The only surviving guest of Erin Patterson’s deadly mushroom lunch has begun giving evidence in her murder trial. Ms Patterson has pleaded not guilty to murdering her estranged husband's parents and aunt who died after she served them a beef wellington meal containing death cap mushrooms in 2023.
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00:00He is, as you say, one of the guests at that lunch at Erin Patterson's house in 2023 at her
00:08Lee and Gatha home that was laced with death cat mushrooms. Now, Ian Wilkinson's wife, Heather,
00:15and his brother and sister-in-law, Don and Gail Patterson, all died after consuming that lunch.
00:22Ian Wilkinson became ill, but he survived after a stint in hospital. And all four of those lunch
00:28guests are relatives of Simon Patterson, Erin Patterson's estranged husband. And we've heard
00:36evidence that Simon Patterson was invited to the lunch, but the day before he rejected the offer
00:41to come. Now, so far from Ian Wilkinson, we've heard about his relationship with Erin Patterson
00:47prior to the lunch. He said that they were more like acquaintances. It was unusual for him and
00:53Heather to go for lunch at Erin's house. He said that she seemed like a normal person. And just
01:00as I was leaving the court to talk to you, Roz, they were discussing the lunch that they ate at
01:06Erin Patterson's home, a beef wellington served with green beans and mashed potato. And I should
01:12say that Erin Patterson has pleaded not guilty to the charges against her. She says that while she was
01:17foraging for mushrooms, she didn't intentionally seek out death cat mushrooms. Alex, also today,
01:24we've heard evidence from the owner of a shop in Lee and Gatha where Erin Patterson lived. What's
01:29happened there? Yeah, we heard from Darren Fox. He's the owner and manager of Hartley Wells Better
01:36Home Living Lee and Gatha. He gave evidence that in November 2023, a staff member made him aware that
01:43she had served Erin Patterson and sold her a food dehydrator. And of course, November 2023 is after
01:51the mushroom lunch occurred. So the significance of that is that the prosecution says that a food
01:57dehydrator was found after the lunch in a local tip with Erin Patterson's fingerprints on it and traces
02:03of death cat mushrooms. So the owner and manager of this store said that after he was notified by that
02:10staff member, he checked the records, he checked a tax invoice, and the jury was shown that tax invoice
02:16and it did indeed say it had Erin Patterson's name on it said that she'd bought a food dehydrator,
02:22a Sunbeam food dehydrator for $229 in April 2023. Keeping in mind that that lunch happened in July 2023.
02:32Now, this trial is set down for five to six weeks and we'll hear more from Ian Wilkinson as the day goes on.