Erin Patterson has pleaded not guilty to four charges – three of murder and one of attempted murder – over the beef wellington lunch at her regional Victorian house in July 2023.
It is now the defence’s turn to call witnesses, and first up was Ms Patterson herself.
After detailing a brief period of separation between the couple when their first child was an infant, Erin Patterson told the court that she and Simon Patterson struggled to work out their disagreements.
When he was ready to go home, Ms Patterson said she discharged herself from hospital against medical advice as she didn’t want to remain there alone.
Ms Patterson gave less than an hour of evidence before court broke up for the day, and will return to resume her testimony on Tuesday.
The Australian woman who is on trial for allegedly using a poisonous mushroom meal to kill three family members and seriously hurt another has taken the witness stand.
Due to the beef Wellington lunch at her regional Victorian home in July 2023, Erin Patterson entered a not guilty plea to four charges, including three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.
The prosecution contends that she lied to police and destroyed evidence after purposefully searching out and cooking death cap mushrooms for her family.
The defense, however, contends that Patterson “panicked” after inadvertently giving poison to loved ones.
Gail Patterson, 70, and Don Patterson, 70, Ms. Patterson’s former in-laws, as well as Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, 66, passed away in the hospital in the days following the meal.
After weeks of hospital treatment, one lunch guest—local pastor Ian Wilkinson—lived.
More than 50 witnesses, including Ian, the surviving lunch guest, and Simon, Ms. Patterson’s estranged husband, were called by the prosecution to testify before the Victorian Supreme Court jury over the course of six weeks.
Now that the defense has a chance to call witnesses, Ms. Patterson was the first to do so.
The 50-year-old admitted to the court that she had been feeling for a few months by 2023 that her relationship with the Patterson family as a whole, and Don and Gail in particular, had possibly become a little more distant or spaced out.
“We saw each other less,” she claims.
“I started to worry that Simon didn’t want me interacting with the family too much any longer. “..”.
Erin Patterson described a brief time when she and Simon Patterson were apart, when their first child was a baby, and how difficult it was for them to resolve their differences.
“If there were any issues at all, it was that we were unable to effectively communicate when we disagreed on something,” she stated.
Simply put, we would be offended and unsure of how to handle it. “.”.
In 2009, less than a year before the couple’s first breakup, she also disclosed to the court the traumatic birth of her first child.
She said, “They lost his heartbeat and he started to go into distress.”.
She choked as she described how doctors had to perform an emergency caesarean to get her son out as soon as possible.
Ms. Patterson claimed that she discharging herself from the hospital against medical advice because she didn’t want to stay there alone when he was ready to leave.
In the days following the fatal lunch, Ms. Patterson discharged herself from the hospital against medical advice, which the jury has been told was proof that she was not ill, according to the prosecution.
In his opening remarks, however, her lawyer Colin Mandy claimed that she had done so multiple times throughout her life.
After less than an hour of testimony, the court adjourned for the day. Ms. Patterson will return on Tuesday to continue her testimony.
