Erin Patterson’s text messages about mum Heather Scutter and upbringing
Accused triple murderer Erin Patterson has told of her “horrible upbringing” in shocking messages to a friend calling her mother a “cold robot”.
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Accused triple murderer Erin Patterson has shared details of her “horrible upbringing” in shocking messages to a friend.
In the texts, sent shortly after her mother’s death in 2019, Ms Patterson slammed Heather Scutter, calling her a “cold robot”.
“My mum was ultra weird her whole life,” she wrote.
“We had a horrible upbringing. Mum was essentially a cold robot.
“It was like being brought up in a Russian orphanage where they don’t touch babies.”
In the messages, provided to the Herald Sun, Ms Patterson also claimed her late father Eitan Scutter was “a doormat”.
“Dad wanted to be warm and loving to us but mum wouldn’t let him because it would spoil us so he did as he was told,” she said.
“She would shout at him if he did the wrong thing so he became very meek and compliant.
“My sister and I would hide in our room most of the time so we couldn’t do anything wrong.”
Ms Scutter was a lecturer in children’s literature at Monash University and was often quoted in the Herald Sun in 1999 and 2000.
She also wrote multiple books including Displaced Fictions: Contemporary Australian Books for teenagers and young adults.
In the messages, Ms Patterson said she spent most of her childhood reading.
It’s understood Ms Scutter lost her battle with cancer in 2019, just eight years after her husband died from the same illness.
Before their deaths, Ms Patterson’s parents lived in an oceanfront property at Eden in New South Wales.
Ms Patterson inherited the home but sold it for $900,000 in 2019.
The property was described as an “outstanding four-bedroom home” with “uninterrupted water views” of the South Pacific Ocean.
Ms Patterson was charged with three counts of murder and five counts of attempted murder this month.
Don and Gail Patterson and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson died after they ate a beef wellington dish cooked by Ms Patterson at her Leongatha home on July 29.
Heather’s husband Ian Wilkinson attended the lunch but miraculously survived.
Ms Patterson will return to court in May next year.
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