Erin Patterson’s recorded interview with police following the deadly beef Wellington lunch has been aired in open court for the very first time.
Wearing a grey jumper and seated across the table from Homicide Squad Senior Constable Stephen Eppingstall, Patterson was asked if she owned a dehydrator or knew anything about them.
‘No,’ was the response.
It was a lie the jury has previously heard Patterson now admits to.
On Tuesday, the jury was shown photographs of a manual for a Sunbeam food dehydrator found in a drawer in Patterson’s Leongatha home.
‘I’ve got manuals of lots of stuff I’ve collected over the years,’ Patterson told the detective on August 5 2023 following the search of her home.
‘I just keep them all.’
On the opening day of the trial, Patterson’s barrister Colin Mandy, SC told the jury Patterson had lied about having cancer and did dump a dehydrator later found to have traces of death cap mushrooms.
Erin Patterson was wearing a grey jumper similar to that pictured during her record of interview
‘She panicked because she was overwhelmed because there were four people that had become so ill because of the food she served them,’ he said.
Asked by Senior Constable Eppingstall – the last witness to be called by the prosecution – if she had ever dehydrated mushrooms before, Patterson shook her head in denial.
Pressed for information, the detective asked if Patterson had ever foraged for mushrooms.
‘Never,’ she responded.
Patterson had claimed she had bought the dried mushrooms used in her beef Wellingtons from an Asian grocer in Melbourne’s south-east.
Under questioning, Patterson mentioned her ‘co-operation’ with the hunt to find that Asian grocer.
‘I’m sure you understand too that I’ve never been in a situation like this before, and I’ve been very, very helpful with the health department through the week, because I wanted to help that side of things as much as possible, because I do want to know what happened,’ she said.
‘I’ve given them as much information as they’ve asked for, and offered up all the food and all the information about where the food came from the house.’
Detective Senior Constable Stephen Eppingstall took to the stand on Tuesday
The jury heard Patterson was questioned about the reason for the lunch and why she had invited her in-laws over.
‘Because I’ve got no other family,’ she said.
‘I want to maintain those relationships in spite of what’s happening with Simon, I love them a lot.’
The jury has previously heard Patterson’s relationship with her estranged husband had become frosty towards the end of 2022.
Patterson, 50, is accused of killing her former in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, with death cap mushrooms served in the pastry dish during a lunch at her Leongatha home on July 29, 2023.
Pastor Ian Wilkinson was the only one to survive the lunch, with an attempted murder charge related to his alleged poisoning also in play.
Patterson told Senior Constable Eppingstall that Don and Gail had always been good to her.
‘They always said to me that they would support me with love and emotional support even though Simon and I were separated,’ she said.
‘They’re the only family I’ve got.’
Erin Patterson’s in-laws Don and Gail Patterson died after eating a deadly beef Wellington
Patterson told the detective she had tried to maintain her relationship with Simon’s parents for the good of her children despite their separation.
‘Nothing that’s ever happened between us, nothing he’s ever done to me, will change the fact that they’re good decent people that have never done anything wrong by me, ever,’ she said.
Before the 20 minute record of interview was played, the jury heard that the police tasked with raiding Patterson’s home had seized just one plate from her home.
That plate was retrieved from the kitchen fridge and contained nothing more than fruit.
In opening the trial, Crown prosecutor Dr Nanette Rogers told the jury that Patterson had invited everyone over to ask them how she ought to tell her children she had ovarian cancer.
Prosecutors said that Patterson served beef Wellington – and ate from a different plate to the others, distinguishing her meal from those alleged to have been poisoned.
There were four large grey dinner plates on the table, while Patterson ate from a smaller, tan orange dish, according to Pastor Ian Wilkinson, who became sick but survived.
Homicide Squad Detective Sergeant Luke Farrell told the jury that while detectives were interested in Patterson’s plates, they had not taken photos of them all after executing a search warrant on August 5, 2023.
Homicide Squad Detective Sergeant Luke Farrell leaves Latrobe Valley Court on Tuesday
Nor had they measured any of the various plates found inside her Leongatha property.
Instead the jury was taken to screen grabs of a video a detective took of Patterson’s kitchen.
The jury observed images that showed several plates which were red on top and black on the bottom in addition to a white plate with some colour on it.
Another image showed a stack of four dark-coloured plates and a single white plate with stripes of blue, black and orange.
The pastor gave evidence to the jury on May 6, describing in detail what happened at the lunch.
Mr Wilkinson recalled the meal consisted of mash potato, green beans and beef wellington.
‘I could see them (the plates) between Heather and Gail, there were four large grey plates, one smaller plate – a different colour, an orangy-tan color,’ he insisted.
‘Gail picked up two of the grey plates and took them to the table, Heather picked up two of the grey plates and took them to the table, Erin picked up the odd plate and put it at her place at the table.’
Health official Sally Ann Atkinson led the public health investigation to find the death cap mushrooms Erin Patterson claimed to have purchased in Melbourne’s south-east
Detective Senior Constable Eppingstall, who spearheaded the investigation into Patterson, later told the jury police had not located any grey plates as described by Mr Wilkinson during their search of the house.
Sgt Farrell had been conducting the search on Patterson’s home when police allege she factory reset her mobile phone.
The jury heard Patterson had been allowed to hang onto her phone throughout the search and spent up to 20 minutes alone with it in a sealed room.
On Tuesday, the jury watched video of the moment Sgt Farrell asked Patterson for her phone while they were both seated at her dining table.
‘I asked for it and she gave it to me,’ Sgt Farrell told the jury.
‘I asked her if there was a pin code to open the phone and she provided (two codes) she thought it might’ve been, but I didn’t require a code to access the phone.’
The phone was later erased remotely while sitting in a secure locker within the Homicide Squad’s headquarters.
The jury was shown several images of items seized from Patterson’s home.
Ian Wilkinson claimed Erin Patterson had eaten off an orange coloured plate that was smaller than the grey plates her guests ate off. He is pictured entering the court on Tuesday
These items included an instruction manual for a Sunbeam dehydrator, a set of digital scales and a glass bowl.
Sgt Farrell said a RecipeTin Eats cookbook which contained a recipe for beef Wellington was also photographed and seized.
The investigator said he opened the book and found a recipe for beef Wellington in a section of ‘spattered pages’.
Police also seized a jug of gravy and a fruit platter from the fridge.
Sgt Farrell said police discovered a Cooler Master personal computer in Patterson’s son’s room, which was later found to have stored internet searches on death cap mushrooms.
Patterson had been unaware anyone had died from eating her lunch at the time the search warrant was executed.
Sgt Farrell said that before he commenced the search, he spoke to Patterson and told her police had come to search her home in connection to the ‘death of two people’.
‘Who died?,’ Patterson asked.
Patterson’s barrister Sophie Stafford and lawyer Ophelia Holloway enter the court on Tuesday
Patterson’s lead barrister Colin Mandy, SC (left) and lawyer Bill Doogue on Tuesday
Earlier, the jury was taken through the public health scramble to locate the dried mushrooms Patterson had told health officials she used to make the beef Wellington.
Health official Sally Ann Atkinson told the jury Patterson claimed the mushrooms she purchased came in a clear bag that carried a white label without any kind of commercial packaging.
While a council investigator found one shop in Oakleigh, south-east of Melbourne, that contained bagged mushrooms similar to what Patterson described, she said health officials never found any traces of death cap mushrooms being sold.
‘It’s highly unlikely the commercial mushroom supply chain was contaminated with amanita (poisons),’ Ms Atkinson said.
She further said there were no ‘issues’ found with the other foods served in Patterson’s lunch and the risk to the public was deemed ‘low’.
The officer also noted ‘no food recalls were deemed warranted’.
The trial continues.
