Mushroom murder trial: Patterson's husband takes the stand
The son of two alleged murder victims and estranged husband of their accused killer has spent one and a half days in the witness box.
Simon Patterson pulled out of attending a deadly beef Wellington lunch the night before, saying he felt "too uncomfortable" to attend.
Yet as he detailed the traumatic aftermath of the death cap mushroom meal while sitting back in a courtroom chair dressed in suit and tie, he is yet to be pressed by either legal team on why that was so.
"Dad was substantially worse than mum, he was really struggling," he told the jury on Thursday about seeing Don, discoloured and struggling to speak, at hospital the Sunday after the July 29, 2023, lunch.
"He wasn't right inside. He was feeling pain," Simon said between tears.
The following day, defence barrister Colin Mandy pushed him further on his interactions with his parents in hospital and how he was communicating their conditions to his wife.
"And as their illnesses progressed in hospital, you didn't pass on to Erin the seriousness of the conditions of Don and Gail and Ian and Heather?"
"It intrigued me that she never actually asked," he replied.
"That wasn't the question, Mr Patterson," Mandy said.
"We didn't have that conversation, I don't think, at any time," he said.
Erin Patterson has pleaded not guilty to all charges against her, including three counts of murder over the deaths of her husband's parents Don and Gail Patterson, and his aunt Heather Wilkinson.
The estranged couple exchanged a few short glances over the two days he took the stand but nothing more.
Simon, who will return as a witness on Monday, detailed his "up and down" relationship with his wife after they met working at Monash Council in the mid-2000s.
She was a representative for the RSPCA on animal management and local laws, and he was a civil engineer.
"I guess there was a fairly eclectic group of friends that formed throughout that organisation... and then slowly we got to know each other and then I guess we started a romantic relationship," Simon said on Thursday.
They married on June 2, 2007, while still living in Melbourne's Oakleigh.
He was attracted to his wife's intelligence and wit, and said she'd studied many degrees over her life in business, accounting and science.
She qualified as an air traffic controller before they met and had previously worked at Melbourne Airport.
His wife performed "home duties" while they were married, helping to raise their two children, Simon said, and studied various courses including vet science and legal studies.
But money was never an issue, as they'd inherited about AU$2 million (NZ$2.16 million) from her grandmother before they married.
"Money has not been the most important motivation to either Erin or me in our decisions," he told the jury on Thursday.
She was generous with this money and loaned some to his siblings, Simon said.
The couple moved to Perth in late 2007, where their son was born in 2009, and then travelled across northern Australia when he was four-months-old.
Their first separation, of about six months, happened during this trip when Erin Patterson flew back to Perth from Townsville.
"What I understood... was that she was really struggling inside herself," Simon said.
They would separate several more times before doing so permanently in 2015.
Simon Patterson said his wife had struggled with mental illness, including post-natal depression.
Week one of the murder trial in the small town of Morwell, about two hours' drive from Melbourne, contained an avalanche of fresh information and allegations.
Television, radio and print journalists, documentary-makers, true crime novelists and podcast creators filled the surroundings of Latrobe Valley Courthouse from early in the morning until closing each day to catch a glimpse of those attending.
Erin, 50, looked at times emotional as she sat in the back of the courtroom, watching everything unfold.
The prosecution spent more than three hours explaining to the jury the events before, during and after the lunch, on Tuesday, and then detailed some of Erin's alleged lies.
Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC alleged she lied about becoming sick after the lunch to cover up what she had done and about giving her children leftovers the next day.
She claimed Erin got the guests to visit her home for lunch using a "deliberately false" claim that she had cancer and wanted advice on how to break it to her children.
Erin had lied about where the mushrooms inside the beef Wellington were purchased, an Asian grocer, and then about disposing of a dehydrator "to conceal what she had done", Rogers said.
Erin's defence team then admitted to a number of these lies.
This included that she had misled police about whether she had ever foraged for mushrooms.
"She did forage for mushrooms," Mandy told the jury on Tuesday.
"Just so that we make that clear, she denies that she ever deliberately sought out death cap mushrooms."
He said she admitted she lied to police about getting rid of the dehydrator, which was found dumped at Koonwarra Transfer Station about five days after the mushroom meal.
Prosecutors said the Sunbeam appliance, a photo of which was shown to the jury, had Erin's fingerprints on it and forensic testing found it had contained death cap mushrooms.
But the accused triple murderer's barrister said what happened at the lunch was "a tragedy and a terrible accident" and she did not deliberately serve poisoned food.
"The defence case is that she didn't intend to cause anyone any harm on that day," Mandy told the jury on Tuesday.
The trial before Justice Christopher Beale continues on Monday.
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