Accused killer Erin Patterson is in the witness box giving evidence in her triple murder trial. She has pleaded not guilty to three charges of murder and one of attempted murder.
www.theage.com.au
10.41am
Erin Patterson denies lying in her evidence
By
Accused killer Erin Patterson, dressed in a paisley top and black pants, has returned to the Supreme Court witness box to continue her evidence.
Crown prosecutor Dr Nanette Rogers, SC, has resumed her cross-examination by asking Patterson about evidence she gave on Friday about a pre-surgery appointment for a gastric bypass booked in for September 2023 at the Enrich Clinic in Melbourne.
Rogers has put to Patterson that the clinic she booked an appointment at does not offer bypass surgery.
“I don’t know, I am a bit puzzled,” Patterson replied.
“Well, that was ... I had an appointment with that and that’s what my memory was that the appointment was for.”
Patterson said the appointment was for weight-related reasons. She said she had also been looking at liposuction.
Asked by Rogers whether she had lied in her evidence on Friday, Patterson responded: “That was not a lie, that’s what my memory was.”
10.56am
Patterson says she can’t recall visiting website that logged death caps
By
Erin Patterson’s demeanour appears flat as she sits in the witness box at the start of week seven of her murder trial. She is wearing reading glasses as the prosecution shows her records from the iNaturalist website.
Prosecutor Nanette Rogers, SC, is asking Patterson about a series of searches of the iNaturalist website in May 2022 retrieved from a computer seized by police from her home in Leongatha in 2023.
Among those, the court has heard, was one for an observation of death cap mushrooms in a reserve in Moorabbin, posted by another user on May 18, 2022 and accessed on Patterson’s computer 10 days later, on May 28, 2022.
Asked by Rogers about her use and familiarity with the website, Patterson said she could not remember ever visiting the site.
Patterson said her interest in death cap mushrooms was about whether they “lived” in South Gippsland.
11.03am
Prosecutor asks accused about accessing website while in pub
By
Prosecutor Nanette Rogers, SC, is asking Erin Patterson whether she accessed the iNaturalist website while the accused was in a pub in Korumburra. Here is part of their exchange:
Rogers said there were receipts from the Korumburra Middle Pub for an order, and links to Patterson’s name and phone number.
Asked by Rogers whether she had purchased the order, Patterson said: “The food was paid for.”
“I don’t remember if it was me,” Patterson added.
11.11am
How Patterson says she served the beef Wellington to her lunch guests
By
Prosecutor Nanette Rogers, SC, is asking accused killer Erin Patterson about the fatal lunch on July 29, 2023, and the allocation of meals at the time.
Patterson’s evidence is that she plated the individual beef Wellingtons on the island bench on five separate plates, while two of her guests, Don Patterson and Ian Wilkinson, were at the side of the table near a bookshelf.
From left: Don Patterson, Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson died after ingesting poisonous mushrooms. Ian Wilkinson (right) survived after spending months in hospital.
Rogers has reminded Patterson of evidence given earlier by the trial by Wilkinson, when he described Patterson serving the food to her four guests on four large grey dinner plates. Wilkinson told the court Patterson ate from a smaller orange-tan plate.
The prosecutor has today suggested to Patterson that she lied during her evidence about her dinner plates, which she said comprised two white plates, two black plates, a red and black plate, and a plate with kindergarten drawings.
12.29pm
The bathroom visits and how much information the accused shared with estranged husband
By
Following a brief mid-morning break, prosecutor Dr Nanette Rogers, SC, has resumed her cross-examination of Erin Patterson by asking the accused about her son’s evidence earlier in the trial.
In his evidence, the boy said that about 11am or 11.30am on July 30, 2023 – the day after the fatal lunch – he stopped playing computer games and told Patterson they did not have to go to his flying lesson, but Patterson insisted they go.
“I was pretty keen to take him, yeah,” Patterson told the court.
“There was no usual time of the lesson, but we would usually leave 90 minutes before the lesson.”
Patterson said it would usually take about 70 minutes to get to the location of the flying lessons, but the children would usually ask to stop along the way for food so she allowed 90 minutes to drive there.
Prosecutor Nanette Rogers, SC, on Tuesday.Credit: Jason South
Rogers has taken Patterson to evidence by her estranged husband Simon Patterson, that the accused reported experiencing diarrhoea symptoms on the Saturday evening in the hours after the lunch, which made it difficult to drive her son’s friend back to his home.
Patterson said that at that point she had experienced some “loose bowel movements”.
She said she could not remember telling Simon that she was worried about getting out of the car when she drove her son’s friend home, and took her son to a Subway store that night in case she had an accident.
Asked by Rogers whether she had told Simon she needed to go to the bathroom every 20 minutes or so, Patterson said she could not remember specifically sharing that information, but she might have.
“I might have said that was happening at its worst. But I can’t remember specifically,” Patterson told the jury.
Patterson said she couldn’t remember telling Simon her diarrhoea began in the afternoon after the lunch.
“I would have said that the diarrhoea continued through the night,” Patterson said.
“I did not tell him I was afraid I’d poo my pants.”
12.46pm
‘I definitely was grumpy’: Patterson’s frustration with flying instructor on day after lunch
By
Erin Patterson is being asked by prosecutor Nanette Rogers, SC, about evidence her son gave earlier in the trial, in which he said that his mother didn’t need to stop to use the toilet during their drive to the boy’s flying lesson on the day after the fatal lunch.
Rogers is asking Patterson about a phone conversation on July 30, 2023 that the accused had with her son’s flying instructor as the mother and son drove to his flying lesson. The instructor rang to say the lesson would be cancelled due to bad weather, the trial heard.
“I definitely was grumpy,” Patterson told the jury.
She said she had experienced similar issues over the preceding months, where she would get a phone call from the instructor cancelling a lesson about five or 10 minutes before it was scheduled, when she and her son were already an hour into the drive to Tyabb.
“They had been doing that for a while,” Patterson said.
A court sketch of Erin Patterson last week.Credit: Anita Lester
Patterson said that she told the instructor in an earlier phone call that Sunday – the day after the lunch – to please call the lesson off as early as possible.
“I got a call 10 minutes before the lesson, so I was a bit frustrated,” Patterson said.
She said she probably shared that frustration with the flying instructor.
Asked about evidence from her son that they stopped at a doughnut van for a coffee during the return trip to Leongatha, Patterson said she stayed in the car while both her children got out.
Patterson told the jury she thought she had “a little bit” of the coffee and likely threw the rest out when she arrived home.
12.58pm
‘Were you the chef?’ Seeing the doctor in the days after the lunch
By
Erin Patterson attended Leongatha Hospital on a Monday morning on July 31, 2023 – two days after the lunch – and prosecutor Nanette Rogers, SC, is now asking the accused woman about that visit.
Patterson agreed she presented to the urgent care centre shortly after 8am and Dr Chris Webster came to the door.
She told the jury she did not remember ringing the doorbell before being led inside and “squatting against the wall”.
Dr Chris Webster outside court on May 7.Credit: Jason South
Patterson agreed with Webster’s evidence from earlier in the trial that he apologised for keeping her waiting and asked for her name. But she said she couldn’t remember the doctor asking where she had purchased the mushrooms from.
Patterson said her recollection was that when she told Webster her name, he “immediately communicated that it meant something” to him.
“He recognised who Erin Patterson is and brought me through the doors. I remember him saying to me something like, ‘Were you the chef? Were you the host?’ And he either asked me what I’d made or asked me ... I remember him saying to me, ‘Did you make the beef Wellingtons or buy them pre-made?’” Patterson said.
“And that stuck in my memory because I didn’t know you could buy them pre-made, and I said I’d made them. My memory is he asked, ‘Where did you get the ingredients from for the beef Wellington?’ And my answer was Woolworths.”
Rogers asked the accused about evidence Webster gave that Patterson did not ask any questions after he communicated he was concerned the lunch attendees had ingested death cap mushrooms. Patterson told the jury she had asked a couple of questions, but the doctor hadn’t answered them.
“I asked him a question or two and he was very busy, and he walked off to do other things, left me with the nurse. I remember saying to him at the very least, ‘Why do you think we’ve eaten death cap mushrooms?’” she said.
Patterson said that after she discharged herself from the hospital, she tried to return three phone calls from Webster at least twice but could not get through to the hospital.
“I tried to respond twice. Sometime after his last phone call to me and before I went back to the hospital,” she said.
1.11pm
An eye roll and a shrug when questions turn to nurse’s evidence
By
Erin Patterson rolled her eyes while seated in the witness box when prosecutor Nanette Rogers, SC, said she would read to the court evidence from Leongatha Hospital nurse Kylie Ashton.
Patterson then closed her eyes and huffed when pressed if she said she told Ashton she wasn’t prepared to be admitted to hospital soon after she arrived.
Moments later, Patterson shrugged when asked if Ashton told her she wanted the mother of two to stay in hospital for her own health and safety.
“I don’t remember her using those words,” Patterson told the jury.
Patterson told the court she remembered feeling “a little bit anxious” because medical staff were communicating to her that they couldn’t tell her what was going on with the other people who had been at the lunch.
Patterson said no one had advised her to attend the hospital. She agreed she had told Ashton she didn’t want to go into a bay because she had not come prepared to stay overnight.
The accused said she was told that medical staff wanted to transfer her to Monash Medical Centre. But she said she didn’t know whether it was Ashton or Dr Chris Webster who told her.
Patterson told the jury she couldn’t remember having a conversation with Ashton about her children.
She agreed she had told the nurse that she would return to the hospital, but said she did not give Ashton a specific time as to when she would return.
