{"id":32474,"date":"2024-04-22T09:06:24","date_gmt":"2024-04-22T09:06:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/22\/woman-accused-of-killing-ex-husbands-parents-by-feeding-them-poisonous-mushrooms-appears-in-court\/"},"modified":"2024-04-22T09:06:24","modified_gmt":"2024-04-22T09:06:24","slug":"woman-accused-of-killing-ex-husbands-parents-by-feeding-them-poisonous-mushrooms-appears-in-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/22\/woman-accused-of-killing-ex-husbands-parents-by-feeding-them-poisonous-mushrooms-appears-in-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman accused of killing ex-husband’s parents by feeding them poisonous mushrooms appears in court"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Woman<\/div>


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A woman accused of killing her ex-husband’s parents and an aunt by feeding them a beef wellington laced with poisonous mushrooms has appeared in court. <\/p>\n

Erin Patterson made a brief appearance at the Latrobe Valley Magistrates’ Court by video link from a prison in Melbourne, Australia, where she has been held since she was arrested in November last year<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The 49-year-old mother of two has been charged with three counts of murder and five of attempted murder.<\/p>\n

Magistrate Tim Walsh said during the hearing on Monday that he will announce on 7 May whether Patterson will face a committal hearing in the same court in Morwell or in Melbourne.<\/p>\n

Morwell is a rural town near Patterson’s home about 150km (90 miles) east of Melbourne, the Victoria state capital.<\/p>\n

The committal hearing will determine whether prosecutors have sufficient evidence to put charges before a jury in a trial at the Supreme Court of Victoria.<\/p>\n

It was Patterson’s second court appearance on the charges.<\/p>\n

She has yet to enter any pleas and has not applied to be released on bail.<\/p>\n

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\n Erin Patterson appears at Latrobe Valley Magistrates’ Court on 3 November 2023. Pic: AP
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Patterson is accused of killing her former parents-in-law, Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, and Gail Patterson’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, 66.<\/p>\n

All three died in hospital days after consuming a meal at Patterson’s home in Leongatha in Victoria in July last year.<\/p>\n

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\n \"Ian\n <\/div>
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\n Ian and Heather Wilkinson. Pic: The Salvation Army Australia – Museum
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She is also accused of the attempted murder of Ms Wilkinson’s husband Reverend Ian Wilkinson, 68.<\/p>\n

Reverend Wilkinson spent seven weeks in hospital following the lunch.<\/p>\n

Police said the symptoms of all four of those who became ill were consistent with poisoning from wild Amanita phalloides, known as death cap mushrooms – which are responsible for 90% of all toxic mushroom-related fatalities.<\/p>\n

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What makes death cap mushrooms so lethal?<\/h4>\n<\/p>\n

The death cap is one of the most toxic mushrooms on the planet and is involved in the majority of fatal mushroom poisonings worldwide. <\/p>\n

The species contains three main groups of toxins: amatoxins, phallotoxins, and virotoxins. <\/p>\n

From these, amatoxins are primarily responsible for the toxic effects in humans. <\/p>\n

The alpha-amanitin amatoxin has been found to cause protein deficit and ultimately cell death, although other mechanisms are thought to be involved. <\/p>\n

The liver is the main organ that fails due to the poison, but other organs are also affected, most notably the kidneys. <\/p>\n

The effects usually begin after a short latent period and can include gastrointestinal disorders followed by jaundice, seizures, coma, and eventually, death. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Patterson is further accused of the attempted murder of her ex-husband, Simon Patterson, at that lunch and on three previous occasions dating back to 2021.<\/p>\n

He had not accepted an invitation to the lunch.<\/p>\n

Read more from Sky News:
Baby saved from womb of mother killed in strike<\/a>
TikTok could be banned in US<\/a>
The A to Z of Trump’s hush money trial<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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\n \"Detectives\n <\/div>
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\n Detectives searching Erin Patterson’s property in November last year. Pic: AP
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In court Walsh asked if Patterson could hear at the outset of the hearing, and she replied: “Yes, thank you.”<\/p>\n

Her lawyer, Colin Mandy, said his client wanted the committal hearing held in Morwell, even if that meant a delay until next year.<\/p>\n

“If it happens next year, then Ms Patterson’s content to wait for that,” Mr Mandy told the magistrate.<\/p>\n

He added Patterson said she wanted the hearing to take place close to her home.<\/p>\n

Defence lawyers have provided prosecutors with a list of anticipated witnesses to be called at the committal.<\/p>\n

Mr Mandy said he expected the hearing would last three weeks.<\/p>\n

The potential maximum sentence in Victoria for murder is life imprisonment, and for attempted murder is 25 years in prison.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A woman accused of killing her ex-husband’s parents and an aunt by feeding them a beef wellington laced with poisonous mushrooms has appeared in court. Erin Patterson made a brief appearance at the Latrobe Valley Magistrates’ Court by video link from a prison in Melbourne, Australia, where she has been held since she was arrested […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32475,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/24\/04\/768x432\/skynews-erin-patterson_6529486.jpg?20240422081743","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1220,13382,1625,36322,6364,4373,36324,78,36323,2486],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32474"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32474"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32476,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32474\/revisions\/32476"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}