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Erin Patterson says she wanted to ‘bring the family back together’
Barrister Colin Mandy SC asks his client why at one stage there were three properties in both Erin and Simon Patterson’s name when the couple had been separated for four years.
I always thought we would bring the family back together. That is what I wanted ... It was something tangible to say to Simon, I see a future for us.
Mandy asks Patterson if she has ever been diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
I have not.
Mandy asks if Patterson has ever had a needle biopsy on a lump on her elbow.
I’ve never had a needle biopsy anywhere.
Patterson says she was worried about potentially having ovarian cancer.
She says a few years ago her symptoms included feeling “very fatigued”, ongoing abdominal pain and weight gain.
She says at one stage her wedding ring suddenly would not fit and after being resized her “hands had outgrown” it again.
Under questioning by Mandy, Patterson agrees she had been Googling her symptoms.
I consulted Dr Google.
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Erin Patterson says in 2023, she helped with the streaming of the live services at the Korumburra Baptist church.
I alternated that with Don.
Patterson says during Covid, Simon and his father, Don Patterson, set up a remote streaming option for the church services.
She says Don was a “coding genius” who “set up the website and made it all happen”.
Within a few months, Don was “struggling” due to wife Gail’s health issues, Patterson says.
She then offered to alternate streaming the live service.
Barrister Colin Mandy SC asks if she made any comments to her Facebook friends about religion.
We did talk about it sometimes.
The kind of conversations that we had ... they would gently make fun of the fact that I was religious and I would try and evangelise back to them in a sense ... It was sort of all in good humour.
I do think there were a couple of occasions I might have been unhappy about aspects of organised religion. We talked about that quite a bit.
Patterson says she told her Facebook friends she had been an atheist.
Erin Patterson says she continued to attend church after the couple’s separation
It wasn’t like we must go every Sunday thing.
Patterson says she would still go with her two children.
Patterson says Ian Wilkinson (her estranged husband’s uncle) “wouldn’t get mad if they [the kids] made a noise”.
Mandy asks about Patterson’s religious beliefs after the separation.
It remained how it had been since 2005. I was and am a Christian.
Barrister Colin Mandy SC asks if Patterson ever told her Facebook friend Christine Hunt, who previously testified, that she was an atheist.
No, I didn’t.
The key figures in the Erin Patterson case
Don and Gail Patterson, Heather and Ian Wilkinson, as well as Simon and Erin Patterson and their two children (who cannot be named for legal reasons).
Colin Mandy SC turns to Erin and Simon Patterson’s relationship
Erin says when they separated permanently in 2015, they wrote down the assets they owned and “divided it down the middle”.
She says no lawyers were involved.
Patterson says at the time the couple owned two properties. She says the couple each took over a remaining loan to Simon’s siblings and their partners.
Patterson reflects on the permanent separation:
In the immediate aftermath ... it was difficult, as it had been in other separations. That only lasted a handful of weeks. We went back to just being really good friends.
I didn’t want to be separated but I felt there was no choice.
Our primary problem was if we had a disagreement or any kind of conflict we didn’t seem to be able to talk about it in a way …
It was just the living together that didn’t work.
Patterson says the family continued to go on holidays together after the separation.
She says they went to Queensland, New Zealand, South Africa and “a lot of time” at her mother’s house in Eden, NSW.
Mandy asks about Patterson’s relationship with Simon’s parents, Don and Gail Patterson, after the couple’s permanent separation.
Her voice appears to break as she answers:
It never changed. I was just their daughter in law and they just continued to love me.
Erin Patterson started up a secondhand bookstore in Western Australia
Opened in 2011, she says this involved travelling around the state and collecting books.
Erin says her and her sister were the beneficiaries of their mother’s estate after she died in 2019.
This allowed her to buy a home in Mount Waverley and Leongatha, she says.
Mandy turns to Erin and her estranged husband Simon Patterson’s decision to move back to Victoria from Western Australia in 2013.
Erin says the couple chose to come back to Victoria to allow her son to be close to his cousins and his grandparents, Don and Gail Patterson.
She says the family stayed with Don and Gail for a “good six weeks” when they first returned.
It was cramped in that all three of us were in the one room but it didn’t matter because Don and Gail were so welcoming to us and just liked having [our son] there ... It was a really good experience.
Erin and Simon’s daughter was born in 2014.
Patterson’s defence lawyer asks her about her inheritances
She confirms her grandmother died in 2006 and she was one of a large number of beneficiaries.
First distribution of the estate was about February 2007 and the last was towards the end of 2015, Patterson says.
Barrister Colin Mandy SC asks what the money allowed her to do.
“It did allow us to buy a home. When we settled in Western Australia without a mortgage,” she says.
Patterson said the couple helped her estranged husband Simon’s siblings and their partners purchase their homes with loans of around $400,000.
She says the amount and timing of paying the money back was up to them. The loan was subject to inflation but not interest, Patterson says.
The jury has entered the courtroom in Morwell
Erin Patterson is continuing to give evidence in her triple murder trial.
What the jury heard yesterday
While we wait for today’s proceedings to get under way, here’s a recap of what the jury heard on Monday:
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Patterson entered the witness box to begin testifying in her triple murder trial. Members of the Patterson and Wilkinson families, including Ian Wilkinson, were in the court.
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The accused said in the months prior to the July 2023 lunch she felt her relationship with the Patterson family, particularly her in-laws Don and Gail, had “a bit more distance”. She said from the start of 2023 her relationship with her estranged husband, Simon, was “functional” and the pair communicated mainly about logistical matters.
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Patterson had a “never-ending battle of low self-esteem” for most of her adult life, she told the court. She said around the time of the lunch she was planning to have gastric bypass surgery for weight loss.
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Defence lawyer Colin Mandy SC asked his client about the tension in her relationship with Simon, which involved multiple separations between 2009 and 2015. She said the pair “just couldn’t communicate well” when they had a disagreement. “We would just feel hurt,” she said.
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The prosecution closed its case on Monday afternoon before Patterson entered the witness box.
Welcome
Welcome to day 25 of Erin Patterson’s triple murder trial.
Patterson, who began testifying on Monday, is expected to continue giving evidence.
We’re expecting the trial to resume from 10.30am once the jurors enter the courtroom in Morwell.
Patterson, 50, faces three charges of murder and one charge of attempted murder relating to a beef wellington lunch she served at her house in Leongatha, in regional Victoria, on 29 July 2023.
She is accused of murdering her in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, and her estranged husband’s aunt, Heather Wilkinson. The attempted murder charge relates to Heather’s husband, Ian.
She has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The prosecution alleges Patterson deliberately poisoned her lunch guests with “murderous intent”, but her lawyers say the poisoning was a tragic accident.
