First photos of Erin Patterson’s murderous meal emerge as court releases trove of evidence revealing moment the mushroom killer clashed with hospital staff and table that hosted the deadly lunch

Images of the toxic beef Wellington and the table where Erin Patterson served her deadly lunch have been released by the Supreme Court of Victoria.

The pictures were released alongside a treasure trove of video and photo exhibits that were tendered to the court throughout Patterson’s epic 10-week trial. 

The evidence dump included CCTV footage of the moment Patterson discharged herself from hospital, against medical advice, after claiming to have eaten the poisonous meal she served her lunch guests.

The court also released photos of the dehydrator that Patterson used to dry out the deadly mushrooms before she used them to kill her in-laws. 

Patterson, 50, had pleaded not guilty to the murders of Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson.

They died after consuming death cap mushrooms served in beef Wellingtons during lunch at her Leongatha home on July 29, 2023.

Only Pastor Ian Wilkinson survived the lunch, with Patterson convicted of his attempted murder. 

The images shown to the jury had been withheld from the media until a verdict was reached. 

One video shows Patterson calmly walk into a BP service station where she was seen entering the toilet for just nine seconds. 

Patterson had driven her son to his flying lesson in Tyabb the day after the meal, stopping at the BP petrol station in Caldermeade along the way. 

Dressed in white pants, while claiming to be suffering from ‘explosive diarrhoea’, Patterson was seen wandering about the service station, stopping to buy treats, a ham, cheese and tomato sandwich, and a sweet chilli chicken wrap. 

Other footage showed Patterson leaving the Leongatha hospital on July 31, 2023 after complaining of nausea and diarrhoea.

She discharged herself against medical advice about five minutes after arriving at hospital at 8.05am. 

So concerned was a doctor about her welfare that he was forced to phone the police to try and get her to return. 

Police arrived at her home shortly after Patterson returned to the hospital about 10am.

Told by Patterson where to find the leftovers, the officers drove the deadly meal back to the hospital, where it was inspected by Dr Veronica Foote, before being transferred for further examination by Monash Health emergency registrar Laura Muldoon. 

The court was also shown CCTV vision of Patterson at the tip, where she was seen driving a red 4WD and dumping a large black device into an e-waste bin.

That device was later found to be the dehydrator she had used to dry the death caps she had harvested earlier. 

The jury was also shown images of sliced mushrooms laying on a metal tray taken from the dehydrator.

The images were taken by Patterson and extracted from her devices.

Royal Botanic Gardens of Victoria mycologist Tom May told the jury he could not ‘exclude the possibility these are death cap mushrooms’.

On August 5, 2023, police executed a search warrant on Patterson’s Leongatha home, seizing various electronic devices and photographing the scene of the crime.

Patterson’s defence had tried to suggest police had missed her phone during that search, which they claimed could be seen in one image in a black case. 

However, an image taken from Patterson’s visit to hospital showed she kept the phone in a pink case. 

The phone was never located by police and likely dumped by Patterson in the days after the raid. 

The jury was also shown the cook book Patterson claimed to have based her vile beef Wellingtons on. 

She had lifted the recipe from a Recipetin Eats Dinner cookbook, but drastically changed the way the Wellingtons were made in order to execute her wicked plan. 

Instead of serving one complete log of Wellington, Patterson changed the recipe to make individual pasties, serving her ‘safe’ Wellington on a different coloured plate to insure she wasn’t accidentally poisoned too. 

Much was made of that plate during the trial, with Patterson’s defence suggested Ian Wilkinson had made a mistake about the size and colour of his host’s plate. 

But it was an observation made by her other lunch guests, who lived long enough to tell the tale before they died slow and agonising deaths. 

Patterson herself had also taken to the witness box in a last ditch effort to save her skin. 

But her lies brought her undone time and time again.

Ultimately, the jury decided it could not believe a word Patterson said and going off the evidence at hand had no doubt at all she had killed her guests in the coldest of ways. 

She will face a preliminary plea hearing at a date to be fixed before sentence where she is expected to receive a life sentence.