ON DAY 16 of the Erin Patterson murder trial in the Supreme Court in Morwell on Thursday this week, the depth of the breakdown in Ms Patterson’s relationship with her husband Simon and his family was revealed in a series of Facebook messages early in December 2022.

This was seven months prior to Erin Patterson hosting a family lunch on Saturday, July 29, 2023, where a meal of poisonous beef Wellington was served to Simon’s parents Don and Gail Patterson and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson and her husband Ian.

Three of them died as a result of eating the meal which contained death cap mushrooms while Ian Wilkinson recovered after 54 days in hospital.

During the evidence provided to the court on Thursday, May 22 by Shamen Fox-Henry, a senior digital forensic officer with the Victoria Police, some excerpts from the contents of a Samsung mobile phone, seized from Erin Patterson’s Leongatha home on Saturday, August 5, 2023 were presented to the court.

The alleged exchange between Erin Patterson on December 6 and 7, 2022 on Facebook Messenger, under her social media name of ‘Erin Erin Erin’, and several of her friends, some of whom have previously appeared in the witness box as Facebook friends of Mrs Patterson’s, reveal her frustration with Simon and his parents Gail and Don Patterson.

"Simon's dad contacted me this morning to say that he and Gail had tried to talk to Simon about the matters I raised and to get his side but he refused to talk about it other than to signal he disagreed with what I said. Beyond that he won't talk about it. So, Don said they can't adjudicate if they don't know both sides and Simon won't give his side," Erin Patterson is alleged to have said during an exchange on Tuesday morning, December 6, 2022.

"'So, he said all that he can ask is that Simon and I get together to pray for the children. This family I swear to fucking God," said Erin Erin Erin.

“I said to him about 50 times yesterday that I didn't want them to adjudicate. Nobody bloody listens to me. At least I know they're a lost cause.

"I wonder if they've got any capacity for self-reflection at all? I mean clearly the fact that Simon refuses to talk about personal issues in part stems from the behaviour of his parents and how they operate, according to them they have never asked him what's going on with us, why I keep kicking him out, why his son hates him etc. It's too awkward or uncomfortable or something. So that's his learned behaviour. Just don't talk about this shit."

In another message half an hour later, at 10:44am on December 6, Erin Erin Erin told her friends about a phone call she had with Simon's father claiming he said there was a solution if Simon and Erin could get together and talk and pray about it, noting that Simon had allegedly said there was a solution to the financial issues if Erin dropped the child support claim.

Describing Simon’s behaviour as “unconscionable” for wanting her to withdraw her child support claim, she spoke about an unwillingness by his parents Don and Gail to get involved in a dispute over financial matters, saying she wanted no more to do with them.

“I'm sick of this shit I want nothing to do with them. I thought his parents would want him to do the right thing but it seems their concern about not wanting to feel uncomfortable and not wanting to get involved in their son’s personal matters are overriding that so fuck’em.”

She said that while Simon’s parents weren’t prepared to get involved, they hoped that they would pray for the kids.

Erin Erin Erin said in another message to the group on December 7, 2022 that she had received messages from both Simon and his parents but wasn’t going to read either of them because it was likely to be “gaslighting” and “abusive” from Simon or more “weasel words” from his parents about not getting involved.

“I think I'm going to just move on.”

She said that in the past three months Simon’s parents had Simon over for dinner every night but “never once picked up the phone to me since the separation and asked if I'm okay and need help”.

The choice of schools for the couple's children was also raised in the message exchange with her friends, Erin Erin Erin saying if Simon wanted to walk away from his responsibilities it would be on him.

"Maybe it's easier if he's not involved in even paying their school fees. It means I can choose their school all by myself and don't have to refer to him."

Back on May 1, 2025, during his testimony to the court, Simon Patterson gave evidence of a marked change in the couple’s relationship, in late October or early November 2022 after Erin found out about his tax return having listed him as being separated for the first time since their separation in 2015 with Erim claiming she would need to apply for child support payments where financial matters had previously been jointly managed between them.

The couple claimed they had previously remained friendly after the separation.

Next, the forensic analysis of a Samsung tablet, seized by police from the accused's home on August 5, 2023, was probed by counsel for the prosecution Jane Warren.

The focus of her questions to Mr Fox-Henry was a report on the images taken from the tablet which included shots of a dehydrator, mushrooms on a set of digital scales (dated April 30, 2023), information about ovarian cancer (May 10, 2023) and more images of mushrooms and cancer details.

A third device, a second Samsung mobile phone, provided to police on August 5 by Erin Patterson yielded little.

Mr Fox-Henry revealed that no user data was extracted from the phone however the phone retained records of four factory resets, explaining that all user data was destroyed as a result.

He confirmed the following four dates and times for the factory resets or “hard resets” of the second phone:

• First factory reset December 2, 2023 (sic) 6.53am – wiped locally by user
• Second factory reset 2 August 2023, 11.09 am - wiped locally by user
• Third factory reset 5 August 2023 at 1.20pm - wiped locally by the user
• Fourth factory reset 6 August 2023 at 5.16am - wiped remotely by user

Mrs Patterson's defence lawyer, Colin Mandy SC is yet to cross-examine Mr Fox-Henry about his evidence.

Erin Patterson has been charged with three counts of murder relating to the deaths of Gail and Don Patterson and Heather Wilkinson following the meal, and one of attempted murder relating to the other lunch guest Ian Wilkinson.

She has pleaded not guilty to all charges claiming what happened at the meal in July 2023 was a tragedy and a terrible accident.

Also, on Day 16 there was further evidence that Erin Patterson was suffering gastroenteritis-like symptoms in the days after the mushroom lunch during testimony by Leongatha nurse Mairim Cespon who said she documented five incidents of diarrhoea by Mrs Patterson in the Leongatha Hospital on Monday, July 31, including inspecting the result of the incidents and taking samples for analysis.

The trial continues at Morwell on Friday.