Erin Patterson trial: Video evidence of mushroom cook’s children played to jury
The teenage son of alleged mushroom poisoner Erin Patterson made a tragic claim about his parents to police, a jury has been told.
Erin Patterson’s son has detailed a “very negative” shift in his parents’ relationship ahead of the fatal lunch, in evidence to police played in court on Friday.
Ms Patterson is accused of deliberately poisoning four family members, three of whom died, with a beef Wellington lunch spiked with death cap mushrooms on July 29, 2023, at her home in a small Victorian dairy town.
She has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder, arguing the poisonings were an accident.
As her son’s police interview was played in court, the mother-of-two appeared glassy eyed and trying to hold back tears.
The 14-year-old boy said he knew his dad didn’t like Ms Patterson changing the boy’s school, and wanted to be on the paperwork for his new school.
“Dad wouldn’t talk to mum about that,” he said.
He told the interviewer he and his sister had previously been staying with Simon Patterson after school Friday through to Monday and with Ms Patterson from Monday evening though to Friday morning.
But in the past year they had only stayed at Ms Patterson’s home, by choice.
“For the past year we’ve been living at mum’s, sleeping at mum’s, for the last year he’s trying to get me and (sister) to stay at his... but I didn’t really want to,” he said.
“I told him I really didn’t want to because he never did anything with us over the weekend.”
‘Lego’: Mushroom cook’s after-lunch activity
Ms Patterson’s son also told police in the interview played to the jury that he saw his mother building Lego hours after serving a deadly meal to four in-laws.
Video of her son’s interview with a police officer at Morwell Police Station just weeks after the lunch, was played to the jury on Friday.
Seated in the same blue chair his younger sister was interviewed in, the 14-year-old boy said he wasn’t present during the lunch, instead watching the movie Elemental in nearby Korumburra.
After coming back home about 3pm, he said he spoke with his grandfather Don about flying lessons he was taking before going to play videogames with a friend.
Later that evening, he said he approached his mother upstairs to give his friend a lift home where she was “building Lego”.
Son helped mushroom cook clean up after lunch
The boy told police he arrived home about 30 minutes before Don, Gail, Ian and Heather left, chatting around the dining table.
He agreed it appeared the group had a good time and he spoke with his grandfather, Don, about his flying lessons.
After they said their goodbyes, the boy said he helped Ms Patterson clean up from lunch.
“I remember taking some plates up to the sink and putting them in the dishwasher,” he said.
“I collected all the plates put them in a pile next to the sink... I collected all the glasses put them near the sink.”
He said he did not recall any remnants of food on the plates, which he believed were “plain white” dinner plates about 15cm in diameter.
Asked if he thought they were all the same, the boy agreed.
‘She was playing it down’: Mum was sick morning after lunch, son says
The boy said he woke the following morning to see Ms Patterson drinking coffee at the dining room table.
“Mum said she was feeling a bit sick and, um, had diarrhoea.... she said she woke a few times through the night to go to the toilet,” he said.
“She wasn’t feeling well she said she was feeling dizzy.”
He said she was quieter than normal and he felt she was “playing it down”.
He told the police officer they skipped church that morning because Ms Patterson didn’t want to spread it to parishioners, but she was adamant he could go to his flying lesson that afternoon.
“About 11.30am I came out to mum ask if she’s still ok for the flying lesson, just assure her it was ok if we didn’t go,” he said.
That afternoon, the teenager told police they drove about an hour to Tyabb for his flying lesson, but it was cancelled due to weather a short time before they arrived.
He said they didn’t stop to use a bathroom on the way there or back, but Ms Patterson “raced” to the front door when they arrived home.
Children were pulled out of school on August 1: Son
On the Monday after the lunch, Ms Patterson’s son told police he and his younger sister were pulled out of school by their father and taken to the Monash Children’s Hospital in Melbourne.
He said he visited Ms Patterson in hospital and had three blood tests over Monday and Tuesday before being sent home.
He told the interviewer he did not feel sick.
“In the end it was nothing,” he said.
“Then we just stayed with mum and went back to school on Wednesday.”
‘Mum told me’: Mushroom cook’s dinner plans
When the video resumed in court on Friday, the young girl told her interviewer she was served “leftovers” for dinner the following night.
“How did you know it was leftovers?” the interviewer asked.
“Mum told me,” the girl responded.
“I remember I was asking what we were having that night. She said she was making leftovers from yesterday’s lunch.”
Prosecutors allege the children’s meal was not contaminated with death cap mushrooms.
The girl told police Ms Patterson loved to cook and she would often help to bake sweet treats.
Child of mushroom cook speaks to police
About 30 minutes of the video, showing the child seated on a blue couch across from an interviewer, was displayed in the Latrobe Valley courthouse on Thursday afternoon.
In the video, the girl is asked by a male police officer if she knows what they’re going to discuss.
“The lunch,” she replies.
“I wasn’t there so I don’t know what happened.”
As the video played, Ms Patterson appeared emotional, her face appearing to quiver and she could be seen to wipe her nose with a tissue at one point.
The nine-year-old told her interviewer her mum told her she would be going to see a movie with her older brother and another boy the morning of the lunch.
She said she saw “meat” in the oven and Ms Patterson was making a coffee as she explained she wanted to have lunch with her in-laws to discuss “adult stuff”.
“I don’t exactly know what they had but I know (brother) and me had leftovers the next day,” she said.
The young girl said she went to the cinema around midday on July 29, had McDonald’s for lunch and was picked up by her dad Simon Patterson, whom she spent the evening with.
The following morning the girl said Ms Patterson told her she had diarrhoea and her “tummy felt sore”.
“She just needed to go to the toilet a lot and she felt sick,” she said.
“We were going to go to church but mum was too sick.”
Later that night, the girl said Ms Patterson told them they were having “leftovers” with meat, mashed potato and green beans served.
“She wasn't really hungry so (brother) ate the rest of hers,” she said.
The interviewer questioned how she knew this, with the girl responding; “she told us”.
Mr Patterson’s parents, Don and Gail Patterson, and his aunt and uncle, Heather and Ian Wilkinson, fell ill after Ms Patterson served a beef Wellington dish at lunch on July 29, 2023.
Don, Gail and Ms Wilkinson died in hospital within a week, while Ian recovered after more than a month and a half in hospital.
At the start of the trial, Ms Patterson’s lawyer Colin Mandy SC said it was not disputed the meal contained death cap mushrooms but asserted his client did not intentionally nor deliberately poisoned the dish.
“The defence case is that what happened was a tragedy, a terrible accident,” he said.
The trial, before Justice Christopher Beale, continues.