The woman at the centre of the mushroom lunch that left three people dead and a fourth fighting for his life has told media she feels like she has become a prisoner in her own home.
Speaking to the Australian, Erin Patterson, 48, said she felt as though she had been “painted as an evil witch” and had been trapped in her own home.
Couple Gail and Don Patterson, both 70, and Patterson’s sister Heather Wilkinson, 66, died in hospital after eating lunch at the Leongatha home in Victoria’s south-east on 29 July.
Several media outlets have been parked outside Patterson’s house since the deadly lunch gained international attention, and she said she has not been able to have friends over to support her because “nobody wants their face in the media”.
“I lost my parents-in-law, my children lost their grandparents,’’ Patterson told the Australian.
“And I’ve been painted as an evil witch. And the media is making it impossible for me to live in this town. I can’t have friends over. The media is at the house where my children are at. The media are at my sister’s house so I can’t go there. This is unfair.’’
The comments come as the Australian Mushroom Growers Association (AMGA) has come out in defence of the supply chain, saying there is no way poisonous mushrooms could be grown in commercial farms.
“This fungus [death caps] only grows in the wild,” the association said in a statement. “Commercial mushrooms are grown indoors in environmentally controlled rooms with strict hygiene protocols and food safety standards.
“The only mushrooms you can be sure are safe are fresh, Australian-grown mushrooms bought from a trusted retailer.”
In a statement provided to Victoria police and obtained by the ABC, Patterson confirmed her estranged husband had accused her of killing his parents.
She said she had been at the hospital with her children “discussing the food hydrator” which was later found at the tip, when Simon asked her if it was “what you used to poison them?”
Patterson said in the statement that she was worried she would lose custody of their children and dumped the hydrator in the tip and had panicked.
“I am now devastated to think that these mushrooms may have contributed to the illness suffered by my loved ones,” she wrote in the statement, according to the ABC.
“I really want to repeat that I had absolutely no reason to hurt these people whom I loved.”
Patterson confirmed the meal in question was a beef wellington pie.
Speaking to the Australian, she denied she had leaked the statement, saying she had no idea how it got out.
The Victorian health department is required to act if there is a food safety incident.
There have been no ordered recalls of mushroom products in the state since the suspected poisonings.
Victoria police has not commented on Patterson’s statement, nor provided any updates on their investigation.
– Australia Associated Press contributed to this report
