Australian found guilty of murder after having served toxic mushrooms in the Beaux-Belles for lunch

An Australian woman was sentenced on Monday for murdering three elderly parents from her separate husband with a meal with poisonous mushrooms, in a case that seized the country.

Erin Patterson, 50, was accused of the murders of his mother-in-law Gail Patterson, the stepfather Donald Patterson and the sister of Gail, Heather Wilkinson, as well as the attempted murder of Ian Wilkinson, Heather’s husband.

The four gathered at the home of Erin Patterson in Leongatha, a city of approximately 6,000 inhabitants about 135 kilometers south-east of Melbourne, where the mother of two served them a meal of individual beef wells accompanied by potatoes and green beans, which later contained hood mushrooms.

On Monday, the jury of the case found him guilty of the four accusations, the court heard in Morwell, a city about two hours east of Melbourne where the trial was held.

His lawyer, Colin Mandy, made no comments by leaving the court through a touch of journalists.

Jessica O’Donnell, spokesperson for the husband far from Patterson, Simon Patterson and his brothers and sisters, also refused to comment.

Patterson, who had pleaded not guilty to all accusations, saying that deaths were accidental, will be sentenced to a later date.

The 10 -week trial attracted a huge world interest, the local and international media descending in court 4 in the Magistrates court of the Latrobe valley in Morwell, the court closest to the home of Patterson where she had asked to be tried, despite her warning against long delays.

The daily podcast of the ABC state diffuser on procedures was constantly among the most popular in Australia during the trial, while several documentaries on the case are already under production.

The accusation, led by lawyer Nanette Rogers, told court that Patterson had employed four major deceptions to assassinate his guests.

She first made a diagnosis of cancer to attract guests to lunch, poisoning their meals while using an unused part, said Rogers in court.

Patterson then lied that she was also sick of food to avoid suspicion, before finally embarking on concealment when the police started investigating death, trying to destroy evidence and lie to the police, the accusation said.

Patterson, who said that during the trial, she inherited large sums of money from her mother and grandmother, retained a legal team of four people, led by Colin Mandy, one of the best criminal lawyers in Melbourne.

She was the only witness to her defense, spending eight days on the stand, including five days of counterfeit.

Patterson told court a life struggle with its weight, a food disorder and low self -esteem, frequently becoming emotional when it was talking about the impact of lunch on the Patterson family and her two children.

She had lied to cancer not to attract guests to lunch to kill them, but because she was looking for their help to tell her children and was embarrassed to say that she was actually planned to have weight loss surgery, she told court.

Patterson had not become as sick either as her lunch guests because she secretly hit a cake brought by her mother-in-law and then served, she told court.

The jury of seven men and five women retired on June 30, taking a week to make a verdict.

Judge Beale gave the jurors of the special exemption from the trial to avoid the judgment of the jury for the next 15 years, due to the duration and complexity of the case.