WHAT did Erin Patterson do for an hour and 38 minutes after she discharged herself, against doctor’s advice, from the Leongatha Hospital at 8.10am on Monday, July 31, not returning until 9.48am?
Maybe nothing. Maybe it doesn’t matter.
Or maybe, as suggested by the prosecution, Mrs Patterson left the hospital in a panicked state to start “covering her tracks” after a surprise reveal by authorities that they were already chasing death cap mushrooms.
It looks like being one of a number of issues left unclear after Crown Prosecutor Dr Nanette Rogers SC concludes her five-day cross-examination of Erin Patterson on Thursday this week, June 12.
But bearing in mind Mrs Patterson had just been told by Leongatha doctor Chris Webster that she may have eaten death cap mushrooms two days earlier, after presenting at the hospital with gastro-like symptoms, it’s a reasonable question to ask.
“There's a concern of death cap mushroom poisoning. Where did you get the mushrooms?” Dr Webster said he asked Mrs Patterson shortly after she arrived.
She allegedly gave a one-word answer: “Woolworths”.
Less than an hour earlier Dr Webster had been informed by overnight medical registrar at Dandenong Hospital, Dr Beth Morgan, that Don and Gail Patterson’s condition had worsened and they were concerned about death cap mushroom poisoning being the cause.
“She informed me that Don and Gail Patterson both had grossly abnormal liver function tests and that they were concerned about the possibility of death cap mushroom poisoning,” Dr Webster said in his evidence on Day 7 of the trial.
So, no wonder hospital staff got a bit stressed when Mrs Patterson insisted on leaving.
“I remember more stress around, 'We want you to sign this form before you leave'. That's what I remember the emphasis being on,” Erin Patterson told the court this week.
It was one of dozens of issues probed by Dr Rogers in her marathon cross-examination of Mrs Patterson, stretching over two weeks in the Supreme Court trial in Morwell.
Erin Patterson is facing three charges of murder and one of attempted murder arising out of a family lunch of beef Wellington, containing death cap mushrooms, at her home on Saturday, July 29, 2023. Mrs Patterson has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Did she go home after staying only five minutes at the hospital and feed the dogs and pack her daughter’s ballet bag as she claimed?
Did she simply go home to have a rest?
It was Simon Patterson’s evidence that his estranged wife told him she lay down on the floor at her Gibson Street house and fell asleep for 45 minutes.
Or did she, as Dr Rogers suggested to her on Tuesday this week, "panic and abscond" because she knew her use of death cap mushrooms in the meal had been uncovered.
Mrs Patterson did not agree.
- Dr Rogers: You did not need to go home and pack your daughter's ballet bag. Your daughter did not even have ballet on Mondays, did she?
- Erin Patterson: She did. She had a rehearsal that afternoon and Simon had to cancel it.
Dr Rogers continued in that vein.
Mrs Patterson responding to her husband’s claims she said she had a lie down for 45 minutes, saying she did lie down, for a while.
- Dr Rogers: Surely, that's the last thing you would do in these circumstances.
- Erin Patterson: It might be the last thing you'd do, but it was something I did.
- Dr Rogers: After you'd been told by medical staff that you had potentially ingested a life-threatening poison, isn't it the last thing that you would do, is to lie down in those circumstances?
- Erin Patterson: They didn't tell me it was life-threatening.
But Dr Rogers pointed out that between 8.05am and 8.10am, hospital staff had told Mrs Patterson they suspected death cap mushrooms poisoning, she agreed they did.
Dr Rogers then asked Mrs Patterson about mobile phone data research conducted by digital forensic scientist, Professor Matthew Sorell, producing the “most consistent explanation” that Erin drove down the Bass Highway, south out of Leongatha, towards Outtrim, between 8.55am and 9.45am.
- Dr Rogers: After leaving the hospital, I suggest you drove towards Outtrim on the Bass Highway?
- Erin Patterson: Ah, the Bass Highway doesn't lead to Outtrim.
It is Mrs Patterson’s evidence that she remained at home until returing to the hospital at 9.48am.
Dr Rogers then put a series of questions on the subject to Mrs Patterson.
- Dr Rogers: I suggest you didn't simply feed the animals and pack your daughter's ballet bag, did you, in that period of time?
- Dr Rogers: I suggest that in this period of time, you were trying to work out how to manage the situation that you now found yourself in. You had not expected doctors to detect the death cap mushroom poisoning so quickly. You thought it would be treated, I suggest, as just a case of food poisoning.
- Dr Rogers: Once you were told that the medical staff had detected death cap mushrooms or suspected it, you had to think quickly. To try and explain why you were not sick. To try and cover your tracks.
- Dr Rogers: And that's what you spent the one hour and 40 minutes doing while you were away from the hospital. Thinking about ways to cover your tracks.
Mrs Patterson denied the allegations.
“OK. You're saying I spent an hour and a half thinking? Is that what you're suggesting? Yes, I'm sure I did some thinking in that time, but it was not about covering my tracks.”
The trial continues in the Supreme Court in Morwell and is expected to continue well into next week.
