Erin Patterson is accused of killing three people with poisonous death cap mushrooms.
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Patterson ‘emotional, crying’ after medics said kids would need hospital assessment
Registered nurse Mairim Cespon, who oversaw Patterson’s care at Leongatha Hospital on 31 July, 2023, has taken the stand.
The court heard Cespon saw Patterson in her peripheral vision, while she was tending to Heather Wilkinson, when the mother-of-two first arrived at the hospital.
When Patterson later returned to the hospital, Cespon said she settled her into a cubicle and Dr Chris Webster came into chat to Patterson.
In the presence of Cespon, Dr Webster mentioned to Patterson that her children needed to be medically reviewed because they ate part of the meal.
“At that point, Erin became emotional, she was crying,” Cespon said.
“She was asking if it was really necessary for them to be assessed because they didn’t have symptoms. She said she didn’t want them to be panicked or stressed.”
Cespon said Dr Webster told Patterson:”You don’t want to wait for them to get worst”.
Patterson bowel chart shown to court
The court has been shown a bowel chart written while Patterson was at Leongatha Hospital on 31 July, 2023.
The five entries on the chart included the following details:
10am - amount “M” - consistency “L”
10:04am - amount “M” - consistency “L”
10:06am - amount “S” - consistency “L”
10:25 - amount “M” - consistency “L”
11:50am - amount “S” - consistency “L”
The court heard that “M” meant medium, “S” small, and “L” liquid.
The court heard Cespon also made further notes about Patterson’s hospital stay, including an entry at 10:10am that Patterson “went to toilet x 3, still watery, white and yellow in colour but patient said it is a stool”.
The notes also indicated that Patterson has spoken to police to obtain the leftovers from her home and that she had given a pain score of “7/10”.
Cespon explained that the pain score is subjective and Patterson explained it was a “cramp-like pain and that when she opens her bowels it settles a bit, but everytime she feels like going to the toilet it goes back up.
Cespon said Patterson told her she had felt sick on the evening of 29 July, then had diarrhoea all day on Sunday 30 July.
“She was distressed and emotional including the thought of her kids (having to go to hospital),” Cespon said.
“She was saying she feels unwell, that she has this pain, that she has been having these loose bowel motions, (and) she was emotional about feeling unwell.”
The Asian mushroom investigation
Troy Schonknecht, a public health officer for Monash City Council, has taken the stand.
The court has heard Schonecht was tasked with launching an investigation into mushrooms sold in Asian grocers in the Oakleigh area.
Schonecht said he was told by police they were interested in dried mushrooms in clear, plain packaging and the likely purchase date was in April, 2023.
The mushrooms of interest were described as “sliced” and like “shitake”. mushrooms.
He said he then used the council’s database to narrow down Asian grocers or similar in the area, before visiting each one in person.
The court was then shown a report compiled by Schonecht, which identified five businesses in Oakleigh, four in Clayton, and four in Mount Waverley that were selling dried mushrooms.
Public health officer’s report findings shown to court
The court has been shown Troy Schonecht’s findings in relation to his Asian grocer mushroom investigation.
In the report’s concluding statement, the questions posed by the investigation and his answers were as follows:
1. Has there been any changes in supplier since April?
All premises visited and that were identified as selling fresh (initially) or dried mushrooms had not changed their supplier since April or in 2023.
I asked further if they had anyone attend the premises trying to (wholesale) sell them mushrooms for the intention of on-selling and they all responded that they had not had anyone trying to sell mushrooms.
2. Are there any products that do not have proper labels? If any that may be collected/dehydrated locally?
Only (one store) Golden Grocery was repackaging product and applying their own label. It was identified during the investigation the product was too large and were whole dried mushrooms as opposed to the sliced dried mushroom. Any non-compliances identified have been referred to the Area Officer to follow up with proprietor. No products were identified to be local or manufactured in Australia. All dried products were imported.
3. Are any suppliers’ local producers?
All dried mushroom products investigated were imported and importer/supplier details identified.
Asian grocer mushrooms pulled from shelves amid investigation
The defence have commenced cross-examination of public health officer Troy Schonecht.
Schonecht was shown a series of mushrooms sold at Golden Grocery, which were in clear plain packaging.
The court previously heard Golden Grocery was the only store identified to be repackaging mushrooms, which the store attributed to the manufacturer sending large packages which were broken into smaller portion to meet customer demand.
The defence put it to Schonecht that the packaging identified at Golden Grocery matched the description initially provided by Patterson.
He confirmed that was correct.
Under questioning, he also confirmed the shitake mushrooms from Golden Grocery were removed from sale for a period of time because of they had similarities to the description they had received from Patterson.
www.legalaid.vic.gov.au
