Nearly a year after pleading not guilty, the trial has commenced for Erin Patterson, 50, who stands accused of serving poisonous mushrooms to her former husband’s family.

Patterson faces three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder, reduced from an initial two counts of attempted murder earlier in the week.

In Victoria’s Supreme Court on Wednesday, prosecutor Nanette Rogers informed jurors that Patterson had prepared a meal consisting of beef Wellington, mashed potatoes, and green beans at her Leongartha home on July 29, 2023.

The guests included her former in-laws, Gail and Don Patterson, both 70, Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, 66, and Heather’s husband, Ian Wilkinson, 68.

The day following the lunch, all four were hospitalized due to poisoning from death cap mushrooms (amanita phalloides), which had been incorporated into the beef Wellington dish. Simon Patterson, Erin’s ex-husband, was invited but did not attend.

Ian Wilkinson remained hospitalized for seven weeks.

The other three victims died in the hospital within days of the meal at Patterson’s residence.

On Tuesday, the prosecution informed jurors that charges related to Patterson poisoning her ex-husband had been dropped. The couple separated in 2015.

Patterson had invited her ex-husband and his relatives to lunch two weeks before the incident, coinciding with a church service at Korumburra Baptist Church, where Ian Wilkinson served as pastor. Simon had initially accepted the invitation.

“She said the purpose of the lunch was to discuss some medical issues that she had and to get advice about how to break it to the kids,” Rogers said. “The accused said that it was important that the children were not present for the lunch.”

Rogers highlighted the surprise of the Wilkinsons, as they had never been invited to Patterson’s five-bedroom home before.

The prosecution further alleged that Heather Wilkinson told Simon Patterson the day after the lunch that she found it odd that Erin used a different plate.

“I noticed that Erin put her food on a different plate to us,” Heather Wilkinson reportedly said. “Her plate had colors on it. I wondered why that was. I’ve puzzled about it since lunch.”

Simon suggested to his aunt that his wife might have simply run out of plates.

The prosecution also informed the jury that Patterson fabricated an ovarian cancer diagnosis to explain her children’s absence from the lunch.

“After the lunch, the accused announced that she had cancer and asked for advice on whether to tell the children or keep it from them,” Rogers stated. “They had a discussion about it being best to be honest with the children. They prayed as a group for the accused’s health and wisdom in relation to telling the children.”

However, Patterson’s lawyer, Colin Mandy, told jurors that his client never had cancer. He acknowledged that the guests were poisoned by mushrooms served by Patterson but characterized the event as a “terrible accident.”

Rogers told the jury that the prosecution would not provide a motive for the poisoning, adding, “You do not have to be satisfied what the motive was, or even that there was a motive.”

Two days after serving the beef Wellington, Erin Patterson sought medical attention for diarrhea and nausea. By that time, her guests had already been diagnosed with death cap poisoning.

She later told authorities that she used a combination of mushrooms purchased from a supermarket and dried mushrooms from an Asian grocery store, denying that she had foraged for wild mushrooms.

However, Mandy admitted that his client did lie about not foraging for wild mushrooms.

“She did forage for mushrooms,” Mandy clarified to the jury. “She denies that she ever deliberately sought out death cap mushrooms.”

The trial has been adjourned until Thursday and is expected to last six weeks.

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