By ROD McGUIRK
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP)—An Australian court heard testimony from the husband of a woman found guilty of killing three people with a dinner laced with lethal mushrooms. He accused his wife of poisoning him over a year prior to the fatal lunch.
On Friday, a court lifted a gag order on pretrial evidence that 50-year-old triple murderer Erin Patterson had requested be kept private while she works to get her convictions overturned.
One piece of evidence was Patterson’s estranged husband Simon Patterson’s concerns that she had tried to kill him before.
At a pretrial hearing, Simon Patterson stated that he had turned down the lunch invitation because he was afraid.
Months before the trial, the spouse told the court in testimony that was not shown to jurors, “I thought there would be a risk that she would poison me if I attended.”
Simon claimed that even though he had stopped eating meals made by his wife, with whom he had been at odds since 2015, he never imagined that other people would be in danger.
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Last month, the Victoria State Supreme Court found Erin Patterson guilty of killing her parents-in-law, Don and Gail Patterson, as well as Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, at her Leongatha home while eating a meal of beef Wellington pastries laced with poisonous death cap mushrooms.
In addition, she was convicted of trying to kill Heather’s husband, Ian Wilkinson, who lived through the lunch but was hospitalized for weeks.
In July 2023, Erin Patterson was first accused of trying to kill her husband by inviting him to the lunch. He had declined the invitation after accepting it.
In addition, she was first accused of three charges of trying to kill him three times in the Victoria area between November 2021 and September 2022. She had refuted every accusation.
Before the trial started in April, the prosecution dismissed all of the charges against the husband.
Prior to the trial, Simon Patterson testified that he believed his wife had purposefully made him very ill by serving him things like vegetable curry wraps, chicken korma stew, and penne bolognese pasta. Poisons were never discovered.
The three suspected poisonings happened while the family was camping. When Simon told his doctor he suspected poisoning, he was advised to make a spreadsheet of the foods he had consumed around the time of his illness.
Video of Erin Patterson’s police interview, which was taken a week after the deadly lunch, was also made public by the court on Friday.
Detective Stephen Eppingstall informed her during the interrogation that her female victims had both died and their husbands were in critical condition. She was asked why she had invited them to lunch by Eppingstall.
Erin Patterson responded that because her own parents had passed away, she wished to keep her relationship with the estranged husband’s parents intact.
She added that her two children had only had two grandparents, Don and Gail Patterson, who had continued to be supportive.
I adore them. Despite Simon and I being apart, they have always shown me how much they care and promised to provide me with love and emotional support, which I very valued, Erin Patterson stated.
In support of media attorneys attempting to overturn the gag order, Justice Christopher Beale issued an order directing the release of the evidence that jurors had not seen.
Until an appeals court determined whether to reverse Erin Patterson’s convictions, her attorneys wanted all of the material that was not found admissible during her trial to remain confidential.
Among their justifications was the case’s unusual level of media attention. Colin Mandy, the defense attorney, contended that in the case of a retrial, possible jurors would be permanently impacted by the publication of the concealed information as well as references to it in books, podcasts, and a proposed television miniseries.
On August 25, a hearing will start to decide her sentencing. For each murder, she may receive a life sentence; for the attempted murder, she might receive a 25-year sentence.
Beale was informed on Friday by prosecutor Jane Warren that the sentencing hearing would consist of two days and would feature numerous victim impact testimonies.
Erin Patterson has 28 days from the date of her sentencing to file an appeal against the convictions, the sentence, or both.
According to her attorneys, they will challenge her convictions.
