Erin Patterson tells her murder trial she regrets saying she wanted 'nothing to do with' in-laws
By
Melissa Brown
and
Joseph Dunstan
Erin Patterson has spent the day in the witness chair in her trial in Morwell.
Photo:
ABC News: Anita Lester
Erin Patterson has become emotional on the witness stand at her murder trial as she expressed regret about messages she wrote about her in-laws.
Patterson resumed giving evidence in her own defence on Tuesday, as she fights charges of murdering her parents-in-law Don and Gail and Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson by serving them a beef Wellington meal containing death cap mushrooms.
She is also charged with the attempted murder of Heather's husband Ian Wilkinson at the lunch, held in July 2023.
On Tuesday, Patterson was asked about her multiple separations from her husband, Simon.
She outlined to the Supreme Court, sitting in the regional Victorian town of Morwell, how they formally separated at the end of 2015 and divided their assets up equally, without lawyers.
Patterson told the jury she continued to attend Patterson family events after the formal separation, and that Heather Wilkinson would always make a point of talking to her at church.
She said her relationship with Don and Gail also did not change after the separation.
"I was just their daughter-in-law … they just continued to love me," she said, her voice breaking.
But by late 2022, Patterson told the court there were tensions between her and Simon over finances, including school fees, a child support application by Erin, and Simon declining to pay an anaesthetist's fee for their son.
"I was hurt," Patterson told the court.
"We'd never had any conflict over money that I could remember before this."
Ian Wilkinson arrives at court in Morwell with his daughter.
Photo:
ABC News
Mandy took Patterson through Facebook group messages in which she expressed frustration with her parents-in-law about their reluctance to get involved in their dispute about finances and said: "This family I swear to f***ing god."
Patterson told the court she was feeling hurt, frustrated and "a little bit desperate".
She became emotional as she said she regretted saying it, and some other similar messages which were read to court.
"I wish I'd never said it. I feel ashamed for saying it and I wish that the family didn't have to hear that I said that," she said.
"They didn't deserve it."
Tanya and Matthew Patterson, Don and Gail Patterson's children, have been in court for Erin Patterson's evidence.
Photo:
ABC News
Patterson also told the court about her love of mushrooms, saying she enjoyed eating them because they tasted good and were "very healthy".
She said she developed an interest in wild mushrooms in early 2020 when she and her children would go for walks at the Korumburra Botanic Gardens during lockdown.
"The first time I noticed them I remember because the dog was eating some and I picked all the mushrooms that I could see because I wanted to try to figure out what they were to see if that might be a problem for him," she said.
She told the court it was difficult to identify the species.
Patterson said she found field and horse mushrooms in the paddock near her home and "eventually" consumed them.
"It was a process over several months in the lead-up to it, but when I got to a point where I was confident about what I thought they were … I cut a bit off one of the mushrooms, fried it up with some butter, ate it, and then saw what happened," she said.
"They tasted good and I didn't get sick."
She told the jury she regularly bought dried mushrooms at Asian grocery stores and used them in dinners because they had a more interesting flavour.
Earlier on Tuesday morning, Patterson told the court about multiple experiences that she said caused her to lose faith in the health system, including incidents with her children.
She told the jury how her daughter cried for long durations as a newborn and she believed she was in pain, but was told she was just being an over-anxious mother and dismissed her concerns.
"I didn't like hospitals before it, like who does, but I didn't trust that these people knew what they were doing, and I was just in a heightened state of anxiety ever after about my daughter's health.
"I don't want to lose her."
Patterson also answered questions about whether or not she had been diagnosed with cancer.
Throughout the trial, the court has heard a cancer diagnosis was the reason Patterson invited her parents-in-law and Ian and Heather Wilkinson to the beef Wellington lunch that ended in the ingestion of poisonous cap mushrooms.
On Tuesday Patterson told the court she never had ovarian cancer, but that she had been experiencing chronic headaches, fatigue, abdominal pain, sudden weight gain and fluid retention.
She told the court she often googled her symptoms and went to GPs concerned about what the results suggested, including times when she thought she had a brain tumour, multiple sclerosis and auto-immune conditions.
"I think I wasted a lot of time, not just my time, but medical people's time, through all my 'doctor Googling'," she told the court.
"It's hard to justify it but with the benefit of hindsight I can see that … I just lost so much faith in the medical system that I decided that anything to do with my health and the children's health [I'll sort myself]."
Erin Patterson's defence barrister Colin Mandy SC spent the day questioning the accused.
Photo:
ABC News
Mandy also took Patterson back to evidence she gave on Monday about suffering from low self-esteem, particularly around her weight.
Patterson said she had had body image issues since she was a teenager.
"When I was a kid, Mum would weigh us every week to make sure we weren't putting on too much weight and so I went to the extreme of barely eating then, to through my adulthood going the other way and bingeing, I suppose, for want of a better word.
She became visibly emotional as she said she was was bulimic, binge eating two-to-three times a week through her 20s.
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1News
14 hours ago
- 1News
Patterson says foraged mushrooms may have been in fatal lunch
Triple murder accused Erin Patterson has told a Morwell court she looked up information about death cap mushrooms but believed they didn't grow in her area as she continued testifying in her own defence for a third day. She also became emotional while admitting she misled her former in-laws about having medical tests, including claiming she had a biopsy and was booked for an MRI, despite none of those appointments taking place. Patterson, 50, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. She is accused of deliberately poisoning her former in-laws with a beef Wellington laced with death cap mushrooms in July 2022. Three people died. A fourth, Pastor Ian Wilkinson, survived after weeks in hospital. 'I became aware of death cap mushrooms quite early' Under questioning from her defence lawyer, Colin Mandy SC, Patterson said she began researching mushrooms during Covid lockdowns after developing an interest in foraging. ADVERTISEMENT Erin Patterson. (Source: 1News) 'I became aware of death cap mushrooms quite early through this period,' she said. 'I looked up to see if they grew in South Gippsland and I remember finding out that they didn't, essentially.' She also told the jury she knew of another toxic species — inocybe mushrooms — growing on her property, which she had learned were dangerous to dogs. May have searched death cap sites Three white Amanita phalloides (deathcap), which are one of the most poisonous of all known mushrooms. (Source: The jury was reminded of earlier prosecution evidence that Patterson's computer had accessed webpages discussing mushroom foraging and known locations of death caps. "I don't specifically remember doing it that day," she told the court, "but it's possible it was me… and possible that's part of the process I went through to see if they grew in South Gippsland." ADVERTISEMENT Patterson also denied ever foraging in nearby locations such as Lock or Outtrim where mushroom experts previously testified they had logged death cap sightings on citizen science platforms. She told the court she was unaware of those posts. Breaks down over misleading Don and Gail In one of the day's more emotional moments, Patterson was shown messages she'd exchanged with her former in-laws — Don and Gail Patterson — about a suspected health issue. She told them she had a lump on her arm and claimed she'd undergone a needle biopsy and was scheduled for an MRI. But on the stand, she admitted none of that was true. "Some weeks prior, I had been having an issue with my elbow with pain and I thought there was a lump there," she explained. "They had shown quite a lot of care about that, which felt really nice." ADVERTISEMENT She said the pain resolved itself and she felt embarrassed for raising the alarm. "I didn't want their care of me to stop, so I just kept it going," she said, sniffing and speaking with a halting voice. "I shouldn't have done it." Why Patterson arranged the lunch Woman accused of killing three people with poisonous mushrooms in beef Wellington testifies in her defence. (Source: 1News) Patterson also gave evidence about why she organised the fatal family lunch in July, 2022. She said it was motivated by a desire to spend more time with her former in-laws and their extended family. "Primarily, the kids and I had such a good time seeing nanna and papa… that I wanted to do it again," she said. ADVERTISEMENT She told the court that during a previous visit, Gail had commented on how nice the garden looked and Patterson believed Heather Wilkinson would like to see it too. Patterson then said she put considerable thought into what to serve for the lunch. While shepherd's pie had worked in the past, she said it didn't feel "special enough". Instead, she decided to attempt beef Wellington — a dish her mother used to make on important occasions — using a recipe from her RecipeTin Eats cookbook. It was her first time making it. She told the court she bought most of the ingredients from Woolworths, including mushrooms, puff pastry and filo pastry, which were already common staples in her household. "I bought mushrooms very regularly. At least weekly, sometimes twice weekly," she said. How Patterson says she prepared the beef Wellington Erin Patterson says she used this receipe to make beef Wellington (Source: 1News) ADVERTISEMENT Patterson walked the court through how she planned and prepared the beef Wellington at the centre of the case. She said the recipe came from Dinner by food blogger Nagi Maehashi (known for RecipeTin Eats), but with several changes. The original called for a whole beef tenderloin wrapped in mustard, prosciutto, mushroom duxelles and a thin crepe, all encased in puff pastry. But Patterson said she had to adapt. She didn't use mustard, omitted the prosciutto because her father-in-law didn't eat pork, and replaced the crepe with filo pastry because it seemed "a little bit complicated". She also couldn't find a full beef fillet, so decided to make individual portions using a twin pack of eye fillet steaks. She told the jury she began prepping the day before, salting the steaks on Friday to draw out moisture and reading the recipe carefully, even Googling tips so she wouldn't "stuff it up". On the Saturday morning, she started early by cooking the mushroom duxelles. She chopped Woolworths-bought mushrooms in her Thermomix, added garlic and shallots, and cooked it down "for a very long time" to prevent the pastry from going soggy. Patterson said she asked her Facebook friends for advice on the beef cut and mushroom quantity, sharing a photo of the eye fillet pack with the group. She said individual portions required more mushrooms and pastry than a traditional log-style Wellington. ADVERTISEMENT "You've got the mushroom and pastry on the top and bottom sides rather than the circumference," she explained. "I used a lot more." When asked why she bought more filo pastry in the days following the lunch, Patterson said she couldn't remember. "I'd only bought some a day before, but it looks like I must have forgotten I did that," she told the court. "But I made things with pastry all the time, so it wouldn't have mattered." Patterson says dried mushrooms may have included foraged ones Detective who led the investigation reveals stark new details about Patterson's actions and behaviour following the fatal lunch. (Source: 1News) Patterson said there was a chance the dried mushrooms she added to the dish may have included foraged varieties. She told the jury she initially used Woolworths mushrooms for the duxelles, a mushroom paste base for the beef Wellington, but said the mixture "tasted bland" while cooking. ADVERTISEMENT To enhance the flavour, she decided to mix in dried mushrooms she had stored in her pantry. At the time, she believed they were store-bought. "I thought they were the dried ones I'd bought from Melbourne," she said. "Now I think there's a possibility that some foraged ones were in there as well." Patterson described briefly rinsing the mushrooms to soften them, then chopping and mixing them into the dish. She did not say whether she tasted the filling again after adding the dried mushrooms. Lunch served on mismatched dinner plates, court hears Patterson also detailed the moments leading up to the meal being served. ADVERTISEMENT She said her former in-laws were inside the home and chatting while she prepared the mashed potatoes and plated the food. Gail and Heather, she said, took a look inside her pantry which she recalled feeling "proud" of, even though it was slightly messy. Patterson said she used her regular dinnerware to serve the meal: A mix of black, white and coloured plates, including one hand-painted by her daughter. "I don't have grey dinner plates," she told the court. That detail appeared to contradict testimony from Pastor Ian Wilkinson, the only surviving guest, who recalled the meal being served on four grey plates and one tan-orange one. Erin Patterson's testimony continues.
