Kathmandu. In a case that captivated the nation, an Australian lady was found guilty on Monday of killing three elderly relatives of her estranged husband by feeding them a dinner tainted with toxic mushrooms and trying to kill a fourth.
The jury concluded, following a week of deliberation, that Erin Patterson had enticed her mother-in-law Gail Patterson, father-in-law Donald Patterson, and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson to lunch at her house, where she had poisoned them with individual portions of Beef Wellington with death cap mushrooms.

The 50-year-old was also found guilty of attempting to kill Heather’s husband, Ian Wilkinson, who survived the 2023 dinner at Erin Patterson’s house in Leongatha, a town of roughly 6,000 people located 135 kilometres (84 miles) southeast of Melbourne.
Patterson claimed the killings were unintentional and entered a not guilty plea to all four charges.
The mother of two faces a possible life sentence and will be sentenced later. She has the right to appeal the decision.
As he exited the court through a flurry of reporters, Colin Mandy, Patterson’s defence attorney and one of Melbourne’s leading criminal barristers, remained silent.

Patterson’s former spouse Simon Patterson and his siblings’ representative, Jessica O’Donnell, likewise chose not to respond.
Victoria Police detective Dean Thomas expressed gratitude to investigators for their efforts on the case.
“I think it’s very important that we remember that three people have died, and we’ve had a person that nearly died and was seriously injured,” he said in a brief statement outside the court.
He stated that the victims’ families had asked for privacy and would not be speaking.
International and local media flocked to Court 4 at the Latrobe Valley Magistrates’ Court, where Patterson had asked the case to be heard, during the 10-week trial in Morwell, a former coal mining town about two hours east of Melbourne.

A number of documentaries on the case are currently in production, and throughout the trial, public broadcaster ABC’s daily podcast on proceedings was often among the most popular in Australia.

HUGE DECEPTION
In order to kill her guests, Patterson used four main deceptions, according to the prosecution, which was represented by attorney Nanette Rogers.
Rogers told the court that she poisoned the guests’ food while serving herself an untainted piece after first fabricating a cancer diagnosis to entice them to the lunch.
In order to deflect suspicion, Patterson subsequently claimed that she was also ill from the food. When authorities started looking into the fatalities, Patterson eventually started a cover-up, trying to destroy evidence and lying to investigators, according to the prosecution.

Patterson hired a four-person legal team, headed by Mandy, and claimed during the trial that she had received substantial sums of money from her mother and grandmother.
She spent eight days on the stand, including five days of cross-examination, as the sole witness in her defence.
Patterson, who frequently broke down in tears as she discussed the lunch’s effects on the Patterson family and her two kids, told the court about her lifelong battle with weight, an eating disorder, and low self-esteem.
Patterson told the court that she had lied to her visitors about having cancer because she was too ashamed to disclose that she was undergoing weight loss surgery. She stated she was looking for help from her family on how to explain the procedure to her kids.

Because she had covertly overindulged in a cake that her mother-in-law had brought to the lunch and then made herself ill, Patterson told the court she had also not become as ill as her guests.
On June 30, the seven-member, five-woman jury adjourned to review the evidence.
Because of the length and complexity of the case, Justice Christopher Beale granted the trial’s jurors a unique dispensation that would exempt them from jury duty for the following 15 years.