7NEWS reporter Estelle Griepink has provided insight into what is expected to happen to Patterson now.

“Because she has been found guilty, she’s been taken from her custody box in the court through what we believe is a lift into a tunnel that connects to the police station,” Griepink said.

“She’ll be put in that prison van and she’ll travel to Dame Phyllis Frost. And there we are, unlikely to see her again until about August.

“That’s when her next court hearing has been scheduled. So of course, if she was found not guilty, she’d walk free. But now that she’s been found guilty, the next part in the court process is to set a plea hearing or a pre-sentence hearing.

“That’s when we’re expecting to hear victim impact statements from family members affected by this tragedy. And then after that, we’ll proceed to sentence.

“But sometimes that takes a while. So the first hearing will be in August, and that’s just a mention to discuss these proceedings going forward. But she potentially could appear at that in person. So she would need to be brought in a prison van for that as well.”

The jury has reached a verdict in Erin Patterson’s mushroom murder trial, finding her guilty on all four counts.

The mother-of-two was accused of using death cap mushrooms to murder three of her relatives and attempting to kill a fourth.

Watch the video above as we bring you 7NEWS’ special coverage of the decision live.

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Justice Beale said the ‘ultimate issue’ the jury needs to consider is whether Patterson deliberately included death cap mushrooms in her lunch.

‘Now the ultimate issues are whether the accused deliberately included death cap mushrooms in the beef Wellingtons, and whether she had the state of mind necessary for the alleged offences at the time she served the beef Wellingtons to them,’ Justice Beale said.

‘There are a number of issues that are related to those ultimate issues, and they include whether the accused had good reasons not to kill her lunch guests.

‘Whether she foraged for edible mushrooms, why she cooked individual beef Wellingtons, why the children weren’t at the lunch, whether she had a different plate to a guest, whether she allocated her own plate.

‘Whether she engaged in incriminating conduct after the lunch.’

Last Monday, Pastor Ian Wilkinson looked sombre with his arms crossed as the jury was instructed on how to deal with the charge related to his attempted murder.

‘Turning to the elements of attempted murder, as you know… to prove that the accused committed the offence of attempted murder, in relation to Ian Wilkinson, the prosecution must prove the following four elements beyond reasonable doubt,’ Justice Beale said.

‘One, that the accused consciously, voluntarily and deliberately served Ian Wilkinson a poisoned meal, that’s the alleged conduct.

‘Two, the accused’s alleged conduct was more than merely preparatory to killing Ian Wilkinson, and immediately and not remotely connected with killing Ian Wilkinson.

‘Three, at the time of the alleged conduct, the accused intended to kill Ian Wilkinson, and four, the accused’s alleged conduct had no lawful justification or excuse.’

CNN —

Erin Patterson, the Australian woman accused of killing three relatives with a meal of death cap mushrooms baked in a Beef Wellington lunch, has been found guilty of three counts of murder and the attempted murder of the lone survivor.

A 12-member jury reached the verdict after around six days of deliberation following a 10-week trial in Morwell, a tiny town about an hour’s drive from the suburban dining room in Leongatha, Victoria, where the lethal lunch was served in July 2023.

Dozens of media crews raced to the court when it was announced the jury had reached a verdict in the case that has captivated audiences worldwide and spawned four podcasts dedicated to unpacking each day’s evidence.

During weeks of testimony, Patterson was accused of deliberately tainting the lunch with death cap mushrooms, highly toxic fungi that she picked after seeing their location posted on a public website.

In the days after, her former parents-in-law, Don and Gail Patterson, died along with Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson. Heather’s husband Ian, their local pastor, survived after a weekslong stay in hospital.

Her defense lawyers had argued the deaths were a “terrible accident” that occurred when Patterson tried to improve the taste of the meal, and that she repeatedly lied to police out of panic when she realized she may have added foraged mushrooms to the mix.

Patterson sat in court, listening as prosecutors called witness after witness, whose testimony, they alleged, told a compelling story of a triple murder that the jury ultimately found satisfied the legal standard of beyond reasonable doubt.

Under Australian law, none of the jurors can be publicly identified, and they’re prohibited from disclosing jury room deliberations even after the trial ends.

It will never be known which pieces of evidence influenced each juror’s decision, but all 12 were required to agree on the verdict.

The fateful lunch

The agreed facts were that Patterson asked five people to lunch on July 29, 2023, including her estranged husband Simon Patterson, who pulled out the day before.

Within hours of the meal, the four lunch guests – Simon’s parents Don and Gail, and his aunt and uncle, Heather and Ian Wilkinson – became ill with vomiting and diarrhea. They went to hospital where they were placed in induced comas as doctors tried to save them.

Gail and Heather died on August 4 from multiorgan failure, followed by Don on August 5, after he failed to respond to a liver transplant. Ian Wilkinson survived and was finally discharged from hospital in late September, after almost two months of intensive treatment.

Death cap mushrooms contain amanita toxins that prevent the production of proteins in liver cells, leading to cell death and possible liver failure from about two days after ingestion.

Native to Europe, the lethal mushrooms have been found growing in several Australian states, and around the time of the lunch, they had been seen within a short drive of Patterson’s home in rural Victoria.

During the trial, the prosecution argued that Patterson had the opportunity to pick lethal mushrooms after seeing their location posted on the citizen science iNaturalist website.

The guilty verdict suggests the jury accepted the prosecution’s argument that she likely traveled to two sites in April and May 2023, and deliberately picked the mushrooms used in the meal.

Death cap mushrooms are highly toxic and can cause liver failure and death. William West/AFP/Getty Images/File

Prosecution alleged ‘calculated deceptions’

Prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC alleged that “four calculated deceptions” were at the heart of the case. “The first deception was the fabricated cancer claim she used as a pretence for the lunch invitation,” she said.

“The second deception was the lethal doses of poison the accused secreted in the homecooked beef Wellingtons. The third deception was her attempts to make it seem that she also suffered death cap mushroom poisoning and the fourth deception, the sustained cover-up she embarked upon to conceal the truth.”

Patterson admitted that on April 28 – the same day as cellphone signals put her in the vicinity of death cap mushrooms – she bought a dehydrator that she later dumped at a waste recycling center on August 2, as her guests lay in hospital.

It had her fingerprints on it and contained remnants of death cap mushrooms.

The prosecution alleged that Patterson faked illness in the days after serving the lunch and tried to cover her tracks by disposing of the dehydrator and factory resetting her devices to delete evidence.

Patterson’s defense lawyer Colin Mandy SC accused the prosecution of being selective with the evidence and pushing “four ridiculous, convoluted propositions.”

The first was that Patterson would do this “without any motive,” Mandy said.

He said there were several reasons why Patterson would not want to kill her guests. She had no money issues, lived in a big house, and had almost full-time custody of her two young children, who were very close to their grandparents, he said.

The prosecution did not have to prove motive.

Rogers accused Patterson of having two faces: One she showed the world that suggested she had a good relationship with the Pattersons, and a hidden face she showed only her Facebook friends that suggested she wanted “nothing to do with them.”

In Facebook messages sent in December 2022, Patterson had expressed anger and frustration over Don and Gail’s reluctance to get involved in their son’s marriage breakdown.

“I’m sick of this shit I want nothing to do with them,” she wrote. “I thought his parents would want him to do the right thing but it seems their concern about not wanting to feel uncomfortable and not wanting to get involved in their son’s personal matters are overriding that so f*** em.”

And another message read: “This family I swear to f***ing god.”

Simon Patterson’s parents, Don and Gail, and aunt, Heather Wilkinson, died within a week of eating the poisoned meal. Martin Keep/AFP/Getty Images

During eight days of testimony including cross-examination, Patterson consistently pleaded her innocence, claiming she inadvertently added foraged mushrooms to the meal.

In his directions to the jury, Justice Christopher Beale said that Patterson’s admission that she told lies and disposed of evidence must not cause them to be prejudiced against her.

“This is a court of law, not a court of morals,” he said.

“The issue is not whether she is in some sense responsible for the tragic consequences of the lunch, but whether the prosecution has proved beyond a reasonable doubt that she is criminally responsible for those consequences,” he said.

The jury found that Patterson had intended to kill all four lunch guests and lied repeatedly on the stand to claim she didn’t.

Patterson will be sentenced at a later date.

The triple murder trial of Australia’s mushroom lunch cook has attracted worldwide fascination and intense media attention for months.

After seven days of deliberations, a supreme court jury found Erin Patterson, 50, guilty of murdering her parents-in-law, Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, with poisoned beef wellingtons she served for lunch at her home in Leongatha, Victoria. She was also found guilty of attempting to murder the fourth lunch guest, Heather’s husband, Ian Wilkinson.

Patterson had pleaded not guilty to all charges. Here’s how the trial unfolded.

View image in fullscreen Illustration: Guardian Design

1. Erin Patterson tells her side of the story

For five weeks, Patterson quietly observed her murder trial from the courtroom dock. On day 24 of the trial, Patterson began to tell her side of events at a lunch she prepared for four elderly relatives. During days in the witness box, Patterson’s raw and emotional evidence detailed her “never-ending battle with low self-esteem”, plans for weight loss surgery and struggles with an eating disorder.

Questions from her defence lawyer, Colin Mandy SC, about her interest in wild mushrooms, elicited her history of foraging that began after observing mushrooms in the Korumburra botanic gardens during walks with her children in 2020, during the Covid pandemic.

Patterson admitted she had never been diagnosed with ovarian cancer despite telling her lunch guests she may need treatment for this. Questioned about messaging her Facebook friends “this family I swear to fucking god” in relation to her in-laws, Don and Gail, Patterson said she now felt “ashamed”.

Under cross-examination by prosecutor Nannette Rogers SC, Patterson denied deliberately lacing the beef wellingtons with death cap mushrooms but accepted the toxic fungi were in the dish she served on 29 July 2023.

Patterson said she lied to police about dehydrating mushrooms because she was afraid she would be held responsible. She said on 1 August 2023 – three days after the lunch – she realised foraged mushrooms may have been in a container with store-bought dried mushrooms used in the beef wellingtons. Patterson said the realisation came after her estranged husband, Simon asked her: “Is that how you poisoned my parents, using that dehydrator?” while she was in Monash hospital days after the lunch.

She agreed she did not tell anyone about her realisation.

In Patterson’s final moments in the witness box, prosecutor Nanette Rogers made three suggestions to the accused. That she deliberately sourced death cap mushrooms in 2023, deliberately included them in beef wellingtons she served and did so intending to kill her guests.

“Disagree,” Patterson said to each.

2. Testimony from sole lunch survivor

Ian Wilkinson entered the witness box on day six and began to tell the jury about a family lunch held on a winter’s day in July 2023. Recalling the lunch invitation, Ian said he and Heather were “very happy” to be invited to Patterson’s house less than a fortnight before the meal. Ian had never been for a meal at Patterson’s Leongatha home and no reason was given for the invitation. “It seemed like maybe our relationship with Erin was going to improve,” he said.

View image in fullscreen Ian Wilkinson leaves the Latrobe Valley magistrates court in Morwell, Victoria. The court heard that he and his wife, Heather, fell sick the evening of the lunch. Photograph: James Ross/AAP

Inside Patterson’s home, Ian recalled her plating the individual beef wellingtons on four large grey plates and a smaller plate – an “orangey, tan” colour. Patterson, he said, ate from the odd plate. Patterson and her guests tucked into their meals – each allocated a single beef wellington – which looked like a pasty – with a side of mashed potatoes and green beans, Ian said. After the group had finished eating, Patterson “announced that she had cancer”, Ian said. “In that moment, I thought, ‘This is the reason we’ve been invited to lunch’,” he said. Ian and Heather fell sick the evening of the lunch, the court heard.

3. Simon Patterson

On day three of the trial, the prosecution called their first witness – Patterson’s estranged husband, Simon. He detailed the couple’s multiple separations before a final separation in 2015.

View image in fullscreen Simon Patterson, Erin Patterson’s estranged husband, arrives at the court in Morwell in May. Photograph: Diego Fedele/EPA

Simon said despite being separated, the couple had a strong friendship – often holidaying together overseas with their children – until a dispute over child support in late 2022, when his accountant listed him as “separated” on his tax return. After this, the “chatty” nature of their digital correspondence ended. “It became functional,” Simon told the court.

During Simon’s evidence, the court was shown text messages between the pair in the lead-up to the lunch. The day before, Simon texted Patterson to say he felt “too uncomfortable” to attend. In Patterson’s reply, she said the news was “really disappointing” and that she had “spent a small fortune on beef eye fillet” for the meal. Under cross-examination, Simon denied saying to Patterson “is that what you used to poison them?” in relation to her food dehydrator, while she was at Monash hospital in the days after the lunch.

4. Patterson’s children testify

Video testimony from Patterson’s two children, who cannot be named due to a suppression order, was played to the jury. The pre-recorded evidence, which the siblings gave separately to police on 16 August 2023, showed each child being interviewed by police officers. In the video, Patterson’s children recalled eating leftovers of her beef wellington lunch a day after the fateful lunch. Her daughter described her mother as a “very good cook”.

Patterson’s 14-year-old son recalled the meal he and his sister ate on 30 July 2023 was eye-fillet beef – “some of the best meat I’ve ever had”. He described his parent’s relationship as “very negative” and told police his father “does a lot of things to try and hurt” his mother.

Patterson’s children said they they did not know their mother to forage for mushrooms, the court heard. Patterson’s son recalled his mother seeing a mushroom at Korumburra botanic gardens in 2020 during a walk. He said his mother took a picture of them because she “thought they looked nice”.

5. Inside the police investigation

The prosecution’s final witness, Det Leading Sen Const Stephen Eppingstall, the officer in charge of the investigation, began testifying on day 20. He described the evidence police gathered as they investigated the poisonings.

View image in fullscreen Det Leading Sen Const Stephen Eppingstall led the investigation into the fatal mushroom lunch. Photograph: James Ross/AAP

Eppingstall told the jury police probed Patterson’s phone records, bank statements, Woolworths purchase history, medical records and electronic devices seized from her Leongatha home a week after the lunch. Electronic records from a Cooler Master computer found at Patterson’s house indicated it had been used to visit webpages listing sightings of death cap mushrooms in May 2022.

During Eppingstall’s evidence, Patterson’s formal police interview from 5 August 2023 was played to the court. In the footage, Patterson told detectives she did not own a food dehydrator, despite them finding a manual for one in her house hours earlier.