Mushroom cook Erin Patterson sent ‘inflammatory’ message on family group chat before deadly lunch, court told
Simon Patterson has denied quizzing Erin Patterson about using a food dehydrator to poison his family while she was in hospital.
Simon Patterson ended his evidence on Monday by staying in the court he never wanted to be in.
Around midday, Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale looked in Mr Patterson’s direction and uttered the words he had been wanting to hear since last Thursday.
“That completes your evidence, Mr Patterson,’’ Justice Beale told him.
Rather than leaving the scene, Mr Patterson moved to the front of the public gallery, behind the prosecution and next to the police informant.
After lunch, he remained in the court but a seat behind, used by family, friends and others.
There are not many seats for the public where Gippsland’s trial of the century is being held and his morning evidence in front of the jury continued the theme of Simon and Erin Patterson not getting on as well after 2022.
Colin Mandy SC, for the accused, again quizzed Mr Patterson about messages between him and Ms Patterson, much of it on the encrypted platform Signal.
The question for a time was whether or not Ms Patterson had been aggressive in any of her messages. After Mr Mandy produced a series of examples of messages between the two at the end of 2022, Mr Patterson told the court none of them related to his concerns about what she had allegedly said.
Under questioning from Nanette Rogers SC, for the prosecution, Mr Patterson complained about what he told the court was Ms Patterson’s reactions to his concerns about one of their child’s tiredness.
He told the court Ms Patterson had responded strongly to him in a group chat that included his mother Gail and father Don.
“I messaged Erin a couple of times asking her to try to help him get to bed earlier and she messaged the group chat about that, and that is the message I had in mind which was extremely inflammatory,” he said. “It was having a crack at me and accusing me of some things, in response to what I’d messaged her about.’’
Roughly two years later, he told the court, he hadn’t got over the exchange, although the message was not read out in court.
“I am still upset about that,’’ he said.
The court also heard the alleged outline of a conversation between Mr Patterson and his estranged wife at a Melbourne hospital, where Ms Patterson was under observation after the meal that caused three people to die.
Mr Mandy suggested to Mr Patterson that he had asked Ms Patterson whether she used a dehydrator to poison his family members, when the children weren’t in the room.
“I did not say that to Erin,” Mr Patterson replied firmly in front of the jury.
The court also heard evidence of a dispute, or discussions, over education arrangements for one of the children, as well as the payment of school fees.
The court has previously heard about a dispute at the end of 2022 that was allegedly triggered by changes to the way Mr Patterson’s marital status was recorded for the tax office.
Mr Patterson denied that when he was at the hospital with Ms Patterson and their children that he had kept the accused under constant surveillance.
“That’s not my style,’’ he told the court.
The case is continuing.
