Erin Patterson murder trial: Accused ‘lied’ to multiple people, and repeatedly changed her story on sourcing mushrooms, prosecutor tells jury

“Mr [Colin] Mandy [the defence barrister] may try to argue that her conduct was not because she was trying to cover her tracks but because she was panicked. You should reject this,” Rogers said.

Rogers said Patterson had told the jury she had put the Asian store-bought mushrooms in the dehydrator after noticing they were “rubbery” some time between buying them and using them.
That was an “obvious lie”, Rogers said.

Patterson’s story about buying dried mushrooms from an Asian grocer was just a fiction, Rogers told the jury, and “a lie that she told over and over again”.

“Yet, she continued to peddle this false story... repeatedly to multiple medical professionals,” Rogers said.

Rogers said Patterson was aware that her in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, were in an induced coma by the time her sister-in-law, Tanya Patterson, visited her in hospital on August 1, 2023.

“She told Tanya she knew this,” Rogers said.

“The accused must have known the critical importance of telling the truth. No amount of panic could justify holding back information at that stage.”

The court has now adjourned for the day and Rogers will resume her closing address to the jury on Tuesday.

Rogers told the jury that on August 2, 2023, Atkinson sent pictures of sealable bags with white labels for Patterson to clarify what size the packet was. Atkinson told the trial Patterson selected the smaller bag before following up her response with another message saying that the weight she had initially told Atkinson would be lower, given the size of the bag.

“The accused changed her story again,” Rogers tod the jury.

“You might find it very strange that she developed such a specific memory of what the packaging looked like ... And gone complete blank on the shop and suburb.”

Rogers said Patterson’s description of the packaging was an attempt to cast as much suspicion on the Asian grocery store as possible. She also accused the mother of two of being initially “non-responsive” to the Department of Health’s requests because the story she was telling was untrue.

Every time Patterson was pressed about the details of her story that lie became “more apparent”, the prosecutor said.

Patterson’s 10th account of where she got the mushrooms came on August 2, 2023, Rogers said, when she spoke with Atkinson again, this time in Cripps’ presence. Earlier that day, Atkinson sent the mother of two a lengthy text message with questions about the mushrooms that named Oakleigh, Mount Waverley and Clayton.

Rogers said Patterson told Atkinson she couldn’t remember where she bought the mushrooms, but she thought it was from a shopping strip. Rogers said Patterson didn’t mention Glen Waverley and didn’t correct Atkinson when the health manager listed Mount Waverley as a suburb. Rogers said Patterson claimed in her cross-examination she had never mentioned Mount Waverley.

About 11.20am on August 3, 2023, Patterson spoke to Atkinson again, Rogers said, and this time gave her the names of three streets in Oakleigh, and part of Clayton where the mushrooms could have come from. The prosecutor said this was the first time Patterson nominated Glen Waverley as a potential suburb.

“You would think that if you were in a situation like this for the sake of your family members and of anyone that might be exposed, you’d do whatever you could to remember the store,” Rogers told the jury.

Instead, Rogers said, Patterson “sat on her hands” while her relatives were in comas. The prosecutor said Patterson initially took a long time to respond to messages from health officials and as time passed, her description of the store shifted.

Rogers told jurors they would likely remember that Patterson “appeared to have a remarkable memory” as she gave evidence in the trial, and could recall what day of the week a certain date in 2023 was.

“Yet in August 2023, she could not recall the shop or even the suburb where she purchased the mushrooms from,” Rogers said. “It simply beggars belief.”

“On Sunday, July 30, 2023, [Erin’s estranged husband] Simon Patterson told the accused … that all four lunch guests were crook and taken to hospital. The accused confirmed this when she spoke with Katrina Cripps, the child protection practitioner,” Rogers said.

Patterson knew her lunch guests were unwell, Rogers said, and claimed she was also ill.

“It would have been apparent that this illness suffered by the lunch guests was something to do with the food at the lunch,” Rogers said.

Rogers said Patterson later told Dr Laura Muldoon that she had not presented to hospital before the morning of July 31, 2023, as the mother of two thought she had a case of food poisoning.

Rogers accused Patterson of telling lies about giving her children beef Wellington leftovers with the mushrooms scraped off.

“Why did she feed them [her children] the meat portion of that meal if she didn’t know that mushrooms were an issue [and] would be the most [usual] suspect of food poisoning?” Rogers said to the jury.

Patterson’s reluctance to have her children medically assessed was further evidence she did not serve the leftovers to them, the prosecutor said.

“Her key concern apparently was that children were not panicked or stressed,” Rogers said.

Rogers said Dr Chris Webster could not have been more blunt when he told Patterson that her children could be “alive and scared, or dead”.

“She knew that they had not eaten death cap mushrooms at all. Her reluctance to have her children medically assessed is another piece of conduct by the accused which we say is incriminating conduct,” Rogers said.

The evidence strongly suggested that if the children ate the meal they would have at least experienced some symptoms, the prosecutor told the jury.

“You heard evidence that the Wilkinsons appeared well [when members of the church] saw them about 4.15pm after the lunch,” Rogers told the jury. She said that Ian Wilkinson’s evidence was that he and his wife didn’t start feeling unwell until after 10 or 11pm on the Saturday of the lunch.

Rogers said that when the Wilkinsons presented to Leongatha Hospital the following morning with nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea, neither of them could hold down water. Rogers said this was the same morning Erin Patterson was drinking coffee at her kitchen table, according to her son’s evidence.

Rogers said that at 5.30am on July 30, 2023, Ian Wilkinson was unable to keep down water. An hour later, the prosecutor said, Heather Wilkinson reported having active vomiting and diarrhoea.

A nurse observed Ian Wilkinson particularly unwell, and he was not moving around, the prosecutor said, while Heather Wilkinson was going back and forth to and from the bathroom.

“This was the same morning that the accused drove her two children to the bus stop,” Rogers said.

As the jury was taken through the final hours of the lunch guests’ lives, Erin Patterson sat in the dock looking down and taking notes, with reading glasses resting on the end of her nose.

Rogers said the only abnormal blood test results documented for Patterson were marginally elevated fibrinogen, low levels of potassium and elevated hemoglobin. She said Bersten’s evidence was that elevated fibrinogen and low potassium levels could be the result of elevated stress.

The results also showed Patterson’s creatinine and urea levels were also normal, and Bersten said such readings were inconsistent with someone who had diarrhoea. Rogers said Bersten’s evidence that Patterson had a “mild level of dehydration” was also inconsistent with her evidence she had diarrhoea.

Rogers told the jury a toxicology registrar who assessed Patterson on July 31, 2023 – two days after the lunch – gave evidence that the accused woman’s vital signs were normal.

By this time, Patterson’s father-in-law, Don Patterson, had already been transferred to the Austin Hospital in an induced coma, Rogers said.

“In total, the accused spent just over 24 hours in hospital care. Not one medical professional observed her appearing unwell,” Rogers told the jury.

The prosecutor said that when they looked at all the evidence combined, the jury could find Patterson was not suffering from a severe illness.