Woman in Australia’s mushroom triple murder trial told social worker ex-husband was ‘controlling’
A child protection worker in the Erin Patterson trial told the court that the accused described her relationship with her estranged husband, Simon Patterson, as “controlling” and “emotionally abusive”.
Katrina Cripps told the court that Ms Patterson believed the issue of child support payments with her estranged husband had caused strain in her relationship with him.
“She felt like that’s the time he had become nasty towards her,” the witness testified on Thursday.
Ms Patterson is on trial for serving a meal laced with deadly mushrooms that killed three relatives of her former husband and left another, Ian Wilkinson, critically ill. Ms Patterson denies the murder and attempted murder charges, with her defence saying the deaths were a “terrible accident”.
Prosecutors allege that she fabricated a cancer diagnosis to lure her estranged husband’s parents Don and Gail Patterson, as well as his uncle Ian Wilkinson and aunt Heather, to lunch at her home in July 2023 and poisoned their food. They claim Ms Patterson then disposed of a dehydrator containing traces of the toxic mushrooms at a rubbish site.
The prosecution claims that phone data showed Ms Patterson travelled to Loch and South Gippsland areas, where death cap mushrooms had reportedly been sighted. Her lawyer Colin Mandy said she admits to foraging for mushrooms but denies ever intentionally collecting death caps.
An internationally recognised mushroom expert told the court on Tuesday that he discovered the poisonous mushroom near the house where Erin Patterson lived during the triple murder trial that has gripped Australia.
In the court on Thursday, Ms Cripps testified that Ms Patterson spoke fondly of Mr Patterson’s parents, Don and Gail, referring to them as “the parents she hadn’t had” and saying she had loved them deeply.
However, Ms Patterson also shared with Ms Cripps that she felt Mr Patterson had been isolating her from his family.
Ms Cripps recalled Ms Paterson saying their relationship had been good “until recently”. During their conversation, Ms Patterson also mentioned that she had hoped to use the lunch gathering to “discuss a medical issue”.
Ms Cripps said Ms Patterson explained that she wanted to make “something new and special”, and had chosen a beef Wellington recipe from a RecipeTin Eats cookbook.
She told Ms Cripps that she bought pre-sliced mushrooms from Woolworths and dried mushrooms from an Asian grocer, noting the latter would “add a nice flavour to the beef wellington.”
Ms Patterson also reportedly said that while her children ate the leftovers, she had “scraped off the mushrooms” for them.
