Alleged Australian mushroom murderer faked cancer diagnosis to lure victims, prosecutors claim

By Alasdair Pal

SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian woman accused of murdering three of her estranged husband's elderly relatives by poisoning their food, faked a cancer diagnosis to lure the victims to a meal, prosecutors claimed on Wednesday, in a case that has gripped the country.

Erin Patterson, 50, is charged with the July 2023 murders of her mother-in-law Gail Patterson, father-in-law Donald Patterson and Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson, along with the attempted murder of Ian Wilkinson, Heather's husband.

All four fell ill after a lunch of Beef Wellington, mashed potatoes and green beans, the court was told. Prosecutors said the accused knowingly laced the meal with deadly death cap mushrooms at her home in Leongatha, a town of around 6,000 people some 135 kilometres (84 miles) from Melbourne.

Erin Patterson denies the charges.

Defending Patterson, barrister Colin Mandy told the court the deaths were a "terrible accident", and that the accused had no intention of killing her lunch guests.

"The defence case is that Erin Patterson did not deliberately serve poisoned food to her guests," he said.

In the opening arguments that began on Wednesday, prosecutor Nanette Rogers said the accused had fabricated a cancer diagnosis and hosted the lunch on the pretence of discussing the best way to tell her two children about the illness, in order to ensure they did not attend.

"It is the prosecution case that the accused deliberately poisoned (the victims) with murderous intent," she told the court.

"The prosecution will not be suggesting that there was a particular motive to do what she did," she said.

SEPARATE PLATES

The guests ate individual portions of Beef Wellington off four large grey dinner plates, while the accused ate from a smaller, tan coloured plate, the court heard.

The guests fell ill later that day and were hospitalised a day after, where three later died. Ian Wilkinson spent weeks in hospital and survived.

The accused went to hospital two days later, where she initially discharged herself against medical advice, the court was told.

She had mild symptoms of illness, but further tests revealed no evidence of toxins consistent with death cap poisoning, the prosecution said.

The accused resisted attempts by doctors to have her two children tested, who she claimed had eaten leftovers of the lunch, saying she did not want to frighten them, Rogers said.

"She was reluctant to have the children medically assessed, because she knew that, like her, they had not eaten any poisoned food," she said.

The defendant denied ever owning a food dehydrator, but police traced one owned by her to a nearby garbage dump, that was later found to contain death cap mushrooms, Rogers said - one of the world's deadliest strains of mushrooms.

Mandy said his client had lied repeatedly during the investigation, but had "panicked" due to the intense scrutiny surrounding the case.

INTENSE INTEREST

Erin Patterson married her husband Simon in 2007 and had two children together, the court heard.

They separated temporarily several times, before splitting permanently in 2015. They remained amicable, sharing custody of the children and going on family holidays together.

That changed in 2022 when Simon listed himself as separated on a tax return, Rogers said, with communication deteriorating and the pair disagreeing over child support.

The trial has seen intense interest from local and international media, with podcasters, journalists and documentary-makers descending on the town of Morwell, around two hours east of Melbourne, where the trial is being heard.

The court is expected to hear the first of dozens of witnesses and scientific experts on Thursday.

The trial, scheduled to run until early June, continues.

(Reporting by Alasdair Pal in Sydney; Editing by Neil Fullick)