Mushroom cook husband cries recalling dad ‘struggling’
Emily Woods |
Erin Patterson’s estranged husband has cried while recalling his dad discoloured, unable to speak and “really struggling” in hospital after being poisoned.
Simon Patterson became emotional and asked for tissues as he gave evidence in the Latrobe Valley Law Court in Morwell on Thursday.
“Dad was substantially worse than mum,” he told a jury, between tears, about seeing Don Patterson in hospital the day after the poisoned mushroom meal.
“He was lying on the side … really discoloured face, speaking was an effort.
“He wasn’t right inside. He was in pain.”
He glanced at his former wife, from whom he separated in 2015, twice across the morning, as she stared directly at him dressed in a pink shirt from the court dock.
Patterson, 50, has pleaded not guilty to three charges of murder and one of attempted murder over a 2023 lunch at her home in Leongatha.
She served up a beef Wellington with death cap mushrooms inside to her estranged husband’s four relatives, but claims she did not know the dish was poisoned and that she also became sick herself.
Simon’s parents, Don and Gail Patterson, and his aunt Heather Wilkinson all died in hospital after the lunch.
His uncle Ian Wilkinson became sick but recovered.
Simon had been invited to the lunch, on July 29, 2023, but declined via SMS the day before as he felt “too uncomfortable” about going, the jury of 15 was told.
“That’s really disappointing, I’ve spent many hours this week preparing lunch for tomorrow,” Erin Patterson replied within five minutes.
“And spent a small fortune on beef eye fillet to make beef Wellingtons because I wanted it to be a special meal, as I may not be able to host a lunch like this again for some time.
“It’s important to me that you’re all there tomorrow.”
Simon did not reply and did not attend the lunch.
He instead offered to collect their two children from the Leongatha cinema later in the afternoon, as Patterson wanted them out of the house to discuss a “serious matter” about her health, he said.
She would go on to tell his in-laws that she had ovarian cancer, and ask for advice on how to break it to her children, however her defence team has admitted she had never been diagnosed with cancer.
After the lunch, Simon said his father had called him, about 8.45am on July 30, and told him he and his mum had been suffering vomiting and diarrhoea and were arranging to be taken to hospital.
He went to the Wilkinsons’ home where he found Ian looking sick, “grey and struggling” while Heather was inside looking “pretty crook” on the couch.
“She had a container as a spew bucket,” he said, about Heather.
“She looked a bit puzzled and said ‘I noticed Erin served her food on a coloured plate, which was different to the rest’.”
Simon drove them to Leongatha Hospital as an ambulance said it would take an hour to arrive, and then went to visit his parents who were at Korumburra.
Later that afternoon, Simon said he spoke to Erin on the phone and told her his family were “all crook and they’d all been admitted to hospital”.
Erin told him she’d been suffering from diarrhoea herself since the previous afternoon, and she was worried about driving a 30-minute round trip to drop her son’s friend home the night before, he said.
“She was worried that she’d poo her pants,” he said.
The trial before Justice Christopher Beale continues.
AAP
