Accused tells triple murder trial she knew mushrooms may have ended up in meal

Erin Patterson, the Australian woman accused of killing her relatives with death cap mushrooms, admitted that she disposed of a food dehydrator after learning her lunch might have fatally poisoned her former in-laws.

- MAROOSHA MUZAFFAR

Ms Patterson, 50, said she did not tell anyone after realising that death cap mushrooms could have been in the meal that she served her in-laws in July 2023. She had earlier testified that she became interested in wild mushroom foraging during the Covid lockdown.

Ms Patterson took the stand for the third day yesterday as her murder trial continued in the Victorian town of Morwell.

She is charged with deliberately serving death cap mushrooms to her estranged husband's parents Don and Gail Patterson, Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson, and Heather's husband Ian during a lunch at her home in Leongatha, Victoria. Ian Wilkinson was the only guest to survive after spending days in hospital. Ms Patterson has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

"I was scared that they would blame me for it, for making everyone sick. And I was scared they would remove the children," she said, referring to child welfare department workers.

She had disposed of the dehydrator, she said, because she thought there might be "evidence of foraged mushrooms in there". She felt scared after child protection got involved.