Patterson ‘threw party’ night before arrest
Erin Patterson made a bold move the night before she was arrested — in her final taste of freedom before being locked up.
Erin Patterson reportedly threw a party the night before she was arrested — her final taste of freedom before being locked up.
The Daily Mail reports that on the evening of Wednesday, November 1, 2023, Patterson held a knees-up at her Leongatha, rural Victoria, property for a group of friends, believed to be her four closest female mates.
Her closest ally, social worker Alison Rose Prior, and other members of her then-dwindling inner circle were in attendance, according to the report.
The party is understood to have included Patterson’s two children, a girl and a boy. It was all noticed by neighbours, who speculated Patterson threw the party in the knowledge that charges were imminent.
Doctor in Patterson trial faces losing his job
The doctor who alerted police to Erin Patterson has been vocal about what he thought of the triple murderer, making headlines for describing her as “crazy b**ch” and “disturbed sociopathic nut bag” in the days after her conviction.
But now Dr Chris Webster reportedly faces the prospect of losing his job.— as he has engaged a lawyer and stopped giving media interviews after his clinic received formal complaints.
Patterson was found guilty of three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder on Monday over a beef Wellington lunch she served at her Leongatha home on July 29, 2023.
Her estranged husband’s parents, Don and Gail Patterson, and his aunt and uncle, Heather and Ian Wilkinson, all fell critically ill after the lunch. Don, Gail and Heather died of multiple organ failure caused by death cap mushroom poisoning.
Dr Webster, a doctor at Leongatha Hospital who initially treated Ian and Heather, told the Herald Sun that he knew Erin Patterson was a calculated murderer when she told him the mushrooms in the meal were from Woolworths.
“If she said she picked them, it would have been a very different mindset for me because there would have been an instant assumption it was all a tragic accident,” he said.
“But once she said that answer, my thoughts were, ‘holy f**king shit, you f**king did it, you crazy b**ch, you poisoned them all’.
“The turning point for me was that moment.”
In the candid interview after testifying, which was published by the newspaper on Tuesday, Dr Webster said Patterson was a “disturbed sociopathic nut bag”.
Dr Webster also gave on-camera interviews recalling the interaction to ABC News and Nine News where he described her as “evil”. His perspective even made it to England after an interview with the BBC.
But Dr Webster said Thursday that he would now need to take a step back from the media after receiving formal complaints. It was reported he had been accused of being a misogynist, which he strongly denied.
“I stand by what I’ve done, this is very important. I’m happy to do all the media but it’s become all too much now and I have engaged a lawyer and now gagged from any future media (in the short term),” he told the Daily Mail Australia.
“It’s one thing copping these accusations on social media and Instagram but now it’s formal complaints. I need to get home and back to work and sort this out, and once things are sorted I will speak again.”
He said one of the complaints “referred to Patterson as a ‘patient of mine’, not as a convicted killer”.
news.com.au has attempted to get in touch with Dr Webster via his clinic.
Patterson discharged herself from hospital
Each of the lunch guests on July 29, 2023 were in hospital the morning of July 30 and their conditions continued to deteriorate to the point the quartet were on life support and in induced comas by August 1.
Patterson meanwhile, said she was suffering regular diarrhoea but drove her son to a flying lesson in Tyabb – a more than two hour round trip – in the afternoon of July 30.
She attended Leongatha Hospital the following day, where she was told by Dr Webster that doctors suspected death cap poisoning in the other guests and she needed immediate treatment.
Patterson discharged herself against medical advice about five minutes after arriving and returned an hour and 38 minutes later when she was admitted.
She told the jury she attended thinking she had gastro and was not prepared to be admitted but returned after sorting a few things out at home.
Patterson was taken to hospital in Melbourne, alongside her two children who she claimed to have served leftovers with the pastry and mushrooms scrapped off for dinner on July 30.
The trio were discharged the following day on August 1 and returned home.
Heather and Gail both died on August 4 and Don died the following day.
Prosecutors argued the only reasonable explanation for what happened is Patterson knowingly seeking out death cap mushrooms and including them in the lunch on July 29, intending to kill her or seriously injure her guests.
Her defence, on the other hand, argued Patterson accidentally included the deadly mushrooms and acted poorly out of panic she would be wrongly blamed.
Mushroom cook found guilty
Jurors took seven days to return unanimous verdicts, finding Erin Patterson guilty of three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder in the country Victorian town of Morwell on Monday.
Patterson appeared in court dressed in a paisley top, and appeared nervous as the packed courtroom waited for the verdict to be read out.
She tried to meet the eyes of the jurors as they entered the room about 2.16pm, but not one met her gaze.
She remained expressionless as the forewoman softly said “guilty” in response to each charge.
Members of the Patterson and Wilkinson families were absent during the hearing despite attending every day of the trial, which began in late April.
Outside the court, about 200 people were gathered.
Throughout a trial lasting more than two months, Patterson maintained the beef-and-pastry dish was accidentally poisoned with death cap mushrooms, the world’s most lethal fungus.
The court will soon set a date for a sentencing hearing to determine the length of Patterson’s jail term.
Her legal team has 28 days after sentencing to appeal both her criminal convictions and her sentence.
Patterson’s lawyers have not yet indicated whether they will appeal.
– with Chantelle Francis and Liam Beatty