A mushroom expert has testified in court that there were no death cap mushrooms found in food scraps from the home of alleged 'mushroom killer' Erin Patterson.

Morwell

Dr Camille Truong, a mushroom expert working with the Victorian Poisons Information Centre, was contacted by Monash Medical Centre to help identify mushrooms found in food scraps following an incident involving Erin Patterson. The hospital reached out after Erin Patterson reported that the mushrooms used in a meal were purchased from a supermarket, and her relatives had subsequently become critically ill.

Dr Truong informed the hospital that death cap mushrooms are unlikely to be sourced from supermarkets, as they typically only grow in the wild. A sample from the food scraps was examined by Dr Truong, who confirmed to the jury that she did not find any death cap mushrooms. According to Dr Truong, the mushrooms identified were standard field mushrooms commonly found in supermarkets.

Erin Patterson indicated to police that the leftovers found in the bin were from the Beef Wellington meal served to her relatives. Prosecutors alleged that the food she consumed during the meal, as well as the leftovers given to her children, were not poisoned. CCTV footage from the Coonwara tip was presented to the jury, showing Erin Patterson after her hospital discharge. Her legal team acknowledged that she misled police about disposing of a food dehydrator at the tip. Erin Patterson has pleaded not guilty to three charges of murder and one charge of attempted murder, maintaining that the deaths were accidental.



Mushroom killer: No death cap mushrooms found in food scraps

Dr Camille Truong was a mushroom expert on call for the Victorian Poisons Information Centre in July 2023. Two days after Erin Patterson's lethal lunch, she received a call from Monash Medical Centre asking her to identify mushrooms in leftovers. She told the hospital it was extremely unlikely they were death cap mushrooms if they'd been bought from a supermarket, as Erin Patterson claimed, because death caps only grow in the wild. At the time, Ms Patterson was in hospital claiming to have gastro and doctors were frantically trying to pinpoint the toxin which had left her relatives Don and Gail Patterson and Heather and Ian Wilkinson critically ill. A sample of the bin scraps was sent to Dr Truong for her examination. She told the jury she found no remnants of death cap mushrooms. The mushrooms I identified are called field mushrooms. It's just the typical mushrooms you find in a supermarket. Erin Patterson had directed police to leftovers dumped in a bin outside her home, claiming they were from the Beef Wellington meal served to her relatives. But prosecutors alleged the food she ate at the lunch wasn't poisoned, and neither were the leftovers she later fed to her two children. The jury was also played CCTV taken from the Coonwara tip the day after Ms Patterson was discharged from hospital. Her legal team admits she lied to police about dumping a food dehydrator at the tip, but she maintains her relatives' deaths were an accident, and has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder and one of attempted murder.

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