Court Revelations: Erin Patterson's Own Words from the Mushroom Murder Trial

This bonus episode features Erin Patterson's own testimony from the Supreme Court of Victoria, offering her version of events from the  lunch at the center of the Mushroom trial.

• Erin describes cooking six beef Wellingtons and plating five portions
• Detailed account of the kitchen scene, plating process, and conversations before the meal
• Gail and Heather took plates to the table while Erin prepared gravy
• Family conversations during lunch included discussion about relatives, politics, and a new baby
• Erin admits lying about possibly needing cancer treatment when actually planning gastric bypass surgery
• Description of who ate what portions - Ian and Don finished entirely, Gail ate most, Erin claims partial consumption
• The meal ended with Ian suggesting they pray for Erin's fabricated health issues

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Chapters

• 0:00 Podcast Introduction
• 1:13 Erin's Kitchen Scene
• 4:03 Plating and Seating Arrangement
• 6:23 Mealtime Conversations
• 8:41 Erin's Health Deception
• 9:42 Closing and Newsletter Reminder

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello and welcome to the Mushroom Murder Trial podcast. My name is Lisa. This is a bonus edition. It's Erin Patterson, in her own words, from the transcript of yesterday's proceedings in Morwell in the Supreme Court of Victoria. I thank you for joining me today. I'm very appreciative of the time that you are giving to me. Let me know via my socials or the website. Time that you were giving to me, let me know via my socials or the website, mushroommurdertrialcom. Now I know that most of you are signing up, so just a reminder for the newsletter. Thank you.

Speaker 1: 0:33

Now what we're doing today is I'm reading straight from the transcript from yesterday and there are two people here, so obviously Ms Patterson, who has pled not guilty to all charges, and her barrister, colin Mandy, sc. So I'll be reading and if I make a mistake I want to get this out as soon as possible I'll just move on. There'll be no fancy editing today, but let me know if you want more of these, because my friend Louise and I are going to be doing some on the weekend. So let's go from there. And we're starting on the day of the lunch in Erin's kitchen. What were you talking about? So after they finished that, they came back out and they stood on the other side of the kitchen bench to where I was plating up the food. So I had the wellingtons on an oven tray, resting on the bench next to the stove, and I had mashed the potato in a pot, and then I put out the plates and started serving the mash, then the wellingtons and finally the beans. And what plates did you use to serve up the food? Just the dinner plates that I had. So I think there's a couple of black, a couple of white and one that's red on top and black underneath, and then I've got that one one of her children made at kindergarten. Do you own any other plates? Any other dinner plates? No, I didn't. Did you own any grey plates? No, so go on describing the plating up process. Yep, the plates are on the bench. Yep, the island bench, that's right. Yes, there's a ladle full of mashed potato on each plate, a wellington on each plate, a scoop of beans on each plate.

Speaker 1: 2:26

But I remember, while I was doing this, heather and Gail were talking to me and Gail said to me, like quote, are you coming to the birthday thing next Saturday? And I said I didn't know about it. And she said oh well, we'd love you to come. And I said, yes, I'll come. And what was the birthday thing next Saturday? It would have been like the Patterson had this sort of a gathering of everybody roughly every quarter of all the birthdays that happen around there. So, being early August, it would have been whoever had a birthday in the month or two before and after. You were talking about plating up. How many plates did you plate up? I plated up five. You said you cooked six wellingtons. Yes, what happened to the other one? So it either. I think I just put the oven tray straight in the fridge with it to worry about later.

Speaker 1: 3:24

In that conversation with Gail and Heather, you talked about the gathering the following week. Yep, was there any other family news that was conveyed to you? Yes, she told me that Nathan and Maren had had their baby, which was really exciting to hear. I didn't know that, so it was really good news. And did you do anything about that news later on in the day? Yes, I did. Later in the evening I messaged Maren to tell her congratulations on the baby and you know I look forward to meeting him next Saturday and she sent me a lot of photos of baby's name and also of her children, and I think I exchanged some of her children as well.

Speaker 1: 4:05

All right, so you're at the island bench, five plates sitting there, heather and Gail on the other side of the bench. Yep, everything plated up. Yep, what happens then? So I said, you grab a plate, guys, and I'm going to finish off the gravy. I turned around and I think I used one of those ready-made gravy sachets. I didn't want to risk a gravy problem, so I heat that up in there, maybe. I used two sachets. I heated it in the saucepan, went into the pantry to get a serving picture and put the gravy into the pitcher, grabbed the last plate off the bench and went and sat at the table. How did the other plates get on the table, did you see? Well, I didn't see it happen. I assume everyone grabbed a plate. But Ian said that Gail and Heather took two plates each, and I accept that's probably what happened. And do you remember which plate you had? No, his honour, it's at a convenient time, mr Mandy. Yes, okay, so there's a bit of a break at 11 44 am and then we go forward to.

Speaker 1: 5:17

We jump to and, having plated. I just want to clarify this with you what's your recollection about the last thing that you did before you went to the table. The last thing I did was put the gravy from the saucepan into the gravy boat. And where did you? How long before you making the gravy? It was from a ready pack, so it would have only taken a minute or two to heat up, so it was probably all contained in that one activity. And in order to make the gravy, where did you go? In your kitchen, in relation to the image that we see now? So it's a photo of her kitchen. So you've got the table and then you've got to the left is the island bench, and then you go to the left again is a bench with the stove on it and there's like two areas on either side of the stove where you can put things. All right. And where were you making the gravy? At the stove. And the stove bench is parallel to the island bench, isn't it? Yes, that's right. Okay, so now they're going into an exhibit that we can't see, so we'll jump ahead All right.

Speaker 1: 6:23

Now, during the course of the meal, what was the discussion, as best as you can remember, from the beginning, sitting down, what did you talk about? Oh, we talked about what we'd been up to, what had been happening in the family, probably a bit of politics and current affairs about what the kids were doing. They all asked lots of questions about the kids, or at least Heather and Gail did. At one point I remember Don talking about his brother that was battling throat cancer I think it was his brother, bobby and what happened with that conversation about cancer? Did it move on to other topics? It stayed at that topic at that point.

Speaker 1: 7:02

What did you say about your health? So it was right at the end of the meal and I mentioned that I'd had maybe not a scare is the right word, but I had last year, a year or two earlier, where I thought I had ovarian cancer and had various scans related to that, and then I'm not proud of this, but I led them to believe I might be needing some treatment in regards to that in the next few weeks or months. Can you remember what you said about that in any more detail? Not specifically, I do remember I referred to upcoming treatment because primarily in my mind I think sorry, because primarily in my mind was thinking I might need help with getting the kids to and from the bus or activities and I might need to explain why I was going to the hospital for a day or two. So that was really the focus of what I was talking about.

Speaker 1: 8:00

Did you mislead them? I did. How did the conversation conclude? They showed a lot of compassion about that, and then we saw Simon's car driving into the driveway, coming back with the kids, and so Ian said why don't we pray for Erin? And so we did. I asked you, did you mislead them? Did you lie to them? I did lie to them, and why didn't you tell them the truth about what you were intending? I was really embarrassed. I was ashamed of the fact that I didn't have control over my body or what I ate. I was ashamed of that. So Erin's talking here about planned gastric bypass surgery. I didn't have control over my body or what I ate. I was ashamed of that and embarrassed. I didn't want to tell anyone and, in turn, but I shouldn't have lied to them.

Speaker 1: 8:55

In terms of what people ate at the meal. Can you remember much of the portions of what people ate? So Ian and Gail ate all of theirs. Don ate all of his and Gail ate quite a lot of hers not all of it. Don finished off what she hadn't eaten. I'd eaten a quarter. A third somewhere around there of mine, I ate some of mine. You'd eaten half, yep. Third, somewhere around there of mine, I ate some of mine. You'd eaten half Yep.

Speaker 1: 9:21

What do you say about the evidence? I mean, it was about that I wasn't measuring, I couldn't be precise, but it was some of. It is the best way I can really say. And why was it that you don't recall eating all of your portion? Well, I was talking a lot, I was eating slowly and that's all I can say. So that's all we have for today. Excuse that dog in the background. Um, I'm now going to follow the trial and um, I'll be back later to report. Thank you so much for joining me today. Make sure you join up on the newsletter mushroommurdertrialcom and you can support me or buy me a coffee five dollars for a coffee, but you don't have to, only if you can afford it and you want to. Uh, all the show notes have links, etc. So thank you, and I shall speak to you very, very soon. Bye.