Erin Patterson: Accused triple-murder mushroom cook continues evidence after emotional day

An accused triple murderer will keep giving evidence to a jury after an emotional day discussing her life leading up to preparing a toxic mushroom dish.

Erin Patterson, 50, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder and one attempted murder charge over a poisonous beef Wellington lunch she made for her former husband’s family in July 2023.

Her former in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, 70, and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, 66, died in hospital days after eating the dish, while Ian Wilkinson was the only surviving guest.

Six weeks into her Supreme Court jury trial, in the town of Morwell about two hours’ drive southeast of Melbourne, she was called as the defence’s witness on Monday.

Ms Patterson at times became emotional as she described a “very traumatic” birth to her first child and again when she recalled the help her mother-in-law had provided in the aftermath.

“I remember being really relieved that Gail was there because I felt really out of my depth,” she told the jury.

“I had no idea what to do with a baby and I was not confident and she was really supportive and gentle and patient with me.”

She discussed how she was a “fundamental atheist” until she had a “spiritual experience” when she first went to church, which was on a trip to Korumburra to meet Simon’s family in the early 2000s.

Ms Patterson described attending Korumburra Baptist Church, where Ian Wilkinson was pastor, as “a religious experience” that “quite overwhelmed me”.

She also discussed some of her separations with Simon, which the jury was previously told happened several times from their marriage in 2007 until they separated in 2015.

The first separation happened while they were travelling across the north of Australia with their baby son in 2009 and she flew back to Perth while Simon drove home with their child.

“When we first started travelling, you know, we could time our long drives with these three-hour naps that he had,” she said.

“But by November, he was sitting up and crawling and trying to stand and not sleeping as much and it was a lot harder. I’d had a gutful.”

She and Simon had struggled with communication issues throughout their relationship and “could never communicate in a way that made each of us feel heard or understood”, Patterson said.

“So we would just feel hurt and not know how to resolve it,” she said.

In the months before the lunch, Patterson said she felt “more distance or space” between herself and his family and had concerns Simon was not wanting her to be involved with them as much.

Her evidence is continuing on Tuesday.