Son of alleged mushroom lunch killer Erin Patterson said relationship between parents ‘very negative’

The son of alleged mushroom lunch killer Erin Patterson described the relationship between his parents as “very negative” and told police his father “does a lot of things to try and hurt” his mother.

Patterson’s parents-in-law, Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, died from mushroom poisoning after eating a lunch of beef Wellington at the accused woman’s Leongatha home on July 29, 2023. Church pastor Ian Wilkinson, Heather’s husband, survived after weeks in hospital.

Alleged killer Erin Patterson.Credit: Jason South

Video evidence of Patterson’s two children, recorded in August 2023, was played to the jury on Friday, the ninth day of the murder trial in the Supreme Court in Morwell. Patterson has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.

Patterson’s son, then 14, was asked by a police interviewer in his recorded evidence about his parents’ relationship. He said he knew they were still married, but they’d had a couple of arguments before his mother moved out about seven years earlier.

He said initially he spent weekends with his father, but in recent times his parents’ relationship had become more negative, and he hadn’t enjoyed going to his father’s as much.

“Recently, so before the lunch, it’s all been very negative. I know Dad does a lot of things to try and hurt Mum, such as messing around with schooling,” the son said.

Patterson’s son said he’d recently been spending more time at his mother’s house while his father was “trying to convince me to go to his”.

“I did not want to because he never did anything with us on the weekends,” the boy said.

In court on Friday, a tearful Erin Patterson – her eyes fixed on a TV screen placed near her in the dock – dabbed at her eyes with a tissue as her son recounted the lead-up to the lunch.

On the morning before the lunch, the boy said, he saw his mother preparing what he believed was a salad, and he recalled seeing her preparing meat in a frying pan that was plugged into the wall. Erin then dropped the boy, his sister and a friend who had slept over the previous night in town to have lunch at McDonald’s and see a movie.

From left: Don Patterson, Gail Patterson, Heather Wilkinson and Ian Wilkinson were poisoned by a mushroom meal.

Simon Patterson, who had been invited but declined to attend the lunch that killed his parents and aunt, picked up the three children after the movie.

Their son said when Simon dropped him and his friend at Erin’s after the lunch, Don and Gail Patterson and the Wilkinsons were still there. The boy said he spoke to his grandfather about his planned flying lesson the next day and a flying simulator before the four guests left together soon after.

After the Saturday lunch, the boy said, he helped clean up by stacking what he remembered were white plates left on the table and leaving them on the sink alongside some glasses.

“I collected all the plates. I collected all the glasses, put them next to the sink. They were white plates that were 15 centimetres in diameter, they were raised on the edge. Slightly curved up,” he said. “Dinner plates.”

Simon Patterson outside court on Monday.Credit: Jason South

Later that day, when it was time to take his friend home, the son said he found his mother upstairs building Lego.

The boy recalled his mother telling him she felt unwell the morning after the lunch. He said she shared that she’d been to the toilet a few times during the night. She drove her son to a flying lesson in Tyabb, which was later cancelled.

“She said she had to go a few times [to the toilet] during the night,” the boy said. “She did not sound great. It sounded like it was worse than she was saying it was.

“She was playing it down, that’s what it sounded like.”

Don and Gail Patterson.

The boy said that when they got home from the cancelled flying lesson, his mother ran to the front door to use the toilet. They later ate leftover steak, mashed potatoes and green beans from the day before, which he described as being the “best meat I’d ever had, actually, very easy to cut. It was beef. Eye fillet.”

He was also asked whether he or his mother had ever foraged for mushrooms. The boy said no, but he recalled seeing one growing at Korumburra Botanic Gardens in mid-2020 during a walk with his mother during the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said he remembered his mother telling him mushrooms grew on the roots of the trees and “supported each other”.

“I remember Mum took a picture of them because she thought they looked nice,” the boy said.

The trial continues.

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