Ms Patterson’s evidence from this weekpublished at 05:42 British Summer Time
Following on from our re-cap on today’s evidence, here’s a look at what we heard from Ms Patterson earlier this week.
Monday
When she first took the stand, Ms Patterson spoke about marital problems with her estranged husband and how she felt she was being cut off from the wider Patterson family in the period before the fatal lunch.
She also spoke about the traumatic birth of her first child years earlier, saying she discharged herself from hospital early after an emergency caesarean against medical advice
Tuesday
We heard about Ms Patterson’s love of mushrooms and how in early 2020, she started foraging for wild varieties as a hobby.
The accused said the mushrooms used in the beef Wellington meal were a mix of store-bought ones and some from a Melbourne grocer.
Wednesday
Ms Patterson claimed she only ate a small portion of her lunch and later threw up after binge-eating two-thirds of a cake.
She also admitted that there was a possibility that foraged mushrooms stored in her pantry may have been added to the meal unintentionally and that she lied to her guests about having cancer in order to cover up her embarrassment over plans to get weight-loss surgery.
Thursday
The mother-of-two said she lied to police about foraging for mushrooms and having a dehydrator because she was scared she’d be blamed for the fatal meal.
She denied a picture showing what appears to be death cap mushrooms being weighed on a kitchen scale in her home was her researching the ideal dose to kill her guests.
