Mushroom poisoning trial: Erin Patterson’s husband reveals text messages

Alleged mushroom poisoner Erin Patterson accused her husband of wanting to be a “bare minimum parent”.

Text messages in which alleged mushroom poisoner Erin Patterson accused her husband of wanting to be a “bare minimum parent” have been read to the jury.

Simon Patterson returned to the witness box for his third day of evidence in her triple-murder trial.

Messages between Erin Patterson and her father-in-law Don Patterson in the family group chat have been read to the jury.

The messages, on encrypted platform Signal, begin after Don Patterson expressed a hope to catch up with the family before Erin Patterson took her son and daughter on a New Zealand holiday.

She responded at 8pm on December 5 and referenced child support after Simon Patterson filed a tax return listing him as separated in 2022.

“I’m sorry but I can’t stop thinking about the comment that Don made on the phone … that Simon can ‘reverse the single thing in his tax return’,” she said.

“That is mind-boggling in its implication.”

Erin Patterson went on to say she wasn’t able to access the Family Tax Benefit due to the change, which was worth about AU$15,000 ($16,200) annually.

“We were basically lying to the government, telling them that we were a family with shared finances so they wouldn’t make him pay child support,” she said.

“I would have been entitled to about 30k a year child support from Simon … but I didn’t claim it because I foolishly trusted him to do right by me and the kids.”

Erin Patterson and Erin Patterson and her estranged husband Simon. Erin Patterson has pleaded not guilty to murder, arguing the deaths after she hosted family members at a dinner were a tragic accident. Photo / NewsWire

She went on to claim Simon wanted to be a “bare minimum parent”.

An hour later Don Patterson replied, apologising for possibly making a “false representation” about Simon’s position.

The next day Erin Patterson responded, saying she understood her husband’s parents did not want to get involved.

“I respect your position, but I will continue to put messages in here on matters which I think are significant,” she wrote.

“I would hope that you, as his parents, would be concerned that he was making the decisions that are in the best interests of his children, and not just operating from the place of being angry to that end.”

Simon agreed with a suggestion by defence barrister Colin Mandy SC that the messages display Erin Patterson asking his parents to “intercede on her behalf” and their reluctance to do so.

Husband denies ‘poison’ comment claim

Under cross-examination by Mandy, Simon Patterson denied he had once made a comment accusing his wife of poisoning his family.

Mandy suggested the comment was made in her hospital room at Monash Hospital on Tuesday, August 1, 2023, after a discussion about Erin Patterson previously using a dehydrator.

The pair and their two children had just discussed a day when Erin Patterson placed varying amounts of dried mushrooms in muffins and their young daughter, who did not like mushrooms, preferred the muffin with some mushrooms present, the court was told.

“Just after the conversation about the dehydrator, you said, ‘Is that what you used to poison them?’” Mandy asked.

Simon responded: “I did not say that to Erin.”

‘That‘s odd’: Husband’s claim

Simon Patterson was quizzed by Mandy on whether Erin Patterson had asked how the lunch guests were fairing or had overheard his conversations on the issue.

The questions came after Simon Patterson on Friday gave evidence that Erin Patterson “never actually asked” after his family members’ health, saying it “intrigued me”.

He confirmed he was very busy in the days after his family fell ill, constantly taking phone calls and wandering the halls of the hospital.

Asked if it was possible that Erin Patterson did ask, Simon conceded it was “possible but not likely” she did.

“I can’t recall her asking that,” he said.

“It‘s a feeling I remember which was ‘that‘s odd’.”

When asked if his wife could have overheard his phone calls, Simon said “possibly little bits”.

Ms Patterson has told the jury the deaths were a tragic accident. Image / NewsWire, Paul Tyquin

Alleged mushroom killer’s side gig: court

He was also quizzed about Erin’s civic engagement, noting she once helped his parents run the local town of Korumburra’s community development association.

Simon agreed his estranged wife also took over running the town’s newsletter, the Burra Flyer, to give his parents a break when Simon’s mother Gail had health issues.

He would regularly take photos for the publication, he said.

Erin Patterson, 50, is facing trial over the alleged death cap mushroom poisonings of Simon’s parents, aunt and uncle at a lunch she hosted at her Leongatha home on July 29, 2023.

The mother of two has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder, arguing the presence of poisonous mushrooms in her beef wellington dish was not intentional and not deliberate.

Outlining the state’s case last week, Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC said it was alleged that Erin Patterson intended to kill the lunch guests after inviting them with the “false claim” of discussing a cancer diagnosis.

“It is the prosecution case that the accused deliberately poisoned, with murderous intent, each … after inviting them for lunch on the pretence that she’d been diagnosed with cancer and needed advice about how to break it to the children,” she said.

“It is the prosecution case that the accused used the false claim that she had serious medical issues to ensure and to explain why the children would not be present at the lunch on July 29.”

Simon’s parents, Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, 66, died in hospital in the week after the gathering.

Wilkinson’s husband, Korumburra Baptist Church pastor Ian Wilkinson, fell gravely ill but recovered.

Mandy told the jury Erin Patterson did not dispute that the four lunch guests consumed deadly death cap mushrooms at her Leongatha home.

“The defence case is that Erin Patterson did not deliberately serve poisoned food to her guests at that lunch,” he said.

“The defence case is that what happened was a tragedy, a terrible accident.”

The trial, before Justice Christopher Beale, is expected to for up to six weeks.