Australian mushroom meal victim ‘hunched’ in pain, court hears

SYDNEY: The estranged husband of an Australian woman accused of triple murder with a toxic mushroom-laced beef Wellington told a court on Thursday his father was “hunched” in pain before he died.

Erin Patterson, 50, is charged with three murders -- the parents and aunt of her estranged husband -- and one attempted murder. She has pleaded not guilty to all counts, with her defence saying the fatal beef-and-pastry meal, laced with death cap mushrooms, was the result of “a terrible accident”.

On the second day of a trial that has drawn global attention, the accused woman´s husband, Simon Patterson, described seeing his parents in hospital after they had been poisoned. “Dad was substantially worse than mum. He was really struggling,” he told the court.

“He was lying on his side, he was hunched,” Simon Patterson said, adding that his father´s face was “really discoloured”.

“He wasn´t right inside, he was feeling pain.” Simon Patterson had been invited to the lunch in late July 2023 at his wife´s home in the sedate Victoria state farm village of Leongatha. But he told the court he declined, texting her that he was “uncomfortable” with the invitation. She urged him to reconsider, saying she had cooked a “special meal” and spent a “small fortune” on beef eye fillet for the meal.