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Toronto Sun
an hour ago
- Toronto Sun
Australian mushroom cook is convicted of triple murder after serving a fatal beef Wellington lunch
Published Jul 07, 2025 • 4 minute read This undated handout photo from the Supreme Court of Victoria released on July 7, 2025 shows an annotated photo of plates containing samples of a beef Wellington meal laced with toxic mushrooms that was prepared by Australian home cook Erin Patterson, during a toxicology analysis at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine. Photo by HANDOUT/SUPREME COURT OF VICTORIA / AFP via Getty Images MELBOURNE, Australia — Australian woman Erin Patterson was found guilty Monday of murdering three of her estranged husband's relatives by deliberately serving them poisonous mushrooms for lunch. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account The jury in the Supreme Court trial in Victoria state returned a verdict after six days of deliberations, following a nine-week trial that gripped Australia. Patterson faces life in prison and will be sentenced later, but a date for the hearing hasn't yet been scheduled. Patterson, who sat in the dock between two prison officers, showed no emotion but blinked rapidly as the verdicts were read. Three of Patterson's four lunch guests — her parents-in-law Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson — died in the hospital after the 2023 meal at her home in Leongatha, at which she served individual beef Wellington pastries containing death cap mushrooms. She was also found guilty of attempting to murder Ian Wilkinson, Heather's husband, who survived the meal. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. It wasn't disputed that Patterson served the mushrooms or that the pastries killed her guests. The jury was required to decide whether she knew the lunch contained death caps, and if she intended for them to die. The guilty verdicts, which were required to be unanimous, indicated that jurors rejected Patterson's defence that the presence of the poisonous fungi in the meal was a terrible accident, caused by the mistaken inclusion of foraged mushrooms that she didn't know were death caps. Prosecutors didn't offer a motive for the killings, but during the trial highlighted strained relations between Patterson and her estranged husband and frustration that she had felt about his parents in the past. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The case turned on the question of whether Patterson meticulously planned a triple murder or accidentally killed three people she loved, including her children's only surviving grandparents. Her lawyers said she had no reason to do so — she had recently moved to a beautiful new home, was financially comfortable, had sole custody of her children and was due to begin studying for a degree in nursing and midwifery. But prosecutors suggested Patterson had two faces — the woman who publicly appeared to have a good relationship with her parents-in-law, while her private feelings about them were kept hidden. Her relationship with her estranged husband, Simon Patterson, who was invited to the fatal lunch but didn't go, deteriorated in the year before the deaths, the prosecution said. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The simplest facts of what happened that day and immediately afterward were hardly disputed. But Patterson's motivations for what she did and why were pored over in detail during the lengthy trial, at which more than 50 witnesses were called. The individual beef Wellington pastries Patterson served her guests were one point of friction because the recipe she used contained directions for a single, family-sized portion. Prosecutors said that she reverted to individual servings, so she could lace the other diners' portions, but not her own, with the fatal fungi — but Patterson said that she was unable to find the correct ingredients to make the recipe as directed. Nearly every other detail of the fateful day was scrutinized at length, including why Patterson sent her children out to a film before her guests arrived, why she added additional dried mushrooms to the recipe from her pantry, why she didn't become ill when the other diners did, and why she disposed of a food dehydrator after the deaths and told investigators that she didn't own one. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Patterson acknowledged some lies during her evidence _ including that she'd never foraged mushrooms or owned a dehydrator. But she said that those claims were made in panic as she realized her meal had killed people. She said she didn't become as ill as the other diners since she vomited after the meal because of an eating disorder. She denied that she told her guests she had cancer as a ruse to explain why she invited them to her home that day. The case gripped Australia The bizarre and tragic case has lingered in the minds of Australians and has provoked fervor among the public and media. During the trial, five separate podcasts analyzed each day of the proceedings and several news outlets ran live blogs giving moment-by-moment accounts of more than two months of evidence. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. At least one television drama and a documentary about the case are slated for production. Prominent Australian crime writers were seen in court throughout the trial. As it emerged half an hour before the verdict that the court was reconvening, about 40 members of the public queued outside the courthouse in the rural town of Morwell in the hope of watching the outcome in person. News outlets reported that family members of the victims were not among those present. Before the verdict, newspapers published photos of black privacy screens erected at the entrance to Erin Patterson's home. Dozens of reporters from throughout Australia and from news outlets abroad crowded around friends of Patterson's as they left the courthouse Monday. 'I'm saddened, but it is what it is,' said one friend, Ali Rose Prior, who wore sunglasses and fought back tears. Asked what she thought Patterson felt as the verdicts were read, Prior said, 'I don't know.' Prior, who attended every day of the trial, confirmed Patterson had told her: 'See you soon.' Prior said she would visit her friend in prison. — Graham-McLay reported from Wellington, New Zealand. 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Toronto Star
an hour ago
- Toronto Star
Top South African official accuses police minister of colluding with crime syndicates
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A South African top security official accused the police minister and a deputy national commissioner of colluding with crime syndicates, sparking public uproar. In an unprecedented move, General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, head of the police in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, called for a press conference Sunday and claimed that Senzo Mchunu and Shadrack Sibiya had interfered with sensitive police investigations.
Winnipeg Free Press
2 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Top South African official accuses police minister of colluding with crime syndicates
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A South African top security official accused the police minister and a deputy national commissioner of colluding with crime syndicates, sparking public uproar. In an unprecedented move, General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, head of the police in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, called for a press conference Sunday and claimed that Senzo Mchunu and Shadrack Sibiya had interfered with sensitive police investigations. He also alleged both men disbanded a crucial crime unit tasked with investigating repeated politically motivated killings in the province after it was revealed that crime syndicates were behind the killings. Mkhwanazi claimed his investigation showed that some 'politicians, law enforcement, SAPS (South African Police Service), metro police and correctional services, prosecutors, judiciary' were being 'controlled by drug cartels and as well as businesspeople.' He said he had evidence supporting his claims, yet to be made public. South Africa has one of the highest crime rates in the world and allegations of corruption within the police are not new. However, it is unusual for high-ranking security officials to accuse each other of involvement with criminals. Mchunu has denied Mkhwanazi's claims, calling them 'baseless.' 'The Minister of Police will never allow his integrity, that of the Ministry or the SAPS at large to be undermined by insinuations made without evidence or due processes, from anyone, including Lieutenant General Mkhwanazi,' Mchunu said in a statement. President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is currently in Brazil attending a BRICS Leaders' Summit, said he would see to Mkhwanazi's allegations on his return home this week. 'This is a matter of grave national security concern that is receiving the highest priority attention,' Ramaphosa's office said in a statement, adding that the trading of accusations between the country's top police officials could undermine public confidence. The African National Congress party, which leads the country's unity government, said the issues raised by Mkhwanazi were 'of grave concern' and it had been assured that Ramaphosa would attend to them. The Institute for Security Studies, an independent crime watchdog, said these accusations should be thoroughly probed as they could erode public confidence in South Africa's police.
