Death Caps & Deception: Inside the Mushroom Murder Trial Cross-Examination

Erin Patterson faces cross-examination in the Supreme Court of Victoria after pleading not guilty to triple murder charges in the mushroom poisoning case. The prosecution showed Ms Patterson evidence of lies about her dehydrator ownership, mushroom foraging activities, and alleged cancer diagnosis.

• Ms Patterson admits lying to police about owning a dehydrator and foraging for mushrooms
• Evidence includes photos of mushrooms, the dehydrator, and of Ms Patterson disposing of the appliance at a local tip
• Ms Patterson denies knowing she had dehydrated death cap mushrooms
• Direct contradiction between Ms Patterson and survivor Ian Wilkinson about the lunch and cancer claims
• Ms Patterson denies telling lunch guests she had cancer to create a pretext for the gathering
• Prosecution suggests Ms Patterson disposed of the dehydrator to eliminate suspicion
• Court told the trial may continue for several more weeks

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello and welcome to the Mushroom Murder Trial
podcast.
My name is Lisa and I am apodcaster and journalist.
Most weekdays we deliverdetailed coverage of one of
Australia's most closely watchedlegal dramas Erin Patterson's
murder trial.
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(00:24):
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(00:44):
Now it looks like we still havea few weeks to go in the
so-called mushroom murder trial.
There's no definitive date, butthe judge told the jury today
that trial may still have sometime to go.
Anyway, moving right along,accused triple murderer Erin
Patterson was today facingcross-examination in the Supreme

(01:05):
Court of Victoria in Morwell.
Crown Prosecutor Dr NanetteRogers SC was cross-examining Ms
Patterson for most of the dayand the prosecutor launched
straight into her questions.
She put to the mother of twowho, by the way, as we know, has
pled not guilty to all chargesof two who, by the way, as we

(01:30):
know, has pled not guilty to allcharges.
She put to the mother of twothat she lied to police about
owning a dehydrator, that shelied about dehydrating food and
about foraging for mushrooms.
Ms Patterson admitted it.
Yes, she did lie.
Now the prosecutor refers to MsPatterson's police interview and
she says okay, can we go toquestion 264?

(01:51):
No, okay, do you own adehydrator?
Answer no, no Response allright, okay, were those lies,
said the prosecutor.
Yes, said Ms Patterson.
And why did you tell the policethose lies on 5th of August?
Well, I had disposed of it afew days earlier, in the context
of thinking that maybemushrooms that I'd foraged or

(02:14):
the meal that I prepared wasresponsible for making people
sick.
And then on the Saturday,detective Eppingstall told me
that Gail and Heather had passedaway.
And it was this stupidknee-jerk reaction to just
digging deeper and keep lying.
I was just scared but Ishouldn't have done it.

(02:35):
All right, says the prosecutor.
In relation to foragingmushrooms, you were asked
questions in the record ofinterview, question 159 on page
8.
Question okay, is thatsomething you've done in the
past, foraging for mushrooms?
And your answer was never.
And then question was oranything like that never.

(02:58):
And your answer was never.
That a lie too.
Yes, they were both lies.
And was that lie told for thesame reasons?
Yes.
Dr Rogers then moved on to aseries of exhibits.
There were photos found on MissPatterson's tablet of mushrooms
and a dehydrator, an invoiceshowing that she'd bought the

(03:20):
dehydrator on April 28, 2023,and more photos of her disposing
of the device at the local tipon August 2.
Dr Rogers said quote you rushedout to get rid of the evidence.
You lied to the police becauseyou knew you'd use the
dehydrator.
Ms Patterson replies no, Ididn't know that.

(03:41):
Dr Rogers presses again youknew if you told police it would
implicate you in the deliberatepoisoning.
And Ms Patterson stands firm no, it's not correct.
And then the state moved on tothe disposal of the dehydrator.
The day after the accused lefthospital, you took the

(04:02):
dehydrator to the transferstation because you'd been using
it to dehydrate mushrooms,hadn't you?
Erin replies yes, and not justany old mushrooms, death cap
mushrooms, in fact.
Correct?
I didn't know that I'd donethat and you knew that there
were death cap mushrooms thatyou had been dehydrating,
correct?
No, I didn't know that I'd donethat and you knew that there
were death cap mushrooms thatyou had been dehydrating,
correct?
No, I didn't know that, and youwere very keen to dispose of

(04:24):
any evidence that might connectyou with the possession of death
cap mushrooms.
No, I didn't know they'd beenin it.
That's why you rushed out theday after your release from
Monash to get rid of theevidence, correct, miss
Patterson?
No, prosecutor, you lied topolice about never owning a

(04:46):
dehydrator because you knewyou'd used a dehydrator to
prepare death cap mushrooms toinclude in the lunch answer.
No, I did not do that,prosecutor.
You lied because you knew ifyou told the police the truth,
it would implicate you in thedeliberate poisoning of your
four lunch guests, correct?
No?
No, it's not true.

(05:07):
From the witness box, erinPatterson also tells the court
she did not tell her Facebookfriends she was an atheist.
She denies being especiallyclose to Christine Hunt, a
previous witness, and she deniesusing emojis to mock the
Pattersons, her in-laws, as theyprayed for her.
In addition, ms Patterson alsorejects telling her lunch guests

(05:29):
that she had cancer, a claimthat directly contradicts the
earlier testimony of the lunch'ssole survivor, ian Wilkinson.
Quote this is the prosecutor.
So to sum up, in relation toyour so-called cancer diagnosis,
your claim to various peoplethat you'd been diagnosed with

(05:50):
cancer before the lunch wasdeliberately false.
Yes or no, ms Patterson?
I didn't make that claim, msPatterson said.
Dr Rogers says the Leangathawoman told this lie to create a
pretense for the lunch and toexplain why her children would
not be present.
Erin rejected thesepropositions, quote I suggest

(06:11):
that you never thought you'dhave to account for this lie of
having cancer because youthought the lunch guests would
die and your lie would never befound out.
Dr Rogers said that is not true.
So that's what I've got for youtoday.
I'll be back in the morningwith a bit more of the
transcript, because so much news, it's a lot to take in.

(06:33):
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(07:36):
cross-examination in court.
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Bye.