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News.com.au
a day ago
- Health
- News.com.au
Erin Patterson trial: Mushroom cook set to return to witness box for third day of giving evidence
The Victorian mother accused of murdering three of her in-laws with a poisoned beef Wellington dish is poised to continue giving evidence when her trial resumes on Wednesday, after new details on the fatal lunch were revealed. For the last two days, Erin Patterson, 50, has been giving her own version of events as to what happened on July 29, 2023, telling the court on Tuesday she accepted there had to have been poisonous mushrooms in the beef wellington she served, and that dried mushrooms used in its creation had sat in her pantry for months due to their 'pungent' aroma. Ms Patterson has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder relating to the lunch with her estranged husband's family. Simon Patterson's parents, Don and Gail Patterson, and aunt, Heather Wilkinson, died in the week after the lunch due to death cap mushroom poisoning while Heather's husband, Ian Wilkinson, survived. Prosecutors allege Ms Patterson deliberately spiked the meal while her defence argues the case is a tragic accident. After prosecutors concluded their case earlier this week, defence barrister Colin Mandy SC called his client as a witness and Ms Patterson began giving evidence. Over two days she answered extensive questions about her relationships with Simon Patterson and his family, health concerns, financial situation and her love of mushrooms. Shortly before the jury was sent home on Tuesday, Ms Patterson agreed that her lunch 'must' have contained the poisonous mushrooms. She told the court when preparing the dish, she used fresh mushrooms purchased from the local Leongatha Woolworths and dried mushrooms purchased months earlier in April from an Asian grocer in Melbourne. Ms Patterson said the dried mushrooms had been initially bought for a pasta dish but she did not use them at the time because they has a 'very pungent' aroma. Instead, she told the jury, she brought them home and stored them in a Tupperware container in the pantry. She also confirmed she'd begun foraging for wild mushrooms in 2020 and had purchased a dehydrator to preserve mushrooms in early 2023. 'I liked eating wild mushrooms, but it's a very small season and you can't keep them in the fridge,' she said. Ms Patterson told the jury she would store dried mushrooms in her pantry. 'Generally, I would put them into a container that I already sort of had going with Woolies mushrooms and whatnot in there,' she said. The final question Ms Patterson was asked of the day was if she had a memory of putting wild mushrooms in May or June 2023 into a container that already contained mushrooms 'Yes, I did do that,' she said. The trial continues.
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Health
- The Guardian
‘They didn't deserve it': Emotional Erin Patterson tells murder trial of shame over messages about family
Erin Patterson has told a court she wishes she never told her Facebook friends in a private group chat 'this family I swear to fucking god' in relation to her in-laws, saying she felt ashamed but hoped that sharing her frustrations would mean she had a 'big cheer squad' for her problems. Patterson also told the jury in her triple murder trial that she was never diagnosed with ovarian cancer and had a history of 'consulting Dr Google', and hoped to bring her family back together despite a formal separation with her estranged husband Simon seven years earlier. In her second day in the witness box, Patterson was also asked about her relationship with Simon changing after a dispute about child support which arose the year before the alleged murders. Patterson, 50, faces three charges of murder and one charge of attempted murder relating to poisoning her four lunch guests – relatives of her estranged husband, Simon Patterson – with a beef wellington served at her house in Leongatha on 29 July 2023. Patterson has pleaded not guilty to murdering Simon's parents, Don and Gail Patterson, and his aunt Heather Wilkinson, and attempting to murder Ian Wilkinson, Simon's uncle and Heather's husband. Lawyers for Patterson say the death cap mushroom poisoning was a tragic and terrible accident. Under questioning from her lawyer, Colin Mandy SC, on Tuesday, Patterson spoke about a time in late 2022 when she was in discussion with Simon and Don and Gail about two issues within the family: finances for their children, and the struggles of their son. Don and Gail were asked by Patterson to mediate between her and Simon, as they had done so before, she said. The court was shown a series of messages about these issues, including Don apologising for possibly misrepresenting Simon, and Patterson saying she appreciates it is uncomfortable. 'Simon seems to be under the misapprehension that a child support assessment covers every expense for the children under the sun,' Patterson wrote in December 2022. Patterson was also asked about a 'heated' exchange she and Simon had after she felt she had not been invited to a pub lunch for Gail's 70th. At the same time she was discussing these issues with Simon and his parents, Patterson was posting to her friends on a group chat. She said she sent the messages because 'I was really hurt and really frustrated and felt a little bit desperate' in the Facebook chat, which 'became a safe venting space for all of us'. Of a message previously read to the court, in which she said 'this family, I swear to fucking god', Patterson told the 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. 'They didn't deserve it.' Members of the Patterson and Wilkinson families, including Ian Wilkinson, were in court on Tuesday. Patterson, who was also asked about a separate message when she wrote she was 'sick of this shit', wanted nothing to do with the Pattersons, and wrote 'fuck em', that she shared her frustrations as 'I knew that the women would probably support me being annoyed about those things, and so I said that to them, knowing that they would latch on, and then it [becomes] a big cheer squad for your problem, if that makes sense'. Patterson also spoke about receiving inheritances from her grandmother and mother, which allowed her to loan about $1.2m to Simon's siblings and their partners, and for her to buy several properties and travel extensively overseas. The court heard Patterson had opened a second-hand bookshop in the Western Australian town of Pemberton before she moved back to Victoria with Simon and their son while she was pregnant with the couple's daughter. The reason for the move, she said, was to be closer to Don and Gail after the birth, and because their son loved spending time with his 'nanna and papa' and cousins. Another series of separations between her and Simon continued, until a 'formal' separation in late 2015. Patterson said that despite this she included his name on the title of the Leongatha property which she moved into in 2022 as she wanted to show him something 'tangible' about her desire for the family to reunite. 'That was what I wanted. I did that because I wanted some way to demonstrate with Simon that's what I really believed and wanted,' she said. Patterson appeared to become emotional when she was asked how her relationship with Don and Gail changed after this 'formal' separation. 'It never changed,' she said. 'I was just their daughter in law, and they just continued to love me.' Patterson also told the court about a history of health issues she and her children had which eroded her faith in the medical system. She never had ovarian cancer, nor a needle biopsy, she said. The court has previously heard about text messages she exchanged with Gail about the biopsy, and it is the prosecution case that Patterson used a cancer diagnosis as a 'false pretence' for the lunch. Patterson said both sides of her family had a history of ovarian cancer, and she feared she also had it. 'I'd been having, for a few months by then, a multitude of symptoms,' Patterson said. 'I felt very fatigued. I had ongoing abdominal pain. I had chronic headaches. I put on a lot of weight, in quite a short period of time, and like my feet and my hands seemed to retain a lot of fluid.' She said what 'sent me over the edge' to go to a GP was that her wedding rings wouldn't fit any more, and that when she then went to pick them up from the jeweller, after having them resized, they again didn't fit. At this time, and at another occasion when she feared she had a brain tumour, she 'consulted Dr Google'. She came to realise, she said, that doing this wasted her time, and the time of medical professionals, but she had come to distrust the medical system because of how it had handled issues with her children. Patterson's evidence continues.
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Health
- The Guardian
Australia mushroom trial live: Erin Patterson to continue giving evidence on day 25 of her triple murder trial
Update: Date: 2025-06-03T00:31:51.000Z Title: What the jury heard yesterday Content: While we wait for today's proceedings to get underway, here's a recap of what the jury heard on Monday: Patterson entered the witness box to begin testifying in her triple murder trial. Members of the Patterson and Wilkinson families, including Ian Wilkinson, were in the court. The accused said in the months prior to the July 2023 lunch she felt her relationship with the Patterson family, particularly her in-laws Don and Gail, had 'a bit more distance'. She said from the start of 2023 her relationship with her estranged husband, Simon, was 'functional' and the pair communicated mainly about logistical matters. Patterson had a 'never-ending battle of low self-esteem' for most of her adult life, she told the court. She said around the time of the lunch she was planning to have gastric bypass surgery for weight loss. Defence lawyer Colin Mandy SC asked his client about the tension in her relationship with Simon, which involved multiple separations between 2009 and 2015. She said the pair 'just couldn't communicate well' when they had a disagreement. 'We would just feel hurt,' she said. The prosecution closed its case on Monday afternoon before Patterson entered the witness box. Update: Date: 2025-06-03T00:29:46.000Z Title: Welcome Content: to day 25 of Erin Patterson's triple murder trial. Patterson, who began testifying on Monday, is expected to continue giving evidence. We're expecting the trial to resume from 10.30am once the jurors enter the courtroom in Morwell. Patterson, 50, faces three charges of murder and one charge of attempted murder relating to a beef wellington lunch she served at her house in Leongatha, in regional Victoria, on 29 July 2023. She is accused of murdering her in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, and her estranged husband's aunt, Heather Wilkinson. The attempted murder charge relates to Heather's husband, Ian. She has pleaded not guilty to the charges. The prosecution alleges Patterson deliberately poisoned her lunch guests with 'murderous intent', but her lawyers say the poisoning was a tragic accident.
The Independent
3 days ago
- Health
- The Independent
Erin Patterson talks about family rift at fatal mushroom lunch trial
Erin Patterson, the Australian woman accused of murdering her people with a poisoned beef Wellington, took the stand on Monday to give evidence about her fractured relationship with her estranged husband and his family. Ms Patterson, 50, is charged with deliberately serving death cap mushrooms to her former in-laws Don and Gail Patterson, Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson and Heather's husband Ian during a 2023 lunch at her house in Victoria. Ian Wilkinson was the only guest to survive. She spoke of a rift with her separated husband and his family. 'A bit more distance or space between us,' Ms Patterson said. She had started to have 'concerns' that her estranged husband, Simon Patterson, no longer wanted her involved with his family. 'Perhaps I wasn't being invited to so many things,' she said, describing their relationship at the time as 'functional'. Ms Patterson also spoke about the highs and lows of her relationship with Mr Patterson, telling the court they had separated several times following the birth of their son in 2009. 'Obviously our relationship was struggling to cause a separation, it was really important to both of us to cooperate about [our son] and make it as easy on him as possible,' she said. 'Primarily what we struggled with over the entire course of our relationship ... it was, we just couldn't communicate well when we disagreed about something. We could never communicate in a way that would make each of us feel heard and understood.' Ms Patterson met her husband in 2004 while working at the Monash council, a local government authority, and early in the relationship she was a 'fundamentalist atheist' trying to convert him despite his Christian faith. But a service at the Korumburra Baptist Church, led by Mr Patterson's uncle, Ian Wilkinson, and centred on 'faith, hope and love', had a profound effect on her. 'I had what can be best described as like a spiritual experience,' she said. 'I had been approaching religion as an intellectual exercise up until that. Does it make sense? Is it rational? But I had what I would call a religious experience there and it quite overwhelmed me.' Ms Patterson told the court she had envisioned her Leongatha home as the 'final house' and even designed the initial layout herself. 'I was involved right from the beginning of the design. Simon and I were involved through the whole design process. I drew a design first myself in Microsoft Paint,' she said. 'I saw it as the final house, meaning I wanted it to be a house where the children would grow up, where when they moved away for university or work they could come back and stay whenever they want, bring their children. and I'd grow old there. That's what I hoped.' She admitted to struggling with 'low self-esteem' for much of her adult life, which worsened as she grew older. 'I had been fighting a never-ending battle of low self-esteem most of my adult life,' she said. 'And the further inroads I made into being middle aged, the less I felt good about myself, I suppose. Put on my weight, could handle exercise less.' The trial continues.
The Guardian
6 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
Erin Patterson given voice as interview with police fills in some blanks: week five in court
Erin Patterson watched herself on a screen, her voice filling court room four of the Latrobe Valley law courts in Morwell. She had done little but stand up and sit down, and watch on silently, throughout the first 20 days of her triple murder trial, as more than 50 witnesses catalogued their own role in her story. But now she would be heard, as her voice – distorted and tinny – bounced around the court on 27 May. The video had been taken in the Wonthaggi police station on 5 August 2023, a week after the beef wellington lunch. Patterson, 50, faces three charges of murder and one charge of attempted murder relating to poisoning her four lunch guests – relatives of her estranged husband, Simon Patterson – with the lunch at her house in Leongatha, Victoria, on 29 July 2023. Patterson has pleaded not guilty to murdering Simon's parents, Don and Gail Patterson, and his aunt Heather Wilkinson, and attempting to murder Ian Wilkinson, Simon's uncle and Heather's husband. Lawyers for Patterson say the death cap mushroom poisoning was a tragic and terrible accident. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email As much as any moment in the trial to date, Patterson's police interview helped give her shape. It filled the blank spaces surrounding the dozens of text messages read into court, or the flattened images of her on CCTV, or the observations of witnesses, speaking about what she had been like before the lunch, or how she acted after. The 21-minute interview was beamed on to at least six screens throughout the court, including a small one to Patterson's left in the dock. 'Donald underwent a transplant last night … and his condition is still extremely critical as of last report,' Det Leading Sen Const Stephen Eppingstall, the officer in charge of investigating the fatal lunch, said to Patterson in the interview. 'Heather and Gail have passed away, all right. In relation to Ian, I don't have a current prognosis in relation to where he's at. As of late yesterday, the diagnosis isn't great for him either, all right. We're trying to understand what has made them so ill. 'Conversely, we're trying to understand why you're not that ill.' Eppingstall could not be seen in the interview, but Patterson's face was closest to the screen, and filled almost a third of the frame. 'I'm sure you understand too that, like, I've never been in a situation like this before … and I've been very, very helpful with the health department through the week because I wanted to help that side of things … as much as possible,' Patterson said. 'Because I do want to know what happened … so I've given them as much information as they've asked for and offered up all the food and all the information about where the food came from.' Eppingstall went on to ask Patterson if she had ever foraged for mushrooms or owned a dehydrator. 'Obviously, we've got concerns in relation to these mushrooms and where they've come from,' he said. 'Mm,' Patterson responded. 'OK. Is that something you've done in the past, foraging for mushrooms?' 'Never.' 'Or anything like that? Never?' 'Never.' Patterson was asked why she had an instruction manual for a Sunbeam Food Lab electronic dehydrator in the far left bottom drawer of her kitchen if she did not own one. She again said she didn't own one, saying: 'I've got manuals for lots of stuff I've collected over the years. I've had all sorts of appliances and I just keep them all.' The court has been shown footage of Patterson dumping the dehydrator at a local tip three days before her police interview. It was later found with her fingerprints on it and with traces of death cap mushrooms, the prosecution told the court. The prosecution argues the evidence in the case proves Patterson did not consume death cap mushrooms at the lunch and pretended she was suffering the same type of illness as the lunch guests 'to cover that up', which also explained her 'reluctance' to receive medical treatment. It is also alleged Patterson lied about getting death cap mushrooms from an Asian grocer, and disposed of the dehydrator 'to conceal what she had done'. Colin Mandy SC, for Patterson, said in his opening remarks to the jury that his client had lied to police about the dehydrator and about foraging, but added that she had never foraged for death cap mushrooms. Eppingstall also asked Patterson during the interview why she had invited her in-laws to lunch. 'You've described to me – relationship with your ex-partner Simon, all right. I'd like to understand why you had his parents and his uncle and auntie over for lunch on the 29th of July,' he said. 'Because I've got no other family so they're the only support I've got … left and they've always been really good to me,' Patterson said. 'I want to maintain those relationships with them in spite of what's happened with Simon. I love them a lot. They've always been really good to me, and they always said to me that they would support me with love and emotional support even though Simon and I were separated and I really appreciated that 'cause my parents are both gone. My grandparents are all gone. They're the only family that I've got. And they're the only grandparents that my children have and I want them to stay in my kids' life. 'And that's really important to me. And I think Simon hated that I still had a relationship with his parents but I – I love them. Nothing that's ever happened between us – nothing he's ever done to me will change the fact that they're good, decent people that have never done anything wrong by me ever.' Patterson was not the only fixture throughout the five weeks of the trial who was finally given voice this week. The other was Eppingstall, who has sat behind the prosecutors, suited and silent, as the witnesses making up the prosecution case were gradually called. This week Eppingstall, the final prosecution witness, took the stand. A tall man, who stood during his four days of giving evidence, he drew several laughs in court, including when Justice Christopher Beale told him he did not have to keep answering 'yes ma'am' to prosecutor Jane Warren. 'You don't have to keep saying 'ma'am',' Beale said. 'Yeah, it's a habit, sir – your honour,' he replied. Eppingstall was asked about a series of messages exchanged between Patterson, Don, Gail and Simon, including evidence tendered by Mandy. These showed Patterson and her in-laws engaging in discussions about her children, their homework, wishing each other love, and, in the case of Don and Gail, saying they would be praying for Patterson, and using phrases such as wishing her and children 'will know God's peace'. Mandy referred to 'context' when he also showed Eppingstall messages exchanged with witnesses known as 'the Facebook friends'. The court previously heard evidence that Patterson criticised Simon and her in-laws in this chat, which had formed as a splinter group from a Facebook chat about the case of Keli Lane. Eppingstall's evidence is set to continue into a fifth day when the trial resumes on Monday.
