Erin Patterson murder trial as it happened: Disagree. Disagree. Disagree. Final denials in mushroom cook cross-examination

Accused triple murderer Erin Patterson turned to thank the judge as she left the witness box for the final time after eight days of grilling.

Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers, SC, had finished with three questions that got to the heart of the case after 31 days in courtroom four of the Supreme Court sitting at Morwell.

Sighs could be heard from the packed public court, and from some of the 14 jurors. Relief in the form of tears also spread across Patterson’s face as she sat, dressed in a navy and white spotted top, with tissues in her right hand.

“You’ll be relieved to know I’ve only got three final questions,” Rogers announced at 11.35am.

“I suggest that you deliberately sourced death cap mushrooms in 2023. I suggest you deliberately included them in the beef Wellington you served to [your four guests]. You did so intending to kill them.

“Disagree,” Patterson replied three times, after each accusation.

Patterson is accused of murdering her in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, by serving them death cap mushrooms in a beef Wellington meal at her Leongatha home on July 29, 2023.

Don and Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson died in the days after the lunch from the effects of mushroom poisoning. Heather’s husband, Ian, also ate the lunch, but survived after weeks in hospital.

Patterson has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder and one of attempted murder in the Supreme Court at Morwell, claiming it was all a terrible accident.

Read Erin Pearson’s wrap of the last day of Erin Patterson’s cross-examination here.

Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale has now acknowledged that the evidence in the case has concluded.

“All right. Well, ladies and gentlemen, that’s the completion of the evidence in this case,” Beale told the jury.

Beale told the jurors he needed to have some discussions with legal counsel in their absence. He said those discussions would commence this afternoon but “could take a while”.

“It may be that those discussions continue tomorrow. We have a half-day scheduled,” Beale said.

“If you could just check your phones this evening ... we will let you know if you will have a long weekend or whether we will require you to return tomorrow.”

And that concludes Erin Patterson’s eight-day stretch in the witness box.

As she was excused at 12.41pm on Thursday, Patterson turned to thank the judge.

After eight days in the witness box, Erin Patterson’s voice began to break as she was asked questions about her daughter’s ballet lesson and her son’s flying lessons.

She became teary when asked why she wanted to take her son to lessons in Tyabb the day after the mushroom lunch on July 29, 2023.

“He was really passionate about it, and I didn’t want to cancel lessons,” Patterson. “I didn’t want to disappoint him.”

Defence lawyer Colin Mandy, SC, then asked Patterson about her sister-in-law Tanya Patterson’s evidence about overhearing a conversation between the mother of two and a toxicologist in hospital about her potassium levels.

“I’d been told they were very low overnight. I had been feeling a bit unwell around 10 or 11 [pm] and I expressed that to a nurse,” Patterson said.

Patterson said that at the time her potassium levels were at 2.6, but had returned to normal by morning, after she received treatment overnight.

Nanette Rogers, SC, has concluded her cross-examination of Erin Patterson by asking her the following questions:

Rogers: I suggest that you deliberately sourced death cap mushrooms in 2023.

Patterson: Disagree

Rogers: I suggest you deliberately included them in the beef Wellington you served to [your four guests].

Patterson: Disagree

Rogers: You did so intending to kill them.

Patterson: Disagree.

Rogers: Thank you, I’ve got no further questions.

Patterson’s defence barrister, Colin Mandy, SC, will now re-examine the mother of two.

Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers, SC, has asked Erin Patterson about evidence previously heard by the court about a conversation between Erin and her estranged husband Simon Patterson in the days after the lunch.

Rogers said to Patterson that Simon had accused the accused of using the dehydrator to poison his parents, lunch attendees Don and Gail Patterson, during a conversation at Monash Medical Centre.

“You heard that was put to Simon in cross-examination and he denied saying such a thing ... I suggest that Simon never accused you of using the dehydrator to poison his parents,” Rogers said.

Rogers went on to suggest this was a lie to explain why she dumped the dehydrator at the Koonwarra transfer station the following day.

Patterson denied that was the case.