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“She said that she had given the children some of that meal the next day but had scraped off the mushroom paste.
“She said she had been unwell the following day, the Sunday, with gastroenteritis-type symptoms.
“She told me that she’d made a beef Wellington and she had made the beef Wellington with a mushroom paste.
“When I asked her about the dried mushrooms she said she had used the entire lot.”
Stuart said Patterson told her the dried mushrooms had a strong smell. She said she asked if Patterson had foraged for mushrooms, and the accused woman said no.
“I asked if she had been mushrooming. She said no, she only used those two types of mushrooms,” Stuart said.
“I did ask her about the lunch and she told me she was having lunch with her ex-husband’s relatives … and I just said, ‘That’s a nice thing to do’. She said it was not unusual and she still had a good relationship with them.
“She asked me why I was asking those questions. I retold her I was just trying to make sure there was no public health issue.“
‘She looked clinically well’: toxicologist
Dr Laura Muldoon, a toxicologist, told the court she also spoke with the accused on July 31, 2023, and that Patterson believed she had gastro.
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“I noted she looked clinically well. She had some chapped lips but otherwise looked clinically well. No signs of Amanita poisoning,” Muldoon said.
She said Patterson told her the mushrooms she bought in Melbourne might have been dried shiitake or porcini.
Muldoon told the court she organised for an “urgent taxi” to take the leftovers from the lunch, that had arrived at hospital with Patterson, to a specialist at the Royal Botanic Gardens.
Earlier, the teenage friend of Patterson’s son had his statement read to the jury.
In the statement, the boy said he went into Leongatha with Patterson’s two children on the day of the lunch to watch a movie. Afterwards, Erin’s estranged husband, Simon Patterson, picked up the children and drove them to Erin’s home.
The boy said he recalled seeing dinner plates in the kitchen sink when the children arrived at Erin’s home. He said he and Patterson’s son ate some dessert and then played computer games, and Erin drove him home after 6pm.
“Erin just seemed like her normal self to me. Erin just dropped me off, I said goodbye and they just left,” the friend said.
The trial continues.
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