11 minutes ago
Erin unpacks her arguments with Simon
She said Don reached out to her and told her it was an “oversight” and they really wanted her to come.
A follow up message the next day from Erin to Simon said: “I’m sorry for shouting at you this afternoon, I was feeling very hurt and lashed out. It’s no excuse. I’d like not to do that again.”
Simon sent a message apologising.
“Thanks for that. I’m sorry, I raised my voice and tone too,” he said.
“I wouldn’t call what either of us did shouting, but I’m sure we’re referring to the same thing, no matter what we call it. And I’m sorry for interrupting you too. I’d like to be more calm and listen better than I did yesterday.”
Erin tells the court she’d argued with Simon the day before when he came to pick up their daughter.
“I was really trying to get Simon to understand why I was hurt and he didn’t really want to talk about it at that time,” she said.
Erin said that was an example of how her and Simon resolved issues.
“I might feel hurt about something I didn’t communicate it very well. Simon maybe doesn’t get feelings so well, and would approach it more practically, and I would feel hurt and unheard, and then we’d be annoyed with each other for a day or two, and then we’d calm down and apologise,” she said.
“That was the how things flowed.”
10 minutes ago
'I was hurt': Erin's upset over Simon's child support payments
Mr Mandy has taken Erin to message exchanges with Simon about their finances in November 2022.
Erin had texted Simon about her child support application and forwarded him a medical bill for their son’s surgery which she asked him to pay.
Mr Mandy says Simon’s evidence was that he had told Erin the department of human services had told him not to pay for things like that due to how the child support payment structure.
Asked how she felt about this, Erin said: “I was hurt.”
“I understood what he was trying to communicate but I didn’t think what he was saying was right.
“But I was hurt … we’d never had any conflict over money that I could remember before this.”
The jury has taken a short break.
8 minutes ago
Erin hoped Don and Gail would help with marriage issues
The jury has returned from its break.
Mr Mandy asks about messages between Erin and Simon from December 2022.
He said Simon asks about a discussion Erin had with his parents the previous day about their son and finances for their children.
Asked why she invited his parents over, Erin tells the court: “I was struggling to achieve good communication with Simon about a few things, and I was wanting or hoping Don and Gail might help mediate that a little bit and helped us solve that problem.”
She said Don and Gail had helped mediate issues between them before.
4 minutes ago
Erin says in-laws 'didn’t want to become official mediators'
Asked what the issues with their son related to, Erin said he had been struggling at his school and they didn’t think it was the best place for him.
The financial issues related to school fees.
Mr Mandy said the messages suggested Simon had paid for school fees.
But after the child support issue, Erin tells the court Simon had wanted her to pay them.
In one of the messages, Simon suggests they could sort out the financial issues and he could organize a mediator.
When she met with Simon’s parents, Erin tells the court they offered to pay the school fees if money was an issue.
“That was their first response. But overridingly, they thought that Simon and I should settle the issue together but they didn’t want to become like official mediators,” she said.
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