Latest news with #DimitriGerostamoulos
Malay Mail
2 days ago
- Malay Mail
Sweet but sinister: What to know about death cap mushrooms, the toxic fungi at the heart of Australia's fatal lunch trial
SYDNEY, June 30 — The triple-murder trial of Australian Erin Patterson revolves around an innocuous-looking mushroom with a 'slightly sweet' smell and a sinister name. Patterson is accused of killing her husband's parents and aunt in 2023 by lacing their beef Wellington lunch with highly toxic death cap mushrooms. The 50-year-old has strenuously denied the charges, saying the hearty meal was contaminated by accident. Throughout a headline-grabbing trial spanning more than two months, experts have dissected the brown-and-white fungi in forensic detail. Death caps — or Amanita phalloides — are responsible for around 90 percent of all fungus-related fatalities, making them the deadliest mushrooms in the world. The brown-and-white sporing bodies are easily mistaken for other edible varieties, and reportedly possess a pleasant taste when used in cooking. But they are saturated with deadly chemicals known as amatoxins, toxicologist Dimitri Gerostamoulos told Patterson's trial. 'They can lead to someone experiencing symptoms of diarrhoea, vomiting, feeling really unwell,' Gerostamoulos told the jury. 'And they progressively get worse if the toxins are not removed. 'They progress to tissue necrosis, organ failure and can obviously lead to death if not treated appropriately.' Three of Patterson's guests died of organ failure a week after unknowingly eating death cap mushrooms baked into individual portions of beef Wellington. 'It was very apparent that this was not survivable,' intensive care specialist Stephen Warrillow told the jury. A fourth guest fell gravely ill but survived after weeks in hospital. Death cap mushrooms are native to Europe but have spread to the United States, Australia and New Zealand, fungi expert Tom May said during Patterson's trial. He said the mushrooms had a 'slightly sweet' odour when fresh. 'In Australia, it is an exotic species and it was accidentally introduced,' May said in his testimony. They sprout during warm and wet autumn weather and are typically found growing in the shade of oak trees. 'From time to time, every year usually under suitable conditions, it produces a sporing body, which is the mushroom that we see,' May said. 'They're quite fleshy and they decay quite readily, so they would not last longer than a couple of weeks when they're sitting in the field.' — AFP
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Sweet-smelling fungi at centre of Australian triple-murder trial
The triple-murder trial of Australian Erin Patterson revolves around an innocuous-looking mushroom with a "slightly sweet" smell and a sinister name. Patterson is accused of killing her husband's parents and aunt in 2023 by lacing their beef Wellington lunch with highly toxic death cap mushrooms. The 50-year-old has strenuously denied the charges, saying the hearty meal was contaminated by accident. Throughout a headline-grabbing trial spanning more than two months, experts have dissected the brown-and-white fungi in forensic detail. Death caps -- or Amanita phalloides -- are responsible for around 90 percent of all fungus-related fatalities, making them the deadliest mushrooms in the world. The brown-and-white sporing bodies are easily mistaken for other edible varieties, and reportedly possess a pleasant taste when used in cooking. But they are saturated with deadly chemicals known as amatoxins, toxicologist Dimitri Gerostamoulos told Patterson's trial. "They can lead to someone experiencing symptoms of diarrhoea, vomiting, feeling really unwell," Gerostamoulos told the jury. "And they progressively get worse if the toxins are not removed. "They progress to tissue necrosis, organ failure and can obviously lead to death if not treated appropriately." Three of Patterson's guests died of organ failure a week after unknowingly eating death cap mushrooms baked into individual portions of beef Wellington. "It was very apparent that this was not survivable," intensive care specialist Stephen Warrillow told the jury. A fourth guest fell gravely ill but survived after weeks in hospital. Death cap mushrooms are native to Europe but have spread to the United States, Australia and New Zealand, fungi expert Tom May said during Patterson's trial. He said the mushrooms had a "slightly sweet" odour when fresh. "In Australia, it is an exotic species and it was accidentally introduced," May said in his testimony. They sprout during warm and wet autumn weather and are typically found growing in the shade of oak trees. "From time to time, every year usually under suitable conditions, it produces a sporing body, which is the mushroom that we see," May said. "They're quite fleshy and they decay quite readily, so they would not last longer than a couple of weeks when they're sitting in the field." sft/djw/sco
ABC News
16-05-2025
- ABC News
Erin Patterson's mushroom murder trial takes the jury on a tour, from beef Wellington to biochemistry
For 13 days, jurors in the Erin Patterson trial have been parked inside the courtroom. Even though they haven't moved from their seats, the evidence has taken them through homes, hospitals, scientific labs, a landfill and the wilderness. An early stop was Ms Patterson's home, where a family meal took place on July 29, 2023. Ian Wilkinson reconstructed the day for the jury. He was one of four guests who sat down with Ms Patterson, where they engaged in small talk, said prayers and ate a beef Wellington containing mushrooms. Then, the jury was walked through hospital waiting rooms and wards. A cast of doctors, including Chris Webster, Mark Douglas, Laura Muldoon, Varuna Ruggoo and Andrew Bersten, described the scramble to understand how the lunch guests became so terribly sick. Don and Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson didn't survive. Enter Professor Dimitri Gerostamoulos, who invited the jury into the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine. There, lab tests confirmed a toxic twist: death cap mushroom toxins were found in human samples and beef Wellington leftovers pulled from Ms Patterson's bin. Darren Canty took jurors to the local landfill to find a food dehydrator that was dumped by Ms Patterson days after the lunch. The jurors' attention was drawn to the possible sources of the poisonous mushrooms in the dish. Ms Patterson said she used mushrooms from a supermarket and an Asian grocer, but other investigators asked if they had come from somewhere else. Mycologist Tom May led the jury on a tour of Victoria and the world, showcasing the many places where deadly — and perfectly safe — wild mushrooms grow. Dr May provided a fungal masterclass, explaining death cap mushrooms also go by their scientific name, Amanita phalloides. Brown, white, or with a hint of green, these mushrooms grow near oak trees and always have white gills and a cup at the base of their stems, he said. Lookalikes in the wild could make identifying Amanita phalloides a challenging task, though. Sometimes, the court heard, Amanita phalloides shared characteristics with Oudemansiella gigaspora, Volvopluteus gloiocephalus, Chlorophyllum brunneum, Amanita cheelii or mushrooms from the genus Armillaria group. "If you're going to collect wild fungi, you really have to get to know the features of mushrooms in general," Dr May said. "You need to be able to identify the toxic species as well as the edible species." Professor Gerostamoulos was called to the stand to simplify a series of toxicology reports. He explained that he was on the hunt for alpha and beta amanitins, toxins found in death cap mushrooms. Just 50 grams could be lethal to a 70-kilogram human, he said, causing symptoms of diarrhoea and vomiting that escalated to organ failure and potential death. These amanitins were found in beef Wellington leftovers, the dehydrator and in human samples from Don Patterson and Ian Wilkinson, he said. They were not detected in Erin Patterson, or the bodies of Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson. When it came to medical evidence, the jurors were given a glossary to make sense of it all, allowing them to understand terms like N-acetylcysteine, haemoglobin, creatinine and fibrinogen. By Friday afternoon, the jury was hearing about the DNA barcoding of mushroom species. Prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC took the court to a series of test results, outlined on tables 1, 2 and 4. "There's no table 3?" Justice Christopher Beale asked. "No, there's no table 3," Ms Rogers replied. "It's a bit too technical and not terribly relevant in terms of — " "That's fine," the judge interjected. "We don't need an explanation." Ms Patterson has pleaded not guilty to murder and attempted murder charges, arguing that what happened to her lunch guests in 2023 was a terrible accident. The jury's tour may be nearing its end, but there are still more points of interest for them to visit next week. After the evidence, they will be sequestered to a hotel while considering their verdicts. The final destination will be the jury box: the place where they announce if Erin Patterson is guilty or acquitted.
RNZ News
16-05-2025
- RNZ News
Toxicologist explains testing of deadly beef Wellington lunch to Erin Patterson murder trial
Accused mushroom killer Erin Patterson is charged with the murder of three people and the attempted murder of another. Photo: AFP / PAUL TYQUIN Defence lawyers for accused killer Erin Patterson have suggested a person could survive death cap mushroom poisoning, even after eating the same meal as someone who fell seriously ill. Patterson is accused of murdering three relatives by serving them a beef Wellington meal that contained poisonous death cap mushrooms. Patterson has pleaded not guilty. Victoria's chief toxicologist Dimitri Gerostamoulos returned to the witness box on Friday for his second day of testimony, being questioned by the defence's Colin Mandy SC. Toxicologist Dimitri Gerostamoulos continued his testimony on Friday. Photo: ABC News: Kristian Silva The defence questioned Dr Gerostamoulos about all the factors that led to illness from death cap mushrooms, reiterating to the court that medical knowledge was based on animal studies. "There are lots of variables that needed to be considered for that lethal dose," Dr Gerostamoulos said, including the age and health of the subject. He said a lethal dose was considered to be 0.1 mg per kg of body weight. Mandy raised a study which showed some people who consumed death cap mushrooms reacted with different levels of severity, which is categorised into four grades. He told the court that in the first grade, a person may not develop liver or kidney issues even though they ate the same meal as people who reacted more severely. The prosecution then posed a hypothetical scenario about two adults consuming the same amount of a meal containing death cap mushrooms, and one of the adults dying. Prosecutor Sarah Lenthall asked Dr Gerostamoulos what would happen to the other person who ate the meal. Dr Gerostamoulos told the court they would likely fall seriously ill but could survive, citing a 2024 case of a Victorian man surviving death cap poisoning after a stint in the ICU. The court was again taken through tables of laboratory test results, showing the level of toxins present in samples from each of the lunch guests. Samples taken from Don Patterson and Ian Wilkinson tested positive for toxins found in death cap mushrooms. However, samples taken from Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson tested negative for those toxins. The four lunch guests were all tested between 25 and 32 hours after the lunch. Two samples were taken from Erin Patterson 51 hours after the lunch and neither tested positive for death cap mushroom toxins. These were blood and serum samples, fluids the defence noted cleared traces of the toxin faster than urine. Patterson's children were also tested and no toxins were found in either of their systems. Also on Friday, Dr Gerostamoulos explained the process of extracting samples from leftover food, which he said is a sometimes difficult but routine task for toxicologists. The tests sought to detect toxins present in death cap mushroom, known as alpha and beta amanitins. On Thursday, he revealed to the court that beta amanitins were found in samples of mushroom paste and beef analysed about a month after the 29 July lunch. The court heard that leftovers were collected from two different places in Erin Patterson's home, but were put into one bag. Dr Gerostamoulos said it was not an ideal way to receive the samples. Leftovers of beef, pastry and mushroom paste found in Erin Patterson's bin were tested extensively by several experts. Photo: ABC News / File photo The court also heard from a plant scientist who had separately analysed leftovers from the lunch. David Lovelock, who specialises in plant virology and bacteriology, told the court he used a technique known as DNA barcoding to test the beef Wellington lunch and residue from a food dehydrator. Earlier in the trial, the court heard Erin Patterson both purchased and later dumped a black Sunbeam food dehydrator, from which samples were taken. The tests were more than 99 percent positive for death cap mushroom residue in the dehydrator, but Dr Lovelock said he found no evidence in the leftover food provided. The trial continues. - ABC
News.com.au
15-05-2025
- News.com.au
Erin Patterson trial: Victoria's chief toxicologist tells jury death cap mushroom toxins found
Samples taken from a dehydrator were found to contain toxins 'exclusively' linked to death cap mushrooms, jurors in Erin Patterson's trial have been told. Victoria's chief toxicologist Dimitri Gerostamoulos was called to give evidence on Thursday about a series of tests conducted at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine. He told the court the Institute was provided with a series of items for testing by police on August 29, 2023 – a month after Ms Patterson hosted a fatal lunch at her Leongatha home. The items were leftovers from the lunch, a fruit platter, a white jug containing a brown liquid, and vegetable matter or debris located in a dehydrator. Prosecutor Sarah Lenthall told Dr Gerostamoulos the jury a day earlier had heard from mycologist Camille Truong, who examined the leftovers under a microscope and found no traces of death cap mushrooms. Asked to explain how the Institute's testing differed, he said 'we don't rely on visual detection of compounds'. 'We rely on sensitive instruments to be able to detect very low quantities that are not visible,' he said. Dr Gerostamoulos said no testing was conducted on the fruit platter, and no amanitins – toxins found in death cap mushrooms – were detected in the brown liquid. But he said samples of meat, pastry and mushroom paste from the lunch were tested. In three of four mushroom paste samples no alpha-amanitin or beta-amanitin toxins were found, but in one sample they detected beta-amanitin. Beta-amanitin toxins were also detected in one meat sample, he said. In samples supplied of 'vegetable matter' located in a dehydrator, Dr Gerostamoulos said both alpha-amanitin and beta-amanitin toxins were detected. Questioned by Justice Christopher Beale if those toxins were 'exclusively' found in death cap mushrooms, Dr Gerostamoulos responded: 'Yes'. Dr Gerostamoulos is expected to return to the witness box when the trial resumes on Friday morning. Ms Patterson is facing trial after pleading not guilty to the murder of three of her husband's relatives and the attempted murder of one more. Simon Patterson's parents, Don and Gail Patterson, and his aunt Heather Wilkinson died from death cap mushroom poisoning in the week after eating a beef wellington at Ms Patterson's home on July 29, 2023. Heather's husband, Ian Wilkinson, recovered after spending a month and a half in hospital. Prosecutors allege Ms Patterson deliberately spiked the lunch with 'murderous intent', while her defence argues the case is a 'tragic accident'. The trial continues.
