Erin Patterson, accused of serving deadly mushrooms at a lunch that killed three people, took the stand on Monday. File Photo by James Ross/EPA-EFE
Erin Patterson took the stand on Monday as she stands trial for hosting a lunch at which three people died after consuming poisonous mushrooms.
Patterson, who pleaded not guilty to three charges of murder and one of attempted murder — after serving a lunch of beef wellington, mashed potatoes and green beans that also contained death cap mushrooms described her emotional state coming into the meal as her defense team argued the poisoning was unintentional.
“I’d been fighting a never-ending battle of low self-esteem most of my adult life,” said Patterson, who also testified that she felt for several months that her relationship with her in-laws Don and Gail Patterson had become increasingly distant.
“We saw each other less,” she said.
“I’d come to have concerns that Simon was not wanting me to be involved too much with the family anymore.”
Simon, her estranged husband, was not at the deadly meal that killed Don and Gail Patterson, along with Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, and also sickened Heather’s husband Ian Wilkinson, who survived following weeks of hospitalization.
Patterson also described a brief period of separation between her and her husband when their oldest child was an infant, and that she and Simon had tried unsuccessfully to work out their disagreements.
“We couldn’t communicate well when we disagreed about something,” she said. “We would just feel hurt and not know how to resolve it.”
Patterson further recalled how after their first son was born in 2009, which was via an emergency caesarean, she chose to discharge herself against medical advice.
The jury has already heard that Patterson also discharged herself from the hospital against medical advice after the deadly mushroom meal, which prosecutors used to note that she was not sickened by the food. However, her lawyer mentioned in his opening statement that she had acted the same way regarding her unadvised discharges several times over her life.
Overall, Patterson provided less than an hour of evidence before the court session ended for the day, and she will return Tuesday to continue with her testimony.
