Convicted killer Erin Patterson back in court
Convicted triple murderer Erin Patterson will return to court for the next step in her long-running case.
Source: Victoria Supreme Court
Patterson, 50, was found guilty by a jury on July 7 of the murder of her estranged husband Simon’s parents Don and Gail Patterson, 70, and his aunt Heather Wilkinson, 66 – along with the attempted murder of Heather’s husband Ian Wilkinson.
The Supreme Court of Victoria jury sitting in the Gippsland town of Morwell found Patterson deliberately poisoned her four lunch guests in July 2023 by serving them death cap mushroom-laced beef Wellingtons.
Over two days this week, a plea hearing will determine how long Patterson will spend in jail for her crimes. The hearing will include statements from the Patterson and Wilkinson families.
It comes after more details were revealed earlier in August about Patterson’s alleged history of attempts on Simon’s life, including feeding him meals of poisoned penne, toxic curry, a wrap and antifreeze-laced cookies.
The details followed the triple murderer’s failed bid to keep pre-trial evidence a secret to preserve her appeal rights.
Patterson initially faced three attempted murder charges over allegations from Simon Patterson that she had been trying to poison him since 2021.
The attempted murder charges were dropped by prosecutors after Justice Christopher Beale ruled Patterson should face a separate trial regarding them.
Simon revealed the nature of the allegations during pre-trial hearings in 2024. The details were suppressed until a judge ruled they should become public.
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“Open justice is a fundamental concern of our criminal justice jurisdiction,” he said.
Patterson had pleaded not guilty to the attempted murder charges of Simon, as well as the three charges of murder and one of attempted murder.
Simon alleged Patterson had tried to poison him several times between 2021 and 2022.
The first was a penne pasta she cooked him before leaving for a camping trip in November 2021. Simon said he vomited and spent five days in hospital.
But the worst was allegedly after consuming a chicken korma curry Patterson made him, during a camping trip at Victoria’s high country in late May 2022.
“While Erin was preparing food, I was getting the fire going, so I didn’t watch her prepare it,” Simon told a pre-trial hearing.
He began to feel unwell about midnight and was assessed at Mansfield Hospital the next day but discharged.
In the days after he got home, Simon’s condition worsened and he ended up in a coma and had surgery to remove a large portion of his bowel.
In September 2022, he fell ill after eating a wrap Patterson prepared for him while they were camping together at Wilsons Promontory.
He went to his GP, Christopher Ford, about the alleged poisonings and then had Patterson removed as his medical power of attorney.
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Ford told a pre-trial hearing that Simon was also apprehensive about eating cookies given to him by his daughter, as he believed they might have been poisoned with antifreeze.
He went on an interstate holiday and Ford said Patterson asked if he had eaten the cookies.
“He felt it was odd that she would be so focused asking about the cookies,” Ford told a pre-trial hearing.
Other pre-trial evidence released for the first time only weeks ago included documents about poisoning found on devices police seized from Patterson’s home.
These included an appendix from a 2007 book titled Criminal Poisonings, which listed the colour, odour, taste and lethal dose of poisons.
Another piece of evidence, a Facebook post to a poisons page, was not shown to the jury.
“My cat chewed on this mushroom just now,” the post said.
“He is having a vomit. Was in grassland near trees, I’m in Victoria Australia.”
None of this information has been proven or tested before a jury because it was ruled out of the triple murder trial.
Patterson’s trial was held in the small Victorian town of Morwell, near her home in Leongatha, at her request. The lengthy and highly publicised trial turned Morwell into a hive of media and legal activity for weeks.
Her sentencing will be held in the Supreme Court in Melbourne, before Beale.
She will likely receive a life sentence, with a non-parole period in keeping with the number of victims. The judge will sent the sentence and non-parole period following submissions at this week’s hearing.
After that, Patterson will have 28 days to appeal.
-with AAP
