Expert did not find death cap mushrooms in sample, court hears
Dr Camille Truong was sent a package containing leftovers of the beef wellington meal on 1 August – three days after the lethal lunch at Erin Patterson’s home.
It was a large ziplock bag containing the food item.
You could see the item inside.
She put on gloves and used sterilised tweezers and a microscope, the court hears.
I saw it was a food item that contained mushrooms inside.
I picked out the pieces of mushrooms.
She says she did not find any death cap mushroom pieces.
She then returned the remnants to the bag and placed it in her fridge.
The next day she took the leftovers to the lab at the Royal Botanic Gardens.
“I pulled out all the little pieces of mushrooms on a tray … I also took photographs of the spores I was observing.”
Asked by the prosecutor, Nanette Rogers SC, if she found any death cap mushrooms in the item, she says “no I didn’t”.
Truong says the only mushrooms she found were “field mushrooms” which can be found in supermarkets.
Key events
Erin’s defence lawyer, Colin Mandy SC, is now cross-examining Prof Andrew Bersten.
He asks Bersten about Erin’s medical records from 31 July to 1 August 2023 he had access to in making his opinion. Bersten agrees he never assessed Erin.
Mandy asks about a point-of-care machine result for Erin on 31 July at Leongatha hospital which showed her hemoglobin was 167.
Mandy says later Erin’s haemoglobin value dropped to 152 and then 158.
“Three values which would be elevated for a woman,” Mandy says.
“Yes,” says Berstern.
Mandy says medical records provided to Bersten between 2013-2014 which showed lower haemoglobin levels and a reading in 2015 when Erin had a gastrointestinal illness.
Bersten says he has not been provided these records. Mandy says the defence will provide them.
Intensive care specialist tells court he believed Erin Patterson had ‘diarrhoeal illness’
Asked by crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC about Erin’s illness, Prof Andrew Bersten replies:
I thought there was evidence she had a diarrhoeal illness.
He says this was consistent with a “mild level of dehydration” and slightly elevated levels of haemoglobin and fibrinogen.
Bersten says there was “no biochemical evidence” of a liver injury.
Erin Patterson cleared of death cap mushroom poisoning at Monash medical centre, court hears
Prof Andrew Bersten says tests conducted at Leongatha hospital on Erin showed normal lactate levels and normal urea levels. He says Erin’s creatinine was at the upper end of the reference level.
Erin was admitted to Monash medical centre and discharged on 1 August, crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers says.
Bersten says notes from Erin’s ambulance transfer show she was “stable” during this trip.
He says medical testing of Erin at Monash medical notes showed slightly high blood pressure while her other vital signs were normal.
Rogers asks Bersten to confirm then Erin was cleared of death cap mushroom poisoning while at Monash medical centre. He agrees.
Rogers asks Bersten about a faecal test performed on Erin while at Monash medical centre, which can examine for a variety of bacteria pathogens, which can cause gastroenteritis.
Under questioning by Rogers, he agrees that no pathogens were detected in this test.
The prosecutor, Nanette Rogers SC, then turns to Erin’s “purported” illness after consuming the beef wellington lunch.
She asks Prof Andrew Bersten what he has found about this based on her medical records.
Bersten says Erin presented to the urgent care clinic at Leongatha on 31 July 2023 – two days after the lunch – with complaints of abdominal pain and diarrhoea. She said these had persisted since the lunch, Bersten tells the court.
He says a nurse documented that Erin had three “liquid bowel actions” at 10am, 10.04am and 10.06am that day.
A further two bowel actions by Erin were reported later that morning, the court hears.
‘Could not find evidence’ to affirm that Erin had cancer, doctor tells court
The prosecution’s next witness is Prof Andrew Bersten, an intensive care specialist.
The prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC asks Bersten if he has been provided with Erin Patterson’s medical records. He agrees he has.
She asks if he has found any evidence of Erin having cancer, as the prosecution has alleged she told the lunch guests.
I could not find evidence to affirm that statement.
Under questioning, he says a self-administered cervical cancer test done in May 2023 showed normal results.
That [the result] was conveyed to her.
The next witness is Paul Burns, a senior constable attached to the Bass Coast crime unit.
His written statement, where he describes collecting the dehydrator, is read to the court.
He says he was sent to collect the dehydrator at the tip on 4 August 2023. He took photos of the dehydrator once he arrived at the tip.
The photos are shown to the jury.
The prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC is showing the court a photo of an Eftpos transaction linked to the tip.
Canty agrees it matches the tip’s own records.
The dehydrator was collected by a police officer the same day, the court hears.
Jurors shown CCTV footage from Victorian tip
Darren Canty says he was contacted by Victoria police on 4 August 2023 about the tip. He was asked to make inquires about footage from 2 August.
He found the CCTV footage and sent this to police, he says.
The footage, which is played to jurors, shows a red four wheel drive car driving into the car park at the tip.
After parking, a woman gets out of the car and opens the boot before walking towards the shed at the tip.
The jury is also shown still images from the tip which show the red four wheel drive at the tip. Another image shows a woman carrying an item to one of the sheds at the tip.
Canty says he asked an employee to examine the tip shed on 4 August. He recalls the employee’s discovery:
He said it kind of looked like a microwave dehydrator.
The court room is shown a photo of the black dehydrator discovered at the tip.
The prosecution has called its next witness, Darren Canty.
He is the operations manager for waste management company Dasma Group that operates the Koonwarra transfer station and landfill, the court hears.
While we wait, revisit the timeline of events that led us to day 11 of Erin Patterson’s triple murder trial.
Timeline
Erin Patterson: how Australia’s alleged mushroom poisoning case unfolded — a timeline
Show
Erin Patterson hosts lunch for estranged husband Simon’s parents, Don and Gail Patterson, and his aunt and uncle Heather and Ian Wilkinson. Patterson serves beef wellington.
All four lunch guests are admitted to hospital with gastro-like symptoms.
Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson die in hospital.
Don Patterson dies in hospital. Victoria police search Erin Patterson’s home and interview her.
Ian Wilkinson is discharged from hospital after weeks in intensive care.
Police again search Erin Patterson’s home, and she is arrested and interviewed. She is charged with three counts of murder relating to the deaths of Don and Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson, and the attempted murder of Ian Wilkinson.
Murder trial begins. Jury hears that charges of attempting to murder her estranged husband Simon are dropped.
Revisit the key figures in the Patterson trial
Erin Patterson is accused of murdering her estranged husband Simon Patterson’s parents, Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister and Simon’s aunt, Heather Wilkinson, by feeding them a meal of beef wellington laced with death cap mushrooms in July 2023.
She is accused of attempting to murder Heather’s husband, Ian Wilkinson, who also attended the lunch at Erin’s home in Leongatha. Wilkinson recovered after spending weeks in hospital.
Revisit these key figures in our explainer below.
The court has adjourned for a lunch break.
The trial will resume at 2.15pm.
No records showing people getting sick from store-bought mushrooms
Barrister Colin Mandy SC says Dr Camille Truong also told the doctors that further options to test the mushrooms would include DNA testing of samples – but that this would be difficult.
Truong says the difficulty is due to samples potentially being from mixed sources of mushrooms.
Mandy turns to the possibility of mushroom poisoning from supermarket supply chains. Truong agrees that it is highly unlikely due to their use of cultivated mushrooms.
Truong says it is also highly unlikely for poisonings with mushrooms sold in smaller, independent shops.
“The information that was available to you, there wasn’t a record of people becoming ill because of mushrooms sold in shops?” Mandy asks.
“Correct,” Truong replies.
Patterson’s lawyer cross-examines mushroom expert
Erin Patterson’s lawyer, Colin Mandy SC, is cross-examining Dr Camille Truong.
She confirms she made the same conclusion that the samples did not contain death cap mushrooms after examining the leftovers on two occasions.
Mandy says she had a call with doctors on 1 August 2023 when Truong discussed that the leftovers could have contained ghost or oyster mushrooms.
Truong says she did not tell the doctors the samples definitely contained ghost or oyster mushrooms.
Expert did not find death cap mushrooms in sample, court hears
Dr Camille Truong was sent a package containing leftovers of the beef wellington meal on 1 August – three days after the lethal lunch at Erin Patterson’s home.
It was a large ziplock bag containing the food item.
You could see the item inside.
She put on gloves and used sterilised tweezers and a microscope, the court hears.
I saw it was a food item that contained mushrooms inside.
I picked out the pieces of mushrooms.
She says she did not find any death cap mushroom pieces.
She then returned the remnants to the bag and placed it in her fridge.
The next day she took the leftovers to the lab at the Royal Botanic Gardens.
“I pulled out all the little pieces of mushrooms on a tray … I also took photographs of the spores I was observing.”
Asked by the prosecutor, Nanette Rogers SC, if she found any death cap mushrooms in the item, she says “no I didn’t”.
Truong says the only mushrooms she found were “field mushrooms” which can be found in supermarkets.
‘Highly unlikely’ death cap mushrooms could be purchased from supermarket
Dr Camille Truong says a Victorian Poisons Information Centre toxicologist typically will send photos of mushrooms for identification.
It is “extremely rare” to be asked to identify a mushroom using a sample, she says.
On 31 July 2023, Truong received a call from Dr Laura Muldoon, a toxicology registrar at Monash Health, asking for help to identify the fungi, the court hears.
Muldoon said the hospital had four patients with suspected mushroom poisoning.
The jury is shown an email Muldoon sent to Truong at 12.03pm on the day.
The email includes a photo, which has previously been shown to the jury, showing a brown paste encased in pastry.
Truong says she asked Muldoon if she knew where the mushrooms were sourced from.
I told her that based on this particular photograph I would not be able to give her identification.
Truong says Muldoon told her she understood the mushrooms were bought from a supermarket and a Chinese shop.
Truong says she told Muldoon it was “probably impossible” to be death cap mushrooms, due to them only growing in the wild and being unable to be cultivated.
I also told her there were absolutely no sightings of death cap mushrooms during the last months.
Based on the information I received, it was highly unlikely to be a case of death cap mushroom poisoning.
The prosecution has called their next witness – another mushroom expert
Dr Camille Truong is a mycologist or scientist who studies fungi.
Truong is a research scientist at the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, the court hears.
The gardens has an 24-hour on-call mycologist available for the Victorian Poisons Information Centre to help identify mushrooms.
Dr Thomas May concludes evidence
Lawyer Sophie Stafford then turns to a graph showing death cap mushrooms located and removed in the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria between 2020-2023.
The graph shows March and May is when the largest numbers are located and removed.
Stafford shows May images he was shown by the prosecution during his evidence on Wednesday. The court heard previously these were provided to May by a Victoria police detective.
One photo shows several mushroom caps on a tray.
“You can’t exclude the possibility that these are death cap mushrooms?” Stafford asks.
“I can’t say with any degree of certainty that they’re not death cap mushrooms,” May says.
May agrees he also cannot exclude that they are another mushroom species.
May has now concluded his evidence.
Lawyer Sophie Stafford takes Dr Thomas May through the findings and recommendations made by the coroner about the May 2024 fatal poisoning (that is, unrelated to the Erin Patterson allegations which relate to a 2023 lunch).
May says he was contacted by the Victorian Department of Health about how the government should respond to the recommendations made by the coroner.
One finding by the coroner was for more public health messaging of dangers of consuming wild mushrooms, the court hears.
