Erin Patterson mushroom murder trial LIVE updates: Patterson reveals messages she ‘regrets’ sending about lunch guests – in second day of cross examination

Patterson was asked about family gatherings at Don and Gail’s home and if she was worried about not being invited to family events.

She said the gatherings occurred ‘less so’ from 2020.

Patterson said the gatherings were held at the park but not at her home.

‘They were not at my house,’ she said.

Dr Rogers reminded Patterson that she told child protection worker Katrina Cripps (pictured) on August 1 that she loved Don and Gail.

‘Correct,’ Patterson said.

‘And you had a good relationship with them until recently, did you tell her (Ms Cripps) that?’ Dr Roger asked.

‘I had a good relationship with them,’ Patterson replied

‘But the relationship changed,’ Dr Rogers suggested.

‘I did become concerned about that, yes (being isolated).’

Patterson initially disputed she told Ms Cripps she was worried about not being invited to gatherings.

‘My memory is that’s not what I said, however my memory is also fallible and I think she’s wrong … but I could be wrong,’ Patterson said.

‘I said they always treated me like a daughter, not like a daughter in-law, they treated me like their own daughter.’

Dr Rogers asked Patterson if she sent some ‘extremely aggressive messages’ in the Signal family group chat in 2022 or 2023.

Patterson disagreed there was any ‘tension’ in her relationship with Don and Gail in October 2022.

Dr Rogers asked about Patterson’s relationship with Don and Gail (pictured).

The jury heard Simon explained the relationship between his parents and Patterson.

‘They loved you and you loved them,’ Dr Rogers said Simon had said.

‘They did love me and I did love them, I do love them,’ she said tearfully.

Dr Rogers has suggested Patterson never told authorities she foraged for mushrooms but instead dumped her dehydrator at the tip.

Patterson was asked about her reaction even after learning Don and Gail were sick.

‘If you loved them you would have notified the medical authorities the foraged mushrooms went in with (other mushrooms),’ Dr Rogers said.

‘I had been told that people were getting treatment for possible death cap poisoning so that was already happening,’ Patterson responded.

Dr Rogers also suggested Patterson ‘never once told medical professionals foraged mushrooms could be in (the meal)’.

‘Correct,’ Patterson replied.

‘Even after your discharge you didn’t tell a single person they may have been foraged,’ Dr Rogers said.

‘Correct,’ Patterson replied.

‘Instead you got up and drove the kids to school and came home,’ Dr Rogers said.

‘I did do that,’ Patterson said.

‘And then got rid of the dehydrator,’ Dr Rogers said.

‘Correct,’ Patterson replied.

Patterson is again reminded about the conversation she had with Simon at the Monash Medical Centre where he said, ‘is that how you poisoned my parents using that dehydrator’.

The conversation took place after Patterson learned people had been getting treatment for death cap posioning.

Dr Rogers took Patterson to her previous answers.

Patterson was reminded that she said she dried foraged mushrooms in the dehydrator weeks earlier and put them into a jar.

‘And I just got really scared,’ she said at the time.

‘Frantic,’ Patterson said upon arriving home.

Patterson agreed that was her evidence.

Dr Rogers suggested Patterson (pictured) lied to Simon about her medical issues because she wanted him at the lunch to ‘poison him’.

‘No, that’s not true,’ Patterson said.

Dr Rogers suggested Patterson made a poisonous beef Wellington for Simon ‘in case he turned up’.

‘No, that’s not true,’ Patterson said.

Dr Rogers suggested when Simon didn’t show at the lunch she dumped his beef Wellington.

Patterson told the jury she put the pastry and mushrooms in the bin.

Dr Rogers has persistently asked Patterson if she approached Simon after a church service on July 16, 2023 and said she had some ‘important medical news’ that she wanted advice on and how she would break that to the kids.

‘I disagree,’ Patterson said.

Patterson also disputed that she mentioned she wanted help in how to break it to the kids.

‘That wasn’t the purpose of the lunch or the purpose of the invitation,’ she said.

Dr Rogers again said Simon said in his evidence that he claimed Patterson wanted advice on the children.

‘He did say that but I did not say that to him,’ she said.

‘I did invite him to lunch.’

Dr Rogers said Simon said in his evidence that Patterson was keen for the kids not to be there.

‘I did not (say that to him),’ Patterson said

Dr Rogers said Simon might have accepted the lunch invite if his parents and the Wilkinsons attended.

‘I disagree with that,’ the accused said.

Patterson also said she said Simon was mean but never said he was ‘nasty’.

‘Yeah I think I did say that,’ Patterson said.

Dr Rogers asked Patterson if she told child welfare officer Katrina Cripps ‘Simon became nasty’ after she claimed child support.

‘Yeah I think I did say that, yep,’ the accused said.

Patterson was also shown a message she sent to Facebook friend Christine Hunt where she said Simon was ‘coercive’ and they ‘disagreed a lot’.

Dr Rogers (pictured) also asked Patterson if she posted online that ‘Simon was not a good father’.

Dr Rogers reminded Patterson that her Facebook friend and witness Danni Barkley said she posted ‘Simon wasn’t a nice person’.

‘I definitely discussed my relationship with Simon in the chat group,’ Patterson said.

‘I don’t remember saying he wasn’t a nice person.

‘I might have said that in a private chat group, I don’t know.’

Patterson said it was true she discussed Simon’s cleanliness with Ms Barkley.

‘Yeah it is true because I spent two weeks cleaning his house at one point,’ she said.

Patterson also admitted she didn’t want the kids staying at Simon’s house.

Patterson also wrote a message in which she referred to Simon as a ‘deadbeat’.

Dr Rogers suggested Patterson was ‘unhappy’.

‘I don’t know if I was happy or unhappy… I was frustrated I think,’ Patterson said.

‘I don’t think hurt is reflected in this message, I was frustrated.

‘I was hurt about a lot of things, yeah I was,’ she said.

Patterson is shown a message she wrote to her Facebook friends on December 7, 2022, where she discussed that if Simon wanted to walk away from his responsibilities, then it’s ‘a blessing in disguise’.

Patterson is also reminded of the ‘this family I swear to f***ing God’ message.

Dr Rogers suggested to Patterson this ‘expressed your true feelings’.

Patterson was also reminded of the ‘f*** them’ message.

‘That’s what you thought about Don, “f*** them”,’ Dr Rogers said.

‘I regret writing that,’ Patterson said.

Dr Rogers also suggested Patterson was angry at Don and Gail (pictured) for not taking her side over Simon’s.

‘I wasn’t angry but I was frustrated and hurt,’ she said.

Patterson said she wasn’t angry when she wrote the ‘f*** them’ message.

Patterson also denied she was angry when she wrote those messages to her Facebook friends.

Patterson was grilled about moving her children to a different school without telling Simon (pictured).

Patterson said she told Simon in March 2023.

‘In my house. He was dropping our daughter off … and we invited him into the house and told him,’ she said.

Dr Rogers said Simon claimed they’d had ‘no serious conversation’ about moving schools.

‘My memory is the context of what he said there was whether we discussed it in 2021, 2022,’ Patterson said.

Dr Rogers suggested to Patteron that she ‘just moved’ the kids.

‘I did move them… but I told Simon in March,’ the accused responded.

‘That’s not true… you felt entitled to change schools,’ Dr Rogers said.

Dr Rogers asked Patterson if the dispute about fees and child support had vanished by the time she asked Simon to look after her goat while she was in New Zealand in December 2022.

‘I don’t think it had completely disappeared no, but it had by some weeks later,’ she said.

Patterson, who is today wearing a black top with white polka dots, was again asked by Dr Rogers about a series of Signal messages between herself, Simon, Don and Gail.

In the messages, the subject of paying the kid’s school fees was discussed.

Patterson was asked to read a Signal message she sent Don and Gail to the court.

She mentioned she may want to get a court order to change the schools.

Patterson agreed the school fees was a big factor in the message.

‘I wanted them to help mediate the communication between us,’ Patterson said.

Patterson disagreed she asked Don and Gail to help her get Simon to pay half the school fees.

Dr Rogers kept suggesting that Don ‘refused to get involved’ which Patterson agreed.

Dr Rogers also suggested Patterson was angry that Don didn’t want to be involved but she disagreed.

On Thursday, Dr Rogers mentioned a photo which fungi expert Dr Tom May confidently said depicted death cap mushrooms.

‘I don’t think they are,’ Patterson responded.

Dr Rogers also suggested Patterson saw a post on plant identification website iNaturalist of a death cap sighting at Loch made by Christine Mckenzie on April 18, 2023.

‘I disagree,’ Patterson said.

‘I suggest you then went to Loch on April 28,’ Dr Rogers said.

‘I don’t know if I did go to Loch on that day or not,’ Patterson responded.

‘I suggest you went to Loch on that day to find death cap mushrooms,’ Dr Rogers said.

‘I disagree,’ Patterson said.

Dr Rogers then showed Patterson a photo she suggested were death cap mushrooms picked from Loch.

The Crown prosecutor also suggested Patterson weighed death cap mushrooms to ‘calculate the weight to administer the fatal dose required for one person’.

Dr Rogers also suggested Patterson weighed death caps to calculate how much was needed to kill five people.

Patterson said she disagreed.

In what became nothing short of a heated exchange, Dr Rogers (pictured) bombarded Patterson with questions suggesting she told repeated lies about having cancer in yesterday’s court proceedings.

‘You told this lie, I suggest, as part of your efforts to get the lunch guests, and Simon, to attend your lunch, correct or incorrect?’ Dr Rogers asked.

‘Incorrect,’ came the response.

‘I suggest that you never thought you would have to account for this lie about having cancer because you thought that the lunch guests would die?’ Dr Rogers said.

‘That’s not true,’ Patterson responded.

‘And your lie would never be found out, correct or incorrect?’ Dr Rogers asked.

‘That’s not true,’ Patterson insisted.

The jury had heard evidence in the opening days of the trial from Pastor Ian Wilkinson (pictured), who was the only person to survive the deadly lunch.

Mr Wilkinson claimed Patterson told lunch guests she had undertaken a diagnostic test that showed a spot on the scan that was a tumour.

‘I remember him saying that in his evidence, but I don’t believe I said that,’ Patterson said.

‘Might you have said it?’ Dr Nanette Rogers asked.

‘I don’t think so, no,’ Patterson said.

Slowly dying at Korumburra Hospital after the lunch, the court heard Don Patterson also claimed Patterson mentioned she had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

The court heard Don had told his son Simon: ‘Mum doesn’t want me to tell you this. It’s about what Erin talked to us about at the lunch.’

More crowds (pictured on Friday) have braved the chilly weather to turn up to see Erin Patterson in the witness box for the fifth straight day.

Patterson is currently under cross-examination by lead Crown prosecutor Dr Nanette Rogers SC.

Patterson has been a big drawcard with people queuing up outside the courthouse very early each morning to get a front row seat in the murder trial.

Patterson, 50, is accused of murdering her in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, after allegedly serving them a beef Wellington lunch made with death cap mushrooms.

Patterson is also accused of attempting to murder Heather’s husband, pastor Ian Wilkinson, who survived the lunch after spending several weeks in an intensive care unit.

The court heard Patterson’s estranged husband, Simon, was also invited to the gathering at her home in Leongatha, in Victoria’s Gippsland region, but didn’t attend.

Witnesses told the jury Patterson ate her serving from a smaller, differently-coloured plate than those of her guests, who ate off four grey plates.

Patterson told authorities she bought dried mushrooms from an unnamed Asian store in the Monash area of Melbourne, but health inspectors could find no evidence of this.

On Thursday, Justice Christopher Beale told the jury it was possible the trial may go on for another couple of weeks.

It’s likely Patterson will be in the witness box all week and possibly next week too, the jury was told

Justice Beale said once evidence is completed, he will have legal discussions with the parties while the jury is out, before closing addresses can commence.