Erin Patterson's chilling three words to friend after mushroom murder guilty verdict

Mushroom killer Erin Patterson told her friend Alison Rose Prior "See you soon", as she was led away to her cell after being found guilty of murdering her three in-laws. Patterson was this morning found guilty of fatally poisoning the trio with death cap mushrooms in a beef Wellington that she served them for lunch at her home. As she was being led back down to the cells by court staff, Patterson glanced at her best friend and supporter Alison and defiantly told her, "See you soon."

Ms Prior, who left the court surround by reporters, said: "I'm saddened, and it is what it is. I didn't have any expectations, it's the justice system and it is what it is," she added as she was ushered away by court security staff. One journalist asked: "She said she would see you soon, were you hoping to see her?" Fighting back tears behind her sunglasses Ms Prior replied: "I will see her...I'm her friend and I'll see her - I'll visit with her."

Asked if Patterson was confident there would be a not-guilty verdict, she said: "I don't know."

According to the Daily Mail Ms Prior then begged media to leave her alone so she could get to her car.

The verdict ends one of the Australia's most intriguing homicide cases.

Patterson sat defiantly throughout her 10-week trial, glaring at the media, members of the public and the family of the people she murdered with callous disregard.

The mother-of-two had pleaded not guilty to the murders of Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson.

They died after consuming death caps in the beef Wellingtons during lunch at Patterson's Leongatha home in southeast Victoria on July 29, 2023.

Only Pastor Ian Wilkinson survived her plot - a blunder Patterson would live to regret, and she will now serve time after also being found guilty of attempting to murder him.

Seated at the back of courtroom four of the Supreme Court of Victoria, sitting at the Latrobe Valley Magistrates' Court, Patterson, dressed in a paisley shirt, appeared stunned as her fate was sealed on Monday afternoon Australian time.

Asked to deliver a verdict, the jury foreperson - one of only five women to sit on the original 15-person panel - stated, "guilty" to huge gasps from the packed courtoom.

Patterson was taken back to the Morwell Police Station cells where she had been kept throughout the trial.

They are the cells she had grown to loathe throughout her trial, complaining about being denied a pillow, quilt and her computer.

She can expect to spend the next decades of her life caged within the walls of Dame Phyllis Frost Centre in Melbourne's west alongside a rogue's gallery of female killers.