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Deceit at the heart of mushroom murder case, Australian court told
The Guardian
|June 17, 2025
Four calculated deceptions were at the heart of Erin Patterson's triple-murder case in Victoria, Australia, the prosecution claimed in its closing address, including a lie about cancer that the accused hoped would "die with" her lunch guests.
Patterson, 50, is charged with three counts of murder and one of attempted murder over the alleged poisoning of four lunch guests with beef wellingtons served at her house in Leongatha on 29 July 2023.
Nanette Rogers, the prosecutor, outlined the four alleged deceptions yesterday: Patterson's fabricated cancer claim; the "lethal doses" of death cap mushrooms "secreted" in home-cooked beef wellingtons; Patterson's attempts to make it seem she had also suffered death cap mushroom poisoning; and the "sustained cover-up she embarked upon to conceal the truth".
This story is from the June 17, 2025 edition of The Guardian.
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