have the qualifications that he now currently holds, and was following instructions from his peers.
One of the devices from Erin’s home was a Cooler Master personal computer (PC), which had three hard drives on it. The witness said he made a copy of the drives using Magnet Axiom software, which could generate a report.
The PC had been used, as previously discussed in court, to search the term ‘iNaturalist’ on search engine Bing on May 28, 2022 and ‘Korumburra Middle Pub’ within minutes of each other.
Mr Fox-Henry was asked about search terms being ‘auto-completed’ in a search engine such as Google. He agrees that does happen, and explained to the court a similar thing happening in Microsoft Word, which you can press the ‘enter’ key when the application prompts an auto-complete.
The court heard that one of Mr Fox-Henry’s colleagues analysed a Samsung tablet. He said the data did not tell him whether the photo was taken by the tablet user, or if the image was sent by somebody else. The image was of a black food dehydrator. A protester interrupted the tri and was led out of the courtroom.
Doctor Brian Beer was the next witness to talk about Heather Wilkinson’s autopsy. He’s a forensic pathologist (practising for about 15 years) at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine. Dr Beer confirmed he had a colleague named Doctor Michael Duffy who performed the autopsy. Dr Beer confirmed he was Dr Duffy’s supervising forensic pathologist and read Dr Duffy’s autopsy report.
Asked about the findings, Dr Beer said: “Well, in essence, there was very extensive necrosis of the liver, to the extent that virtually all of the liver cells were dead.”
Dr Beer told the court that Heather was in “good health”, in relation to any pre-existing conditions.
Dr Beer did the autopsy on Gail Patterson, who he said had been diagnosed with encephalitis, but it was not a factor in her cause of death.
While both Gail and Heather did not have traces of alpha-amanitin and beta-amanitin according to toxicology reports, which are amatoxins found in death cap mushrooms, the injuries found in both were consistent with the “pattern of injury”, associated with amanita poisoning.
The court heard that Dr Beer also performed the autopsy on Don Patterson’s body.
“In essence, (Don) is, as with the other two have primary liver necrosis and associated multi-organ failure and he also had a failed transplanted liver,” Dr Beer said.
Alpha-amanitin and beta-amanitin were found, unlike the other two. Dr Beer said Don’s mild hypertensive heart disease did not contribute to his death. He said others in the courtroom would have the same heart disease condition, so it’s not something he considered as a factor in Don’s death.
With Dr Beer’s evidence complete, the prosecution summoned Ben Goodwin.
Mr Goodwin said his occupation was forensic officer, employed at the Forensic Service Department at the Victoria Police Forensic Service Centre.
The court heard that he analysed and took seven samples (“vegetable matter or debris) from the dehydrator that was dumped at the Koonwarra Transfer Station.
Taken samples were returned to the police’s forensic management unit for further testing. Mr Goodwin was allowed to leave, with questioning complete.
Sally Ann Atkinson entered the witness box for questioning, who is a senior public health adviser at the Department of Health.
“I was the manager of the enterics team (in July 2023) within the communicable disease prevention and control team,” Ms Atkinson said. She said enteric meant “gastro”.
“So anything to do with vomiting, diarrhoea, gastro-type illnesses, things like salmonella, campylobacter, typhoid, Hep A, anything that causes a gastro illness,” she told the court.
When she received a notification about possible mushroom poisoning, she initiated an investigation and contacted the Food Safety Unit.
“I immediately notified my manager, because this was something that was quite unusual. We don’t get a lot of amatoxin poisoning – in fact I’ve never had one before,” she said.
“So it sounded very serious.”
Ms Atkinson said if there were poison mushrooms out in the community, she wanted to ensure they were taken off grocery shelves as soon as possible.
She eventually spoke to Erin’s estranged husband Simon Patterson. She asked him if Erin could have picked the mushrooms herself. She told the court that Simon said it was not something he had ever known her to do.
The court heard that Ms Atkinson phoned the accused on August 1, 2023 while she was still at the hospital.
“(Erin) said she was feeling okay,” Ms Atkinson said.
The court heard that Ms Atkinson asked the accused about her symptoms. Erin said had experienced “explosive diarrhoea”.
Ms Atkinson told the court the details that Erin shared about the lunch.
“She explained that it was a meal she had never made before and that she wanted to do something fancy, and she explained that the majority of the ingredients she had purchased were from Leongatha Woolworths,” Ms Atkinson said.
“But that she’d also added in some Asian mushrooms, Asian dried mushrooms, from a store that she’d purchased back in April. She said her mother-in-law had brought a cake and that the aunt had brought a fruit platter.”
Regarding the mushrooms from the Asian grocery store – the court heard from Ms Atkinson that Erin said she wasn’t sure where she had purchased them, “but she thought it could have been either Clayton, or Oakleigh or Mount Waverley.”
The court heard that Ms Atkinson relayed some information she obtained from the accused to a meeting with deputy chief health officers, the Food Safety Unit and media liaison members, regarding the “possible or alleged source of the mushrooms”, and other items consumed at the lunch.
The court heard that the group decided to call on the local council to inspect Asian grocery stores for mushrooms.
The court heard that Erin was “not very clear” about when the dried mushrooms were used prior to the lunch. Erin had apparently said she used them in the beef wellington only, but the court heard Erin had also said she used them in a pasta dish.
Day 20, May 27
SALLY Ann Atkinson returned to give evidence.
The court heard the epidemiological and environmental investigation established that it was “highly unlikely” that the commercial food supply chain (referencing Woolworths and the presumed Asian grocer) was contaminated with death cap mushrooms.
The case was determined to be an isolated incident as the health department received no other reports of anyone becoming sick after eating mushrooms, and the public health risk was considered low.
Ms Atkinson confirmed that amanita mushrooms were found in the wild, growing in an symbiotic relationship with certain trees, namely oak trees, instead of the commercial food supply. Food Safety Unit found nothing unusual during their investigations at Woolworths Leongatha, the court heard.
Ms Atkinson confirms with the defence that Erin was unsure where she had purchased the alleged death cap mushrooms from.
Detective Sergeant Luke Farrell from the homicide unit was the next witness.
The court heard that Detective Sergeant Farrell searched Erin’s Leongatha home while she was present on August 5.
The cookbook was among the items located, which featured a beef wellington recipe. Electronic devices were also located, including a Cooler Master PC and a black Samsung mobile phone, and tablet.
After the search, the court heard that Detective Sergeant Farrell requested the accused hand over her mobile phone, which did not require a pin number, despite Erin providing two possible pin numbers. The jury is shown a video of Erin and the detective speaking at a dining table where the lunch guests were seated.
A search warrant was obtained for a house Erin had in Mount Waverley. Nobody was at the house and no items were taken.
The court heard that Detective Sergeant Farrell was present when Erin was informed that Heather Wilkinson had died, and Erin “expressed surprise”.
Next to speak is the informant, Detective Leading Senior Constable Stephen Eppingstall, from the Victoria Police Homicide Squad. He was the lead investigator in this case.
He is the final witness to be called by the prosecution, Justice Christopher Beale confirms.
On August 3, 2023 the homicide squad began the investigation, then with the knowledge that the lunch guests were very sick. The next day, they were informed that Gail and Heather had died.
On August 4, investigators looked at bank records and discovered a transaction on August 2, the Koonwarra Transfer Station and Landfill.
The court heard that Erin told Detective Leading Senior Constable Eppingstall had used the RecipeTinEats cookbook in her kitchen to make the beef wellington, and the jury is shown a photo of the recipe.
The prosecution asked the witness about Ian Wilkinson’s previous evidence that Erin’s meal was served a different coloured plate than the lunch guests, whose plates were coloured grey. The witness said he did not observe any of the alleged four grey plates.
The jury is shown Erin’s police interview at Wonthaggi police station, from August 5, 2025.
The interviewer wanted to ensure that Erin was kept in the loop on the condition of the lunch guests, telling her Heather and Gail passed away and Don was on life support.
“I’ve never been in a situation like this before,” Erin said during the interview.
“And I’ve been very, very helpful with the health department through the week because I wanted to help…as much as possible,” she said.
The accused told the interviewer about her relationship with Simon’s family, saying she wanted to “maintain those relationships”.
“They’ve always been really good to me, and they always said to me that they would support me with love and emotional support even though Simon and I were separated and I really appreciated that.”
Erin told the interviewer she did not have a food dehydrator, and she had “never” foraged for mushrooms.
Detective Leading Senior Constable Eppingstall said Erin was arrested and charged on November 2, 2023.
The court is shown a map of Loch and Outtrim, where suspected death cap mushrooms were posted about on the iNaturalist website. The witness said Outtrim had no shops or cafes.
The witness said police acquired CCTV footage from a Leongatha Subway restaurant, which the witness said he visited on August 8 2023. The court heard that Erin dropped her son at the store and returned after 11 minutes to pick him up, on July 31, 2023.
Day 21, May 28
DETECTIVE Leading Senior Constable Eppingstall said Victorian Cancer Registry Database information indicated there was no evidence Erin was ever diagnosed with cancer. He acquired her medical records for 2023.
The jury was shown text messages between Gail Patterson and Erin that reference Erin’s medical appointments that there are no records for. The following text from Erin to Gail was dated June 29, 2023.
“Hi Gail. Sorry I had taken (Erin’s daughter) to see a movie last night. We saw The Little Mermaid. The appointment went ok. Thanks for asking. I had a needle biopsy taken of the lump and I’m returning for an MRI next week and we’ll know more after the results of those two things.”
The witness said police found no record of this appointment taking place.
Facebook messages of Erin and her friends were shown.
On December 17, 2022, she wrote: “My phone screen is broken and it won’t respond to any commands or anything. Everything is on my phone, all my passwords are in my passwords vault and I was trying to log into it on my laptop and it was sending an authorisation email to my emails which I couldn’t access because I didn’t have my password which was inside my password vault.”
Later messages indicate Erin used Google to figure out what to do and it suggested she do a “hard reboot” of the phone. On December 19, 2022, she bought a Samsung Galaxy A23.
Detective Leading Senior Constable Eppingstall said a Samsung Galaxy A23 mobile phone was given by Erin to police after the search of her Leongatha home on August 5, 2023. A phone number ending with ‘835’ was connected less than three weeks before the lunch. The sim card was previously in a tablet until August 3, then placed in a Samsung Galaxy A23. The court heard this was the same phone that was factory reset several times, as previously mentioned in court.
The court was shown screenshots of the iNaturalist webpages taken on December 9, 2024, as URLs of these webpages were found on the Cooler Master PC taken from Erin’s home. Judge Beale referenced the “alleged activity” by the accused on these pages on May 28, 2022, but noted that webpages may have changed since the witness grabbed the screenshots.
Defence lawyer Colin Mandy confirmed with Detective Leading Senior Constable Eppingstall that Erin had no criminal history.
Mr Mandy shows the witness some of Erin’s medical records from 2021 and 2023. He reads out a note from the records: “Erin worries about ovary cancer, has been Googling her symptoms, thinks her symptoms may (be suggestive) of ovary cancer.”
He asks the witness: “So do you accept that there is material available to investigators and on the brief which demonstrated that in October of 2021, Erin Patterson was concerned about having ovarian cancer…and that she sought medical treatment about that?”
The witness replied yes to both questions.
Messages between Erin and Simon on the Signal application, from January 2022, was shown to the jury.
Erin told Simon: “It feels like my heart is working overtime to deliver oxygen to my body and not doing it very well. I’m breathing so hard after everything I do but I don’t ever have enough oxygen which is probably why I’m on the brink of sleep most of the time.”
Detective Leading Senior Constable Eppingstall agreed with Mr Mandy the messages were “consistent” with Erin being concerned about health issues and Googling her symptoms.
Day 22, May 29
DETECTIVE Leading Senior Constable Stephen Eppingstall returned to the witness box to cross-examined by the defence.
The witness agrees there was “significant media interest”, and that passwords were put in place in hospitals because of this. The court heard it was August 6 when the public and media were informed that the Homicide Squad would be involved in this case.
Mr Mandy begins questioning evidence taken from Simon Patterson’s phone, as well as bank records from the accused.
The witness said about 280 messages were uncovered between Erin and Simon from Simon’s phone.
The witness says that Erin was accompanied by a police officer while her Leongatha home searched and was allowed to retain her phone to “make arrangements” in relation to her kids.
The witness told the court Erin was left alone in a room for about 20 minutes to talk to a lawyer.
Detective Leading Senior Constable Eppingstall said a Nokia phone that the accused mentioned during her interview was not found during the search of the Leongatha home.
The defence shows an image of the home during the search, and points out a black object at a window that was a mobile phone. But the witness disagrees that it was a phone.
Mr Mandy shows more images of possible devices in Erin’s house, including a possible laptop, which the witness said he had never known about previously.
Mr Mandy shows CCTV footage from the previously mentioned Subway restaurant, in which the prosecution said showed Erin dropping her son off and then picking him up soon after. But Mr Mandy is suggesting it’s not Erin in the footage, saying: “There’s nothing else apart from the vehicle being consistent with Erin Patterson’s vehicle and the teenager getting out of it, that allows you to say that that was Erin Patterson and (her son)?”
Detective Leading Senior Constable Eppingstall agreed about Erin. He said he believed footage of the teenager was Erin’s son, but “that’s a matter for the jury”.
The defence read out Facebook messages between Erin and her friends, which are about her family relationships. The witness agreed that the chat was the friends “venting” to each other.
Day 23, May 30
DETECTIVE Leading Senior Constable Eppingstall once again returned to the witness box for what was a short day in court.
The defence showed Signal messages from a group chat with Erin, Simon, Gail and Don that discussed family issues such as Erin’s back pain, and child support.
A message from Erin to Gail in May 2022 read: “Thanks Gail, Happy Mother’s Day to the best mum-in-law anyone could ask for xxoo.”
