As Erin Patterson was found guilty of deliberately poisoning her estranged husband’s family, the victims’ relatives were noticeably absent from the courtroom.
Ian Wilkinson, whose wife was among three who died in the mushroom lunch, attended the court most days alongside his daughter Ruth Dubois, but was not present for the verdict.
Patterson’s estranged husband Simon only attended the court when he was required to give evidence.
Detective Inspector Dean Thomas from the Victoria Police Homicide Squad told media after the verdict that the Patterson and Wilkinson families ‘have asked for privacy during this time’, and would not be giving any statements.
Patterson, 50, blinked but appeared emotionless as four guilty verdicts were read out by the jury’s foreperson to a full court-room of onlookers on Monday afternoon.
The mother-of-two, who took the stand for eight days during her trial, claimed she had not intentionally poisoned her lunch guests with beef Wellington parcels.
Don and Gail Patterson, 70, and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, 66, all died in hospital days after eating the meal, while Ian Wilkinson became sick but survived.
She claimed deaths of three members of Simon’s family were a terrible accident, and she may have accidentally included foraged mushrooms in the meal.
Prosecutors laid out an extensive circumstantial case during the trial in Morwell, regional Victoria, to prove the poisoning was deliberate.
This included evidence Mr Wilkinson, who said Patterson had served individual beef Wellingtons to her guests on different plates to her own.
The prosecution accused Patterson of telling a series of lies to police, including that she did not forage for mushrooms in the meal and did not own a dehydrator.
She lied about it to public health investigators, who were searching to find the source of poisonous mushrooms after Patterson claimed they may be from an Asian store.
Patterson lied to doctors, nurses and toxicologists while they were trying to identify why her lunch guests were sick and save their lives at hospital.
She revealed for the first time that she enjoyed foraging for wild mushrooms when she was in the witness box, admitting she started mushrooming in 2020 during the pandemic.
‘They tasted good and I didn’t get sick,’ she told the jury about preparing and eating wild fungi for the first time.
After hearing more than two months of evidence, a jury of 14 was whittled down to 12 jurors who retired to deliberate on their verdicts one week ago, on June 30.
They returned after deliberating for seven days with a four guilty verdicts, convicting the 50-year-old woman of three murders and one attempted murder.
Patterson now faces a sentence of up to life in prison.
She will return to the court for a pre-sentence hearing later this year.