Mushroom lunch cook pleads not guilty to murder
Police also allege she tried to kill her ex-husband on three other occasions.
Ms Patterson has always maintained her innocence.
The case has gripped the world and thrown the small regional Victorian town of Leongatha – where the lunch was held – into the spotlight.
Ms Patterson has repeatedly said she did not intentionally poison her guests, and on Tuesday in the Latrobe Valley Magistrates Court was asked to formally enter pleas to the charges against her.
“Not guilty your honour,” she said, appearing via a video link.
Ms Patterson invited her former in-laws Gail and Don Patterson, along with Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson and Heather’s husband Ian, over for lunch at her home on 29 July. Police have said her estranged husband Simon Patterson could not attend at the last minute.
Hours after eating the beef Wellington meal, all four guests fell ill with what they initially thought was severe food poisoning. Within days, the Patterson couple, both 70, and Ms Wilkinson, 66, had died. Mr Wilkinson, 68, survived, after spending almost three months in hospital.
