Australian accused of killing relatives with Beef Wellington is documented using kitchen scales to calculate a deadly dose of toxic mushrooms, prosecutors say.
Erin Patterson admitted that he was not guilty of killing three people and trying to kill another at her home in regional Victoria in July 2023. The 50-year-old says she never intended to hurt them, and this is a tragic incident.
Prosecutors on Thursday offered photos found on her phone showing that wild mushrooms were weighed, depicting her measurement of the amount needed to kill her guests.
D -Ja Patterson told the court that she probably took the photos in question, but said she did not believe the mushrooms in them were descending hats.
The legal laws, Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, along with Gail Heather Wilkinson's sister, 66, everyone became ill and died days after lunch.
Heather's husband, local pastor Ian Wilkinson, was also hospitalized, but recovered after leaving a coma -induced coma.
The high profile process, which started almost six weeks ago, has already been heard from more than 50 witnesses to the prosecution. D -Ja Patterson became the first witness to the defense to take the position on Monday afternoon.
Under cross-questioning from the leading prosecutor, Mrs. Patterson admitted that she had invaded wild mushrooms during the three months before lunch in July, although she told police and a health official that she had no.
The court was also shown images made at the end of April 2023 and recovered from the phone of G -Ja Patterson, which depicted mushrooms that weighed.
Earlier, Patterson admitted that she had repeatedly deleted electronic data in the days after lunch because she fears that if employees find such photos, they would blame her for the death of the guests.
By pointing out more evidence from a fungus expert who said the mushrooms in the images were “very consistent” with the death buttons, the prosecutor of the crown Nanet Rogers claims that D -Jia Patterson had consciously expressed them days before.
She had seen a publication of the Inanity – a website for registering plants and animal observations – and traveling to the Loch area ten days later on April 28 to choose toxic fungi, according to Rogers.
Patterson said that she could not remember if she had gone to town that day, but denied that she went there to find mushrooms from the hat of death or that she saw the inauthelical post.
“I suggest that you have weighed these mushrooms so you can calculate the weight you need for … fatal dose,” put it on Rogers.
“Disagree,” Da Patterson replied.
The mother of two also talks about the placement of dried mushrooms in a number of foods such as spaghetti, brownies and stew, which prosecutors claim to be practicing for a fatal lunch.
D -Ja Patterson said this was not true, but rather an attempt to bring “extra vegetables in my children's bodies”.
Prosecutors repeatedly asked her with different wording each time, whether she consciously used the same dehydrator of food to prepare mushrooms from the death hat for lunch.
CCTV, played in the test, shows that d -Patterson discards the appliance into a local landfill.
“That is why you rushed the day after your release from (hospital) to get rid of the evidence,” said Dr. Rogers.
“No,” Da replied, Patterson.
Earlier, Gjj's lawyer asked her why she had repeatedly lied to the police for mushroom invasion and had a nutritional dehydrator.
“It was this stupid knee reaction to dig deeper and continue to lie,” she told the court. “I was just scared, but I didn't have to do it.”
Patterson also reiterated her claim that she had never deliberately put poisonous fungi in eating.
She said the mushrooms used in the beef, Wellington, may have accidentally included dried, feed varieties that are kept in a container with shops bought.
D -Ja Patterson was also questioned by evidence given by other witnesses that she asked her guests to come to lunch to discuss health problems, namely a diagnosis of cancer.
She said she did not say directly that she had cancer, but she should not have misled her relatives, saying that she did it in part because their concern made her feel loved.
“I suggest that you never thought you would have to take this lie about cancer because you think the guests of the lunch would die,” said Dr. Rogers. “Your lie will never be found.”
“This is not true,” said G -ja Patterson.
It will resume that it was crossly examined on Friday. The process, which is initially expected to take six weeks, is now expected to run for at least another two weeks, the judge told the court.