“Mushroom murder” process: Defense claims The death of lunch guests was a “terrible accident”.

By Jessie Yeung and Hilary Whiteman, CNN

Brisbane, Australia (CNN) – Lawyers from an Australian woman who was accused of fatally poisoning three family members with deadly mushrooms told the jury that her deaths were a “terrible accident”.

Erin Patterson is on trial for the death of her mother-in-law Gail Patterson, Donald Patterson, and Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson, all of whom died on hospitals after Patterson contained a meal that contained Death Cap mushrooms.

She is also charged with the attempted murder of Heather's husband Ian Wilkinson, who was also for lunch, but survived.

The public prosecutor's office claims that Patterson intentionally served fatal mushrooms to kill her lunch break. Her defense lawyer claims that deaths are a tragic accident.

During the opening arguments on Wednesday, Patterson's lawyers admitted that she had initially lied to the police when she said she didn't ask for mushrooms and had no dehydrator. They said when she learned how sick her guests had become after eating her meal, it was “in panic” and acted in a way that may seem suspicious.

The saga, which the nation has grown for two years, began at the end of July 2023 on a summer day when Patterson has hosts the four relatives of her alienated husband at home and told them she wanted to discuss a medical problem. Her ex-husband was also invited, but was not participated.

The court heard that she told her guests that she had cancer and asked her for advice on how to interrupt her two children. The public prosecutor claims that it has no cancer and used the discussion “medical problems” to ensure that the children are not eating. The defense admitted that she had lied the diagnosis.

During the meal, Patterson served their guests individual beef shaft tons – a steak and pastrial dish with mushrooms. Her guests fell sick hours later and were all taken to the hospital, where doctors suspected that mushroom poisoning prompted a police investigation. Patterson was arrested and accused a few months later.

The public prosecutor's office Nanette Rogers SC claimed that Patterson had served the guests fatalities – mushrooms – a very toxic variety of wild mushrooms – which she had chosen.

Patterson himself went to the hospital and claimed to feel uncomfortable after eating – but her tests showed no serious illness, and she voluntarily dismissed the doctors' advice, said the prosecutors.

Prosecutors claim that cell data had shown that Patterson traveled to an area in which the sightings for the mushroom mushroom mushrooms were detailed online, and that they had published online about dehydration of mushrooms for use in food months before lunch, according to CNN -Filiate seven messages.

Patterson had informed the police that she had no dehydrator, but the surveillance material after death showed that it disposed of a unit at a local dump that later contained traces of die mushrooms, as the dish heard.

Patterson insists that she is innocent. Her defenders told the jury that they did not deny that the guests died of their meals – but argued that they did not deliberately poison them.

“The defense case is that Erin Patterson served her guests at this lunch on July 29, 2023, not intentionally poisoned,” said defender Colin Mandy SC.

“She didn't want to harm anyone that day. The defense case is that a tragedy, a terrible accident, was.”

Mandy admitted that Patterson lying over the dehydrator and searching for food for mushrooms and said she just panicked at the moment.

“The defense is that she panicked because she was overwhelmed by the fact that these four people had got so sick because of the food she had served,” said Mandy. “Three people died because of the food that Erin Patterson served that day. So you have to think about this problem – as Erin Patterson felt about it in the following days.”

Patterson has not guilty for all charges. The case is expected to continue for up to six weeks.

The-Cnn-Wire
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