Erin Patterson has described her religious conversion and a “never-ending battle” with low self-esteem and weight issues in emotional evidence to her own triple murder trial.
Colin Mandy SC, Patterson’s defence lawyer, called her as the first defence witness on Monday afternoon.
Patterson, 50, faces three charges of murder and one charge of attempted murder relating to poisoning her four lunch guests – relatives of her estranged husband, Simon Patterson – with a beef wellington served at her house in Leongatha on 29 July 2023.
Patterson has pleaded not guilty to murdering Simon’s parents, Don and Gail Patterson, and his aunt Heather Wilkinson, and attempting to murder Ian Wilkinson, Simon’s uncle and Heather’s husband.
Lawyers for Patterson say the death cap mushroom poisoning was a tragic and terrible accident.
Patterson gave evidence for 41 minutes on Monday, taking to the witness box after Mandy told the court “your honour, the defence will call Erin Patterson”.
Her evidence started with questions from Mandy about her life in July 2023, the month of the lunch.
Patterson said she had low self-esteem at the time, and was planning on having gastric bypass surgery to address her weight.
“I’d been fighting a never-ending battle of low self-esteem most of my adult life, and the further inroads I made into middle age, the less I felt good about myself, I put on more weight, could handle exercise less.”
She said she was also concerned about her relationship with the wider Patterson family, and described her relationship with her estranged husband Simon as merely “functional”.
“I had felt for some months that my relationship with the wider Patterson family and particularly Don and Gail perhaps had a bit more distance or space put between us – we saw each other less,” Patterson said.
“I had … concerns about Simon not wanting me to be involved too much with the family any more.”
There were, however, “good things” about her life at that time, she agreed.
She said her children settled better than she expected in a new school, and that the parenting arrangements were that they were living at her house full-time but could see their father, Simon, whenever they wished.
She had been accepted, but deferred, a degree in nursing and midwifery at Federation University, and was financially secure enough not to have to worry about working when she set about completing it.
Patterson said her new property in Leongatha, where the lunch was hosted, had just had landscaping work completed a few weeks earlier.
“I saw it as the final house, meaning I wanted it to be a house where the children would grow up, where once they moved away for university or work they could stay whenever they liked, bring their children and I’d grow old there.
“That’s what I hoped … I really like living there.”
Mandy then asked Patterson to describe the beginning of her relationship with Simon.
She described their meeting while working together at the City of Monash in Melbourne’s south-east in 2004, before starting to “date” the following year.
At the time, she said she was “what you would probably call a fundamentalist atheist. Like I was really very atheist”, while Simon was Christian.
“I was trying to convert him into being an atheist. But things happened in reverse; I became a Christian.”
She said her conversion occurred while attending her first ever church service: a service at Korumburra Baptist church, of which Ian Wilkinson was and remains the pastor.
Patterson said Wilkinson had a banner behind him while he was preaching which read Faith, Love and Hope, and he gave a sermon about those topics, which included a relevant passage from the Bible.
Patterson said she was then asked to participate in communion.
“I had what basically could be described as a spiritual experience,” she said.
“I had been approaching religion as an intellectual exercise up until that point: does it make sense, is it rational … but I had a religious experience there that quite overwhelmed me.”
Ian Wilkinson watched Patterson’s evidence while seated with other members of the family in court.
Patterson said that about this time in 2005, Simon had become concerned he was too focused on his work, and wanted to “switch off” by camping on weekends. It was camping together that drew them closer, she said.
They married in June 2007 at the Korumburra Anglican church, Patterson said.
“We wanted Ian and Heather to be able to come and relax with guests, rather than to have jobs for the day, which they would have if we’d got married at Korumburra Baptist church,” Patterson said.
Her parents were “on a train in Russia” on holiday, she said, so the Wilkinsons’ son, David Wilkinson, walked her down the aisle.
While they had a weekend in Olinda immediately after the wedding, what they “really wanted” for a honeymoon was to drive around Australia, Patterson said.
They ended up settling in Perth, where their son was born in early 2009.
Patterson said the birth was “very traumatic”, resulting in him losing his heartbeat and requiring an emergency caesarean.
She became emotional in the witness box as she described her son having to spend time in the neonatal unit, and then medical staff saying she had to stay in hospital even after he could be discharged.
“Simon said to me, you can just do it. Let’s leave,” Patterson said of the decision to discharge herself against medical advice.
Don and Gail visited in the weeks immediately after the birth.
“I was really relieved that Gail was there because I felt really out of my depth. I had no idea what to do with a baby, and I was not confident,” Patterson said.
“And she was really supportive and patient and gentle with me.”
She helped her understand how to settle him after feeds and how to interpret his cries, and gave “good advice” about “you don’t have to stick to this timeframe, this schedule, just relax and enjoy your baby”.
Patterson said Simon was keen to resume the trip around Australia soon after this, and as their son was easy to manage they decided to leave about April 2009.
But she said that by about November that year “it had been a good holiday but I’d had enough.
“I wanted to sleep in a real bed, and it was getting harder to camp with [my son].”
They agreed she would fly home to Perth, and Simon and their son would drive back, arriving home a week later. Patterson said the couple lived apart after this, her in a cottage and Simon in an on-site van in a caravan park nearby.
Mandy said the jury had been told by Simon about multiple breaks between the couple before the final separation in 2015.
Patterson said it had always been important for them to cooperate as parents despite these issues.
“Primarily what we struggled with over the entire course of the relationship, if we had any problem at all, we just couldn’t communicate well when we disagreed about something,” she said.
“We … would just feel hurt, and not know how to resolve it.
“They’re not problems for a child.”
Det Leading Sen Const Stephen Eppingstall, the informant or officer in charge of the investigation, completed his evidence earlier on Monday.
He was the last prosecution witness in the trial.
