Photo sums up mushroom cook's misery
Over the span of four months, the 50-year-old faced trial in the regional Victorian town of Morwell after pleading not guilty to the murders of three members of her husband's family and the attempted murder of a fourth.
Just days before 12 jurors were sent out to begin their deliberations on June 30, thick black plastic was installed around her home in Leongatha, about 45 minutes from Morwell.
The move seemingly revealed Ms Patterson's hopes of a verdict in her favour and a desire to avoid the media attention on her return home.
But on Monday, jurors returned a guilty verdict on all three counts of murder and the one count of attempted murder. Erin Patterson's house is blacked out with wrap. NewsWire / Diego Fedele. Credit: News Corp Australia It is understood supporters installed the tarp ahead of the verdict this week. NewsWire / Diego Fedele Credit: News Corp Australia
The case centred around a lunch Ms Patterson hosted on July 29, 2023, at her home in Leongatha, in Victoria's southeast, where she served beef wellingtons containing death cap mushrooms.
Prosecutors had alleged Ms Patterson deliberately sought out and included the deadly fungi intending to kill or at least seriously injure her four guests.
Her defence argued the case was a tragic accident, Ms Patterson had also fallen ill and she did not want to harm anyone.
Simon's parents, Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson, died in early August 2023, from multiple organ failure linked to death cap mushroom poisoning.
Ms Wilkinson's husband Ian was gravely ill, but recovered from the poisoning.
As the trial began to wrap up, supporters of Ms Patterson got to work wrapping the fence of her Leongatha home in black plastic sheets.
The plastic appears to block anyone seeing into the verandah and car port to the home where Ms Patterson hosted the deadly lunch.
A 'legal notice', pinned to the gate, read: 'Please be advised that the owner of this property hereby gives notice to all members of the media or any person employed or contracted to any media organisation, that you are not permitted to enter any part of this property as marked by the boundary fence'.
Jurors in the trial were sequestered at a hotel for the duration of their deliberations, with their phones confiscated by court staff and access to the outside world limited. Three crosses at the entrance to the township of Korumburra. NewsWire/Ian Currie Credit: News Corp Australia
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Living on the 3 acre block in the small dairy town, Patterson said she kept animals including sheep and goats. Erin Patterson's home in Leongatha. NewsWire / Diego Fedele. Credit: News Corp Australia Despite their separation four years earlier, Patterson titled both the Gibson St property and a home in the Melbourne suburb of Glen Waverley as shared ownership with her husband. Simon told the court he viewed this at the time as a sign Patterson remained committed to the family unit and was hopeful they would reconcile. He said he believed Patterson had struggled with her self-image for many years although she never explicitly said this to him. On the stand, Patterson said she had body-image issues since childhood and struggled with her weight. 'I tried every diet under the sun,' she said. 'When I was a kid, mum would weigh us every week to make sure we weren't putting on too much weight.' Patterson told the court she had engaged in binge eating and purging since her 20s but no one knew. The jury heard from three witnesses who came to know Patterson in 2020 through an online true crime Facebook group that splintered off into a social chat during the Covid pandemic and continued into 2023. Non-profit manager Christine Hunt said Patterson had made a name for herself in the group as a 'super-sleuth', able to dig up details about true crime cases they discussed. Stay at home mum Daniela Barkley said she believed Patterson to be a wonderful mother, but recalled she vented about problems with Simon and his family. Daniela Barkley said she formed the view Simon was not a nice man from Patterson's posts. NewsWire / Diego Fedele Credit: News Corp Australia A series of messages Patterson sent to the group between December 6 and 9 in 2022, captured her complaining about her husband and his family. '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 feel uncomfortable and not wanting to get involved in their son's personal matters are overriding that so f--k em,' one message read. Patterson told the jury she regrets the messages, but her defence noted they needed to be viewed in the proper context of a woman venting to her support network. Giving evidence, Simon told the jury they remained friendly and committed to co-parenting their two children but he first noticed a change in their relationship in late 2022. He said he believed this was after Patterson noticed he'd been listed as separated for the first time in his tax return and he understood the change to have financial implications. Simon Patterson was the first witness called in the trial. NewsWire / Luis Enrique Ascui Credit: News Corp Australia Patterson disagreed, saying while there was a change in the relationship, it occurred weeks later after Simon began to refuse to contribute to their children's schooling and medical costs. 'I wasn't upset, because him listing himself as single on his tax return meant I now have the opportunity to claim family tax benefit that I had been denied before,' she said. Simon said after the tax return, Patterson had filed a child support claim and he'd been instructed by authorities not to pay for things until a financial agreement was reached. Both agreed tensions had cooled down by the end of 2022 but their relationship became 'functional' after this point. She will return to court at a later date.
