A woman who killed three members of her estranged husband’s family with a meal laced with deadly mushrooms had also tried to poison her husband on family camping trips, according to court evidence which was made public on Friday.
Erin Patterson was convicted last month of murdering her parents-in-law Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson at her home in the state of Victoria with a lunch of beef Wellington containing toxic death cap mushrooms.
She was also found guilty of attempting to murder Ian Wilkinson, Heather’s husband, who survived the meal but spent weeks recovering in hospital.
The 50-year-old was initially charged with attempting to murder her estranged husband by inviting him to the lunch in July 2023, as well as, attempting to murder him on three occasions around Victoria between November 2021 and September 2022.
But those charges were dropped ahead of the trial beginning in April.
On Friday, a judge lifted a gag order on the pre-trial evidence about previous poisoning allegations, which her lawyers had wanted to keep secret while appealing her convictions.
Simon Patterson told the court during a pre-trial hearing that he had declined his estranged wife’s lunch invitation out of fear.
He said while he had stopped eating food prepared by his wife, from whom he had been estranged since 2015, he never thought others would be at risk.
He said he suspected his wife had deliberately made him seriously ill during family camping trips with dishes including penne bolognese pasta, chicken korma curry and a vegetable curry wrap.
No poisons were ever found.
The court heard Simon Patterson shared his poisoning suspicions with his doctor, who encouraged him to create a spreadsheet outlining what he had eaten around the time he became sick.
Erin Patterson will be sentenced later this month.
She faces a potential life sentence for each of the murders and 25 years for attempted murder.
The case has attracted widespread national and international attention.
Patterson’s lawyers wanted all the evidence that was not relevant to her trial kept secret until an appeals court decided whether to overturn her convictions.
That was partly due to the unprecedented media interest in the case.
Defense lawyer Colin Mandy argued that reporting of the suppressed evidence, as well as, references to it in books, podcasts and a planned television mini-series would “leave an indelible impression on the minds of potential jurors in the event that there is a retrial.”
Prosecutor Jane Warren told the court “a lot” of victim impact statements would be presented at the two-day sentencing hearing.
Once Patterson is sentenced, she will have 28 days to lodge an appeal against the sentence, the convictions, or both.
Her lawyers have previously said they would appeal against her convictions.
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