An Australian woman accused of murdering three people with a toxic mushroom-laced lunch rejected offers of help before serving the dish, the sole guest to survive the deadly meal told a court on Tuesday.
Erin Patterson, 50, is charged with murdering the parents and aunt of her estranged husband with a poisonous beef Wellington in 2023.
She is also charged with the attempted murder of Baptist pastor Ian Wilkinson, who recovered after a lengthy stay in hospital.
Patterson has pleaded not guilty to all counts.
Wilkinson was questioned as Patterson’s headline-grabbing trial entered its second week on Tuesday.
Patterson seemed “reluctant” for her guests to rummage around in the pantry before eating, Wilkinson said, and rejected offers to help plating up the dish.
“We said grace, we began eating,” Wilkinson told the jury at the Latrobe Valley Law Courts in Morwell, southeast of Melbourne.
The meal consisted of “an individual serve” of beef Wellington entirely encased in pastry and filled with “steak and mushrooms”, Wilkinson said.
The guests’ meals were served on four grey plates, while Patterson’s was on a smaller orange plate, Wilkinson told the court.
Patterson’s estranged husband Simon was also invited to the lunch but turned down the invitation.
The four guests developed diarrhoea and vomiting within 12 hours of the meal and were raced to hospital, where they were diagnosed with poisoning by death cap mushrooms.
Patterson allegedly laced the beef-and-pastry dish with the poisonous mushrooms.
Wilkinson said that hours after eating he and wife Heather began vomiting, but initially dismissed it as a “case of gastro”.
Heather — the aunt of Patterson’s estranged husband Simon — died in the days following the lunch.
‘Things were friendly’
Patterson’s parents-in-law Don and Gail Patterson also died as a result of ingesting the meal.
Wilkinson said he had little memory of what happened after falling ill, and spent two months recovering in hospital.
Erin Patterson went to the hospital two days after her lunch, telling medical staff she was unwell but initially refusing medical help, the trial heard previously.
She was also allegedly reluctant to let doctors see her children, saying she had scraped the mushrooms off their meals because they were fussy eaters and she did not want them to panic.
Wilkinson told the jury on Tuesday that his interactions with Patterson had always been cordial.
“When we met, things were friendly. We never had arguments or disputes. She just seemed like an ordinary person,” Wilkinson said of Patterson.
The prosecution alleges Patterson deliberately poisoned her lunch guests and took care that she did not consume the deadly mushrooms.
Her defence lawyers said it was the result of “a terrible accident”.
The trial is expected to last about six weeks.
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