'Poison-plot' wife 'rarely' played host

THE estranged husband of a woman who served her family a poisonous mushroom lunch says it was “very rare” for her to host social gatherings.

- By John Varga

Erin Patterson, 50, is charged with the murder of three relatives and the attempted murder of another.

She is accused of deliberately adding poisonous death cap mushrooms to a beef wellington lunch she prepared for the guests at her home in Australia in July 2023.

Three people died in hospital days after the meal, including her in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, and Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson, 66.