LEONGATHA mother of two, Erin Patterson, has taken the witness stand for the first time in her triple murder trial at the Supreme Court in Morwell.
She was the opening witness in the case for the defence, starting at 3.30pm on Monday, June 2, 2025.
Ms Patterson, who spent the morning in the dock listening as the prosecution closed its case, after almost 24 days, was escorted to the witness box wearing black pants, a paisley top and black sandals.
Mrs Patterson, who has been charged with three counts of murder and one of attempted murder, arising out of a meal of beef Wellington, including death cap mushrooms, at her home on Saturday, July 29, 2023, was taken through her evidence by defence counsel, Colin Mandy SC.
Asked about the time leading up to July 2023, Mrs Patterson said she moved into her new home in Leongatha in June of 2022 with the intention of making it her “final home”.
“I saw it as the final home, where the children would grow up and come back to from university and working, later with their own children, that I would grow old there.”
Asked about her relationship with her estranged husband Simon, Erin Patterson described herself as a “fundamentalist atheist” when the couple first met in the early 2000s but that an unexpected spiritual experience, during her first service at the Korumburra Baptist Church, changed all that.
Mrs Patterson said the service led by Simon Patterson’s uncle, Pastor Ian Wilkinson, “quite overwhelmed me”.
Erin Patterson became emotional when she was asked about Ian’s son David Wilkinson walking her down the aisle at her wedding in June 2007 and also when she described having an emergency caesarean section when delivering her first child, 16 years ago.
The court heard details about a 4WD trip to Western Australia soon after their marriage, about trips along the Gibb River Road and the Tanami Track in convoy with other family members and friends, and a visit by Simon’s parents Gail and Don to WA, after the arrival of their first child in January of 2009.
Shortly after their son’s birth, the couple packed up again and travelled extensively across the top end and as far as Townsville, when Erin said it had become a lot harder to have a growing child out camping and travelling.
“When we started off [he] was just three months old but it was getting harder to camp with him because he wasn’t sleeping as much and I’d had a gutful,” she said, saying she wanted to sleep in her own bed again.
The decision was taken for Erin to fly back to Perth and Simon was to drive back to Perth, with the baby, a trip that Erin estimated took a week.
The couple didn’t live together on Simon’s return to Perth, with Erin Patterson renting a cottage for herself and the baby, and Simon living in an onsite van at a caravan park close by.
It was their first period of separation, according to Erin, lasting six months.
Erin Patterson has pleaded not guilty to all charges, maintaining that what happened at the lunch in July 2023 was a tragedy and a terrible accident.
Her evidence will continue on Tuesday.
