Erin Patterson mushroom murder trial LIVE updates: How accused allegedly branded her husband a ‘deadbeat’ and his parents a ‘lost cause’

Victoria Police Cybercrime Squad senior digital forensics officer Shamen Fox-Henry returned to give evidence but only answered a question regarding ‘events’ which were detected on a Samsung phone seized from Patterson’s home that occurred on February 12, 2023.

Week four of the murder trial has now concluded and will return on Monday.

Patterson vented about her in-laws to online friends in the months leading up to the fateful lunch that claimed their lives.

In the messages, Patterson described her in-laws as a ‘lost cause’ and exclaimed ‘f**k them’.

Patterson showed no emotion at the back of courtroom four of the Latrobe Valley Magistrates’ Court in Victoria’s east, where her Supreme Court hearing is being held.

Mr Fox-Henry (pictured below) was able to recover the Facebook messages from a Samsung phone seized by police upon her arrest the following month August 2023.

Some of the messages read:

‘Simon’s dad contacted me this morning to say that he and Gail had tried to talk to Simon about the matters I raised and to get ‘his side’ but he refused to talk about it other than to signal he disagreed with what I said,’ she told her online chums.

‘Beyond that he wont talk about it. So Don said they cant adjudicate if they don’t know both sides and Simon wont give his side. So he said all he can ask is that Simon and I get together to pray for the children.

‘This family I swear to f**king God.’

Professor Warrillow said Heather Wilkinson arrived at the Austin in a similar condition to Don and Gail.

Investigations found Heather also suffered from mushroom poisoning and her organs were rapidly getting worse.

Doctors also discussed a liver transplant but Professor Warrillow said Heather was ‘too unwell to undergo the surgery’.

‘It was very apparent that this was not survivable,’ he said.

Ian Wilkinson, who was in court listening to Professor Warrillow’s evidence, underwent surgery on August 4 and over the next few days ‘there was some slow but important improvement’ in his condition.

The jury heard Ian’s condition improved and he was eventually discharged in September 2023.

But prior to that Professor Warrillow had a grim prognosis for Ian who he said was ‘close to dying’.

‘We thought he was going to die,’ Professor Warrillow said.

Professor Warrillow also explained how a patient is effectively kept alive by machines but added there was a ‘high mortality rate on mushroom poisoning’.

Professor Warrillow later added he meant there was a ‘high mortality rate’ among people suffering mushroom poisoning in an ICU.

Professor Warrillow said Don (pictured below with wife Gail) received ‘very aggressive’ treatment but nothing was working.

‘We were very worried about his prognosis, it was getting worse,’ Professor Warrillow said.

The doctor said Don was given an antidote to death cap poisoning and activated charcoal to medically remove the poison from the bowel

Professor Warrillow said the only way they could save Don’s life was to give him a liver transplant.

The specialist said they gave Don a liver transplant but he got ‘relentlessly worse unfortunately’.

‘He was dying,’ Professor Warrillow said.

Professor Warrillow said Gail Patterson arrived with severe liver failure and died despite intense treatment.

‘She was on everything that we had,’ he said.

‘The consensus was she was too sick to undergo the necessary surgery.’

Austin Health Intensive Care Director Professor Stephen Warrillow told the jury he was at the hospital in July 2023 when the death cap poisoned lunch guests were transferred to his care.

Professor Warrillow said he gave direct care to Don and Gail Patterson and Ian and Heather Wilkinson.

Professor Warrillow said multiple specialists also treated the patients during their stay which ended with the deaths of Don, Gail and Heather.

Pastor Ian Wilkinson was the sole survivor.

Professor Warrillow said Don was experiencing blood in his vomit and diarrhea.

The medical specialist said the Austin has specialised equipment for treating liver conditions.

Professor Warrillow also said he had treated other patients at the Austin for death cap poisoning.

He said Don was critically ill and suffering severe organ failure from a ‘severe’ death cap poisoning episode.

Don was also on life support, the jury was told.

Erin Patterson watched as the professor gave evidence, today wearing a black-long sleeved top.

Erin Patterson, 50, is accused of murdering her in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, after allegedly serving them a beef Wellington lunch with death cap mushrooms.

Patterson is also accused of attempting to murder Heather’s husband, pastor Ian Wilkinson (pictured below), who survived the lunch after spending several weeks in an intensive care unit.

The court heard Patterson’s estranged husband, Simon, was also invited, but didn’t attend.

Witnesses told the jury Patterson ate her serving from a smaller and differently coloured plate than those of her guests, who ate from four grey plates.

Patterson told authorities she bought dried mushrooms from an unnamed Asian store in the Monash area of Melbourne, but health inspectors could find no evidence of this.

The health department declared the death cap poisoning was ‘isolated’ to Patterson’s deadly lunch.

Multiple witnesses, including Simon Patterson, Ian Wilkinson and other family members, have given emotion-charged evidence to the jury.

Medical staff have told the jury of the painful symptoms the dying lunch guests and Ian Wilkinson suffered.

An expert witness told the court death cap mushrooms were detected in debris taken from a dehydrater Patterson had dumped at a local tip.

Telecommunications expert Dr Matthew Sorell also told the jury Patterson’s phone was detected near areas in Outtrim and Loch where death cap mushrooms had been spotted.

CCTV of a short toilet pitstop at a Gippsland BP service station following the day of the lunch was also shown to the court.

Victoria Police Cybercrime Squad senior digital forensics officer Shamen Fox-Henry said he found evidence of a death cap mushroom on data from a computer seized from Patterson’s Leongatha home on August 5, 2023.

Blunt Facebook messages found on a Samsung phone were on Thursday read aloud to the jury.