It’s been revealed that Simon Patterson turned down his ex-wife’s invitation to lunch because he feared she was trying to poison him.
Simon told a pre-trial hearing, held in the Victorian Supreme Court last year, that he had fallen seriously ill on four separate occasions after eating a meal prepared by his ex-wife.
The father-of-two said his GP, Dr Christopher Ford, told him to create a spreadsheet listing everything he had eaten around the time of the illnesses.
He was hospitalised in November 2021, May 2022, July 2022 and September 2022 and had eaten a meal prepared by Erin each time.
The first time he had consumed a penne bolognese pasta dish that Erin had handed to him in a Tupperware container the night before a planned camping trip to Wilson’s Prom. The second incident could be traced back to a chicken korma curry served on the second night of a camping trip at Howqua.
The third incident lined up with a beef stew Erin cooked while he was living with her recuperating from his last illness.
And the fourth time, he became ill after eating a curry wrap prepared by Erin while he was on a nature walk at Wilsons Prom.
“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,” he told the pre-trial hearing.
“I didn’t really seriously entertain the possibility.”
He told the court he even joked with Erin about her putting something in his food before the Howqua camping trip.
In September 2022, after having a conversation with his cousin Tim Patterson, Simon started to really join the dots.
“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.”
In February 2023, Simon had shared his suspicions with a few people and decided to update his medical information to remove Erin and to give his father Don and his brother Matthew medical power of attorney.
When he told his father his suspicions, Don warned him not to tell too many people.
“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.”
Before the lunch, Simon’s younger sister, Anna Terrington, raised the suspicions with her parents once more.
“Dad said ‘no we’ll be OK’ or words to that effect,” she said.
On a July 29 phone call, Gail Patterson told Anna the lunch went well but Don had told her to “stop catastrophising things”.
Anna said she did not understand what her mum meant and Gail didn’t elaborate.
THE VERDICT
After a week of deliberation, the jury on the Supreme Court trial found Patterson guilty of killing her ex-husband Simon’s parents Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, as well as Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, 66, with a death cap mushroom-laced beef Wellington.
Patterson was also convicted of attempting to kill Heather’s husband Ian Wilkinson, 71, who survived the deadly lunch at Patterson’s home on July 29, 2023.
She pleaded not guilty and told the court the death caps were accidentally included in the meal.
Sitting a mere metre away from Patterson in the courtroom, 7News Melbourne Crime Reporter Estelle Griepink says hearing the verdict was a historic moment.
“I turned around to look at Erin Patterson who was only seated a metre away from me, and each time they read out a guilty verdict, she didn’t react much. She just kept staring straight ahead,” Estelle tells Woman’s Day.
“I think everyone, regardless of whether they were expecting a guilty or not guilty verdict were just stunned that the trial had come to an end and the jury had reached a unanimous decision.”
Doctor Chris Webster, who works at Leongatha Hospital and alerted police to Patterson, says he knew she was a killer when she told him the mushrooms she had used were from Woolworths.
“Once she said that answer, my thoughts were… ‘you crazy b***h, you poisoned them all’.”
Neither Ian Wilkinson nor the Patterson family have commented on the verdict as yet, but a spokesperson for Victoria Police paid respect to the victims Don, Gail and Heather shortly after the verdict.
“Our thoughts are with the respective families at this time and we acknowledge how difficult these past two years have been for them,” the spokesperson said.
Patterson’s two teenage kids, who cannot be named due to a suppression order, would visit their mum during the trial, where Patterson was heard asking a friend to give them “extra hugs”.
VENGEFUL NARCISSIST
According to criminology professor Dr Xanthe Mallett, Patterson is a vengeful woman who could not process her divorce to Simon in 2015.
Narcissistic people with borderline personality disorder can become vengeful if they feel wronged, she says.
“What I believe happened is that Patterson had this simmering rage for her ex-husband Simon and felt perhaps as if his family hadn’t supported her,” she told the Daily Mail’s podcast The Trial.
“She then transferred some of that rage on them and felt justified in harming them because of this.”
Xanthe also shared that the crime was premeditated, but not very well planned – as Patterson believed she could outpace the police during the investigation.
“Patterson is cunning though, she’s manipulative, a good liar, a bit of a chameleon who can bend the truth,” Xanthe said.
“When she’s caught in one lie, she twists it more and more.”
Now locked up in the maximum security wing of Dame Phyllis Frost Correctional Centre, Patterson is expected to front a pre-sentence hearing in early August.
In this hearing, victim impact statements will be read before Justice Christopher Beale will determine what sentence to give Patterson.
There are reports Patterson plans to appeal her case, and after the sentence is handed down, she will have 28 days to do so.
