‘Mum said she was feeling a bit sick’: Erin Patterson’s son and daughter give evidence in mushroom murder trial

Police interviewed the son and daughter of accused killer Erin Patterson just a few weeks after the deadly lunch was served at their home. Here’s what the kids had to say.

The son of accused mushroom cook killer Erin Patterson told police his parents’ relationship was “negative” in the lead-up to the fateful lunch, describing how his father did “a lot of things to try to hurt” his mother.

The 14-year-old gave evidence on Friday in his mum’s triple murder trial, revealing that she was building LEGO hours after she served a beef wellington lunch allegedly laced with lethal death cap mushrooms.

Ms Patterson, 50, is standing trial in Morwell, accused of murdering her estranged husband’s parents, Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, along with Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, 66.

Heather’s husband, pastor Ian Wilkinson, 71, was the only guest to survive the lunch hosted by Ms Patterson at her Leongatha home on July 29, 2023.

She has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder, claiming what happened was a “tragedy and a terrible accident”.

Ian Wilkinson was the only lunch guest to survive. Picture: David Crosling

On the final day of the second week of her trial, the evidence of Ms Patterson’s then-14-year-old son, recorded in August 2023, was played to a Supreme Court jury.

The accused became emotional in the dock when her son, wearing a grey hoodie, appeared on the screen — her lower lip trembling at times.

Her son told the interviewer he knew they were there to talk about the “lunch of five people”.

“Three of them passed,” he said.

Don and Gail Patterson. Picture: Supplied

Heather Wilkinson. Picture: Supplied

When asked by the interviewer to describe his parents’ relationship, he said it was “very negative” and that his dad, Simon Patterson, did “a lot of things to try to hurt mum”.

He added: “Like messing around with the school … mum didn’t put his name on the billing, the billing for the school.

“Dad really wanted to be on that, so he could have access to all the events.

“Dad wouldn’t talk to mum about that.

“He would just ring the school and tell the school to put his name on the billing.”

Simon Patterson, who shares two children with the accused. Picture: David Geraghty

The 14-year-old said he and his sister had stopped staying at their dad’s house.

“He kept trying to convince me to go to his … and I told him, I’m sorry I didn’t want to because he never did anything with us over the weekends,” he said.

When asked about the hours after the lunch, he told the interviewer he helped clean up the table after the four guests had left.

“I collected all the plates and put them in a pile next to the sink,” he said.

He described the plates as “plain white”.

The interviewer asked: “Were they all the same?”

He replied: “Yep.”

Erin Patterson’s son said his mother was ‘building LEGO’ after the lunch. Picture: Brooke Grebert-Craig

The 14-year-old said after he helped clean up, he played computer games with his friend.

He told the interviewer he remembers his mum was “building LEGO” when he came upstairs to ask her to drop his friend back home in the early evening.

He said the morning after the lunch he woke up and saw his mum drinking a coffee.

“She said she was feeling a bit sick and had diarrhoea,” he said.

“We didn’t end up going to church because mum was feeling too sick.”

He said his mum told him she had woken up several times during the night to go to the toilet.

The court heard the 14-year-old and his younger sister had “potatoes, beans with some leftover meat from the lunch” for dinner that night.

When asked about the meat, he replied: “It was very soft and it was probably some of the best meat I’ve ever had actually.”

Later in the interview, the 14-year-old said he remembered a time during the pandemic when his mum took a picture of some mushrooms in the Korumburra Botanic Gardens.

“I remember mum took a picture of them because she thought they looked nice,“ he said, describing it as a “fond memory”.

“We were talking about how mushrooms grow, how they grow with the trees and they support each other.”

When asked if his mum liked mushrooms, he replied: “Um, I think she likes mushrooms, I’m not sure.”

He told the interviewer he had never picked mushrooms and when asked whether his parents had picked them, he said: “Not that I know of.”

The beef wellington meal served at Erin’s home was allegedly laced with death cap mushrooms.

The remainder of his sister’s pre-recorded evidence was also played on Friday.

She could be seen sitting in an interview room on a blue armchair, her legs barely touching the ground.

She agreed her mum was a “good cook” and “enjoyed cooking”.

“We make like cupcakes or muffins or brownies,” she said.

When asked whether she had ever cooked anything with her mum with mushrooms in it, she paused before replying “no”.

The trial, before Justice Christopher Beale, continues.

For more mushroom trial coverage, click here.

Originally published as ‘Mum said she was feeling a bit sick’: Erin Patterson’s son and daughter give evidence in mushroom murder trial