The Victorian Supreme Court has lifted the lid on bombshell allegations that were kept secret during the mushroom murder trial out of fear of prejudicing the jury.
Today, Justice Beale ruled pre-trial evidence, including the previous alleged murder attempts of Simon Patterson by Erin with poisoned penne and cookies, could be released to media after it was suppressed for months.
Here are the interesting details about the mushroom murder case that could not be discussed before now.
Erin was accused of trying to kill her husband – four times
Police allege she served him toxic penne pasta, a chicken korma curry, a toxic special beef stew, a chicken wrap and cookies laced with rat poison and antifreeze.
Simon became so sick he ended up in hospital on a number of occasions, and even ended up paralysed at one point and almost died.
“My family were asked to come and say goodbye to me twice, I collapsed at home, then was in an induced coma for 16 days through which I had 3 emergency operations mainly on my small intestine…” the post read.
She allegedly tried to poison him in the towns of Korumburra between November 16 and 17, 2021, in Howqua between May 25 and 27, 2022 and in Wilsons Prom on September 6, 2022.
On November 2, 2023, Victoria Police charged her with three counts of attempted murder over these alleged incidents – at the same time that they charged with three counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder over the fatal lunch at her home.
“The further three attempted murder charges relate to three separate incidents in Victoria between 2021-2022,” a police statement said at the time.
“It’s alleged a 48-year-old Korumburra man became ill following meals on these dates.”
Prosecutors alleged Simon’s symptoms were consistent with ingesting rat poison and antifreeze.
Justice Christopher Beale told the jury to “put them out of (their) minds”.
Justice Beale urged the jury to “dispassionately weigh the evidence” in the case.
Erin made two trips to the tip
While Erin Patterson admitted during the trial that she dumped her food dehydrator at Koonwarra Transfer Station on August 2, we can now reveal it was actually her second trip to the tip.
She actually visited the site for the first time just 45 minutes after the mushroom lunch.
CCTV now released by the court shows her arriving at the tip and flattening a number of cardboard boxes before putting them into the bin.
During the pre-trial, the prosecution suggested she could have been trying to hide the contents of that lunch.
Text book about poisoning found on her tablet
Another piece of potential evidence that was thrown out before the trial is about what was found on one of Erin’s devices that was seized after the lunch.
A search on her tablet for key words such as “poison” returned a number of hits, including the appendix of a book called Criminal Poisoning with the title “Some Common Homicidal Poisons”.
The text detailed the colour, odour, taste, lethal dose and symptoms for a handful of poisons, including antifreeze, arsenic and cyanide.
Erin’s defence barrister won a bid to have this evidence thrown out, saying there was no proof that she downloaded or opened the file.
Erin allegedly lied in a bizarre post in a Facebook group
Another piece of evidence that was banned form the trial was about a post Erin made to a Facebook group called “Poisons Help: Emergency Identification For Mushrooms & Plants”.
“My cat chewed on this mushroom just now. He is having a vomit. Was in grassland near trees, I’m in Victoria Australia,” she posted.
The prosecution argued in pre-trial that Erin never owned a cat and was fishing for information.
Erin admitted she lied in a letter to homicide detectives
“I am now wanting to clear up the record because I have become extremely stressed and overwhelmed by the deaths of my loved ones,” the letter read.
“I am hoping this statement might help in some way. I believe if people understood the background more, they would not be so quick to rush to judgement.
In the statement, Erin allegedly said advice she received immediately after the deaths was to give a “no comment” interview to police, which she said she now regretted.
“I now very much regret not answering some questions following this advice given the nightmare that this process has become,” she said.
Erin said she found the police interview “terrifying and anxiety-provoking”.
She admitted she lied to investigators when she told them she had dumped it at the tip “a long time ago”.
She said she was at the hospital with her children “discussing the food dehydrator” when her ex-husband, the son of the dead couple, asked: “Is that what you used to poison them?”
Worried that she might lose custody of the couple’s children, Erin said she then panicked and dumped the dehydrator at the tip.
Erin alluded to media speculation about the fact her estranged husband, Simon Patterson, reportedly spent a fortnight in hospital in May last year with a severe stomach illness unrelated to the current incident.
She said she “reluctantly” agreed to nurse Simon Patterson for three weeks after he was discharged from hospital, before telling him that she did not want to reconcile with him.
Victoria Police told 9News at the time that the statement was “not a police statement taken by investigators”.
Why information was suppressed during the trial
The case of a mother from country Victoria accused of deliberately killing her in-laws with a poisoned lunch became one of Australia’s biggest mysteries.
It garnered worldwide attention when Don and Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson died in hospital from mushroom poisoning in early August 2023, with major global media outlets including The Washington Post, BBC, and CNN alerting Erin Patterson‘s arrest minutes after it was announced.
On the day of her arrest, Victoria Police Detective Inspector Dean Thomas said he couldn’t “think of another investigation that has generated this level of media and public interest, not only here in Victoria but also nationally and internationally”.
The huge public interest in the fascinating case meant the trial was covered extremely carefully in the media, with many things unable to be reported or said in order to ensure there was no prejudicing the jury.
There was fear of the jurors being influenced by the media, social media and all the general speculation and conversation around the case.
On May 15 one of the 15 jurors was discharged from the trial after Justice Christopher Beale “received information that (the juror) had been discussing the case with family and friends, contrary to (his) instructions”.
While only 12 jurors decided on the verdict, 15 were empanelled to sit through the long trial for this reason.
