A child protection worker said that Erin Patterson described her estranged husband, Simon, as “nasty”, “controlling” and “emotionally abusive”, and believed he was isolating her from his parents, a Victorian court has heard.
The worker also said Patterson did not answer her the following day when she asked whether she had pickedthe mushrooms used in the lunch.
Patterson, 50, has pleaded not guilty to three charges of murder and one charge of attempted murder relating to the lunch she served at her house in Leongatha, Victoria on 29 July 2023.
Patterson is accused of murdering Simon’s parents, Don and Gail Patterson, his aunt Heather Wilkinson, and attempting to murder Ian Wilkinson, Simon’s uncle and Heather’s husband.
The Victorian supreme court sitting in Morwell has previously heard the guests died after being poisoned with death cap mushrooms that were in a paste used by Patterson to make individual beef wellingtons.
The prosecution alleges Patterson deliberately poisoned her lunch guests with “murderous intent”, but her lawyers say the poisoning was a tragedy and terrible accident.
Katrina Cripps told the court on Thursday that she received a notification on 1 August 2023 regarding a referral to child protection about Erin and Simon Patterson’s two children.
She said she and a colleague spoke with Simon, Patterson and the children while the group were at the Monash medical centre.
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Cripps said her colleague took notes of their conversation with Patterson. She told the court that the conversation touched upon an application Patterson had filed for child support the previous year, and her relationship with Simon and his parents.
Of the period when Patterson applied for child support, Cripps told the court Patterson had said to the child protection workers that “as a husband he’d been mean but he’d never been nasty, and she felt that was the time that he’d become nasty”.
Patterson had said “Don and Gail had been like the parents she never had, her parents had died some time ago … but that relationship had changed recently as well”, as “she felt that he was isolating her from his family”, Cripps told the court.
Cripps said Patterson had told her “about feeling like [Simon] was controlling and emotionally abusive, in that he would say things to her that would make her doubt herself as a parent and as a mother, and it would impact her self-esteem”.
Patterson also told Cripps about hosting her parents-in-law for lunch with her children earlier in 2023, and that she had invited them because “she just wanted to reconnect with them and see them”.
Cripps said Patterson told her that she had decided to cook beef wellington for the 29 July 2023 lunch as she “wanted to do something new and special” after finding the recipe in a RecipeTin Eats cookbook.
She said she had invited the Pattersons and Wilkinsons as she had something she wanted to discuss with them, and get their advice.
Notes from the conversation also show Patterson told Cripps she had eaten half of the beef wellington, Cripps told the court.
Patterson and her children were discharged from hospital later that day, but Cripps visited her home the following day, which she said was standard in child protection cases.
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She said Patterson showed her around the home during this 2 August 2023 visit, and she believed it had been specifically set up to cater to her children and their interests.
Patterson took a call from Sallyann Atkinson, from the Department of Health, during Cripps’ visit, and Cripps said she heard the phone call as it was on speaker. Atkinson was attempting to establish which Asian grocer Patterson had purchased dried mushrooms from for the beef wellingtons. The court has heard evidence from multiple people who say they were told by Patterson she used dried mushrooms from an Asian grocer in the lunch.
Cripps said she told Patterson to check her bank statements prior to the call, and she had seen her scrolling through her phone but had not seen what was on her screen. Patterson later explained that she could find no record of the transaction, but that she may have paid cash if it was only a small amount.
Cripps said that after the phone call she had asked Patterson whether she had picked the mushrooms used in the meal, but Patterson did not answer and continued looking at her phone.
Under cross-examination from Sophie Stafford, a barrister for Patterson, Cripps agreed that after this conversation with Atkinson she also asked Patterson whether she had a support network outside Simon and his family.
Cripps also agreed that Patterson became upset and distressed at the prospect she may lose the support network of the Pattersons.
On 4 August, Cripps said she again spoke with Patterson, this time on the phone. She agreed that she had asked Patterson whether she had an update on the condition of the lunch guests, but Patterson said she hadn’t and expressed that she was finding this distressing.
Cripps agreed that she knew at the time of the call that Heather Wilkinson had died, but that she did not tell Patterson because of welfare concerns.
“Yes, and it wasn’t my place to,” Cripps told the court.
Patterson had also told her during the phone call that she was concerned about her security and privacy, and she was planning on changing her phone number, Cripps agreed.
The trial continues.