By STEFAN BRADLEY, LIAM DURKIN and AIDAN KNIGHT
JURORS in a Morwell courtroom delivered their verdict in the most infamous murder trial in Gippsland history, if not the entire country, finding Leongatha woman Erin Patterson guilty on all counts.
Erin Patterson was found guilty of murdering her father in-law Don Patterson, her mother in-law Gail Patterson, Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, and guilty of the attempted murder of Heather’s husband Ian Wilkinson.
The unanimous verdict was handed down on Monday (July 7) at 2.15pm following a marathon 40-day Supreme Court trial at the Latrobe Valley Law Courts.
Jurors were into their seventh day of deliberations, having heard from more than 50 witnesses and spending some 30 hours sitting in court alone.
The accused had pleaded not guilty to all charges relating to a fatal beef Wellington lunch, maintaining what happened was a terrible accident.
As each of the four charges was read aloud, and with each confirmation of “guilty” greeting an emotionless Erin Patterson, shockwaves reverberated from the court.
The case has attracted interest worldwide, and a packed media assembled outside the Morwell court, with television and camera crews swarming the court’s main entrance following the verdict.
The victims of these crimes ate a beef Wellington lunch containing death cap mushrooms prepared by the accused at her Leongatha home almost two years ago, on July 29, 2023. Mr Wilkinson survived a stint in hospital, but Don, Gail and Heather all died.
Victoria Police in a statement acknowledged the jury’s verdict.
“Our thoughts are with the respective families at this time and we acknowledge how difficult these past two years have been for them. We will continue to support them in every way possible following this decision,” the statement said.
“We would also like to acknowledge the work of Homicide Squad detectives over the course of this complex investigation, as well as the significant support received from a number of other areas across Victoria Police.
“The Patterson and Wilkinson families will not be supplying a statement via Victoria Police and have asked for privacy at this time.”
The jury ultimately sided with the arguments presented by the prosecution, led by Dr Nanette Rogers SC. In her closing address, Dr Rogers said there were four “deceptions” created by Erin Patterson.
The first was telling her lunch guests a fabricated claim she had cancer; the second was the lethal poison doses she “secreted” in the meal; the third was that she pretended to be sick after the lunch to make it seem she had poisoned herself as well; and the fourth was an attempt to “conceal the truth” after the lunch through her actions.
“The prosecution submits to you that when you consider the whole of the evidence in this case, you will find that … each of these deceptions has been exposed,” Dr Rogers said.
“You can safely reject any reasonable possibility that this is all a terrible accident … and you can be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that she committed each of the crimes alleged against her.”
Dr Rogers told the jury, “it is clear from the evidence that the accused used a fake medical issue as the reason for the lunch”.
The prosecution referred to the beef Wellington recipe in the RecipeTinEats cookbook that Ms Patterson used to make the meal. Dr Rogers noted that the recipe was only for one beef Wellington to serve, not “multiple individual pastries” for each guest.
“Why deviate so significantly from an unfamiliar recipe?” she said. Dr Rogers also questioned why Ms Patterson would use dried or foraged mushrooms, and that it didn’t make sense “she would add smelly” mushrooms to the dish.
Dr Rogers said there is “no direct evidence” as to where the accused sourced the death cap mushrooms, but said Erin visited the citizen science website, iNaturalist on May 28, 2022.
“However, what the evidence does demonstrate is that she was aware of a website that could be used to locate death cap mushrooms and that she had the opportunity to source those mushrooms at a time approximate, or near to the lunch.”
Dr Rogers told the jury that Erin showed a “remarkable memory” and could recall dates, evidence and details easily in the witness box.
“Yet, in August 2023, she could not recall the shop or even the suburb where she purchased the mushrooms from, an Asian grocer in the same April of 2023,” Dr Rogers said during the trial.
The prosecution said that Ms Patterson dumped a food dehydrator at the Koonwarra Transfer and Landfill to hide the evidence, calling it incriminating conduct.
“Her story about (estranged husband Simon Patterson) accusing her in the hospital of using the dehydrator and this sending her into a panic is nonsense. Simon Patterson categorically denied to you ever saying such a thing to the accused,” Dr Rogers said.
“If there was nothing incriminating about the dehydrator, why hide it? And there is only one reasonable explanation: she knew it would incriminate her. She knew that she had dehydrated death cap mushrooms in that appliance and that she had deliberately done so, and she knew that keeping it was going to be far too risky.”
Dr Rogers said the accused “deliberately sought out and picked” death cap mushrooms. Dr Rogers said that Erin called her in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson “a lost cause” and noted “bitter” and “angry” messages Erin made about them.
Patterson’s defence lawyer, Colin Mandy SC, had argued during the trial that the deaths were an accident.
He said in his closing address that “not only is there no motive, there are very good reasons not to harm (the lunch guests)”. He described the lunch guests as “support” for Erin and her children.
Mr Mandy had also noted that Ms Patterson had the “right to silence” and didn’t have to answer any questions during the trial, and that she was “not on trial for being a liar”.
“She could have stayed in the dock and said absolutely nothing – and not give evidence in the case,” he said.
The trial was overseen by Justice Christopher Beale.
Erin Patterson will be sentenced at a later date.
She will have 28 days from her sentence to start the process of lodging an appeal with Supreme Court Victoria.
