Erin Patterson, who allegedly murdered her in-laws by serving them a lunch laced with death cap mushrooms, will defend the charges by claiming the poisoning was accidental, a Victorian court has heard.
Patterson, 50, faces three charges of murder and one charge of attempted murder relating to a beef wellington lunch she served at her house in South Gippsland in 2023.
Patterson has pleaded not guilty to murdering or attempting to murder the relatives of her estranged husband, Simon Patterson.
She is accused of murdering Simon’s parents, Don and Gail Patterson, his aunt Heather Wilkinson, and attempting to murder Ian Wilkinson, Simon’s uncle and Heather’s husband.
Simon was also invited to the lunch at Leongatha on 29 July 2023.
Patterson served individual beef wellingtons to her lunch guests, three of whom died from death cap mushroom poisoning, the court has heard. Patterson has denied deliberately poisoning them.
Justice Christopher Beale told the jury on Wednesday morning that his understanding of Patterson’s defence was that she had not meant to poison her guests.
Beale was running through a “murder checklist”, which has been provided to the jury in order for them to understand the questions of law that must be considered in order for them to reach a verdict.
As I understand it, the accused defence’s [is]… she didn’t deliberately serve up a poison meal, that happened accidentally,” Beale said.
Patterson was crying as Beale spoke to the jury.
Nanette Rogers SC, the prosecutor, will make her opening submissions in the case later on Wednesday morning.
Patterson’s lawyer, Colin Mandy SC, will then make his opening submission.
Beale said in his instructions to the jury on Tuesday that Patterson was no longer accused of attempting to murder her estranged husband.
He told the jury those charges had been discontinued, and that they should remove any consideration of these previous charges.
Beale said during the empanelment that he expected most of the jury pool would have known about the Patterson case.
“Over the last 20 months, there have been many newspaper and magazine articles about this case, there’s been extensive radio and television coverage, there’s been online commentary and podcasts.
“All of these have been freely available to the public and may have come to your attention. It is reasonable to assume, therefore, that most of you, if not all, will have some prior information about this case.
“It is unrealistic to expect that the jurors selected can erase that prior information from their minds but it will be their task to bring an open mind to their consideration of the evidence and decide the case solely on the evidence that is led in this trial, not on any prior or outside information.”
The panel is made up of 10 men and five women. Three of them are reserve jurors, with only 12 deciding on a verdict. The verdict must be unanimous.
He said that in order for Patterson to be found guilty of murder the prosecution had to prove four elements beyond reasonable doubt: that Patterson caused the death of the alleged victim, that she did so consciously, voluntarily and deliberately, that she did so intending to kill, or to cause really serious injury, and that she did so without any lawful justification or excuse.
The trial in Morwell continues.