Lawyers of an Australian woman accused of killing her husband’s family with a deadly mushroom called the three deaths a “terrible accident.”
According to CNN, during the opening arguments of the famous “mushroom murder” trial on Wednesday, April 30, 2025, the defense lawyers argue the tragedy was a “terrible accident” as Erin Patterson pleaded not guilty to all charges against her.
Erin Petterson's lawyers also admitted that she initially lied about not having foraged for mushrooms and not having a dehydrator, claiming that that she got “panicked” after she got to know about how seriously her guests fell ill after eating her meal.
Defense lawyer Colin Mandy SC told the court, “The defense case is that Erin Patterson did not deliberately serve poisoned food to her guests at that lunch on the 29th of July, 2023. She didn’t intend to cause anyone any harm on that day. The defense case is that what happened was a tragedy, a terrible accident.”
“The defense case is that she panicked because she was overwhelmed by the fact that these four people had become so ill because of the food that she’d served to (them),” he added.
Mandy also urged the court to think about how she must have felt in those days after knowing that three people died because of her food.
Meanwhile, the Crown prosecutors alleged that she deliberately served deadly mushrooms to kill her guests.
What is the ‘mushroom murder’ trial?
The ‘mushroom murder’ happened in July 2023 when Patterson invited her estranged husband's family to her home for a “special” lunch, saying she wanted to discuss a medical issue.
She served her guests a meal that contained death cap mushrooms, which caused the death of her mother-in-law. Gail Patterson, father-in-law Donald Patterson and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson.
Petterson is also charged with the attempted murder of Heather’s husband, Ian Wilkinson, who was also present at the lunch but luckily survived. She also invited her ex-husband for the lunch, but he did not attend.
Notably, the trail is expected to continue for up to six weeks.
