Mum accused of killing three people with poisonous mushrooms breaks down in court – what you need to know
An Australian woman accused of murdering her estranged husband’s parents and an aunt by serving them a beef wellington laced with poisonous mushrooms has given evidence in court for the first time.
Mother of two Erin Patterson, 50, is charged with the 2023 murders of her former parents-in-law, Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, and Gail Patterson’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, 66, along with the attempted murder of Reverend Ian Wilkinson, Heather’s husband.
Patterson denies all the charges, claiming the deaths were a “terrible accident”.
The prosecution alleges she served guests the meal knowing it contained deadly death cap mushrooms, also known as Amanita phalloides.
Giving evidence at her trial at the Supreme Court of Victoria, Patterson said she had been foraging mushrooms since 2020. She also became emotional when speaking about Don and Gail.
Patterson’s estranged husband as well as the sole survivor of the alleged poisoning, Reverend Wilkinson, previously took to the stand, offering new details about what allegedly happened.
Here’s what we know so far.
An unexpected invitation
Patterson invited the four alleged victims for lunch at her home in Leongatha, a small town in Melbourne, on 29 July 2023, along with her estranged husband Simon Patterson.
Ian and Heather Wilkinson. Pic: The Salvation Army Australia – Museum
Mr Patterson told the court that although he and Erin Patterson had separated amicably in 2015, their relationship had deteriorated by late 2022.
He said he had listed them as financially separated on a tax return, which triggered a series of child support payments that meant he would no longer pay their two children’s private school fees directly, he told the court.
Speaking to the court through tears, Mr Patterson said: “I was sure she was very upset about that.”
Their soured relationship meant he repeatedly declined invitations to his estranged wife’s home for lunch – including on the day in question.
He told the court he did not feel comfortable attending.
Text messages between Patterson and her husband read out in court revealed she found his decision not to come “really disappointing” as she had spent time and money preparing the “special meal”.
Reverend Wilkinson told the court that Patterson asked his wife Heather if the couple was free for the lunch.
Detectives search Erin Patterson’s property in November 2023. Pic: AP
He said they had most of their interactions with Patterson at social gatherings such as Christmas parties at Don and Gail Patterson’s house.
“There was no reason given for the lunch, and I remember talking to Heather wondering why the sudden invitation,” Mr Wilkinson told the court, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
But he said the pair were “very happy to be invited”.
Later the couple found out Don and Gail were invited, too.
Patterson’s daughter, according to ABC, told the court that her mum organised a trip to the cinema for her and her brother in advance of the lunch.
Sole survivor gives details about the lunch
Reverend Wilkinson recalled his wife being keen to see Pattersons’ pantry because she was organising a similar space at their home.
According to ABC, he told the court he noticed Patterson was “very reluctant” about them going to see it, and thought it was possibly because it was a mess, but he didn’t go to look.
He told the court Heather and Gail offered to help plate up the food, but Patterson rejected the offer and prepared the plates alone.
Each plate had a serving of mashed potatoes, green beans and an individual beef wellington.
Patterson said the mushrooms were a mixture of button mushrooms purchased at a supermarket, and dried mushrooms purchased at an Asian grocery store in Melbourne several months ago, which were in a hand-labelled packet.
Reverend Wilkinson said the four guests were given large grey dinner plates, while Patterson ate from a smaller, tan-coloured plate.
He said he remembered his wife pointing this out after they became ill.
The reverend said he and his wife ate their full servings, while Don ate his own and half of his wife’s.
Reverend Wilkinson said that after the meal, Patterson fabricated a cancer diagnosis, suggesting the lunch was put together so that she could ask them the best way to tell her children about the illness.
The prosecution said she did this to justify the children’s absence.
The defence does not dispute that Patterson lied about having cancer.
Patterson tears up in court
Appearing as a witness for her own defence at the beginning of June, Patterson said she accepted there must have been death cap mushrooms in the beef wellington she made, according to the ABC.
She also said she began foraging for mushrooms around the towns of Korumburra and Leongatha during the COVID lockdowns in 2020. After picking the mushrooms, she said she would use a food dehydrator to dry and preserve them to have them available later in the year.
Prosecutors earlier claimed the defendant denied ever owning a food dehydrator, but police traced one owned by her to a nearby dump that was later found to contain death cap mushrooms.
Defence lawyer Colin Mandy also questioned Patterson about a series of expletive-laden messages sent to friends regarding the Patterson family.
“I wish I’d never said it. I feel ashamed for saying it and I wish that the family didn’t have to hear that I said that,” Patterson told the court about the messages.
Talking through tears, she added: “I was really frustrated with Simon, but it wasn’t Don and Gail’s fault.”
From 29 April: A court sketch shows Erin Patterson in court. Pic:AAP/Reuters
The court previously heard the relationship between Patterson and her estranged husband deteriorated shortly before the alleged murders due to a disagreement over child support.
It is not known how long Patterson will give evidence for or whether she will be cross-examined by the prosecution.
Patterson’s children ‘ate leftovers after guests went to hospital’
All four alleged victims had fallen ill and were experiencing severe vomiting and diarrhoea by midnight on the day of the lunch.
Patterson says she also became ill hours after eating the meal.
Her daughter, according to the ABC, told the court she remembers Patterson telling her she had diarrhoea that night.
Her four guests were taken to hospital the following day, with all of their liver tests showing “abnormal” results, the court was told.
Patterson claims she and her children ate leftovers from the beef wellington on the same day. Her daughter told the court she remembered this, and that her mum didn’t eat much because she was still feeling unwell.
The mum said she scraped the mushrooms off the plates in advance because she knew her children didn’t like them.
Patterson went to hospital two days after the lunch, where she initially discharged herself against medical advice, the court was told.
Erin Patterson speaks to the media outside her home in 2023. Pic:AAP/Nine News/Reuters
She had mild symptoms of illness, but further tests revealed no evidence of toxins consistent with death cap mushroom poisoning, the prosecution said.
A nurse at the hospital where she was treated told the court she “didn’t look unwell like Ian and Heather”, who were at the same hospital.
Hospital staff have said Patterson resisted attempts by doctors to have her two children tested after she told them they had eaten some of the leftovers, saying she did not want to frighten them.
Gail and Heather died on Friday 4 August 2023, while Don died a day later.
Reverend Wilkinson spent seven weeks in hospital but survived.
Police previously said the symptoms of all four of those who became ill were consistent with poisoning from death cap mushrooms, which are responsible for 90% of all toxic mushroom-related fatalities.
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Days after the deaths, police opened a homicide investigation and confirmed Patterson was a suspect. She was charged on 2 November 2023.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the Sudanese city of Al Fashir by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in a two-day window after the paramilitary group captured the regional capital, analysts believe.
Sky News is not able to independently verify the claim by Yale Humanitarian Labs, as the city remains under a telecommunications blackout.
Stains and shapes resembling blood and corpses can be seen from space in satellite images analysed by the research lab.
Al Fashir University. Pic: Airbus DS/2025
Al Fashir University. Pic: Airbus DS/2025
Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of Yale Humanitarian Labs, said: “In the past 48 hours since we’ve had [satellite] imagery over Al Fashir, we see a proliferation of objects that weren’t there before RSF took control of Al Fashir – they are approximately 1.3m to 2m long which is critical because in satellite imagery at very high resolution, that’s the average length of a human body lying vertical.”
Mini Minawi, the governor of North Darfur, said on X that 460 civilians have been killed in the last functioning hospital in the city.
The Sudan Doctors Network has also shared that the RSF “cold-bloodedly killed everyone they found inside Al Saudi Hospital, including patients, their companions, and anyone else present in the wards”.
World Health Organisation (WHO) chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was “appalled and deeply shocked” by the reports.
Satellite images support the claims of a massacre at Al Saudi Hospital, according to Mr Raymond, who said YHL’s report detailed “a large pile of them [objects believed to be bodies] against a wall at one building at Saudi hospital. And we believe that’s consistent with reports that patients and staff were executed en masse”.
In a video message released on Wednesday, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo acknowledged “violations in Al Fashir” and claimed “an investigation committee should start to hold any soldier or officer accountable”.
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Army soldiers ‘fled key Sudan city’ before capture
The Saudi Maternity Hospital in Al Fashir. Pic: Airbus DS /2025 via AP
The commander is known for committing atrocities in Darfur in the early 2000s as a Janjaweed militia leader, and the RSF has been accused of carrying out genocide in Darfur 20 years on.
Sources have told Sky News the RSF is holding doctors, journalists and politicians captive, demanding ransoms from some families to release their loved ones.
One video shows a man from Al Fashir with an armed man kneeling on the ground, telling his family to pay 15,000. The currency was not made clear.
In some cases, ransoms have been paid, but then more messages come demanding that more money be transferred to secure release.
Muammer Ibrahim, a journalist based in the city, is currently being held by the RSF, who initially shared videos of him crouched on the ground, surrounded by fighters, announcing his hometown had been captured under duress.
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He is being held incommunicado as his family scrambles to negotiate his release. Muammer courageously covered the siege of Al Fashir for months, enduring starvation and shelling.
The Committee to Protect Journalists regional director Sara Qudah said the abduction of Muammar Ibrahim “is a grave and alarming reminder that journalists in Al Fashir are being targeted simply for telling the truth”.
At least 30 people have died after Hurricane Melissa tore through the Caribbean on Wednesday.
The Red Cross said early indications show the storm has been a “disaster of unprecedented catastrophe”.
Storm Melissa has so far ravaged through Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Cuba.
At least 34 are estimated to be dead in the Caribbean, with eight of those in Jamaica, one in the Dominican Republic and 25 in Haiti.
This was down from a previously reported 40.
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‘Unimaginable’ destruction of Hurricane Melissa
‘Heartbreaking’ aerial footage reveals scale of destruction
Later on Wednesday, the Jamaican government confirmed four people – three men and one woman – had been killed. This figure later rose to eight.
Local government minister, Desmond McKenzie, said: “They were discovered after being washed up by the flood waters generated by the hurricane.”
Devastating aerial footage shows towns destroyed by the storm.
The Jamaican prime minister, Andrew Holness, travelled to St Elizabeth, where the first deaths were reported, to inspect the storm’s impact.
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Sharing aerial footage of battered homes, he wrote: “The damage is great, but we are going to devote all our energy to mount a strong recovery.”
The storm made landfall in Cuba in the early hours of Wednesday morning before leaving mid-afternoon, heading towards the Bahamas.
Hurricane Melissa has ravaged through the Caribbean. Pic: Reuters
‘Whole communities are underwater’
Alexander Pendry, British Red Cross global response manager, said: “News is already coming through that whole communities are underwater and that the damage left by the strong winds has been devastating.
“The Jamaica Red Cross has been proactively supporting communities by preparing essential supplies and managing shelters. Their priority now is to reach people with aid as soon as possible.
“Across the Caribbean, Red Cross teams have been mobilising as Melissa continues its trajectory across Cuba, Dominican Republic and Haiti.”
He added: “Tragically, experience tells us that the impact on communities and individuals will be shattering and long lasting.
“We will be here for as long as people need us.”
World
Suspects arrested over Louvre heist ‘partially admit involvement’ – as officials address inside job theory
The two suspects arrested over the Louvre jewellery heist have “partially” confessed to their involvement in the robbery, according to a prosecutor.
Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau revealed the development at a news conference on Wednesday.
Four thieves stole nine items – one of which was dropped and recovered at the scene – in a heist pulled off while the world-famous Paris museum was open to visitors on 19 October.
It took the thieves less than eight minutes to steal the jewels. They forced open a window and cut into cases with power tools after gaining access via a vehicle-mounted mechanical lift.
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Suspects in Louvre robbery ‘partially confessed’
Ms Beccuau also said the jewels had not yet been recovered.
“These jewels are now, of course, unsellable,” said Ms Beccuau. “Anyone who buys them would be guilty of concealment of stolen goods. It’s still time to give them back.”
‘No evidence’
Ms Beccuau also addressed reports that police believe the robbery could have been an inside job.
She said that there was “no evidence the thieves benefited from inside help”.
Under French rules for organised theft, custody can run up to 96 hours. That limit is due to expire late on Wednesday, and prosecutors must charge the suspects, release them or seek a judge’s extension.
Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau speaks during a press conference about the investigation into the Louvre robbery. Pic: Reuters
One suspect is a 34-year-old Algerian national who has been living in France since 2010, Ms Beccuau said. He was arrested Saturday night at Charles de Gaulle airport as he was about to fly to Algeria with no return ticket.
Ms Beccuau said that he was living in the Paris suburb of Aubervilliers, and was known to police mostly for road traffic offences.
The other suspect, 39, was arrested Saturday night at his home in Aubervilliers.
“There is no evidence to suggest that he was about to leave the country,” said Ms Beccuau.
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Louvre jewels ‘have not returned’
The man was known to police for several thefts, and his DNA was found on one of the glass cases where the jewels were displayed, and on items the thieves left behind, she added.
Earlier, French police acknowledged major gaps in the Louvre’s defences.
Paris police chief Patrice Faure told politicians that ageing security systems had left weak spots.
“A technological step has not been taken,” he said.
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Mr Faure also revealed that the Louvre’s authorisation to operate its security cameras quietly expired in July and had not been renewed.
He said the first alert to police came not from the Louvre’s alarms, but from a cyclist outside who dialled the emergency line after seeing helmeted men with a basket lift.
Members of a forensic team inspect a window believed to have been used by the culprits. Pic: Reuters
Mr Faure also rejected calls for a permanent police post inside the museum, warning it would set an unworkable precedent and do little against fast and mobile thieves.
“I am firmly opposed,” he said. “The issue is not a guard at a door; it is speeding the chain of alert.”
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