‘I don’t know what happened’: Erin Patterson fights tears as court hears interview from her daughter
Accused mushroom cook killer Erin Patterson became teary as her daughter gave evidence about the lunch at the centre of her mum’s murder trial, with the jury also hearing she said “she was thinking of taking the kids on a cruise” when hospitalised.
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Accused mushroom cook killer Erin Patterson became emotional as her young daughter gave evidence about the lunch at the centre of her mum’s triple murder trial.
The mum of two is on trial in Morwell, accused of murdering her estranged husband’s parents, Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, along with Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, 66.
They died after she served them a beef wellington lunch allegedly laced with lethal death cap mushrooms at her Leongatha home on July 29, 2023.
Heather’s husband, pastor Ian Wilkinson, 71, was the only guest to survive.
Ms Patterson, 50, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder and one of attempted murder, claiming that what happened was “a tragedy and a terrible accident”.
In emotional scenes on Thursday, the evidence of Ms Patterson’s then-nine-year-old daughter, recorded in August 2023, was played to a Supreme Court jury.
Sitting on a blue couch, the little girl’s feet barely touched the ground.
The accused, sitting in the dock, appeared to fight back tears as the video started, reaching for and clutching a tissue.
When asked by the interviewer what they were there to talk about, the nine-year-old replied: “The lunch.”
“I wasn’t there so I don’t know what happened,” she added.
She told the interviewer the lunch was for the guests and her mum to talk about “adult stuff”.
“She said that she wanted to have lunch with Don, Gail, Heather and Ian,” she said.
The court heard she went to the cinema with her older brother and their friend on the day of the lunch, but remembered seeing food in the oven in the morning.
The nine-year-old said the night of the lunch she spent time with her dad, Simon, before returning to her mum’s home and playing on her tablet. She told the interviewer her mum started to feel sick the next day.
“She needed to go to the toilet a lot and she felt sick in the gut,” she said.
The interviewer asked: “How many times do you think she went to the toilet?”
She replied: “I saw her go like 10 times.”
When asked what they did the next day, she said they had played Monopoly.
“We were going to go to church, but mum was feeling too sick,” she said.
She told the interviewer her and her brother then had leftovers from the lunch, namely steak, mashed potato and green beans.
When asked to describe the plates at her mum’s home, she paused.
“They’re just round … plates,” she said, prompting a smile from her mum in the dock.
She said there was a black and red plate and “some white ones”.
“I think that’s all the colours we have,” she said.
Ian previously told the court the lunch guests ate off grey plates, while Ms Patterson ate off an “orangey-tan” plate.
The nine-year-old was also asked about her mum’s relationship with her dad.
The interviewer asked: “Are they just friends or are they like boyfriend and girlfriend?”
She replied: “They’re husband and wife.”
But she agreed they did not live together.
Earlier, Senior Constable Adrian Martinez-Villalobos told the court he attended Ms Patterson’s home to conduct a welfare check after she discharged herself against medical advice on July 31 at 8.10am.
Constable Martinez-Villalobos said he called Dr Chris Webster, who alerted police to her discharge, when he realised Ms Patterson was not there.
The court heard Dr Webster told Constable Martinez-Villalobos that she had re-presented at hospital by 9.50am and asked him to collect some of the “tainted food” for analysis.
After calling the accused, Constable Martinez-Villalobos found leftover beef wellington in a Woolworths bag in her waste bin outside.
Nurse Cindy Munro, who treated Ms Patterson at Leongatha Hospital, also gave evidence, saying she did not look unwell like Heather and Ian.
“I recall Ian being so unwell that he could barely lift his head off the pillow and Heather was a little bit unsteady on her feet, but Erin was sitting up in the bed, in the trolley, and she didn’t look unwell to me,” she said.
Paramedic Eleyne Spencer, who helped transfer Ms Patterson from Leongatha Hospital to Monash Medical Centre, told the court she was “chatty” during the journey.
“She was really calm and nonchalant,” she said.
Tanya Patterson, the wife of Don and Gail’s oldest son Matthew Patterson, said she visited the accused at Monash Medical Centre where she asked about the lunch guests.
“I told her things were going downhill quickly, but I didn’t have the latest information,” she said.
The court heard they also spoke about cruises because Tanya had just been on one.
“She was thinking of taking the kids on a cruise,” she said.
The trial, before Justice Christopher Beale, continues.
Originally published as ‘I don’t know what happened’: Erin Patterson fights tears as court hears interview from her daughter
Erin Patterson emotional in the dock as 9yo daughter gives evidence
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