Uncovering Erin Patterson’s past: chequered work history and the mushroom murder trial
Erin Patterson was working as an air traffic controller when colleagues became concerned about her behaviour.
Erin Patterson abruptly left her job as an air traffic controller amid concern about her behaviour, treatment of colleagues and appearance, according to a former senior staff member.
The former colleague said Ms Patterson, then aged in her late 20s, also left Airservices Australia at the end of 2002 amid questions about possible financial wrongdoing.
Ms Patterson left the job not long before driving drunk and fleeing the scene of a car crash that led to a long-term licence ban.
The Airservices Australia colleague said Patterson, now 50, had been a talented member of staff tasked with working in the Southern Flight Information Region, based out of Melbourne.
However, she had left the organisation after concerns about her workplace behaviour, the former colleague who helped manage her said.
Airservices has confirmed that Patterson worked there from February 12, 2001, until November 28, 2002.
The court heard that Patterson had no criminal convictions, although The Australian revealed in 2023 that she had serious traffic convictions after a high-speed crash in which she fled the scene.
Patterson worked in the area that controlled airspace for all of southern Australia and was considered to have been bright but unpredictable, a former Airservices official said.
“She was good enough to do the job, but there were issues with her,’’ the former colleague said. “She was colourful. Smart, very smart. Almost too smart. She was no dummy.’’
The colleague said the mother of two had been trained at Melbourne Airport and had the skills to do the work but had been counselled about her presentation, which had included regularly wearing the same clothes to work.
At one stage while Patterson was doing the job she was deemed to be outspoken and the colleague said she would sometimes cry at work.
Patterson, he said, was working for Airservices at the same time that a colleague’s food was tampered with, but no evidence could be found to substantiate the suspicion that Patterson was involved.
The colleague, the source said, discovered a blade from a pencil sharpener in a banana.
“Again, no one could prove that, but she had a way about her that was off-putting,’’ he said.
Patterson did little paid work after she was married, having inherited about $3m, but she had also worked as an accountant, a part-time magazine editor in Korumburra and as an animal welfare officer at the City of Monash.
The Australian revealed in 2023 that Patterson was convicted of five charges after a high-speed drunken rampage at the wheel of an unregistered vehicle, fleeing the scene. The offending happened not long after she left Airservices.
She lost her licence for 30 months in 2004 after crashing the vehicle in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs while heavily intoxicated and then failing to stop. Court records showed she drove at 95km/h in a 60km/h zone.
Patterson, who was then Erin Trudi Scutter and aged 29, had five convictions recorded against her and was handed a $1000 aggregated fine at Dandenong Magistrates Court on September 7, 2004.
The formal charges she was convicted of were failing to stop a vehicle after an accident, failing to give a name or address after causing property damage, using an unregistered vehicle on a highway, failing to give her name or address when property was damaged, using an unregistered vehicle and driving at 95km/h in a 60km/h zone.
A sixth charge, which related to driving with a blood alcohol reading of 0.14 per cent, was struck out, probably because it was dealt with in another charge, according to a certified extract of the offending.
After fleeing the scene at Glen Waverley, Patterson submitted to a breath test within three hours, the court record shows, and posted a blood alcohol reading of 0.14 per cent.
This would have severely impaired her ability to drive at the time of the accident.
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