Erin Patterson denies she made a sixth beef wellington for her estranged husband
Prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC turns to the beef wellington remnants a police officer got from a bin at Patterson’s Leongatha home. Rogers said the leftovers contained a single beef wellington cut in half.
“Disagree,” Patterson says.
It was the mushrooms and pastry from one full one and the mushroom and pastry from the bit that I didn’t eat.
Rogers says Patterson knew the leftovers contained death cap mushrooms.
“That is incorrect,” Patterson says.
Rogers says the bin contained the poisoned beef wellington that Patterson prepared for her estranged husband, Simon Patterson, in case he attended the lunch.
“I didn’t make the sixth one for Simon,” she says.
Rogers says Patterson removed the steak from inside the pastry in the leftover beef wellington before she placed it in the bin.
“I did do that,” she says.
Rogers says the steak was put somewhere else. Patterson agrees.
Rogers asks where the steak was put.
“Into my children’s stomachs,” Patterson says.
Rogers suggests that Patterson did not feed that steak to her children.
But she says “we’ve been over that” and Patterson disagrees with the suggestion.
“Correct,” Patterson says.
Updated at 02.21 EDT
Key events
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The court has adjourned for the day.
Erin Patterson denies she made a sixth beef wellington for her estranged husband
Prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC turns to the beef wellington remnants a police officer got from a bin at Patterson’s Leongatha home. Rogers said the leftovers contained a single beef wellington cut in half.
“Disagree,” Patterson says.
It was the mushrooms and pastry from one full one and the mushroom and pastry from the bit that I didn’t eat.
Rogers says Patterson knew the leftovers contained death cap mushrooms.
“That is incorrect,” Patterson says.
Rogers says the bin contained the poisoned beef wellington that Patterson prepared for her estranged husband, Simon Patterson, in case he attended the lunch.
“I didn’t make the sixth one for Simon,” she says.
Rogers says Patterson removed the steak from inside the pastry in the leftover beef wellington before she placed it in the bin.
“I did do that,” she says.
Rogers says the steak was put somewhere else. Patterson agrees.
Rogers asks where the steak was put.
“Into my children’s stomachs,” Patterson says.
Rogers suggests that Patterson did not feed that steak to her children.
But she says “we’ve been over that” and Patterson disagrees with the suggestion.
“Correct,” Patterson says.
Updated at 02.21 EDT
Prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC asks Erin Patterson about the evidence of Tanya Patterson who visited her while at Monash hospital on 1 August 2023.
Tanya is married to Matthew Patterson, the son of Don and Gail Patterson (Erin’s in-laws), the court previously heard.
Tanya said that while she was visiting Erin a toxicologist entered the room. She said Patterson asked the toxicologist how her potassium levels were – she was told they were fine and not as low as they expected for someone with diarrhoea.
Erin agrees the doctor indicated her potassium levels were fine.
Rogers turns to a conversation Erin had with child protection worker Katrina Cripps where she reported having diarrhoea on the day of the lunch – Saturday 29 July 2023.
Cripps said Patterson told her she dropped her son’s friend home after the lunch on the Saturday and remained in the car so the seat could act like a “cork” to ensure she did not have an accident.
Patterson says she might have used this word but cannot remember saying this.
Rogers says if she was worried about soiling herself she would not have driven her son’s friend home. Patterson says she did not have diarrhoea when she took her son’s friend home.
She says she did not experience diarrhoea until “late in the evening” on the Saturday.
Patterson says she had a lot of people asking her the same questions and did her best to answer them, but may have got some things a little bit wrong along the way.
Updated at 02.03 EDT
Prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC asks Erin Patterson about a conversation she had with her estranged husband Simon Patterson while at Leongatha hospital about picking up their children from school.
She says Simon gave evidence Patterson paused after he asked her if she was well enough to pick up their kids.
Rogers says Patterson paused because she realised picking her children up would undermine her illness. Patterson says she does not know if she paused at the point.
“Are you making this up as you go along, Ms Patterson?” Rogers asks.
“No,” says Patterson.
Patterson is then questioned about the ambulance trip from Leongatha hospital to Monash hospital on 31 July 2023.
Rogers asks about evidence by a paramedic that she was calm and chatty during the trip.
Patterson says she was talking to the paramedic but was not calm.
The court hears Patterson didn’t need to use the toilet during the 90-minute trip.
Patterson is taken to the evidence by Laura Muldoon, a doctor who assessed her at Monash hospital.
Patterson rejects Muldoon that Patterson told her she had “explosive diarrhoea every 10 minutes”.
Pattersons says she wouldn’t have said she had diarrhoea of this frequency for two days.
Signage for the Monash Medical Centre in 2020. Photograph: James Ross/AAPShare
Updated at 01.30 EDT
Erin Patterson rejects nurse’s evidence about mushroom cook not wanting children involved
Prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC turns to question Patterson about Dr Chris Webster warning her about the risk to her children who she said had eaten leftovers of the beef wellington.
The court has previously heard Patterson told medical staff she scraped the mushrooms and pastry off the leftovers she gave to her children.
Patterson says Webster was “yelling” but has since discovered that is his “inside voice”.
Patterson rejects the evidence given by Cindy Munro, a nurse at Leongatha hospital, that Patterson said she didn’t want the children involved when she told her the children needed to undergo testing because they had eaten the leftovers of the meal.
Patterson agrees she told Munro she didn’t want to worry her children.
“I definitely would have said that,” Patterson says.
Updated at 01.10 EDT
Erin Patterson denies she was thinking of ways to ‘cover her tracks’ between hospital visits
Prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC says Patterson used the more than 90 minutes she was away from the Leongatha hospital to work out what to do next after she realised medical authorities were aware of the death cap mushroom poisoning.
She says tending to her animals and packing her daughter’s ballet bag did not take up the full period she was away from the hospital.
Erin says: “What are you saying I was doing?”
Rogers replies: “Thinking about ways to cover your tracks.”
Patterson says: “I’m sure I did some thinking during that time but it wasn’t about covering my tracks.”
The terse exchange is one of several during Patterson’s cross-examination today.
Rogers shows the court a bowel chart for Patterson, previously tendered, which shows five documented bowel motions on 31 July 2023 while at Leongatha hospital.
The consistency for each says “liquid”.
Mairim Cespon, a registered nurse at the hospital, previously told the trial that after the first bowel movement Patterson told her “it does look like a wee but it’s a bowel motion”.
Patterson says she “didn’t want to think I was an idiot” so explained it was a stool.
Updated at 02.30 EDT
Erin Patterson says she was not told she may have life-threatening poisoning in first hospital trip
Patterson says she rejects her estranged husband Simon Patterson’s evidence that she told him on the Monday she went home and lay down for 45 minutes.
She says she told him she lay down but not for 45 minutes.
Prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC says lying down is the “last thing you would do” if you had been exposed to a poison.
Patterson replies: “Might be the last thing you’d do but it was something I did.”
Rogers continues, asking if Patterson had been told she may have had a life-threatening illness.
Patterson says doctors did not tell her it could be “life-threatening” in the first conversation at Leongatha hospital.
Rogers says after Patterson left the hospital she “drove towards Outtrim”.
“I did not,” says Patterson.
Rogers says Patterson’s phone records “demonstrated she drove out of the Leongatha area, heading towards or into Outtrim”.
Patterson denies this. She says she did not leave her Leongatha home before returning to the hospital.
Updated at 01.01 EDT
Erin Patterson didn’t think anyone had consumed death cap mushrooms when she left hospital
Prosecutor Nanette Rogers is questioning Patterson about her time at Leongatha hospital on 31 July 2023 – two days after the fateful beef wellington lunch.
Rogers says Patterson left Leongatha hospital because she knew she had not consumed death cap mushrooms.
“I didn’t think any of us had,” Patterson says.
It wasn’t why I was leaving.
Rogers says Patterson did not need to head home and pack her daughter’s ballet bag, as she previously testified. Rogers says her daughter did not have ballet that day.
Patterson says her daughter had a rehearsal on the Monday evening.
The Leongatha home where Erin Patterson served beef wellingtons in July 2023. Photograph: James Ross/EPAShare
Updated at 00.41 EDT
The jurors have returned to the courtroom in Morwell.
The Latrobe Valley magistrates’ court in Morwell, Victoria. Photograph: James Ross/AAPShare
Updated at 00.27 EDT
Revisit this morning’s evidence in this report from our justice and courts reporter, Nino Bucci.
Composite: AP/Guardian DesignShare
Updated at 00.19 EDT
The court has adjourned for a lunch break.
Erin Patterson’s cross-examination will continue at 2.15pm.
ShareErin Patterson recalls ‘anxiety’ at doctors suspecting death cap mushroom poisoning
Prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC says Kylie Ashton, a nurse at Leongatha hospital, told Erin Patterson her life was at risk when she tried to persuade Patterson not to discharge herself.
Patterson rejects this.
Patterson agrees she told Ashton she would come back to the hospital. She rejects that she told Ashton she would return in 20 minutes.
She says she indicated she lives about 10 minutes away from the hospital.
Rogers says Patterson was stressed at the hospital because doctors suspected death cap mushrooms in the beef wellingtons.
“That definitely was a cause of anxiety,” Patterson replies.
“I was anxious at the idea that we may have eaten those things.”
Rogers says Patterson was shocked doctors were “on to death caps so quickly.”
“Incorrect,” Patterson says.
Rogers says Patterson was worried she would get caught.
“Incorrect,” Patterson says.
Updated at 23.15 EDT
Erin Patterson denies that she ignored doctor’s phone calls after she discharged herself from hospital
Erin Patterson is asked about discharging herself from Leongatha hospital against medical advice.
She rejects a suggestion by prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC that she did not answer Dr Chris Webster’s phone calls or voicemails when she discharged herself.
Patterson says she responded twice to Webster’s phone calls by ringing the hospital.
Rogers says Patterson left Leongatha hospital at 8.10am and returned at 9.48am.
Patterson says she cannot remember the specific time.
Updated at 01.04 EDT
Erin Patterson says she told doctor she bought most ingredients of lunch at Woolworths
The line of questioning turns to Patterson’s arrival at Leongatha hospital on 31 July 2023 – two days after the lunch.
Patterson arrived shortly after 8am, the court hears.
She rejects that Dr Chris Webster asked her where she bought the mushrooms for the beef wellingtons.
Patterson says she remembers Webster asking if she bought or made the beef wellingtons.
That stuck in my memory because I didn’t know you could buy them pre-made.
Patterson says she told him the majority of ingredients were bought from Woolworths.
Patterson recalled asking Webster why he thought the lunch attendees had consumed death cap mushrooms.
She says he walked away and is unsure if he heard her.
Updated at 22.58 EDT
Erin Patterson denies she was drinking coffee two days after lunch
Prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC takes Erin Patterson to evidence her children gave about the Monday following the Saturday lunch.
Erin’s daughter recalled seeing her mother drinking coffee that morning, the court hears.
Erin says she was sitting at the dining table with a mug but it did not contain coffee.
Her estranged husband, Simon Patterson, gave evidence that Erin called him that morning and said she still had diarrhoea every 20 minutes and asked him to drive her to the hospital.
“I don’t remember if I did that or not,” Erin says.
She says she cannot remember if she mentioned the frequency.
Erin agrees she asked Simon if he could drive her to the Leongatha hospital.
But she rejects that she told him she could not drive because she was worried about soiling herself.
Simon Patterson, who gave evidence earlier in the trial. Photograph: Diego Fedele/EPAShare
Updated at 22.47 EDT
Court reminded of prior evidence that Erin Patterson didn’t use toilet in 90 minutes
Prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC takes Patterson to her son’s evidence that he did not see his mother use the toilet on the 90-minute one-way drive to his flying lesson in Tyabb on Sunday, 30 July 2023.
Patterson previously told the court that during this trip she went to the toilet in a bush on the side of the highway.
The flying lesson was cancelled due to poor weather, the court hears.
Patterson says on the way back her son bought her a coffee.
She says she had a “little” bit of the coffee.
ShareErin Patterson rejects estranged husband’s evidence about ‘poo my pants’ statement
Prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC says Erin Patterson’s son gave evidence that he said they didn’t need to go to his scheduled flying lesson but his mother was keen to take him.
Patterson agrees that she was “pretty keen to take him”.
Rogers takes Patterson to a phone conversation she had with her estranged husband Simon Patterson on 30 July 2023 – the day after the lunch.
Rogers asks if Patterson told Simon she was having frequent diarrhoea, about every 20 minutes.
“I might have,” Patterson says.
Patterson rejects Simon’s evidence that she told him she had diarrhoea which began on the day of the lunch.
Rogers says Simon gave evidence that Patterson told him she was worried she would “poo my pants” while driving.
“I did not tell him I was afraid I would poo my pants, no,” Patterson says.
Simon and Erin Patterson. Composite: AAP/APShare
Updated at 22.36 EDT
The court has returned from a short break and the prosecution is continuing its cross-examination of Erin Patterson.