Mushroom trial: Estranged husband of accused in tears as he testifies about parents' deaths
The estranged husband of an Australian woman on trial for murdering his parents and aunt with a beef Wellington laced with deadly mushrooms broke down in tears, as he gave evidence in court.
Erin Patterson, 50, is charged with murdering her former partner, Simon Patterson's parents, Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, and Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson, 66, after a family lunch in July 2023.
She is also accused of attempting to murder Heather's husband, Ian Wilkinson, 68, who survived following a liver transplant. Patterson has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Police say Patterson served beef wellington, mashed potatoes and green beans at her home in the rural Victorian town of Leongatha on July 29, 2023. The beef dish allegedly contained death cap mushrooms – one of the world's most toxic fungi.
On the second day of Patterson's trial in the Victoria Supreme Court on Thursday, Simon Patterson, 50, took the stand as the first witness in his estranged wife's trial.
Patterson fought back tears as he recalled seeing his father in hospital for the first time after he was admitted with vomiting and diarrhoea following the family lunch.
'He was lying on his side, hunched, quite noticeably,' he told the court.
'Speaking was an effort and his voice was strained because he obviously - his voice was strained in a way that he wasn't right inside - he was in pain."
On the first day of the trial, the court heard that Erin Patterson used different coloured plates to tell the poisoned meals apart at lunch.
Patternson's reluctance to attend the lunch, despite pressure from Erin
Patterson, who shares two children with Erin Patterson, was invited to the fatal lunch but did not attend. He had also been invited to another lunch in June, which he again skipped - though his parents went.
Prosecutors said on Wednesday that Erin Patterson falsely claimed to have ovarian cancer and asked for advice on whether to tell her children, using it as a pretext to lure her estranged husband and his family to lunch.
Text messages between the former couple, sent the day before the lunch, revealed that Patterson felt 'too uncomfortable' to attend.
Erin Patterson replied, saying 'that's really disappointing' and complained she had spent 'a small fortune' on the meat for the beef Wellington.
'Sorry, I feel too uncomfortable about coming to the lunch with you, mum, dad, Heather and Ian tomorrow. But (I) am happy to talk about your health and implications of that at another time if you'd like to discuss on the phone. Just let me know," he texted.
She replied: 'That's really disappointing.
'I have spent many hours this week preparing lunch for tomorrow which has been exhausting in light of the issues I have been facing and have spent a small fortune on beef eye fillet to make beef wellington because I wanted it to be a special meal as I may not be able to host a lunch like this again for some time.
'It's important to me that you are all there tomorrow, and that I can have the conversations that I need to have.
'I hope you'll change your mind. Your parents, Heather and Ian, are coming at 12.30, and I hope to see you there.'
Patterson did a 'mushroom taste-test' with her daughter
Patterson also told the court that Erin Patterson once said she had conducted a 'blind taste test' with their daughter by putting dehydrated mushrooms in muffins.
He recalled Erin remarking that it was 'interesting' their child preferred the muffin containing mushrooms, despite usually disliking them.
'Erin said (sometime) in he past, I'm not sure when, she'd cooked some muffins and then she had dehydrated some mushrooms and then put different amounts of mushrooms in the muffins - you know, 1 gram, 2 grams, 3 grams... Zero grams - you know, a control with no mushrooms in it," he said.
'(Then she) did sort of a blind taste test with (our daughter) - and they all found it interesting that (our daughter) actually preferred the muffin that did have some mushrooms in it.
'I can't remember if it was 1 or 2 grams, but she didn't prefer the non-mushroom muffin.'
Patterson's 'toxic' relationship with his estranged wife
Simon said the couple permanently separated in late 2015, though they are still legally married, with Patterson later telling him their relationship was 'toxic'.
Despite their rocky relationship, Erin and Simon Patterson remained hopeful of reconciliation after their separation in 2015.
Defence barrister Colin Mandy SC told the court that Erin Patterson received a significant inheritance when her mother passed away in 2019.
She used the money to buy two properties and added Simon's name to both house titles as a gesture of 'goodwill,' reflecting their openness to possibly reconciling.
Simon Patterson also testified that Erin got on particularly well with his parents.
"She got on particularly well with dad. They shared a love of knowledge and the world, and I think she liked his gentle nature.' he said.
'Mum and dad were really active in maintaining a good relationship with Erin. I think it was mutual.'
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Daily Mail
5 hours ago
- Daily Mail
The NINE questions that will decide the fate of the mum of two accused of murdering her in-laws with beef wellington laced with death cap mushrooms
The last time Erin Patterson welcomed guests across the threshold of her home on the outskirts of Leongatha, a small cattle-farming town in the Australian state of Victoria, it was 12.30pm on Saturday, July 29, 2023. Four elderly family members were joining her lunch. But within a week of this supposedly happy occasion, three of her guests were dead and the fourth in hospital, fighting for his life. Erin, 50, had served beef wellington, a dinner party staple her mother used to cook on special occasions. It soon became clear that highly poisonous death cap mushrooms had somehow found their way into the dish's filling. Shortly afterwards, Patterson was interviewed by police. A month or so later she was arrested and, for the past six weeks, this middle-aged mother of two has been at Latrobe Valley Magistrates' Court, in the nearby town of Morwell, on trial for murder. Erin's three alleged victims were her estranged husband Simon's parents Don and Gail, both 70, and Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson, 66. She is also charged with the attempted murder of the fourth guest, Heather's husband Ian, 71, a pastor who gave evidence during the trial's opening days. The gripping trial culminated, over the past fortnight, with Patterson taking to the witness box to give evidence in her defence. I was there for every moment. And as this blockbuster court battle enters its final stages, here are some of the questions the jury will consider… The gripping trial culminated, over the past fortnight, with Patterson taking to the witness box to give evidence in her defence DID ERIN SECRETLY HATE HER IN-LAWS? Prosecutor Nanette Rogers hasn't identified any 'particular motive' for murder. But she's shared evidence of quite serious friction between Patterson and her husband's family. Erin and Simon, who married in 2007, separated in 2015, a year after the birth of their second child. While they initially remained close, sharing custody of their son and daughter and taking family holidays together, things changed in late 2022 when Erin discovered Simon had described himself as 'single' on a tax return. The move seems to have affected her ability to claim tax breaks and the duo soon began to argue over money and school fees. That December, Erin asked her in-laws Don and Gail to intervene in the row. But they were reluctant to get involved. This led Erin to post a series of angry messages to a group of women she used to chat with via Facebook. 'Nobody bloody listens to me,' read one. 'This family! I swear to f**king God,' read another. In a third, Erin wrote: 'I'm sick of this s**t. I want nothing to do with them. I thought his parents would want him to do the right thing, but it seems their concern about… not wanting to get involved in their son's personal matters, are overriding that. So f**k them.' Giving evidence, Patterson characterised that outburst as an aberration, saying she actually 'loved' her in-laws and now 'feels ashamed' that she was so rude about them. Rogers takes a different view. She says the angry sentiments reflected Erin's true feelings: 'You had two faces,' she told Patterson this week. 'A public face of appearing to have a good relationship with Don and Gail… and I suggest your private face was the one you showed in your Facebook message group. WHY DID SHE LIE ABOUT HAVING CANCER? It was highly unusual for Erin to hold social gatherings. But her guests were under the impression that the lunch had a special purpose: to discuss a piece of bad medical news. Several weeks earlier, Erin had told Gail that she'd found a lump on her elbow, so was going to hospital for a needle biopsy and MRI scan. And, in a subsequent text, she informed her mother-in-law that there was 'a bit to digest' from the test results and she'd share more when they met. Meanwhile, on the eve of the meal, Erin messaged Simon, who had made a late decision not to attend, complaining that preparing for the party had 'been exhausting in light of the issues I'm facing' and asking him to reconsider. Those 'issues' were duly discussed over pudding, when Erin suggested that she'd been diagnosed with ovarian cancer and would soon be undergoing gruelling treatment However, medical records show that she had never actually received a cancer diagnosis and hadn't been given an MRI scan or a needle biopsy, either. Indeed, Erin now accepts the cancer claim was a lie. According to the prosecution, Erin told this porkie to both ensure her guests showed up for the deadly meal and explain why her children – whom she hadn't told about the 'diagnosis' – couldn't be there. Erin has offered a different explanation, however. She claims to have been suffering from 'self-esteem' issues due to her ballooning weight, so was going to have gastric band surgery. She told the jury that she needed help with childcare related to her hospital visit but was too embarrassed to tell family members of its exact purpose. Erin and Simon Patterson (pictured), married in 2007, and separated in 2015, a year after the birth of their second child WHERE WERE THE MUSHROOMS FROM? Both sides accept that highly toxic death caps found their way into the lunch. The big question is: how? During initial police interviews, Erin denied being a forager. And both of her children told the authorities that they had never seen her pick wild mushrooms. But in the witness box, Erin claimed that was untrue, saying that she had been in the habit of picking wild mushrooms since the early months of the 2020 Covid lockdown. The defence case is that this hobby led her to accidentally pick death caps, which were then inadvertently served to lunch guests in what her barrister Colin Mandy has dubbed 'a tragedy and a terrible accident'. Prosecutors say she picked them deliberately, however. In support of this thesis, they have shared digital evidence suggesting that Erin was a user of iNaturalist, a website where enthusiasts share mushroom sightings. They say her mobile phone records indicate that, in April 2023, she travelled to areas near rural towns named Loch and Outtrim where sightings of death caps had been recently logged. HOW DID THEY GET IN TO THE MEAL? On the day of her alleged visit to Loch, Erin also visited a hardware store to buy a food dehydrator. She told the jury that the device was at least partly acquired so she could preserve foraged mushrooms, which have a short growing season and go off quickly. They were then stored in a Tupperware pot in one of her kitchen cupboards, alongside a supply of more exotic dried mushrooms obtained from a Chinese supermarket. Fast forward to the morning of the lunch. She recalls initially using fresh supermarket mushrooms to make duxelles, a mushroom pate that goes between the beef fillet and pastry in the wellington dish. But because the mixture tasted 'a little bland' she decided to add to it with the contents of the Tupperware container. Erin's defence is that this container must have held dried death caps, which she'd accidentally foraged. The prosecution of course takes a different view. Although Patterson carried out a 'factory reset' on various phones seized by police, images recovered from one device show her using electronic scales to weigh what appears to be a large quantity of death caps on the dehydrator tray in her kitchen sometime in early May. They told the jury that this shows Erin attempting to measure out a 'fatal dose' of death caps which were then dehydrated and turned to powder that could be deliberately sprinkled into the dish. In support of this argument, they have shown the jury Facebook messages from around this time in which Patterson told friends she had been 'hiding powdered mushrooms in everything' including chocolate muffins given to her children. Regarding the message, Rogers said to Patterson: 'I suggest you were testing to see how you could hide mushrooms in food without someone noticing.' WERE GUESTS SERVED ON COLOUR-CODED PLATES? A traditional beef wellington involves an entire beef fillet, encased in pastry, which is then sliced into portions served to individual guests. Erin, who served the dish with mashed potato, beans and gravy from a packet, says she was unable to source an entire fillet of beef from her local Woolworth's supermarket, so instead bought half a dozen individual steaks wrapped in plastic. This, in turn, forced her to adapt the dish so that each portion consisted of a single wellington, similar to a pasty. Ian Wilkinson told the court that Erin served all four of her guests their meals on a grey plate but she used an orange one. Simon Patterson has recalled that, the following day, Heather told him she had 'noticed Erin used a different coloured plate to us'. Prosecutor Rogers has claimed that Patterson could easily have purchased a whole beef fillet from the region's butcher shops, but instead deliberately created individual ones, adding death caps to the ones her guests would eat, while making sure her own wasn't poisonous. Then 'to avoid any error, in case you accidentallyate one of the poisoned beef wellingtons, you took the extra precaution of using a different and smaller plate for your non-poisoned serve'. Erin denies the claim, saying she doesn't own any grey plates and served the lunch on a mixture of white and black crockery. However video footage of a police search of her home on August 5 appears to show at least two beige or grey plates adjacent to the dishwasher. The defence case is that her hobby of foraging led her to accidentally pick death caps DID ERIN REALLY VOMIT HER MEAL? When initially quizzed by police asking why she'd survived the lunch, while her guests were either dead or in hospital, Erin didn't offer any explanation beyond a cryptic 'hmmmm'. In court, she has elaborated considerably, revealing to the jury that she'd been 'fighting a never-ending battle of low self-esteem most of my adult life', which revolved largely around 'issues with body image' and manifests itself via bulimia, an eating disorder characterised by binge eating and subsequent vomiting. This condition struck that very afternoon, when she clapped eyes on roughly two-thirds of an orange cake that Gail, 70, had brought for dessert. 'I kept cleaning up the kitchen and putting everything away and, um, I had a piece of cake,' she told the jury. 'And then,' she added, 'I had another piece of cake. And then another.' 'How many pieces of cake did you have?' asked her barrister, Colin Mandy. 'All of it,' came her reply. 'And what happened after you ate the cake?' 'I felt sick. I felt over-full. So I went to the toilets and brought it up again.' WAS SHE PRETENDING TO BE SICK? Erin claims she then experienced a spectacular bout of diarrhoea, which kicked off on the night of the meal and continued into the following week. This has involved much courtroom discussion of her bowel movements, including a graphic account of a disputed incident in which she allegedly became 'worried I would poo my pants' while driving her teenage son to a flying lesson the following day, so stopped her car by the side of the dual carriageway and scampered off into the bush to defecate. Patterson then presented at Leongatha hospital the following day, complaining of 'gastro'. But medical professionals, who were by then treating her lunch guests, did not believe her symptoms were anything like as serious as the others. Nurse Cindy Munro told the court Patterson 'didn't look unwell' compared with her in-laws, while an expert toxicologist called Laura Muldoon recalled that she'd 'noted [Erin] looked clinically well, she had some chapped lips but otherwise very well. She had normal vital signs'. A third doctor, Varuna Ruggoo, said Patterson's liver function tests returned normal results. According to prosecutors, Erin was feigning illness 'to cover your tracks'. The defence case is that, perhaps thanks to the aforementioned vomiting incident: 'She was sick too, just not as sick.' WHY DID ERIN DUMP THE FOOD DEHYDRATOR? Amid growing concerns over the fate of her lunch guests, Erin told a series of lies to police and public health officials. She denied having foraged for mushrooms, claiming instead that the beef wellington contained fresh ones and some dried specimens from an unnamed Chinese supermarket, and repeatedly insisted that she didn't own a food dehydrator. The day after she was discharged from hospital, she drove to the local rubbish tip, whose CCTV cameras caught her disposing of the Sunbeam dehydrator she had purchased that April. Police forensic tests then discovered both Erin's fingerprints and traces of death cap mushroom toxins on the device. Asked to explain what looks suspiciously like a bungled effort to destroy evidence, Erin claimed that she had decided to get rid of it because she had 'panicked' after a confrontational conversation with Simon earlier in the week. Specifically, she claimed that her estranged husband had mentioned the device and asked: 'Is that what you used to poison my parents?' This question had left her 'frantic' and 'scared', she said, because 'child protection were now involved' in the investigation into the meal. She therefore took the decision to dump the dehydrator because, 'I was scared of the conversation that might flow about the meal and the dehydrator and I was scared that they [child protection] would blame me for it'. Simon remembers things differently, however, and denies making any such remark to her. Prosecutor Rogers has claimed that Patterson could easily have purchased a whole beef fillet from the region's butcher shops, but instead deliberately created individual ones, adding death caps to the ones her guests would eat, while making sure her own wasn't poisonous SO WHO WILL THE JURY DECIDE IS TELLING LIES? During her eight days giving evidence, Erin has claimed that virtually everyone else involved in the Mushroom Murder trial is somehow mistaken. Family members whose accounts she has contradicted range from her husband Simon to his surviving uncle, Pastor Ian Wilkinson, to Ian's late wife Heather. And on at least one occasion, she has also disagreed with remarks made by her own children during recorded interviews. In cross-examination, she has claimed various Facebook friends are mistaken about the contents of their various conversations, while alleging that a host of professional witnesses – from mushroom experts to public health officials, doctors and nurses, to the analysts who examined her phones and computers, to the police who searched her property – have got various important pieces of their testimony quite seriously wrong. At one point this week, Rogers accused her of 'making this up as you go along' to which Erin responded with a vigorous: 'No!' But if she's telling the truth, some of the witnesses must have been lying. The jury will shortly have to decide who, exactly, they want to believe.
Scottish Sun
10 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
Inside ‘hedonistic' downfall of plumber whose £11m lottery jackpot cost him his life after blowing fortune in 3 years
Josh left school when he was in Year 10 after he was severely bullied LOTTO LOSS Inside 'hedonistic' downfall of plumber whose £11m lottery jackpot cost him his life after blowing fortune in 3 years Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) LOTTERY winner Joshua Winslet was found dead in his home after his £11million prize caused his life to spiral out of control. The Australian plumber was just 22 years old when he landed the fortune in 2017, but he blew it all in just three years after he was crippled by addiction. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 8 Josh Winslet spent the last £9 in his bank account to buy the winning lottery ticket Credit: Facebook 8 A plate of mysterious white powder was found in his fridge Credit: Courts SA His parents tried to help him manage the eyewatering sum of cash by stashing it in a trust fund, but tragically, that wasn't enough to save him. In 2022, he died at home from health complications caused by excessive drug use. His death was not reported by New Zealand or Australian press at the time. His tragic end came shortly after he was arrested and sentenced to three years and nine months in prison for supplying drugs and possessing a firearm. A friend of Josh spoke of his death and told the MailOnline: "It was such a shock and absolutely devastating, but sadly a lot of us were so worried this is what it was coming to." Looking back at his lottery win, she said: "When I found out he won through the grapevine, I thought, 'Oh, wow, that's extraordinary.' "I was so happy for him. Out of everyone from our school, and after all the bullying he copped, he deserved it more than anyone," she added. Another said how he called her and her boyfriend to break the news of his Powerball winnings. She said that she initially thought he was joking, but after he sent her a screenshot of his Lotto app, she realised he was being serious. But how did the hardworking tradie's life take such a drastic turn? Lottery player 'illegally' banned from taking $83.5m win over loophole even though she played by the rules, lawyer says Josh was living on New Zealand's South Island at the time and had suffered severe bullying over his 'physical deformities' that were caused by Duane syndrome and Goldenhar syndrome. Duane syndrome stops the eye muscles from developing properly, which affects eye movement. Goldenhar syndrome causes abnormalities in the formation of the bones in the face and head. It can also cause spinal issues and benign cysts to form on the eye, as well as impacting internal organs. He'd had a string of surgeries as a child to treat the syndromes. Josh was also born with a singular horseshoe-shaped kidney and an irregular heartbeat, stopping him from playing contact sports. The torment inflicted on him by his peers was so severe that when he was in Year 10 he left school and studied at Adelaide University Senior College in South Australia. He studied for around six months before leaving to do a plumbing apprenticeship. When he was 20, he moved to New Zealand's South Island to look for work. Around this time, he used the last £9 ($19) in his bank account to buy a last-minute ticket for the Powerball draw and won £11million ($22milion). But the cash began to burn a hole in his pocket, and he soon started splashing it on a-class drugs. In 2020, cops raided the "party house" and found an unlicensed firearm Mauser handgun and ammunition hidden in his bathroom. A horde of illegal substances, including 28.3 grams of MDMA and 2.27g of cocaine, was also seized. Investigators received a tip-off the lottery winner was allegedly manufacturing drugs at the property. Josh, who was 27 at the time, pleaded guilty to supplying MDMA and possessing a firearm without a licence. He was sentenced to three years and nine months, with a non-parole period of 18 months. The sentence was suspended on a two-year good behaviour bond, with supervision. Shocking images released by South Australia's District Court showed the inside of his trashed New Port mansion at the time. Empty bottles of booze, bongs, bags of MDMA, cocaine and marijuana appeared to be littered around the bachelor pad. Nitrous oxide canisters, cigarettes and half-drunk glasses of wine were also seen strewn across a marble table. Another snap showed a large bowl filled with a mystery white powder inside his fridge, alongside a pack of Red Bull cans and beer boxes. Chaotic jumbles of rubbish and clothes were left dumped on the floor in an "appalling" state. Judge Heath Barklay said that Josh had "lost motivation" for life and had adopted a "hedonistic lifestyle". He said: "Because of the money that you had won, there was no motivation on your part to work or do anything other than enjoy yourself. "You had lots of money so you could afford to buy large amounts of drugs, which you would use yourself and supply to your so-called friends from time to time." 8 His house was littered with bongs, empty bottles of booze and MDMA Credit: Courts SA 8 A Mauser handgun and ammunition was hidden in his bathroom Credit: Courts SA 8 A horde of illegal substances, including 28.3 grams of MDMA and 2.27g of cocaine, was also seized Credit: Courts SA 8 He was just 22 years old when he won the huge cash prize in 2017 Credit: Courts SA 8 He was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison Credit: Courts SA 8 Josh was horrendously bullied at school and left to do an apprenticeship Credit: Courts SA If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please call the Samaritans for free on 116123.
The Guardian
12 hours ago
- The Guardian
A perfect storm of errors meant Darren was placed in an unsafe cell. He died two days later
Warning: this story contains descriptions of self-harm and some readers might find it distressing. When Darren Brandon was detained at Melbourne assessment prison, a perfect storm of missed paperwork and a lack of clear intake procedure between police and the jail meant he was assessed as being low risk of self-harm. This could not have been further from the truth, according to his brother Steve. Darren lived with a serious brain injury after a motorcycle accident. It had left him with memory problems and bouts of depression. The family home where he lived had been sold after the death of his mother and Darren was between accommodation. 'Everything in our family just went upside down,' Steve tells Guardian Australia. In June 2018, when he found out Darren had been picked up by police, Steve says he and his father thought, 'Look, at least he's safe. He's not sleeping in his car on the street somewhere. He's safe. He's in care.' But the 51-year-old was placed in a cell with a known hanging point and self-harmed the next morning. He died in hospital two days later. Darren's death is one of at least 57 across 19 Australian prisons from hanging points that were known to prison authorities but not removed, as revealed by a Guardian Australia investigation. But his story also exemplifies what experts say is the broader story behind Australia's hanging cells crisis. None of the 248 deaths examined by the Guardian could merely be blamed on the presence of a ligature point. In most cases, those prisoners' placement in an unsafe cell was just the final failure in a litany of them. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email The investigation has also revealed repeated failures to properly assess, review or treat inmates with mental ill health, meaning their suicide risk was either missed or not properly mitigated. Of the 57 deaths, Guardian Australia has identified 31 cases where inmates who had been previously deemed at risk of suicide were sent into cells with known hanging points. There were 13 cases where inmates who had previously attempted self-harm in custody were sent into such cells. Guardian Australia has spent five months investigating the deadly toll of Australia's inaction to remove hanging points from its jails, a key recommendation of the 1991 royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody. The main finding – that 57 inmates died using known ligature points that had not been removed – was made possible by an exhaustive examination of coronial records relating to 248 hanging deaths spanning more than 20 years. Reporters combed through large volumes of coronial records looking for instances where a hanging point had been used repeatedly in the same jail. They counted any death that occurred after prison authorities were made aware of that particular hanging point. Warnings were made via a prior suicide or suicide attempt, advice from their own staff or recommendations from coroners and other independent bodies. Guardian Australia also logged how many of the 57 inmates were deemed at risk of self-harm or had attempted suicide before they were sent into cells with known hanging points. In adherence with best practice in reporting on this topic, Guardian Australia has avoided detailed descriptions of suicide. In some instances, so that the full ramifications of coronial recommendations can be understood, we have made the decision to identify types and locations of ligature points. We have done this only in instances where we feel the public interest in this information being available to readers is high. In one 2018 New South Wales case an inmate known only as GS had warned officers he wished to kill himself, begged for psychiatric review for months, and was placed into a cell at Goulburn jail with a hanging point that had been used in five previous hanging deaths. That ligature point has since been covered. In another, an inmate assessed as having a high chronic risk of self-harm, and who had attempted suicide months earlier, in 2007 was placed into a cell at Sydney's Long Bay jail with what a coroner described as an 'obvious hanging point'. Staff at Arthur Gorrie correctional centre in Brisbane were told that an inmate had 'expressed an intention to commit suicide by hanging if the opportunity arose'. In October 2007 that inmate was placed into a medical unit that contained an obvious hanging point that had been used by another inmate in an attempted suicide just two months earlier. The hanging point was allowed to remain, despite one guard telling his superiors it needed 'urgent attention before we do have a suicide hanging'. The overwhelming majority of hangings from known ligatures points involved inmates on remand. Thirty-six of the 57 inmates were on remand, or awaiting trial or sentencing, which is known to be a time of elevated risk for mental ill health. Most people who experience incarceration have mental health problems but investment in prison mental health care is 'woefully inadequate', according to Stuart Kinner, the head of the Justice Health Group at Curtin University and the Murdoch Children's Research Institute. The fact that prisoners do not have access to Medicare 'is a somewhat perverse situation', Kinner says. 'We have a system that concentrates a very high burden of mental health issues and simultaneously almost uniquely excludes those people from a key source of funding for mental health care.' It is unlikely that Australia will ever be able to make all areas in all prisons 'ligature free', he says. 'Therefore, we don't just prevent suicide by removing ligatures, we prevent suicide by providing care and connection.' Ed Petch led the State Forensic Mental Health Service in Western Australia before returning to clinical work as a psychiatrist in Hakea – the state's main remand prison. He says that while the removal of known ligature points is important, improving access to health services should be the primary focus, in and out of prison. 'We had more mentally ill people in the prison than Graylands hospital,' he says, referring to the state's main mental health hospital. It has 109 beds. Hakea housed 1,143 men in mid-2024. Between 2018 and 2023, Petch says he saw more than 12 people every day. 'They weren't adequate mental health evaluations,' he says. 'It was quick in, see what the people are like, decide what treatment to give them and see them in a few weeks' time, if I was lucky. 'The rate of mental illness – acute mental illness and psychosis and depression and loads of mental health disorders – was absolutely vast.' A scathing report published in February by WA's Office of the Inspector of Custodial Services emphasised that Hakea is overcapacity and a prison in crisis. After a 2024 visit, the inspector, Eamon Ryan, formed a view that prisoners in Hakea were being treated 'in a manner that was cruel, inhuman, or degrading' and noted suicides, suicide attempts and assaults. There were 13 attempted suicides in the first quarter of that year, the same number as took place in the whole of 2023. Physical and mental health services 'were overwhelmed', with a nurse-to-prisoner ratio of approximately one to 86, and only three full time-equivalent psychiatrist positions for the state's entire prison system. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion Often the most severely mentally ill people are swept up by police, Petch says. 'The courts can't send them to hospital because they are full – or too disturbed – and cannot release them to no address or back to the streets so have no option but to remand them into custody where it's assumed they'll get the care they need. But that assumption is quite often false.' The WA Department of Justice said it was 'expanding the range of services provided to meet the needs of an increased prisoner population, including those with complex mental health issues'. This includes 36 beds in a new mental health support unit. A statewide program to remove ligature points had been running since 2005, a spokesperson said. Experts largely agree that a focus on hanging points, at the expense of all other problems, would be dangerous. Programs to modify cell design are expensive and can leave rooms inhospitable and cold, something that in turn may cause a deterioration in inmates' mental health. But Neil Morgan, a former WA inspector of custodial services, says a balance must be struck. 'I came across examples where changes were being made to cells … where the new beds were riddled with hanging points,' he says. 'Now that struck me as absolutely ludicrous in this day and age. Changes were only made after I raised my concerns.' Darren Brandon was a brilliant mechanic before his brain injury, Steve says. He had a coffee machine at his workshop and loved to host visitors and chat. 'He worked on Porsches and BMWs, all the high-end stuff,' he says. 'But he could work on anything.' But the motorbike accident hit him hard. The coroner noted his repeated attempts at suicide and self-harm. 'The up and down, the depression – this was the side-effects of his brain injury,' Steve says. '[Some days] he could go back to being like a standup comedian. I mean, he was so sharp and just witty and funny.' After the family home was sold, Darren began a residential rehabilitation program but left, and was reported to police as a missing person. When he went to a police station accompanied by a case manager, he was taken into custody due to a missed court date. Prison staff were not fully aware of his history of self-harm. This meant he was given a lower risk rating and was placed in a unit with a known hanging point and which was not under hourly observation. The coroner overseeing the inquest found that the design of Darren's cell was the 'proximate cause' of his death. He wrote that the 'rail inside the cell was known to be a ligature point well prior to Darren's death'. A spokesperson for Victoria's Department of Justice and Community Safety said the state's prisons had strong measures in place to reduce self-harm and suicide, including the use of on-site specialist mental health staff and training in the identification of at-risk inmates. Inmates are now required to undergo a mental health risk assessment within 24 hours of arriving in custody and are seen by a mental health professional within two hours of being identified at risk of self-harm. The state government has aimed to build all new cells in accordance with safer design principles for more than 20 years. 'The Victorian Government continues to invest in modern prison facilities to improve the rehabilitation and safety of people in custody,' the spokesperson said. Steve and his wife, Annie, keep a photo of Darren on their fridge. There are so many what-ifs. So many moments when something could have gone differently. 'If he'd been assessed properly, they would have said, 'Oh, this guy's had some attempts in the past, brain injury … OK, let's put him in a safer spot where there's no ligature points,'' Steve says. 'He'd still be alive.' Annie says: 'The system certainly failed him, and us as a family.' In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at
