Erin ‘never actually asked’ about condition of lunch guests after meal, court hears: Trial day three, as it happened

Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale has now concluded today’s proceedings by reminding jurors about the extensive media coverage of the case, and the fact they may come into contact with people over the weekend who know they are serving on the jury and will want to discuss the case.

“You have to shut that conversation down,” Beale said.

Erin Patterson and her estranged husband Simon Patterson.Credit: Jason South

Beale also reminded jurors that they should ignore any information about the case online, and in the media, and urged them to “switch off”, enjoy their weekend and come back to court refreshed next week.

Erin’s defence lawyer, Colin Mandy, SC, is now directing Simon to a series of messages on the Signal app between Erin and himself between December 6 and 16 in 2022.

Simon Patterson on Friday.Credit: Jason South

In the first message, Simon texts Erin about her request to meet with Don and Gail about how one of their children was coping, and child support issues.

Simon told the court that around that time Erin had sent a couple of inflammatory messages to Don and Gail in a family group chat.

“I’ve learned more about the financial stuff this week, and I think we can probably fairly easy sort that out along the lines of what you’ve been messaging to Mum and Dad,” Simon texted Erin the following day.

Simon told the court that Erin had been “extremely aggressive” about the issue and that he had suggested to use a mediator to resolve their issues.

“I could see that Erin and my’s communication about it… it wasn’t working. And, yeah, I guess, from my point of view, Erin was being extremely aggressive. And so I thought a mediator would probably help us communicate about it,” Simon told the jury.

“My understanding was I was going to be asked by child support to pay a certain number of dollars to Erin, and then she would be responsible for paying things like school fees and doctors’ fees, and that was based on the advice that I received from the child support people.”

The jury is now being shown text messages between Erin and Simon around the time of the beef Wellington lunch, including one the day after the gathering, when Erin told Simon she had been arguing with hospital staff at Leongatha about being taken to Dandenong Hospital.

“This doctor is not listening to me and being a bit mean about it,” she told Simon.

Simon told the jury that he had called Dandenong Hospital to inform them that he would take the children there for examination, but had instead been advised to send them to Monash Children’s Hospital.

“I knew Erin was going to Dandenong, so I remember having a bit of a crack. I remember struggling to find a way to encourage them to change their mind,” Simon told the jury.

They exchanged the following messages after the family visited Monash Medical Centre.

Simon: We’re waiting to get seen, no symptoms, which is encouraging. We’re keen to see how you’re going. The kids have had numbing cream put on their hands and arms, preparing for the blood test.

Erin: I feel nauseous and sore tummy but they gave me [medication]. I’m in a room somewhere and keen to see kids when I can. [One of the children] hates blood tests.

Simon: Sounds like you’re well looked after. Kids waiting for their tests. Not sure how long this will take.

Simon Patterson has talked at length about the members of his family during his two days of evidence in the trial of his estranged wife. Here’s a who’s who of the Patterson/Wilkinson clan.

After a short mid-morning break, the cross-examination of Simon Patterson, husband of accused murderer Erin Patterson, has resumed.

Erin’s defence lawyer, Colin Mandy, SC, is directing Simon to a document several pages long that contains a string of messages between him and Erin from November 22, 2022, to August 15, 2023.

In the first message on November 22, 2022, Erin asked Simon to pay an anaesthetist bill from their son’s surgery.

Erin: Can you please pay this? I paid a surgeon an out-of-pocket fee a couple of days ago.
Simon: Department of Human Services instructed me not to pay you anything for the kids from now on, so I cannot pay that, I’m afraid.

Erin responded that it wasn’t about paying her, but the anaesthetist.

Simon: That’s exactly the kind of thing they explicitly instructed me not to pay.

Simon said the department had told him not to pay for things he would have usually paid for, particularly school fees, to avoid paying twice.

“She was saying she’d seen other people, they end up double paying, and they get really upset, and it actually creates problems in the relationship. So it was on that basis,” Simon said.

Further text messages were also shown about pick-up arrangements for the children, play dates, flying lessons, and technicalities around running the livestream at church.

Colin Mandy, SC, is now showing Simon Patterson a series of messages on the Signal app between Erin Patterson and himself, dating back to mid-October 2022.

The conversation started around changing the times the children would stay with Simon, but quickly turned to his mother Gail’s 70th birthday celebrations, and whether Erin had been invited to come.

Gail Patterson.

Asked whether she would be attending, Erin said she had not received any information about the celebrations. “I might pass things as I’d rather not go somewhere I’m not welcome,” Erin texted Simon.

After discussing the issue over a series of texts, Erin said she felt “very hurt” about not being invited.
“And your response is to say, I’m being ridiculous,” she texted Simon.

I’m sorry I lashed out. I was feeling very hurt and lashed out. It’s no excuse. I’d like to not do that again

Simon responded: “You’re as far off the mark as you possibly could be on this, you already have the facts, however, of course, you’re free to choose to think whatever you want to despite them.”

Several hours after that initial message exchange, Simon said he understood why Erin was “mad” at him but asked her to consider Gail’s feelings. “I know they would love you to be there because they’ve been talking about this and losing sleep over this,” Simon said.

About an hour later, Erin messaged Simon again to apologise her remarks.

“I’m sorry I lashed out. I was feeling very hurt and lashed out. It’s no excuse. I’d like to not do that again,” she said.

Simon responded by apologising for raising his voice.

“I’m sorry I raised my voice and my tone, too. I wouldn’t call what either of us did shouting, but I’m sure we’re referring to the same thing, no matter what you call it,” he texted.

Simon told the jury the issue of the birthday invitation had caused a lot of anguish for his parents.

“Mum and Dad were really stressed about it. They had genuinely believed that they’d invited Erin to the lunch. I think they thought Dad had invited her to the lunch. That’s what happened,” Simon said.

He said the conversation had occurred around the time that he and Erin had been discussing child support arrangements following changes to his tax return status.

The jury heard that at the time, there was a lot of tension between Simon and Erin, and between Erin and Simon’s parents, Don and Gail.

Colin Mandy, SC, is now asking Simon about his conversations with Erin following the deadly lunch and about her discharging herself against medical advice when she attended Leongatha Hospital. She wanted to pick her children up from school, the jury heard.

The jury heard she had a history of discharging herself against medical advice. “Erin hates hospitals,” Simon said.

Erin Patterson and Simon Patterson.Credit: Jason South

Simon mentioned that there were some sensitivities regarding how to deal with their children and hospitals due to prior negative experiences. This included an instance where one of the children had a tube inserted up their nose, and another where the wrong knee was scanned for the other child.

The jury heard Erin wanted to collect the children from school herself to avoid scaring them.

When asked if he had told Erin about the condition of the four in hospital, Simon said it was possible he may not have told her about Ian and Heather.

“It intrigued me that she never actually asked,” he said.

Erin Patterson’s defence lawyer Colin Mandy, SC, is now asking Simon about a conversation he had with his father, Don, at the hospital the day after the beef Wellington lunch on July 29, 2023, where he first told Simon about Erin’s cancer diagnosis.

Mandy is asking Simon whether his father said the cancer diagnosis was a possibility and not a certainty. At that point, Don Patterson had been in pain, awake, and distressed physically for about 12 hours.

Simon Patterson on Friday.Credit: Jason South

Simon said he had come out of that conversation believing that Erin had had a diagnosis of cancer, or at least that she told Don she had received a diagnosis of cancer.

“Miscommunications happen. It’s possible I’ve misunderstood everything you’ve said so far, and you’ve misunderstood me as well. But I don’t think we probably have. And so to me, that’s the flying teapot end of possibility,” Simon said, following repeated questioning from Mandy.

Award-winning Age and Sydney Morning Herald photographer Jason South is in Morwell for the third day of Erin Patterson’s murder trial. Here’s some of the photographs he took this morning:

Simon Patterson on Friday.Credit: Jason South

Simon Patterson with family spokeswoman Jessica O’Donnell.Credit: Jason South

Erin Patterson’s defence lawyer, Colin Mandy SC, has quickly moved from the emotional footage to a line of questioning involving his client’s medical issues.

Mandy is suggesting to Simon that he did not use the words “important” or “serious” to describe those medical issues that Erin had told him she was suffering from and that were the reason for the lunch on July 29, 2023, when he gave his first statement to the police.

Simon read part of his original statement to the police in August 2023, which said: “Erin told me that the purpose of the lunch was to discuss some medical issues she had, and to get advice about how to break it to the kids.”

Erin Patterson is on trial for triple murder and attempted murder.Credit: The Age

Simon said he did not know what the medical issue was at the time.

The jury heard that Erin had struggled with multiple health issues over the years, including an arrhythmia of the heart that required her to be hospitalised a number of times and affected her sleep. She also struggled with postnatal depression after the birth of her first child.

“She struggled a lot with mental illness, both postnatal depression, especially after [the first child] was born, and I believe that was real,” Simon said.

Simon said Erin had also been told she may have suffered from another illness, but was unsure about whether it was chronic fatigue, lupus, motor neurone disease, or multiple sclerosis.

He said Erin had never told him that she had ovarian cancer.