NewsHail
03 Jun 2025
An Australian woman, Erin Patterson, is on trial for giving a meal with deadly mushrooms to her family. She is charged with killing three people and trying to kill a fourth. She says she did not mean to harm anyone.
The lunch happened in July 2023 at her home in Victoria. She made beef wellington for her relatives. Three people died: Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, and Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson, 66. A fourth person, Ian Wilkinson, got very sick but survived after weeks in the hospital.
Prosecutors say Erin used deadly mushrooms on purpose and then lied to police. They also say she threw away key evidence.
But her lawyers say she didn’t mean to poison anyone. They say she was scared and didn’t know what to do.
Erin started speaking in court. She said her bond with her in-laws had grown weaker in 2023. She felt her husband, Simon, didn’t want her close to the family anymore.
She also talked about the hard times in her marriage. They had trouble talking through problems and sometimes felt hurt.
She told the court about the birth of her first child in 2009. It was a scary time, and her baby was in danger. She had a C-section and left the hospital early because she didn’t want to be alone.
The jury was told that she also left the hospital early after the mushroom lunch. Prosecutors used that to say she wasn’t sick. But her lawyer said she had done that before in her life.
She spoke for less than an hour. She will continue her story in court on Tuesday.
