Accused mushroom killer Erin Patterson, wearing a pink button-down shirt, has returned to the witness box for the seventh day.
Senior Crown prosecutor Dr Nanette Rogers, SC, is once again leading the cross-examination. Rogers has started by asking Patterson about the preparation of the beef Wellington served during the fatal lunch on July 29, 2023.
The mother of two denied Rogers’ suggestion that she could have sourced a whole cut of meat from one of the local butchers to prepare the beef Wellington as a single log, instead of buying eye-fillet steaks to create individual portions.
A traditional log of beef Wellington.
“I may have been able to, but I don’t know,” Patterson said.
Rogers has taken Patterson to a record of her interview with the police, where Patterson referred Detective Leading Senior Constable Stephen Eppingstall to the cookbook recipe she’d used, which called for a single piece of meat to prepare the dish as a log.
The prosecutor questioned Patterson about the quantity of mushrooms she purchased for the recipe, which called for 700 grams of sliced mushrooms for six to eight servings. She referred Patterson to her purchases leading up to the meal, which included buying a kilogram of sliced mushrooms from Woolworths and another 750 grams on two separate dates leading up to July 29, 2023.
Patterson said she ate a kilo of mushrooms between July 23 and July 27, leaving her with 750 grams for the recipe.
Rogers suggested Patterson was lying about eating the mushrooms, which the mother of two denied.
Rogers: It’s more than twice the amount of mushrooms that the recipe called for.
Patterson: Correct.
Rogers: I suggest you had no need to use additional mushrooms outside the ones you purchased from Woolworths.
Patterson: I may not have needed to, no.
Rogers: You told [Department of Health manager] Sally Ann Atkinson and [child protection worker] Katrina Cripps that the dried mushrooms you had had a strong smell.
Patterson: They were quite pungent.
Rogers: There was evidence from [mycologist] Dr Tom May that he had dried death cap mushrooms on a number of occasions and that they smelled quite unpleasant. The mushrooms you included in the meal smelled very unpleasant didn’t they?
Patterson: I don’t remember them being unpleasant.
Rogers: The mushrooms you included in the meal had a strong smell.
Patterson: They did.
Rogers: Is it your evidence that the smell was not unpleasant?
Patterson: I don’t remember thinking that the smell was unpleasant.
Rogers: You chose what to serve your guests for lunch.
Patterson: Correct.
Roger: You were solely responsible for obtaining and preparing the ingredients.
Patterson: For the main, yes.
Rogers: You never mentioned to the lunch guests that the beef Wellington contained dried mushrooms from a Chinese grocer.
Patterson: We didn’t discuss any of the ingredients.
Rogers: You never mentioned to the lunch guests that the beef wellington contained wild foraged mushrooms.
Patterson: I didn’t think it did at the time.
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