Erin Patterson’s estranged husband inundated with media offers after guilty verdict

The estranged husband of triple murderer Erin Patterson has been inundated with lucrative media offers.

Mushroom murderer Erin Patterson’s lethal lunch has had media salivating over exclusive interviews.

The story has already spawned popular podcasts and thousands of centimetres of news pages.

Books, documentaries and a drama series are already underway.

It has been a painful jolt into the public glare for Simon Patterson.

His once private, God-fearing existence has been turned into a chaos of grief, suspicion and media interest.

Mr Patterson has been festooned with lucrative media offers, as shepherded by friend and media manager, Jess O’Donnell, who was in court on Monday and has attended many days of the trial.

Erin Patterson arriving in the back of a prison transport vehicle at Latrobe Valley Magistrate's Court in Morwell. Picture: AFP

He seems set to tell his story, one way or another, after fielding lucrative media inquiries for almost two years.

There has been a purported offer of up to $500,000 by one UK media outlet for his tell-all story although it remains unknown if Mr Patterson has signed with any organisation to date.

The only survivor of the deadly meal was Ian Wilkinson, a pastor who lost his wife.

His evidence of different coloured plates at the lunch, as well as Patterson’s false claim that she had cancer, could have been crucial to the guilty verdicts.

He, too, would be a target for paid media interviews.

Simon Patterson leaves Latrobe Valley Magistrates' Court in Morwell. Picture: AFP

Patterson, herself, cannot sell her story now she is convicted of a triple murder and attempting to kill another.

Patterson was introduced to the mass media outside her Gibson St home in the weeks after the lunch when observers strived to find out what had happened form the only person who knew.

She would later post a sign on her gate at her Gibson St Leongatha home, warning that trespassers would be prosecuted.

In more recent days, black plastic was erected outside the home, presumably to shield her from the media’s gaze.

Ian Wilkinson, the only survivor of the deadly mushroom meal who lost his wife. Picture: AFP

If she had been found not guilty, requests for dozens of media interviews would have followed.

Any accurate telling of Patterson’s story will feature religious overlays. She lived among a community of godly people, as described by a trial lawyer, who were “eternally polite” to one another.

It would also present a scene, post Patterson’s lunch, in which the condemned, led by a church pastor, offered a group prayer for the good health of their killer.

Patterson was a courtroom defendant who initially shielded her face from the public gaze.

Now her face – and her choices – are doomed to be internationally infamous.

Originally published as Erin Patterson’s estranged husband inundated with media offers after guilty verdict