RECAP: Accused triple murdered Erin Patterson has described how she secretly disposed of a food dehydrator and kept information hidden from health authorities before changing phones.
thenightly.com.au
Patterson removed “mushroom and pastry” from Wellington leftovers to serve to kids
Ms Patterson said she and the kids stopped off at a doughnut truck on the drive home, claiming she did not eat.
Once home, the accused said she started to think about dinner for her children.
She explained that she did not feel like eating due to her diarrhea,
She told the court that she took the beef Wellington leftovers, a sixth unserved portion, out of the fridge, “removed the mushroom and the pastry”, heated it in the microwave and served it to her children.
‘We’ve been expecting you’: Patterson greeted at hospital
Ms Patterson said she called her ex-partner the Monday after the Saturday lunch to tell him she planned to go to the hospital as she still had diarrhoea.
The accused said she “wanted company” from Simon Patterson but was told he was “tired”.
Ms Patterson said that when she went to the hospital, she went to the toilet, then waited for someone to come out to see her.
When Dr Webster came out, Ms Patterson claimed he said: “I’m sorry there will be a bit of a wait. We have two really ill, or critically ill people here.”
Ms Patterson said she told the doctor that she just “had gastro” and was not urgent.
When she told the doctor her name, Ms Patterson claimed he replied, “We’ve been expecting you”, admitting she may be wrong in her recollection.
Patterson told hospital she needed to ‘do a few things’ before receiving urgent care
Ms Patterson said the medical staff told her she could have been exposed to “death cap mushrooms” and may need to be transported to Melbourne in an ambulance.
She claimed she told the medical staff she was “overwhelmed” after they asked her where she got the ingredients for her beef Wellington lunch from.
“I need to go home and do a few things before that happens,” she claimed she told medical staff, insisting that she leave and come back before being transported.
Ms Patterson said she thought her daughter had a ballet commitment that night, that she needed to feed her animals and put her “lambs away” to protect them from foxes.
She said she told the team she thought she could be back within 30 minutes.
Erin Patterson returns to witness box after giving bombshell evidence
Accused mushroom killer Erin Patterson is returning to the witness box after giving bombshell evidence about a “special” beef Wellington she prepared for her family, revealing she deviated from the recipe and added “dried mushrooms” from her pantry to her “bland” creation.
Ms Patterson revealed she ate two-thirds of an orange cake after the fatal lunch, a move that led her to visit the bathroom in secret to make herself sick and throw up the contents of her stomach.
Before the court adjourned for lunch, Ms Patterson explained that after eventually seeking medical help for her persistent diarrhea, she was told she needed to be transported by ambulance to Melbourne, something she delayed by around 30 minutes so she could go home to “do a few things”.
Follow our live coverage as Erin Patterson continues her bombshell evidence on what happened after serving up a fatal beef Wellington lunch to her family.
Erin Patterson tells police where the ‘leftovers’ are
Erin Patterson says after going home from hospital, she did “the things I needed to do” and then returned to the Leongatha Hospital where she got into a bed and waited to be assessed.
“The children came up,” Ms Patterson said, saying doctors wanted to know if they had consumed the beef Wellington.
She said she would have told them they had the leftovers, and said she explained she took the pastry and mushrooms off the leftovers, only serving them the “meat, potatoes and beans”.
Ms Patterson claimed she then spoke to police, telling them “the leftover they were after” had been put in the bin. She gave them the “gate code” and told them to check the inside and outdoor bins.
She also recalled a call from Matt Patterson, who was with Don Patterson, where she explained the mushrooms came from Woolworths and an Asian grocer.
‘Bring them to the hospital’: Kids collected after eating leftovers
Ms Patterson told the court how, at one point, when she was told her children should come to the hospital, she offered to collect them herself, however, doctors told her it was not a good idea.
Simon Patterson said he would collect the children, with Ms Patterson pleading with him to “please bring them to the hospital” that she was at.
Ms Patterson said she was told by doctors that although she “scraped” the mushrooms off the leftover, it was better to be “safe than sorry” and to have them assessed.
“It made sense to me,” Ms Patterson said.
Erin Patterson ‘loopy’ after ambulance ride fentanyl
Ms Patterson was transported from Leongatha to Monash Hospital in Melbourne.
During her ambulance ride, Ms Patterson said she became “loopy” after having fentanyl.
Ms Patterson recalled seeing her family at the Melbourne hospital before being put into a room.
By Tuesday, just over two days after the beef Wellington Lunch, the accused said she felt “a lot better”.
That’s when authorities started asking questions.
Patterson grilled on ‘where ingredients came from’
Ms Patterson, over the phone, told health authorities “the truth” about what she served for lunch and “where the ingredients came from”.
The accused told the court she would have said the mushrooms came from Woolworths and an Asian grocer, which she believed at the time was in the Oakleigh/ Clayton area.
Shortly after, Child Protection began asking Ms Patterson and Simon Patterson questions. Something that made her feel “very anxious”.
‘The lunch I served on Saturday might have made people unwell’
Ms Patterson said asked someone in hospital how everyone else was doing. She was told to “ask Simon”.
When she met with her children and ex-partner, they had a conversation about why they were in the hospital.
Ms Patterson told the court she explained: “There was a concern that the lunch I served on Saturday might have made people unwell.”
“I explained to her they had eaten the leftovers.”
Ms Patterson told her children she scraped the mushrooms off leftovers because her kids “didn’t like” them.
‘Is that how you poisoned my parents, using that dehydrator’
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.
Erin's admission: ‘I took the dehydrator to the tip’
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.”
Patterson withheld information from health authorities
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.
‘The new phone’: Why Erin Patterson changed numbers and phone
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.
Patterson reset phone to remove ‘dehydrator’ evidence
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)“.
Police didn’t take all devices from Erin Patterson’s home
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.
Patterson ‘hurt’ by ex’s ‘poor parenting’ accusation
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.
Patterson breaks down describing kids relationship with late grandparents
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.
Why Patterson didn’t end up changing her phone number
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.
Multiple laptops seen in photos, but court adjourns before answers
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.
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