Mum 'served deadly mushrooms to in-laws then made herself throw up with dessert'

A WOMAN ACCUSED OF POISONING AND MURDERING HER IN-LAWS WITH DEATH CAP MUSHROOMS, HAS SAID SHE MADE HERSELF THROW UP AFTER EATING THE LETHAL MEAL, DURING AN AUSTRALIA TRIAL 10:08, 05 Jun

2025Updated 10:24, 05 Jun 2025 The 'mushroom murder' trial in Australia has seen the accused, Erin Patterson, 50, give her third day of testimony. The mum of two stands accused of

three counts of murder, and one of attempted murder - all of which she denies, pleading not guilty to all four charges. Erin prepared a beef Wellington lunch for her guests in July 2023,

before deliberately including and feeding them poisonous death cap mushrooms, the court heard. However, her legal team is arguing that the inclusion of the toxic ingredient was nothing more

than a terrible accident, which had tragic consequences. Three of her lunch guests died after eating the meal; her former parents-in-law, Don Patterson, 70, and Gail Patterson, 70, and her

ex-mum-in-law's sister Heather Wilkinson, 66. The fourth guest, Ian Wilkinson, 71, survived, but spent weeks in hospital receiving treatment. The court heard Erin claimed that after

eating a small portion of the poisoned main course, she binged on dessert - making herself "over-full" and vomit. She only had "a quarter, a third, somewhere around

there" of the beef Wellington, she reportedly said, but once her guests headed home, she gorged on an orange cake her former mother-in-law had brought to the lunch. "I ate another

piece of cake, and then another piece," she said, before eventually finishing the cake. "I felt sick… over-full so I went to the toilets and brought it back up again."

"After I'd done that, I felt better," she said. Article continues below Over three days the court heard Erin admit she lied to her guests about having cancer, because she

wanted help looking after her children whilst she underwent gastric bypass surgery. "I remember thinking I didn't want to tell anybody what I was going to have done. I was really

embarrassed by it," she claimed. Erin told the court she had spent quite some time deciding what to cook her guests, before landing on beef Wellington - a dish that had sentimental

connotations from her childhood, as it was something her mother would make for special occasions. However, she claimed the mushrooms she included had little taste, so she added some dried

mushrooms that she had previously purchased from an Asian food shop in Melbourne months before, and that she kept in a container. When asked if there could have been other sorts of mushrooms

in there too, she said: "Now, I think there was a possibility that there were foraged ones in there as well." Since 2020, the accused has been regularly foraging for wild

mushrooms. She said when she went to the hospital two days after the lethal lunch - for medical attention after developing stomach issues - that she was "shocked but confused" when

she was asked if she might have consumed death cap mushrooms. The mushroom murder trial in Australia has captured international attention and testimony and the six-week trial has seen 50

people take the stand to provide evidence. Erin claimed during her testimony that her ex-husband, Simon Patterson, asked her if she used her food dehydrator to poison his parents, which

caused her to panic, and throw the appliance away at the tip near her home. A conversation that her ex denies happened. Article continues below She also erased all the data from her phone

more than once, even when the police were actively searching her home - with the court hearing this was because she was afraid they would see images of the food dehydrator and the mushrooms

themselves. "I had made the meal and served it and people had got sick," Erin told the court. "I was scared that they would blame me for it." The trial continues.