Simon Patterson feared poisoning before fatal lunch, court hears. Photo / NewsWire
Simon Patterson’s reasons for declining an invite to the fatal lunch his wife hosted can now be revealed, including that he feared Erin Patterson had spent more than a year trying to poison him.
The father-of-two fell seriously ill on four separate occasions more than a year before the ill-fated beef wellington lunch – each time after eating a meal prepared by his estranged wife.
After the spate of serious but medically unexplained illnesses, Patterson told a pre-trial hearing held in the Victorian Supreme Court last year, he was encouraged by his GP, Dr Chis Ford, to create a spreadsheet listing everything he’d eaten around the time of each illness.
Patterson was hospitalised in November 2021, May 2022, July 2022 and September 2022 and said he came to believe he could trace these unexplained illnesses to meals allegedly provided to him by Erin.
These were: a penne bolognese pasta dish handed over in Tupperware the night before a planned camping trip to Wilson’s Prom; a chicken korma curry served the second night of a camping trip at Howqua; a beef stew prepared while he was living with Erin recuperating from his last illness; and a curry wrap while on a nature walk at Wilsons Prom.
At the start of Patterson’s trial, jurors were told three counts of attempted murder in relation to Simon Patterson had been dropped by prosecutors a week earlier.
They weren’t told, however, what the charges alleged or why they were discontinued.
On each occasion, Simon told the pre-trial hearing he fell ill and experienced nausea and gastro-like symptoms and was hospitalised but never got an explanation for what caused the illness.
“When I made the spreadsheet and looked at what I’d come up with, my thought was ‘this could appear to someone else looking at this that Erin was a cause because of her cooking the food’,” Simon said.
“I didn’t really seriously entertain the possibility.”
No charges were laid in relation to his third illness in July 2022 after a medical expert found it could be explained by the proximity to the May 2022 illness, his prolonged stay in hospital and the impact of his bowel resection surgery.
But three charges of attempted murder were laid in November 2023 for three counts of attempted murder.
Prosecutors had not alleged Simon’s illnesses were caused by death cap mushroom poisoning, but that he was allegedly poisoned with unidentified toxic compounds.
In pre-trial, intensive care specialist professor Andrew Bersten gave evidence that he had reviewed all of Simon’s medical notes and found there were no identified causes of the illnesses, although they had a severe and sudden onset.
During a hearing in the Court of Appeal on April 3 – just weeks before the trial began – Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers revealed new information had come to light.
She said police had allegedly located an article on the rat poison Barium Carbonate on a computer seized from Patterson’s home “around the time” of Simon Patterson’s illness in September 2022.
Rogers said a supplementary report was obtained from Bersten, concluding Simon’s medical records were “consistent” with Barium Carbonate poisoning.
“That material was not before the trial judge when we conducted the hearing,” she said.
Simon said the first time he had serious concerns about Erin was after a conversation with his cousin, Tim Patterson in about September 2022 – which he described as a “turning point” in his thinking on the matter.
“Well actually it was him telling me his suspicions,” he told the pre-trial hearing.
“I’ve got a lot of respect for Tim. If he suggests something it’s wise to take that seriously.”
Simon said the thought he’d been poisoned had “briefly crossed” his mind in the first half of 2022 after his first illness, recalling he joked with Erin before their Howqua trip in May that year.
“I think I joked with Erin before our Howqua trip that she might put something in the food to poison me,” he told the court.
By February 2023, Simon was sharing his suspicions with a select few and worked to update his medical care instructions, removing Erin from decision-making authority.
He told the court he raised his suspicions with his father, Don Patterson, before changing his medical power of attorney to Don and his brother Matthew in late February.
Simon said it was at his parents’ house, without his mother Gail present, with Don having a “very thoughtful” reaction.
“He said ‘I suggest you don’t tell too many people about that’,” Simon told the court.
“I thought I had a reasonable sense why he would say that … probably because that could create issues in the way they relate, especially with Erin and our family.”
His younger sister, Anna Terrington, told a pre-trial hearing in August last year that Simon had confided in her about his suspicions before the fatal lunch.
But she said she couldn’t recall when it was.
“I don’t recall the details … that, um, that Erin was trying to poison him with food she cooked for him,” Terrington said.
“But that only Simon was at risk.”
She said Simon told her he believed there were no other explanations for his illnesses and that she took it seriously.
Terrington said in early 2023, before an earlier lunch Don and Gail had at Patterson’s home in June, she anxiously raised her brother’s concern.
“Dad said ‘no we’ll be OK’ or words to that effect,” she said.
After the lunch on July 29, Terrington said her mother told her the lunch went well but that Don had told Gail to “stop catastrophising things”.
She said she did not understand what her mum meant and Gail didn’t elaborate.
The trial heard Patterson had initially accepted an invitation to lunch with Ms Patterson as well as his parents Don and Gail Patterson, and aunt and uncle Ian and Heather Wilkinson, after a church service on July 16, 2023.
But the night before the lunch he texted his former partner to cancel.
“Sorry, I feel too uncomfortable about coming to the lunch … but am happy to talk about your health and implications of that at another time if you’d like to discuss on the phone,” he wrote to Erin at 6.54pm.
Minutes later she replied, describing his response as “really disappointing”.
“I’ve spent many hours this week preparing for lunch for tomorrow which has been exhausting in light of the issues I’m facing … I wanted it to be a special meal as I may not be able to host a lunch like this again for some time,” she replied at 6.59pm.
“I hope you’ll change your mind. Your parents, Heather and Ian, are coming at 12.30, and I hope to see you there.”
During the pre-trial hearing, Simon told Victoria’s Supreme Court he did not want to attend because he had spent months believing Patterson had previously poisoned him.
“I thought there was a risk she would poison me if I attended,” he said.
The three previously alleged attempted murder charges against Patterson were dropped after an earlier ruling in pre-trial that they would have to be heard as a separate trial.
Prosecutors had conceded the lunch and the Simon Patterson allegations would ordinarily be run as two separate trials, but fought for the two sets to be heard at the same time.
They had sought to use the “inherent improbability” of three illnesses and the lunch poisonings to bolster the likelihood Simon’s illnesses could be found to be a deliberate poisoning.
Known as coincidence evidence, this was strenuously opposed by Patterson’s defence who argued there was a “real danger” the evidence would be misused by a jury.
“There is an immediate and obvious and overwhelming risk in this case that the charges will be treated as a job lot,” defence barrister Colin Mandy SC said.
In a pre-trial ruling, trial judge Justice Christopher Beale agreed, finding the value did not outweigh the danger of unfair prejudice to Patterson.
This was appealed in the Court of Appeal where three judges upheld Justice Beale’s ruling in April 2025, less than a month before the trial began.
While prosecutors had previously conceded their case for Simon’s three illnesses being deliberate poisonings were not as strong as their case for the lunch, they said the decision substantially weakened their case.
The charges were discontinued by the Director of Public Prosecutions a week before Patterson’s trial began with a jury being empanelled.
During the trial, senior Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC alleged a sixth beef wellington prepared before the July 29 lunch was for Simon if he changed his mind and decided to attend.
The jury heard he previously accepted the invite, but messaged Patterson the night before saying he felt “too uncomfortable” to attend.
“The prosecution case is: had Simon Patterson changed his mind and decided to attend the lunch after all, he, too, would have been served that sixth poisoned beef Wellington,” Dr Rogers said.
On the stand, Patterson denied she made the sixth for Simon, saying the steaks used came in twin packs and she had enough ingredients to prepare one extra.
Patterson was found guilty of murdering three members of her husband’s family and the attempted murder of a fourth on July 7. Don and Gail Patterson and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson died from death cap poisoning in the week following the lunch while Heather’s husband, Ian Wilkinson, survived. Patterson will face a pre-sentence hearing on August 25.