Australia - 3 dead after eating wild mushrooms, Leongatha, Victoria, Aug 2023 #14 *Arrest*

[Detechtive]

Cancer diagnosis the first of four ‘calculated deceptions’​

ByMarta Pascual Juanola
Senior Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers, SC, has risen to her feet to deliver her closing address to the jury.

Ian Wilkinson, who survived the July 29, 2023 lunch at Erin Patterson’s home, is among those watching in court, along with other members of the Wilkinson and Patterson families.

“At the heart of this case are four calculated deceptions made by the accused,” Rogers has told the jury.


The first of those deceptions, Rogers said, was Patterson’s claims that she had a cancer diagnosis.

“She fabricated a cancer claim to provide a reason for her otherwise unusual lunch invitation,” the prosecutor said.

“You heard that it was very rare for the accused to invite people to her home.”

Rogers said that when Patterson invited her estranged husband, Simon Patterson, to lunch she told him that she had received some medical news and she needed advice on how to tell their children.

“She gave him multiple incentives to attend,” Rogers told the jury.

Child protection worker Katrina Cripps outside court on May 15.Credit:Justin McManus

She said this also matched evidence by child protection worker Katrina Cripps, who told the trial Patterson had said to her at the hospital that she had wanted to share medical news with her guests.

“Yet in the evidence before you, the accused claimed that the reason she invited Don and Gail [Patterson] was because they had such a good time in the lunch in June that she wanted to do it again,” Rogers said.

Rogers also reminded the jury of Ian Wilkinson’s evidence, as he told the court that Patterson had told her lunch guests she had cancer and that she wanted to know whether she should tell her children.

“You should completely reject the accused’s claim that she never had a cancer diagnosis,” Rogers said.

“This was the accused simply trying to minimise the lie she told her lunch guests.”

Rogers said this was an elaborate lie.

“The accused planted the seed of her lies well in advance,” Rogers said.

This included telling Don and Gail that she had a needle biopsy of her elbow and an MRI booked in, as captured by a series of text messages read to the jury during the trial, Rogers said.

Erin Patterson murder trial: Accused ‘lied’ to multiple people, and repeatedly changed her story on sourcing mushrooms, prosecutor tells jury

Prosecutor Nanette Rogers, SC, is arguing to the jury that accused killer Erin Patterson faked a cancer diagnosis to her lunch guests and deliberately deviated from a beef Wellington recipe.

www.theage.com.au

 

[CityKid]

I was the only person who she spoke to about her past work life, she was quite secretive about it generally. It wasn't until recently that I found out the reasons for the multiple career jumps, and it wasn't by her choosing.

I don't believe the nursing claim because she would not have been able to become registered IMO. Similarly for any continued work in the financial services industry. IMO

To become a registered nurse or midwife in Australia, the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA), in conjunction with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra), requires all applicants to undergo a criminal history check. This process ensures that only individuals who are suitable and safe to practise are granted registration.

In my personal opinion she was just bored being a stay at home mother, and wanted to do courses without actually needing to ever work due to her wealth. I don't think she ever planned on working. IMO

Thank you! I had a feeling that if she was not acknowledged as the smartest one in the room, she could be very dismissive and stroppy. I appreciate your response!

 

[Detechtive]

Thank you! I had a feeling that if she was not acknowledged as the smartest one in the room, she could be very dismissive and stroppy. I appreciate your response!

That's true, too!

 

[MrJ]

Key Event
1m ago
'Sinister deception' placed deadly poison in 'nourishing meal', prosecution says

By Joseph Dunstan

Dr Rogers says the second deception the prosecution alleges against Erin Patterson is the "critical" one.

That she sought out death cap mushrooms and secreted "lethal doses" of the mushrooms inside the individually parcelled beef Wellingtons, thereby ensuring she did not consume a dangerous lunch.

"The sinister deception was to use a nourishing meal as the vehicle to deliver the deadly poison," Dr Rogers says.

She highlights that the recipe was one taken from the RecipeTin Eats cookbook, but significantly changed so that it was constituted of individual parcels rather than a large slice.

"This was not a shared dish where each guest ate a slice of the same parcel of food," she says.

"Why deviate so significantly from an unfamiliar recipe for a 'special lunch'?"

She reinforces that the prosecution alleges it was a "deliberate choice" to enable Ms Patterson to control what ingredients went into each individual parcel.

 

[Detechtive]

now
11.02 AEST

Rogers says Patterson made “bald-faced lies” to her in-laws about her medical appointments.​

“She knew how to tell convincing lies when it came to the cancer because she had put in the research,” she says.

“The prosecution says the accused put considerable thought and effort into this fake cancer claim and she deliberately set the trail in motion with Don and Gail.”

Rogers says Patterson agreed in court that she had never been diagnosed with cancer.

Rogers says Patterson did not think she would be questioned about her cancer lie because she intended to kill her lunch guests.

“Her lie would die with them.”

Erin Patterson mushroom trial day 32 – as it happened

This blog is now closed

www.theguardian.com

 

[MrJ]

Wonder if Dr Rogers was lurking here...

Key Event
1m ago
Choice to add mushrooms did not 'make sense', prosecution says

By Joseph Dunstan and Judd Boaz

Dr Rogers then asks the jury to consider the accused's account of adding strong-smelling Asian grocer-bought mushrooms, and Ms Patterson's evidence that she now believes foraged mushrooms may have been inadvertently included in that.

She says Woolworths receipts show Ms Patterson had already bought more than enough mushrooms from a supermarket in the days before the lunch.

"She had 1.75kgs of mushrooms for a dish that called for less than half," Dr Rogers says.

"Why then would she resort to dried or foraged mushrooms? She had more than enough."

The prosecutor tells the jury the accused is now saying she may have "accidentally" added wild mushroom to the dish, but Dr May told the jury that dried death cap mushrooms smell "very unpleasant".

"It just wouldn't make sense that someone would include something that smelt 'very unpleasant', in a 'special meal'," Dr Rogers says.

Dr Rogers suggests Ms Patterson made either two separate batches of mushroom paste, or simply did not use any mushrooms paste on her own dish to avoid poisoning.

 

[MrJ]

1m ago
Accused was 'across' how to use dehydrator, prosecutor says

By Joseph Dunstan

The evidence in the trial shows that the accused knew how to dehydrate mushrooms and blitz them into powder to "hide" in food, Dr Rogers tells the jury.

She recaps that Erin Patterson bought a food dehydrator a couple of months before the lunch and had told her friends about experiments she'd done with drying and blitzing mushrooms.

"You've seen the photos she sent the Facebook group of mushrooms inside the dehydrator on her kitchen bench. She was across the dehydrator," Dr Rogers says.

 

[Detechtive]

'Why resort to dried or foraged mushrooms?'​

The Crown contends Erin did not eat the same mushroom paste as the lunch guests.
Dr Rogers gave two possible explanations:

That the accused made two lots of paste – one with death cap mushrooms and one without; or
That her individual serving of beef wellington had no mushrooms in it at all
“The lunch guests would never have noticed if the inside of her pastry was different to theirs,” Dr Rogers said.

Dr Rogers also took the jury to the evidence that Erin had bought 1.75kg of mushrooms from Woolworths, despite the recipe calling for just 700-800g to feed eight people.
Erin told the court, under cross-examination, that she had eaten the other kilogram in a previous meal.

But Dr Rogers said it was only when she was pressed, in the witness box, that she made that claim.
“She had 1.75kg of mushrooms for a dish that called for less than half. Why resort to dried or foraged mushrooms? She had more than enough,” she said.
Erin said the dried mushrooms were added for “extra flavour”, despite telling the jury she had not used them in an earlier meal because they “smelt funny”.
“Why add mushrooms that smelt funny and you were worried were too overpowering to a ‘special’ lunch for guests?,” Dr Rogers said.

Fungi expert Dr Tom May gave evidence that dried death cap mushrooms “smell very unpleasant”.
Dr Rogers said: “It doesn’t make sense she would add smelly mushrooms to the meal”.

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/the-mushroom-cook/erin-patterson-trial-live-closing-addresses-expected-in-mushroom-murder-trial/live-coverage/299fa80376bd369a989157187008c323#/entry/32242554

 

[MrJ]

Key Event
1m ago
Prosecution begins outlining how death cap mushrooms were allegedly sourced by accused

By Joseph Dunstan and Judd Boaz

The prosecutor says there is "no direct evidence as to where the accused sourced the death cap mushrooms".

But Dr Rogers says Ms Patterson was aware of the iNaturalist website that could be used to source them.

"There is evidence in the trial that the accused was familiar with iNaturalist and with its map feature," she says.

She outlines to the jury the various visits made to the website in May 2022 from a computer in Ms Patterson's home.

This included a world map with death cap sightings.

"The accused did not navigate to other types of mushrooms, she did not meander about the website. She went directly to death cap mushrooms," Dr Rogers says.

Dr Rogers says a subsequent online food order at the pub reveals it was Erin Patterson using the computer, as she lived alone with her children at the time.

"You can safely infer that it was the accused undertaking these searches navigating to iNaturalist because at the very same time the user was looking up [death cap mushrooms] they ... put in a food order [at a local pub]," she says.

"[These visits] demonstrates that by at least [May 2022] she had the ability of how to navigate with precision" to find death cap mushrooms, Dr Rogers says.

 

[Detechtive]

Accused deliberately deviated from beef Wellington recipe, jury told​

ByMarta Pascual Juanola
Erin Patterson made sure she would not suffer the same fate as her lunch guests by making herself an individual beef Wellington that did not contain any death cap mushrooms, prosecutor Nanette Rogers, SC, has told the jury in her closing address.

“She was the one solely responsible for obtaining and preparing the ingredients that went into that meal,” Rogers said.

“The RecipeTin Eats cookbook ... did not call for multiple individual pasties.”

Rogers said the lunch was not a shared dish where each guest ate a slice of the same parcel of food.

“Why deviate so significantly from an unfamiliar recipe?” Rogers said.

“It enabled the accused to control what ingredients went into each individual pastie.”

Rogers said the prosecution’s case was that Patterson didn’t eat the same mushroom paste as her guests, and that could be because she made a second batch of paste or because her pastie had no mushroom paste at all.

The prosecutor also reminded the jury of Patterson’s mushroom purchases, which included 1.7 kilograms of mushrooms for a recipe that called for 750 grams.

“Why then would she resort to dried mushrooms? She had more than enough,” she said.

“There was no need to add a packet of dried mushrooms.”

Rogers said Patterson specifically told Department of Health manager Sally Ann Atkinson that she did not use mushrooms in a previous dish because she was worried they would be too overpowering.

“Why then would you add mushrooms that smelled funny ... to a special lunch you were preparing for guests?” Rogers told the jury.

The prosecutor said Patterson had told authorities she had rehydrated the mushrooms, chopped them and mixed them in with the mushrooms she had bought from Woolworths. But Rogers told the jury it was likely Patterson had prepared the death cap mushrooms in the meal differently.

“The accused knew how to dehydrate and blitz mushrooms into powder to hide inside food,” she said.

Erin Patterson murder trial: Accused ‘lied’ to multiple people, and repeatedly changed her story on sourcing mushrooms, prosecutor tells jury

Prosecutor Nanette Rogers, SC, is arguing to the jury that accused killer Erin Patterson faked a cancer diagnosis to her lunch guests and deliberately deviated from a beef Wellington recipe.

www.theage.com.au

 

[MrJ]

1m ago
Death cap mushrooms seen in Loch and Outtrim

By Joseph Dunstan

Dr Rogers then begins outlining the "opportunity" Ms Patterson had to locate death cap mushrooms in the lead-up to the lunch.

She outlines how retired pharmacologist Christine McKenzie told the court she spotted death cap mushrooms in Loch in April 2023. She then posted the photos to iNaturalist after removing as many death cap mushrooms as she could.

Fungi expert Tom May told the court that in May that year he'd also spotted death cap mushrooms in Outtrim, and had uploaded the sighting to iNaturalist as well.

The prosecutor tells the jury the two posts show death cap mushrooms were growing at these Gippsland locations and that the information was made public with specific geographical data.

Dr Rogers says this evidence by itself does not show that the accused "accessed the posts", but tells the jury the following evidence will allow them to infer that she did.

 

[MrJ]

1m ago
'Potential' visit to death cap sites must be considered with other evidence, jury hears

By Joseph Dunstan

Dr Rogers then turns to expert evidence heard by the jury on phone data, which suggested Erin Patterson had travelled to the areas where death cap mushrooms had been identified.

The prosecutor tells the jury that the expert evidence was that the data identified the "potential" for a visit to Loch on April 28, 2023, 10 days after death caps were identified there.

But she said while the data only supported a "potential" visit, the jury should consider the likelihood of that visit in the context of the other evidence in the case.

"Most importantly, the fact that the accused purchased her dehydrator on this very day ... [two hours after her likely visit to Loch]," Dr Rogers says.

Dr Rogers says another "possible" visit to Outtrim was identified by the same phone data, the day after Dr May's iNaturalist post identified death caps there.

She explains to the jury in some detail the precise times and levels of certainty that was given about the phone's movement during these potential visits.

"The accused's phone did not usually connect to these towers in a way that [indicated] a visit to these areas," she says.

"In other words, visiting these areas was not something that the accused usually did. These potential visits were not part of her normal activities."

 

[Detechtive]

Crown says accused navigated 'directly' to death cap mushrooms on iNaturalist site​

Dr Rogers conceded there was no “direct evidence” as to where the accused sourced the death caps, but said she was aware of citizen science website iNaturalist that could be used to track down the toxic fungi.
She told the jury Erin had knowledge of the website because records show that a user searched for iNaturalist on a computer in her house on May 28, 2022, a year before the lunch.
The records also show that once the user visited the iNaturalist website, they navigated to a sighting of death caps in Melbourne’s southeast.
“She did not meander around the website,” Dr Rogers said.
“She went directly to death cap mushrooms.”
She added that the jury could safely infer it was Erin undertaking these searches because at the same time the user was looking up iNaturalist, the user was visiting the Korumburra Middle Pub website and ordering a “family pack”.
The jury heard Erin knew how to locate death caps “with precision” since she had visited the iNaturalist website previously, even if this was a year before the lunch.
Moreover, Dr Rogers said she had the “opportunity” to source them before the lunch because two sightings of death caps in Loch and Outtrim were logged on the website by Christine McKenzie on April 18 and Dr Tom May on May 21 in 2023, respectively.

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/the-mushroom-cook/erin-patterson-trial-live-closing-addresses-expected-in-mushroom-murder-trial/live-coverage/299fa80376bd369a989157187008c323#/entry/32242554

 

[MrJ]

Just now
Time for a break

By Joseph Dunstan

Dr Rogers has covered a lot of ground in the past hour.

Justice Christopher Beale suggests that this could be a good time for a break.

 

[Lisa4]

I hope they highlight that IMO she would have well known she* could trust those guests not to tell people regarding her "cancer diagnosis", due to the children not yet knowing.

*if guilty.

 

[Detechtive]

Just now
Time for a break

By Joseph Dunstan

Dr Rogers has covered a lot of ground in the past hour.

Justice Christopher Beale suggests that this could be a good time for a break.

At this speed, I am thinking it might not take the two days we thought?

 

[MrJ]

So far I am impressed with Dr Nanette Rogers' methodical, forensic closing statements for the prosecution, collating evidence and EP's statements well.

 

[Detechtive]

1m ago
02.31 BST

Rogers says the death cap mushroom sighting posts on iNaturalist showed the toxic fungi was growing in Loch and Outtrim in the months before the lunch.​

It also shows they were made public with location data, Rogers says.

Rogers turns to the evidence about Patterson’s phone location data.

She says telecommunications expert Dr Matthew Sorell could only conclude there was a possible visit to Loch on 18 April 2023. But Rogers says the jury should consider the phone location evidence in conjunction with other evidence. She says this includes the fact that Patterson purchased a dehydrator on the same day.

Rogers says there is further evidence that on 22 May 2023 Patterson’s phone was “stationary” in the Outtrim area for a period of about 25 minutes.

Australia mushroom trial live: Erin Patterson intended to kill lunch guests and thought cancer lie ‘would die with them’, prosecution says

Victorian woman, 50, has pleaded not guilty to three charges of murder and one of attempted murder following a fatal beef wellington lunch in Leongatha in 2023. Follow live

www.theguardian.com

 

[Deleted member 363451]

The four alleged deceptions at the heart of the prosecution case​

By Joseph Dunstan​

Dr Rogers tells the jury there were four deceptions employed by Erin Patterson during her crime.

1. 1.The fabricated cancer claim that Ms Patterson told her guests when she invited them to the meal
2. 2.The lethal doses of poison that Dr Rogers says she "secreted in the home-cooked beef Wellingtons"
3. 3.The illness that Ms Patterson pretended to have after the lunch to make it seem as though she also suffered from death cap poisoning
4. 4.The sustained cover-up Ms Patterson embarked on to "conceal the truth" after the lunch

The fabricated cancer claim​

Dr Rogers said the evidence surrounding the lunch should satisfy the jury that Erin had fabricated the cancer claim to “provide a reason for her otherwise unusual lunch invitation” to the group.
“You heard it was very rare for the accused to invite people to her home,” Dr Rogers said.
Witnesses, including Simon Patterson, Anna Terrington and Ruth Dubois, all gave evidence that Ian and Heather had been “surprised” to be invited.

Simon also gave evidence that Erin had told him she had “important medical news” to share and wanted advice on how to break it to the kids.
“She gave him multiple incentives to attend – she painted a picture of a gathering which was not only social but was about important family business,” Dr Rogers said.
“Simon was firm in his evidence to you that the accused wanted advice about breaking news to the children.

“You can be sure the accused used a fake medical issue as the reason for the lunch.”

Dr Rogers repeated the text messages between Erin and Simon, shown to the jury, where he declined the lunch invite the night before.
Erin wrote: “I may not be able to host a lunch like this again for some time” and “it’s important to me that you’re all there tomorrow and I can have the conversations I need to have.”
Dr Rogers took the jury to the evidence of Ian Wilkinson, who said Erin had told the guests that she had been diagnosed with cancer, and that they had prayed for her.

“You should completely reject the accused’s claim that she never said she had a diagnosis and only that she (was concerned she might).

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/the-mushroom-cook/erin-patterson-trial-live-closing-addresses-expected-in-mushroom-murder-trial/live-coverage/299fa80376bd369a989157187008c323#/entry/32242136

Erin wrote: “I may not be able to host a lunch like this again for some time” and “it’s important to me that you’re all there tomorrow and I can have the conversations I need to have.”

That's the understatement of the Century. lol

 

[Detechtive]

The phone pings and the death cap locations​

Telecommunications expert Dr Matthew Sorell gave evidence about the accused’s phone pings in Loch and Outtrim.
“The evidence tends to show the accused had the opportunity to source death cap mushrooms at a time proximate to the lunch,” Dr Rogers said.
Ten days after Ms McKenzie posted her sighing, Erin’s mobile records show a possible visit to the site in Loch Recreation Reserve.
“She bought her dehydrator that day, about two hours after she was possibly in Loch sourcing death cap mushrooms,” Dr Rogers said.
On May 22, 2023, the mobile service records indicate another possible visit to Loch, where the phone “connects persistently with the Loch South tower every five minutes”.
The day after Dr May posted his sighting of a death cap mushroom in Outtrim, the accused’s phone pinged there.

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/the-mushroom-cook/erin-patterson-trial-live-closing-addresses-expected-in-mushroom-murder-trial/live-coverage/299fa80376bd369a989157187008c323#/entry/32243080