While we wait for today’s proceedings to get underway, here’s a reminder of what the jury heard on Tuesday:
1. Erin Patterson said she accepted the beef wellington she served her lunch guests on 29 July 2023 contained death cap mushrooms.
2. Patterson said she developed an interest in wild mushrooms during Covid walks in early 2020 when she noticed them in the Korumburra Botanic Gardens.
3. The accused said she wished she had never messaged her online friends in a private Facebook group chat “this family I swear to fucking god” in relation to her in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson. She told the court she felt “ashamed” for saying it.
4. Patterson told the court she had not been diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She said she was worried about potentially having ovarian cancer and described her history of consulting Google to research her symptoms.
5. Patterson detailed her daughter’s health history, including being diagnosed with an ovarian mass as a baby in 2014. She says from her daughter’s birth, when she cried a lot, she believed something was wrong but doctors told her she was an overly-anxious mother. Patterson said she eventually lost faith in the medical system.
Good morning
Welcome to day 26 of Erin Patterson’s triple murder trial.
Patterson, who began testifying on Monday, is expected to continue giving evidence this morning.
We’re expecting the trial to resume from 10.30am once the jurors enter the courtroom in Morwell.
Patterson, 50, faces three charges of murder and one charge of attempted murder relating to a beef wellington lunch she served at her house in Leongatha, in regional Victoria, on 29 July 2023.
She is accused of murdering her in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, and her estranged husband’s aunt, Heather Wilkinson. The attempted murder charge relates to Heather’s husband, Ian.
She has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The prosecution alleges Patterson deliberately poisoned her lunch guests with “murderous intent”, but her lawyers say the poisoning was a tragic accident.
