Australia - 3 dead after eating wild mushrooms, Leongatha, Victoria, Aug 2023 #12 *Arrest*

[da_worm]

oooh to be a fly on the wall in that courthouse!

 

[L_B]

Today under cross examination:
Did you tell people at the lunch you had cancer?” the prosecution asked.

“I did not,” Ms Patterson replied.


Erin’s own evidence yesterday:
“Not proud of this, but I led them to believe I might be needing some treatment … in regards to [ovarian cancer] in the coming weeks and months,” she said

“I remember thinking I didn’t want to tell anybody what I had done (gastric bypass), I was really embarrassed about it, so I thought letting them believe I had something that required serious treatment … [would] help me with logistics around the kids, and I wouldn’t have to tell them.”

Which version would you like the jury to believe Erin?

This is the kind of stuff that the jury need to be highlighted!!

 

[MrJ]

2m ago
Prosecution raises yesterday's testimony

By Joseph Dunstan

Dr Rogers takes Erin back to the evidence (see the post below for more detail) that she gave on Wednesday.

"Do you agree that even in your evidence yesterday you said that you told the lunch guests that you had upcoming treatment for cancer?" Dr Rogers asks?

"I can't remember the exact words I used, as to whether I said I had or I might need to, but I was trying to communicate that there might be some treatment coming up but I really can't give you any precision about the words used," Ms Patterson says.

"You wanted your lunch guests, I suggest, to believe that you would be having treatment for cancer. Agree or disagree?" Dr Rogers asks.

"Yeah, I agree with that," Ms Patterson says.

Dr Rogers then puts to her that she did tell them she had a cancer diagnosis, but Erin says "I don't agree".

 

[MrJ]

Wow. Just evasive. Great look.

Just now
Erin 'not sure' what she told lunch guests

By Joseph Dunstan

Dr Rogers then notes evidence given by Erin Patterson's estranged husband Simon, who told the court that his father had told him after the lunch that Erin was expecting to undergo chemotherapy and surgery and wasn't sure how to tell the kids.

"I suggest that you said at the lunch that you had tests for and they found ovarian cancer," Dr Rogers says.

"I don't think I put it that precisely," Erin Patterson says. "I don't remember saying I had a diagnosis."

"You dispute that you said they found ovarian cancer?" Dr Rogers asks?

"Yeah I do, I do," Erin says.

She says she doesn't recall being "that specific", when asked by Dr Rogers if she told the guests she was likely to have chemo and surgery.

"I might have said it, I'm not sure," Erin says.

 

[drsleuth]

Sick of the trial? Wait until you hear this! - South Gippsland Sentinel Times

GAIL Patterson’s orange cake. Together with one whole beef Wellington pastie, lots of beans and mashed potato, and most of the fruit platter, interest fell on the late Gail Patterson’s orange cake at Erin Patterson’s triple murder trial in...

www.sgst.com.au

Sick of the trial? Wait until you hear this!​

 

[MrJ]

1m ago
More on the lunch conversation

By Joseph Dunstan

The jury is again reminded by Dr Rogers that Ms Patterson did not have cancer and didn't need chemo and there was nothing to tell the kids.

"My concern about the children that I was trying to convey [to my lunch guests] was how to manage them in light of it all," Erin says.

"In light of the fact that I might need some treatment in the future."

When again pressed on whether she made a comment to her lunch guests about how to tell the children, Erin says she doesn't think she told them that.

 

[katydid23]

This is going to be interesting to hear her explanation of exactly how the Death Caps got into the Beef Wellingtons if she didn't actively place them into it. I'm guessing that she's heading into the "I wasn't aware" realm.

Didn't she tell us exactly how it happened yesterday?

Th Dullexes was bland so she grabbed the tupperware full of smelly dried mushrooms and sprinkled them over the top?

 

[MrJ]

Throwing a child protection worker under the bus. Amazing. Vomit emoji.

Key Event
1m ago
Erin Patterson says child protection witness was wrong

By Joseph Dunstan

Dr Rogers then takes Erin Patterson to evidence from child protection worker Katrina Cripps, who told the court that Erin had told her that the lunch was organised "to discuss a medical issue". Erin disagrees with this.

"Ms Cripps is wrong, is she?" Dr Rogers asks.

"Yes," Erin replies.

Erin says her recollection of the conversation is "clearly different".

When asked if she sought advice from Ms Cripps on how to approach the issue with her children, Erin says "something like that, yeah".

"So to be very clear, I'm suggesting that you did tell Katrina Cripps that you'd invited the four people to lunch to discuss a medical issue," Dr Rogers says.

Erin says her recollection is that while she told Ms Cripps the "medical issue" was discussed during the lunch, she did not tell her it was the purpose for the lunch being organised.

 

[drsleuth]

5m ago06.47 BST
Rogers presses Patterson on her evidence that she did not tell her lunch guests she had a cancer diagnosis.

Rogers takes Patterson to evidence she gave yesterday, when she said:

I mentioned I’d had an issue a year or two earlier when I thought I had ovarian cancer...


Then – I’m not proud of this – but I led them to believe that I might be needing some treatment in regards to that in the next few weeks or months.

Patterson says she remembers giving this evidence.

Asked if she agrees she told her lunch guests she had upcoming treatment for cancer, Patterson says: “I can’t remember the exact words I used.”

“I was trying to communicate that there might be some treatment coming up,” Patterson says.

Erin Patterson trial day 27 – as it happened

This blog is now closed

www.theguardian.com

 

[drsleuth]

10 minutes ago - 03:44 PMMax Corstorphan

Patterson says she ‘might have’ told lunch guests she needed chemo​

Ms Patterson said at lunch, she “was trying to communicate that there might be some treatment coming up”.

Ms Patterson agreed she wanted her lunch guests to think she might be receiving “treatment” for cancer.

“I don’t remember saying I’d had a diagnosis,” Ms Paterson explained.

She said she “didn’t think” she was “specific” about needed surgery or chemo.

“I might have said it, I’m not sure,” she said.

Ms Patterson told the court she did not have cancer, did not need chemotherapy and did not need surgery for cancer.

Ex ‘would have had beef Wellington too’ if he’d come

LIVE UPDATES: Erin Patterson says she would have served ex-husband Simon Patterson a beef Wellington, too, if he had turned up to the deadly lunch.

thenightly.com.au

 

[L_B]

Throwing a child protection worker under the bus. Amazing. Vomit emoji.

Key Event
1m ago
Erin Patterson says child protection witness was wrong

By Joseph Dunstan

Dr Rogers then takes Erin Patterson to evidence from child protection worker Katrina Cripps, who told the court that Erin had told her that the lunch was organised "to discuss a medical issue". Erin disagrees with this.

"Ms Cripps is wrong, is she?" Dr Rogers asks.

"Yes," Erin replies.

Erin says her recollection of the conversation is "clearly different".

When asked if she sought advice from Ms Cripps on how to approach the issue with her children, Erin says "something like that, yeah".

"So to be very clear, I'm suggesting that you did tell Katrina Cripps that you'd invited the four people to lunch to discuss a medical issue," Dr Rogers says.

Erin says her recollection is that while she told Ms Cripps the "medical issue" was discussed during the lunch, she did not tell her it was the purpose for the lunch being organised.

I would assume the case worker would have had notes about her conversations/visits, will have to go back over her testimony.

 

[drsleuth]

3.42pm

‘Disagree’: Beef Wellington guests not told about cancer diagnosis, court told​

By​

Erin Patterson has denied telling her lunch guests on July 29, 2023, that she had a cancer diagnosis.

The jury is being shown a message sent by Patterson to her mother-in-law, Gail Patterson, on July 7, 2023, that read:

Thanks for your message Don and Gail there’s a bit to digest with everything that’s come out of it. I might talk more about it with you both when I see you in person.

The court heard that nine days after that, the accused mother-of-two invited Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson to her home in Leongatha for lunch.

Asked by senior Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers about why she suggested they might talk more about it in person, Patterson responded she hadn’t decided to have lunch on July 29, 2023, at that point.

Rogers: Did you tell people at the lunch that you had cancer?

Patterson: No.

Rogers: Did you say to your guests at the lunch that you were very concerned because you believed it was very serious, life-threatening?

Patterson: I don’t remember using those words.

Rogers: What words did you use?

Patterson: I can’t remember the precise words, but I do know what I was trying to communicate was that … I am undergoing investigations around ovarian cancers that might need treatment in that regard in the future. I can’t say that that was the specific words that I used, but that’s what I remember I was wanting to communicate.

Asked about evidence from surviving guest Ian Wilkinson earlier in the trial that Patterson had been anxious about how to tell the children about her health issues – and asked for advice on whether she should tell them – Patterson said she remembered telling her guests that she didn’t want to tell the children.

Rogers: Did you ask the lunch guests for advice on whether or not to tell the kids about this threat to your life?

Patterson: No.

Rogers: Did you tell the lunch guests that you had cancer?

Patterson: I did not.

Rogers: Ian Wilkinson’s evidence is that you went on to talk about a diagnostic test. Did you mention [a diagnostic test]?

Patterson: I think I talked about that, I’d been undergoing some testing.

Rogers: Ian Wilkinson’s evidence is that [the testing] showed a spot on the scan that was a tumor.

Patterson: I remember him saying that in his evidence, but I don’t believe I said that [at the lunch].

Roger: Might you have said it?

Patterson: I don’t think so, no.

Rogers: I suggest to you that you told your lunch guests that you had received a cancer diagnosis. Do you agree or disagree?

Patterson: Disagree.

Rogers: I also suggest that you told them that it was not a suspected cancer.

Patterson: I’m very confused about that question.

3.51pm

Language surrounding cancer talk at lunch scrutinised​

By​

Resuming her cross-examination, senior Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers pressed Erin Patterson on the details of what she communicated to her lunch guests about her health.

Rogers referred Patterson to part of her evidence yesterday, where she said she had misled her lunch guests to believe that she might need medical treatment after disclosing she had experienced health issues that led her to believe she had ovarian cancer.

“I can’t remember the exact words I used, as to whether I said I had or I might need to ... but I was trying to communicate that there might be some treatment coming up, but I really can’t give you any precision about the words I used,” Patterson said.

Patterson agreed that she had wanted her lunch guests to believe that she would be needing treatment for cancer. However, she disagreed that she had told the group that she had a cancer diagnosis.

Erin Patterson murder trial day 27 as it happened: ‘You thought the lunch guests would die’: A rare invitation and a ‘lie about cancer’

It was rare for Erin Patterson to host guests; having four people over for a meal was not an ordinary, casual event for the mother of two.

www.theage.com.au

 

[MrJ]

Key Event
1m ago
Erin Patterson denies she intended to kill her guests at lunch

By Joseph Dunstan

"So, to sum up in relation to your so-called cancer diagnosis. Your claim, to various people, that you had been diagnosed with cancer before the lunch, was deliberately false. Yes or no?" Dr Rogers asks.

"I didn't make that claim," Erin says.

Dr Rogers says she told this lie to create a pretence for the lunch and to explain why her children would not be present. Erin disagrees with these propositions.

"I suggest that you never thought you would have to account for this lie of having cancer, because you thought that the lunch guests would die and your lunch would never be found out," Dr Rogers says.

"That's not true," Erin says.

 

[Corina]

This case is the first time I'd heard of picking mushrooms referred to as mushrooming.

I had always known it as a term to describe something growing and expanding.
Ie: mushrooming out of all proportion.

"We went out mushrooming before breakfast" - that's what I would say, and expect to be understood.

 

[SouthAussie]

Rogers says Patterson used the cancer information to allow her to have a reason for inviting her lunch guests. Patterson says:

I didn’t use any reason when I invited them. I just invited them.

Text from Simon: “Sorry, I feel too uncomfortable about coming to the lunch with you, mum, dad, Heather and Ian tomorrow, but am happy to talk about your health and implications of that at another time if you’d like to discuss on the phone,” he wrote to Erin at 6.54pm, according to a text shown to the court.

Reply from Erin: “It’s important to me that you’re all there tomorrow and that I have the conversations that I need to have.

Text messages in lead-up to deadly mushroom lunch revealed as Erin Patterson’s estranged husband testifies

Murder accused urged Simon Patterson to change his mind about not attending ‘special meal’, Victorian court hears

www.theguardian.com

 

[drsleuth]

1 minute ago - 03:57 PMMax Corstorphan

Patterson disputes multiple witness’ claims​

Ms Patterson disputed ever telling Katrina Cripps, a child protection worker, that she needed advice on telling her children about a serious illness. She denied telling Ms Cripps she invited guests to her home to tell them about a serious medical issue.

She disputed claims by Ian Wilkinson that she told lunch guests she had cancer. She disputed her ex-partner’s evidence where he claimed he was told by Don and Gail that Ms Patterson had ovarian cancer and that she was worried about telling the kids.

Ms Patterson denied the allegations had anything to do with why children were not at the fatal lunch.

Ex ‘would have had beef Wellington too’ if he’d come

LIVE UPDATES: Erin Patterson says she would have served ex-husband Simon Patterson a beef Wellington, too, if he had turned up to the deadly lunch.

thenightly.com.au

 

[dothetime]

2m ago02.52 BST

Patterson denies intentionally dehydrating death caps​

Patterson is shown a photo of the dehydrator at the tip and asked if this is the one she owned.

“I presume so,” Patterson says.

“And why do you presume so again?” Rogers asks.

“Unless somebody else put in a dehydrator as well as me I presume this is the one I put in,” Patterson says.

Rogers tells Patterson it is an agreed fact in the trial that analysis by a fingerprint expert found the fingerprints on the dumped dehydrator matched Patterson’s fingerprints.

Rogers puts to Patterson: “You knew they were death cap mushrooms you’d been dehydrating?”

“No, I didn’t know that,” Patterson says.

Rogers says Patterson was “keen” to dispose of evidence she had dehydrated death cap mushrooms.

“No, I didn’t know they’d been in it,” Patterson says.

Patterson denies Rogers’ suggestion that the reason she rushed out of Monash hospital was to dispose of evidence she had dehydrated death cap mushrooms.

Erin Patterson trial day 27 – as it happened

This blog is now closed

www.theguardian.com

I find it bizarre that Erin P left residue in the dehydrator (later found and tested by forensics) which her children might have found and tasted out of curiosity / boredom one day . . .

 

[LinasK]

Boy she's as slippery as an eel.

 

[MrJ]

What about her earlier defence testimony?

2m ago
Erin asked about breakdown in relationship with estranged husband

By Joseph Dunstan

The prosecutor then turns to the topic of Simon and Erin's marriage and the tensions that arose in late 2022 when Erin learnt that Simon had listed himself as single on his tax return.

Erin denies she was "upset" about the changed situation, because the change meant she had the opportunity to claim a family tax benefit previously unavailable to her.

She also says she does not believe it's true that Simon offered to amend his tax return after she was angered by the change.

Dr Rogers says Simon's evidence was that he felt from then on there was a "substantial change" in the relationship and the messages between them were "functional".

Erin says that was mostly true, but there was a "little bit" of warmer contact around the children.

 

[southgoldengirl]

This case is the first time I'd heard of picking mushrooms referred to as mushrooming.

I had always known it as a term to describe something growing and expanding.
Ie: mushrooming out of all proportion.

ie: a lot like Erin's lies...