Erin Patterson mushroom murder trial LIVE updates: Marathon murder case reaches final stages as jury hears closing arguments

By PAUL SHAPIRO AND WAYNE FLOWER FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

Published: 23:15 BST, 16 June 2025 | Updated: 01:48 BST, 17 June 2025

Follow Daily Mail Australia’s live coverage of accused mushroom chef Erin Patterson‘s murder trial at Latrobe Valley Magistrates’ Court in Morwell, Victoria.

Patterson dumped dehydrator at tip because she knew it was ‘incriminating’, jury hears

Crown prosecutor Dr Nanette Rogers (left) has continued giving her closing address to the jury.

Dr Rogers is still talking about Patterson’s alleged ‘fourth deception’ and how the accused killer dumped her dehydrator at the Koonwarra Transfer Station tip shortly after getting out of hospital on August 2.

The prosecution suggested Patterson dumping the dehydrator just a few months after buying the appliance amounted to ‘incriminating conduct’.

Dr Rogers claimed Patterson dumped the dehydrator because she knew she used it to ‘prepare the deadly meal and wanted to hide the evidence’.

Dr Rogers said this was not ‘wild panic’ and asked the jury to completely reject the defence’s explanation it was.

The prosecution also said Patterson’s claims about Simon’s accusations where he asked her whether the dehydrator was the one which ‘poisoned my parents’ is ‘nonsense’.

Dr Rogers said Simon had denied that allegation during the trial.

Dr Rogers argued the only explanation for dumping the dehydrator was because she had dehydrated death caps in it.

‘Why hide it?’ Dr Rogers asked.

‘Because she knew it was incriminating… she tried to make it disappear.’

Dr Rogers said it was only because police found a bank record for the tip that anyone found the dehydrator.

The jury was reminded that Patterson said ‘blankly’ during her police interview on August 5 she knew nothing about owning a dehydrator.

Patterson accused of telling ‘obvious and ridiculous lie’

The prosecution alleged Patterson deliberately foraged and prepared the lethal mushrooms, orchestrating a ‘sinister deception’ to kill her guests.

Dr Rogers claimed Patterson’s story about purchasing dried mushrooms from an Asian store had been thoroughly debunked.

The prosecutor said the jury could reject the ‘obvious and ridiculous lie’ that the Asian store-bought mushrooms was the source of the death caps.

‘It was a lie she told time and time again,’ she said.

Health investigations confirmed that all mushrooms in the inspected stores had been commercially produced, with no evidence of death caps or non-commercial suppliers.

The jury had previously heard from expert Dr Tom May (pictured), who testified that death caps, which do not grow in Asia and cannot be cultivated, could not have been sold in stores.

The absence of other poisoning cases further undermined Patterson’s claim, Dr Rogers argued, with no other reports of death cap poisonings ever reported in the areas where Patterson thinks she may have purchased them.

The prosecution further accused Patterson of sending health officials on a ‘wild goose chase’ by providing vague and inconsistent details about the alleged shop, mentioning suburbs like Oakleigh and Glen Waverley, but failing to pinpoint a location.

‘She was not forthcoming with the Department of Health because the story she was telling about the Asian grocer was not true,’ Dr Rogers said.

‘Every time she was pressed about the details, that lie became more and more apparent.’

The trial continues at 10.30am.

‘Bush poo’ story dismissed

Patterson’s son said his mother was insistent they attend a flying lesson in Tyabb the Sunday afternoon after the lunch.

Dr Rogers said Patterson could have cancelled the lesson but didn’t.

The jury heard Patterson drove towards Tyabb for more than an hour before being told it was cancelled.

On the way back, Patterson claimed she had to go to the toilet in the bush but her son made no mention of it and if she had ‘that is something he would have recalled’.

The jury was then reminded Patterson was seen on CCTV at the Caldermeade BP where she made a nine-second visit to the toilet.

Dr Rogers said Patterson then ‘leisurely’ entered the BP and bought food.

‘There was nothing in her behaviour on the CCTV to indicate she was suffering from a serious illness let alone explosive diarrhoea,’ Dr Rogers said.

Dr Rogers said Patterson barely had any time to clean herself in the BP toilet and told the jury they could dismiss any notion it had anything to do with her supposed ‘bush poo’.

Patterson also claimed she took Imodium but never mentioned that to staff at the hospital.

Dr Rogers said Patterson would have told hospital staff if that was true and told the jury to reject that claim.

The prosecutor said Patterson did not have diarrhoea on the Sunday ‘at all’.

Dr Rogers also said Patterson’s daughter could not even recall going to Tyabb that day and called on the jury to treat her version of events ‘with some caution’.

Patterson ‘counted on all her guests dying’, jury told

Dr Rogers reminded the jury about all of the lies Patterson told about her cancer claims.

‘She was setting up a fiction that she was facing a serious health issue,’ Dr Rogers said.

The prosecutor also reminded the jury Patterson told the guests she had cancer but there was no record showing she ever did.

Dr Rogers said Patterson thought ‘the lie would die with them’.

‘That she counted on all her guests dying,’ Dr Rogers said.

Dr Rogers said ‘these were calculated, deliberate lies’ designed to get her guests to the lunch.

Pastor Ian Wilkinson (pictured) survived the lunch and gave evidence in court he, Don, Gail and his deceased wife Heather Wilkinson ate off large grey plates while Patterson ate from a smaller, different-coloured plate.

Patterson’s four deceptions

Dr Nanette Rogers SC (pictured) commenced her closing address yesterday morning by telling the jury there were ‘four deceptions’ to Patterson’s alleged crime.

The jury was told Patterson fabricated a cancer claim to lure her guests over for lunch.

Dr Rogers said Patterson ‘secreted’ lethal doses of poison into the Wellingtons.

The prosecutor added Patterson faked an illness after the lunch.

And finally, Dr Rogers said Patterson had a ‘sustained cover-up she embarked upon to conceal the truth’.

What’s next in the Erin Patterson mushroom murder trial?

Crown prosecutor Dr Nanette Rogers commenced her closing address to the jury in the Erin Patterson murder trial yesterday morning.

Ms Rogers has indicated she will conclude her address today and then the defence will give its closing address.

This follows after Patterson entered the witness box for her eighth and final day in her own marathon murder trial last Thursday.

Patterson has been a big drawcard with dozens of members of the public braving the cold to queue up outside (pictured) the courthouse very early each morning to get a front row seat in the courtroom.

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 made with death cap mushrooms.

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

The court heard Patterson’s estranged husband, Simon, was also invited to the gathering at her home in Leongatha, in Victoria’s Gippsland region, but didn’t attend.

Witnesses told the jury Patterson ate her serving from a smaller, differently-coloured plate than those of her guests, who ate off 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.

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Erin Patterson mushroom murder trial LIVE updates: Marathon murder case reaches final stages as jury hears closing arguments

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