An Australian woman accused of murdering three family members with a poisoned meal reportedly sent her children to the movies beforehand, a Melbourne court heard on Thursday.

Erin Patterson, 50, is charged with the murder of her estranged husband's parents and aunt after allegedly serving them a toxic Beef Wellington in July 2023. She also faces an attempted murder charge in connection with her husband’s uncle, who survived after being hospitalized.

Patterson has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The court played a recording of a police interview with Patterson's daughter, who was nine at the time. The child said her mother had planned a private lunch with the grandparents and arranged for her and her sibling to go to the movies instead.

“She said she wanted to talk to them about adult stuff, and we were going to go to the movies,” the girl told police. According to the police report, the children were first dropped off at a McDonald’s restaurant before heading to the cinema.

Police retrieve poisoned meal scraps

According to the daughter’s account, she and her sibling later consumed leftovers from the lunch, including steak, mashed potatoes, and beans. The mushrooms were scraped off their plates because, as the court heard, the children were picky eaters.

She said her mother started to feel ill after lunch, some of which the children would later eat as leftovers.

The high-profile trial is expected to continue for another five weeks.

"I can't remember when she started to feel sick. But I think she started to feel sick the next day," the daughter told police.

Detective Adrian Martinez-Villalobis testified that he recovered scraps of the Beef Wellington from a bin outside Patterson's home. He said the food was found "seeping" through a brown paper bag and that Patterson cooperated with the request to help locate it.

Patterson says she also ate the mushrooms

The victims included Don and Gail Patterson, the parents of Erin Patterson's estranged husband, Simon Patterson, who declined to attend the meal. His aunt, Heather Wilkinson, also died. Her husband, Ian Wilkinson, was critically ill but survived.

Conor McDermott, a toxicology registrar at a Melbourne hospital at the time, told the court he had asked Patterson where she obtained the mushrooms. Patterson reportedly said she had bought some from a major supermarket and others from a major grocer, though she couldn’t recall the exact location.

Prosecutors argue Patterson carefully planned the poisoning, ensuring neither she nor her children consumed the deadly mushrooms. The defense insists the incident was “a terrible accident,” and that Patterson herself ate the same dish but did not become seriously ill.