Erin Patterson evidence recap: Accused mushroom killer’s dehydrator admission after beef Wellington lunch

Ms Patterson said she had “two” Acer laptops in her home and a “very old” laptop, a Lenovo ThinkPad, that was kept in a “tub in the garage”.

The accused was shown a photo that showed the laptops not in their usual place on an occasion.

Ms Patterson went on to explain that she would get a skip brought to her home “every year” to do a clean out.

At that point, the defence asked for Ms Patterson’s remaining evidence to be carried over until Thursday, with approximately 15 minutes of additional evidence to be given then.

Ms Patterson said that after a police interview, following her hospital stay after the fatal beef Wellington lunch, she realised police had not collected one of her phones.

The phone, she said, was damaged, so she transferred it over to a Nokia device and “abandoned” attempts to change her number.

“As of Sunday evening (8 days after the lunch), when child protection became more involved, it became clear Simon would have to contact me,” she told the court.

Ms Patterson was shown a quantity of messages in a group chat with her family, something that made her emotional.

She explained she had a “good” relationship with Don and Gail Patterson, something that then changed when her message began to show “tension” due to ongoing mediation issues.

Ms Patterson also gave evidence on “wonderful” tutoring sessions her in-law, Don, gave her son to help him “keep up” at school.

Ms Patterson said her children were “very close” with their grandparents, breaking down in tears as she gave the evidence.

The defence has jumped back a bit.

Erin Patterson has been asked to respond to evidence her ex-partner, Simon Patterson, gave about an “extremely aggressive” message she sent to the family around mediation.

Ms Patterson recalled, “he was upset with me” about a child being very tired.

“He suggested it was due to my poor parenting. I was very hurt by that.”

Ms Patterson said she sent it “just as a reply” to her ex-partner, disputing his claim it was shared with family in a group message.

The accused was about a collective of messages in a group chat, which included Don and Gail Patterson, and was asked if she was rude, to which she replied “no”.

Ms Patterson went on to explain a complex interchange of phone possession between her and her children. She took phones her sons had used.

“I wanted to change my phone number so Simon couldn’t contact me anymore,” she told the court, which was talking about a time around a week after the fatal lunch.

She admitted police took some devices from her home, while she clandestinely kept possession of other devices.

Erin Patterson told the court that she attempted to hide evidence from detectives by resetting a phone.

Ms Patterson said she knew “photos of the dehydrator” were on one of her devices, so she “reset” the phone to destroy the image.

“The detectives,” she said, “I didn’t want them to see them (the photos)“.

Ms Patterson told the court she then commenced conversations about changing her number and swapping from a damaged phone to an undamaged phone.

She explained she wanted to change her number as she had “security” concerns over Simon Patterson’s alleged behaviour towards her.

“I had been setting up the applications for my accounts on the new phone,” she said.

Then she explained she conducted a number of “factory resets” of the devices, one of which had been used by her son.

Ms Patterson said she did not tell health authorities about the dehydrator.

She also did not tell health authorities that “supermarket ingredients” were probably not responsible for the illnesses after her beef Wellington lunch.

She said she felt “scared” and withheld information.

She had shared information about the Asian grocer, but didn’t share that she “knew it wasn’t the only possibility”, as she feared foraged mushrooms had made it into her lunch.

Ms Patterson said she felt “scared” and “responsible” after realising death cap mushrooms could have made their way into her beef Wellington lunch from either an Asian grocer or from foraged mushrooms.

Ms Patterson dropped her kids off at school before she went to dispose of key evidence.

“I took the dehydrator to the tip,” Ms Patterson admitted.

“Child protection were coming to my house.

“I was scared of the conversation that might flow.

“I was scared they were going to blame me… for making everyone sick

“I was scared they would remove the children.”

While discussing mushroom, concersation turned to Erin Patterson’s dehydrator.

“Is that how you poisoned my parents, using that dehydrator?” Ms Patterson claimed Simon Patterson asked.

“I said Of course not”

That’s when Ms Patterson said she worried “what if” death cap mushrooms “got in the container”

“Maybe that happened,” she said.

“Maybe that’s how this all….” she said.