Erin Patterson trial: Simon Patterson takes the stand in mushroom murder trial

Alleged mushroom poisoner Erin Patterson has come face to face with her estranged husband as he takes the stand in her triple-murder trial. 

Alleged mushroom poisoner Erin Patterson sent a text saying she was really “disappointed” that her now estranged husband wouldn’t be attending her lunch after she had spent a “small fortune” on the “special meal”, a court heard.

Ms Patterson, 50, is facing trial over the alleged death cap mushroom poisonings of Simon Patterson’s parents and aunt and uncle at a lunch she hosted on July 29, 2023, at her Leongatha home.

The mother-of-two has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder, arguing at trial the presence of poisonous mushrooms in her beef wellington dish was not intentional and not deliberate.

A mock-up of the text exchange: Picture: NewsWire.

Giving evidence, Mr Patterson was questioned by Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC on when he was invited to the July 29 lunch at Ms Patterson home. He said it was after a service at the Korumburra Baptist Church, when she invited him, his parents and his aunt and uncle.

“I was a bit reluctant but I ultimately agreed,” Mr Patterson said.

He told the court the day before the lunch he messaged Erin to say he wouldn’t be coming.

“Sorry, I feel too uncomfortable about coming to the lunch with you mum, dad, Heather and Ian tomorrow,” he read from a photo of the exchange.

“That’s really disappointing, I’ve spent many hours this week preparing lunch for tomorrow,” Ms Patterson allegedly responded.

“It’s important for me that you’re all there… I hope you’ll change your mind.”

Ms Patterson allegedly said she’d spent a “small fortune” on steaks and wanted it to be a “special meal”.

Ms Patterson maintains her innocence and is arguing the deaths were due to an accidental poisoning. Picture: Brooke Grebert-Craig.

Mr Patterson was called to give evidence as the first witness of the trial when the matter returned before the Supreme Court on Morwell on Thursday.

Entering the courtroom shortly before 11am, he did not look at Ms Patterson as he walked to the witness box, less than 10m from where she is sitting in the dock at the rear of the court.
Instead the civil engineer glanced around at the faces of the packed courtroom.

He told the jury he was still married to Ms Patterson and said she was “very intelligent” having studied in a number of courses, including business, vet sciences, legal studies, science and was qualified as an air traffic controller.

“Some of the things that attracted me to her in the first place was her intelligence, she’s quite witty and can be quite funny,” he said.

Mr Patterson is the first witness in the trial. Picture: NewsWire/Ian Currie

Mr Patterson said after the pair married in June 2007 they set off on a road trip around Australia before settling in Western Australia where their son was born in Perth in January 2009.

He told the court they’d separated and reconciled a number of times before the relationship ended in 2015.

“It was strained, there was tension in it,” he said.

“I was always keen to have a good relationship, a good marriage and a good strong family to bring the kids up in.”

Mr Patterson agreed his wife had complained the way they communicated was “toxic”.

Alleged mushroom poisoner was a devoted mother: Husband

Mr Patterson was quizzed on his wife’s relationship with both their children, and Mr Patterson’s wider family.

He agreed he believed she was a devoted mother and took her role as a parent seriously, supporting their son and daughter through extracurricular activities.

Mr Patterson agreed with a suggestion by Mr Mandy that Ms Patteron’s relationship with his parents were “loving and respectful relationships”.

“That’s how it appeared to me,” he said.

Ms Patterson was unhappy, jury told

Mr Mandy’s questioning of Mr Patterson turned to his opinion of his wife’s self-image.

He agreed he believed she had low self-image, was unhappy about weight gain and did not have a positive view of how she looked.

“I don’t think Erin expressed that explicitly,” he said.

“I think Erin is not particularly happy with how she is, including probably most aspects, I don’t think she has high self esteem.”

Husband ‘puzzled’ over house titles

Despite separating from Ms Patterson in 2015, Mr Patterson agreed with a suggestion by Mr Mandy they continued to have a strong friendship.

The jury was told after Ms Patterson’s mother passed in 2019, her estate was split between her two daughters.

Mr Patterson confirmed that Ms Patterson used part of the inheritance to purchase a home in the Melbourne suburb of Mount Waverly and land in Leongatha where she built her home.

For both of these she placed Mr Patterson as a joint owner on the title.

He told the jury he was “puzzled” by this but saw it as an indication his wife was hoping to reconcile.

“You believed the family unit had a future?” Mr Mandy questioned.

“I did think that, yes,” Mr Patterson responded.

Mr Patterson stopped the hearing at one point and asked for tissues. Picture. NewsWire/Nadir Kinani

Hundreds of thousands of dollars lent to Mr Patterson’s family

Under questioning from Ms Patterson’s barrister Colin Mandy SC, Mr Patterson confirmed he and his wife had lent hundreds of thousands of dollars each to his three siblings and their partners to buy homes.

“Erin also assisted your siblings with interest free, I’ll be careful with that term, loans,” Mr Mandy asked.

“Yes we did loan my siblings money,” Mr Patterson responded.

“We wouldn’t have been able to do that without the money Erin received.”

Mr Patterson confirmed each of his siblings, Matthew, Nathan and Anna, had received hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans.

He told the jury there was no fixed payment schedule or interest, other than inflation on the money loaned.

“The intention was they’d be paid back at about the same amount they’d be paying back a mortgage,” Mr Patterson said.

“Money’s not been the most important motivation for either Erin or me in our decisions.”

Alleged poisoner’s $2m windfall: Husband

Mr Patterson told the court Ms Patterson received a $2 million inheritance in the year before their marriage.

“Her grandmother died before we were married and left an estate and she got a substantial inheritance of roughly $2 million,” he said.

Mr Patterson said the funds were slowly “dribbled out” in multiple payments by the executors over a period of time. 

The trial is being heard in Morwell. Picture: NewsWire / Josie Hayden

‘She wasn’t happy’: Shift in relationship due to child support

Mr Patterson told the court he first noticed a shift in their relationship in late October or early November 2022.

Before then, he said they were friendly and would often have “banter” and discussions about “politics and interesting things”.

But he said one time he dropped their children off at Ms Patterson’s home and she approached him about him listing them as separated on his tax return.

Mr Patterson said he believed she was upset because it would change their family tax benefit and they agreed she would seek child support payments.

“She wasn’t happy with that,” he said.

Mr Paterson said that after speaking with child support, he was advised to stop paying Ms Patterson directly and all transfers should go through child support.

“That was the first thing that made me feel there was a change in our relationship,” he said.

“The chatty nature of it pretty much stopped ... it became functional and sometimes nothing.”

Husband chokes up discussing dad’s illness

Questioned on visiting his parents the first time in hospital following the lunch, Mr Patterson choked up and blew his nose with a tissue.

His voice breaking, he told the jury “dad was substantially worse that mum” in the room they shared.

“He was lying on his side, he was hunched — quite noticeably,” he said.

“He had a discoloured face. Speaking was an effort and taking the energy to speak was an effort.

“His voice was strained in a way that he wasn’t right, inside he was in pain.”

The jury was told Don Patterson was a former school teacher. Picture: Supplied

Accused mushroom cook feared she would ‘poo her pants’: Husband

Mr Patterson told the jury he was first contacted by his estranged wife about 7am on the Monday two days after the lunch. 
He said she told him she had been experiencing diarrhoea about every 20 minutes since the late afternoon of July 29.
The jury was told she asked him to drive her to hospital, but he refused saying an ambulance would be more appropriate.

“She was worried she might poo her pants driving,” he said. 
“She asked me to come and take her to hospital.”

Later that day Mr Patterson said he received a second call where Ms Patterson said she’d visited Leongatha Hospital but had checked herself out against medical advice.

He told the jury she mentioned that staff wanted to assess their two children after she informed them they’d eaten leftovers from the meal on the Sunday night.

“I’d been saying I was happy to pick up the kids...She didn’t want the kids to be scared about the reason so she should be the one to pick them up,” he said.

“I said I’m glad you feel healthy enough to pick up the kids now because at 7am she wasn’t healthy enough to drive herself.”

Ms Patterson has pleaded not guilty. Picture: NewsWire/ David Crosling

Earlier, prosecutor Sarah Lenthall took the 15-member jury through their assigned iPads — used to store exhibits, transcripts and notes throughout the trial.

Delivering her opening remarks to the jury over the course of about three hours on Wednesday, crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC said there were “a lot” of witnesses and the prosecution would seek to present the case in a “chronological order”.

“We will do our best to play or call the witnesses in a rough chronological order but sometimes this isn’t always possible,” she said.

Prosecutors allege Ms Patterson intended to kill the lunch guests attending her home after inviting them with the “false claim” of a cancer diagnosis.

“It is the prosecution case that the accused deliberately poisoned, with murderous intent, each … after inviting them for lunch on the pretence that she’d been diagnosed with cancer and needed advice about how to break it to the children,” she said.

“It is the prosecution case that the accused used the false claim that she had serious medical issues to ensure and to explain why the children would not be present at the lunch on July 29.”

Don and Gail Patterson died after eating the beef wellington dish. Picture: Supplied

Ian Wilkinson survived while his wife Heather Wilkinson died. Picture: Supplied

Her husband Simon Patterson’s parents, Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, 66, died in hospital in the weeks after the gathering.

Ms Wilkinson’s husband, Korumburra Baptist Church pastor Ian Wilkinson, fell gravely ill but recovered.

Defence barrister Colin Mandy SC told the jury Ms Patterson did not dispute that the four lunch guests consumed deadly death cap mushrooms at her Leongatha home.

“The defence case is that Erin Patterson did not deliberately serve poisoned food to her guests at that lunch,” he said.

“The defence case is that what happened was a tragedy, a terrible accident.”

The trial, before Justice Christopher Beale, is expected to last for up to six weeks.

Originally published as Erin Patterson trial: Simon Patterson takes the stand in mushroom murder trial