Mushroom trial

Lies, damn lies: The admissions and denials of an accused killer cook

In the witness box this week, Erin Patterson reeled off a list of lies she told her family and police due to what she says was a combination of fear – and love.

• Erin Pearson

The two faces of Erin Patterson: Prosecutors paint a portrait of piety and poison

The accused killer said she loved her in-laws, Don and Gail, but as they lay critically ill and she began fearing her foraged mushrooms were to blame, a court heard she said nothing.

• Erin Pearson

Erin Patterson murder trial day 28 as it happened: Prosecutor suggests accused mushroom cook didn’t love her in-laws, questions her about lunch invitation to estranged husband

Accused triple-murderer Erin Patterson has returned to the witness box on day 28 of her murder trial in the regional town of Morwell. Follow our rolling coverage.

• Marta Pascual Juanola and Erin Pearson

Mushroom cook thought guests would take her cancer tale to the grave, Crown claims

Prosecutors have grilled Erin Patterson on her ovarian cancer story, alleging she never intended to have to account for it because she knew her lunch guests would die.

• Erin Pearson

‘You lied’: Rapid-fire accusations as mushroom cook faces the prosecution

After three days and 30 minutes of softly spoken, slow questioning from the defence, Erin Patterson came under cross-examination.

• Erin Pearson and Marta Pascual Juanola

Erin Patterson murder trial day 27 as it happened: ‘You thought the lunch guests would die’: A rare invitation and a ‘lie about cancer’

It was rare for Erin Patterson to host guests; having four people over for a meal was not an ordinary, casual event for the mother of two.

• Marta Pascual Juanola and Erin Pearson

An estranged husband’s blunt question: ‘Is that how you poisoned my parents?’

Accused killer cook Erin Patterson has told a jury the accusation she poisoned her lunch guests was wrong, but it sent her into a spiral of fear in which she made a series of stupid decisions.

• Erin Pearson

Shame, embarrassment, self-loathing. The picture of an accused mushroom killer

Erin Patterson has had to share deeply personal sides of herself as she tells a jury she didn’t deliberately serve a poisonous lunch.

• Erin Pearson and Marta Pascual Juanola

Erin Patterson murder trial day 26 as it happened: Mushroom cook says fear of estranged husband’s actions led to phone resets; details dumping food dehydrator at local tip after fatal lunch

Erin Patterson has told a court her estranged husband asked her if she had used a dehydrator to poison his parents, and admitted resetting her phone out of fear police would discover photos she had of foraged mushrooms.

• Marta Pascual Juanola and Erin Pearson

Day 25, as it happened: Patterson concedes death cap mushrooms were in beef Wellington she fed guests

Accused killer cook Erin Patterson has conceded death cap mushrooms were in a beef Wellington she fed her lunch guests after telling a jury she often foraged for fungi and enjoyed buying exotic varieties because they tasted better.

• Marta Pascual Juanola and Erin Pearson

In her own words: Erin Patterson takes the stand in mushroom trial

Erin Patterson has told the jury about her relationship with her in-laws and ex-husband, as well as her love of mushroom foraging.

• Erin Pearson and Marta Pascual Juanola

They queued in the cold as if waiting for grand final tickets. Instead, it was the mushroom murder trial

With camp chairs and coffee, 25 people arrived more than four hours before the battle was due to begin. Not on a footy field but in a regional courtroom where an accused killer was telling her story.

• Erin Pearson and Marta Pascual Juanola

Court hears evidence from alleged mushroom cook: Erin Patterson trial day 24 as it happened

Erin Patterson, who is accused of murdering three relatives by serving them a beef Wellington meal that contained death cap mushrooms, is giving evidence. Follow our live updates from the trial.

• Marta Pascual Juanola and Erin Pearson

How police raked over nearly every aspect of mushroom cook Erin Patterson’s life

“We seized everything we saw,” Detective Leading Senior Constable Stephen Eppingstall told a jury in Patterson’s triple-murder trial in Morwell this week.

• Erin Pearson

Erin Patterson trial as it happened: Alleged mushroom cook’s phone records too expensive for police

The lead homicide detective on the mushroom case told court that a year’s worth of mobile phone location tracking would have left police with a six-figure bill.

• Marta Pascual Juanola and Erin Pearson

Shopping list, health chats, missing mobile: Police lay out investigation into mushroom cook

Police dug into Erin Patterson’s bank records, shopping history and phone records as part of their probe into a lunch that killed three of her guests, a court has heard.

• Erin Pearson

‘They’re the only family that I’ve got’: Mushroom cook Erin Patterson explained lunch invitation

During her police interview, the alleged mushroom killer cook said she loved her in-laws.

• Erin Pearson

• Updated

Fatal lunch cook changed details on where and when she bought mushrooms, court told

A Health Department manager has detailed her conversations with Erin Patterson after Patterson’s lunch guests became ill.

• Erin Pearson

As lunch guests lay dying, health officer hunted for suspect mushrooms

A suburban council health officer spent days scouring grocers in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs for repackaged dried mushrooms feared to have poisoned Erin Patterson’s lunch guests.

• Erin Pearson

The desperate fight to save mushroom lunch guests from death cap poisoning

An intensive care doctor has told Erin Patterson’s murder trial that Ian Wilkinson was “very close” to death as hospital staff tried in vain to save the lives of other patients.

• Marta Pascual Juanola

‘I want nothing to do with them’: Facebook messages from account allegedly linked to Erin Patterson criticise in-laws

Online messages sent to a chat group from an account allegedly linked to Erin Patterson told friends that Simon Patterson was a “deadbeat” father, and his parents “a lost cause”, a year before the fatal lunch.

• Erin Pearson

Death cap webpage accessed on computer seized from Erin Patterson’s home, court told

An internet page listing a death cap mushroom sighting was accessed on a device connected to Erin Patterson, a court has heard.

• Erin Pearson

Phone tower pings can’t tell precise location, expert tells Erin Patterson’s murder trial

Dr Matthew Sorell told the jury connections to tower base stations can change from one to another with as little movement as a person going from the front door of their home to the back door.

• Erin Pearson

• Updated

Erin Patterson’s phone pinged near mushroom sightings months before lunch, trial told

A phone tower expert has told the Supreme Court he was asked by homicide detectives to analyse the accused killer’s phone records for a period spanning more than three years before the beef Wellington lunch.

• Erin Pearson

Inside the forensic journey to unmask a deadly mushroom meal

Plucked from Erin Patterson’s outdoor bin, the leftover eye fillet coated in mushroom and encased in pastry has been examined across Melbourne in the lead-up to her triple murder trial.

• Erin Pearson

Death cap mushroom toxins found in lunch leftovers, Erin Patterson murder trial hears

A forensic toxicologist who examined the mushroom paste and beef taken from the leftovers said the samples tested positive for the toxins.

• Erin Pearson

• Updated

Juror in Erin Patterson murder trial discharged

A juror in the trial has been discharged over concerns he could have discussed the case with family and friends.

• Marta Pascual Juanola and Erin Pearson

• Updated

Tip manager tells Erin Patterson mushroom murder trial of dehydrator found in e-waste bin

Landfill operator says a black food dehydrator was found in a bin inside the tip shed several days after CCTV showed a woman dropping an item off at the transfer station.

• Erin Pearson

• Updated

Mushroom expert recorded sighting of death caps in months before fatal lunch, trial told

Mycologist Tom May told Erin Patterson’s murder trial that photos of the poisonous mushrooms were posted on the iNaturalist website by members of the public.

• Erin Pearson

Erin Patterson was part of a close-knit, Christian family. Online, things seemed different, court told

Family members told the Supreme Court the accused killer seemed like an ordinary, normal mother. But prosecutors allege Patterson revealed her true feelings about her family to her friends online.

• Erin Pearson

Son of alleged mushroom lunch killer Erin Patterson said relationship between parents ‘very negative’

The pre-recorded video evidence of Patterson’s children was played to the jury on Friday, the ninth day of the murder trial.

• Erin Pearson

Erin Patterson trial latest updates: ‘She ate the same as us,’ daughter of accused says of mushroom meal leftovers

A video recording of evidence from Erin Patterson’s daughter was played to the Supreme Court on Thursday.

• Erin Pearson

‘Better scared than dead’: Doctor’s urgent warning to accused mushroom killer

When Erin Patterson mentioned her children had eaten leftover beef Wellington, a doctor warned against her reluctance to have them checked out.

• Erin Pearson

Doctor’s death cap poisoning warning played to jury after son, daughters of guests at fatal beef Wellington lunch testify: Trial day seven, as it happened

Erin Patterson has pleaded not guilty to murdering three relatives by serving them a beef Wellington laced with death cap mushrooms. Follow our live coverage of the triple-murder trial here.

• Marta Pascual Juanola and Erin Pearson

Surviving guest recalls becoming deathly ill following mushroom lunch

The town pastor who survived a poisoned mushroom lunch that killed three family members has recalled how he and his gravely ill wife were dramatically rushed through the corridors of a regional hospital after a local doctor learnt their sickness might be from death cap mushrooms and not simply gastro.

• Erin Pearson