Australia’s mushroom murder trial

澳大利亚蘑菇谋杀案审判

Today in Focus

2025-06-09

28 分钟
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Justice and courts reporter Nino Bucci talks through the trial that has gripped Australia – of the woman accused of murdering three of her relatives with poisoned mushrooms over a family meal. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/infocus
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  • This is The Guardian.

  • Today, a beef wellington, the death cap mushrooms,

  • and a murder trial watched by the world.

  • July 2023, in the small Australian town of Leongatha,

  • a family get together for a meal, a beef wellington.

  • And within days, it becomes national news.

  • Gail Patterson and her husband Don visited their former daughter-in-law at her home for a family lunch.

  • Joining them was Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson, and husband, Ian.

  • That night, all four fell ill.

  • It quickly gets much worse.

  • Three people are dead and one man is fighting for his life this morning after he suspected mushroom poisoning in South Gippsland in Victoria.

  • The Beef Wellington.

  • It contained death cap mushrooms, the deadliest in the world.

  • The former daughter-in-law of two of the deceased has been quizzed by police in a case that has left detectives baffled.

  • Focus shifts to one woman in particular, a survivor of the meal,

  • the one who cooked it, Erin Patterson.

  • Police say you're a suspect.

  • Do you have anything to say about that?

  • Yes, I say I didn't do anything.

  • I love them.