Mushroom poisoner Erin Paterson was accused of lacing a chicken curry, cookies, and a pasta Bolognese she gave her ex husband with poison – years before killing her in-laws with a beef Wellington
Erin Patterson allegedly tried for years to kill her estranged husband with poisoned meals – including a chicken curry, cookies, and a pasta Bolognese – long before serving the poison mushroom-laced beef Wellington that killed three relatives, it has been revealed.
The Australian mum-of-two, found guilty last month of three murders and one attempted murder, was accused of lacing food she gave Simon Patterson in a series of incidents between 2021 and 2023. The charges related to him were dropped before trial, meaning jurors never heard the claims. But now, details of the allegations, which Patterson denied, have been made public for the first time.
Simon, who had been invited to the lunch on July 29, 2023, that killed his parents Don Patterson, 70, Gail Patterson, 70, and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, 66, pulled out the day before – avoiding the fatal dish. Heather’s husband, pastor Ian Wilkinson, survived after weeks in hospital.
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Simon told pre-trial hearings he first fell ill in November 2021 after eating a Tupperware container of Bolognese penne prepared by Erin. He suffered vomiting and diarrhoea and spent a night in hospital.
In May 2022, on a camping trip in Victoria’s High Country, he collapsed after eating a chicken korma she had cooked. “While Erin was preparing food I was getting the fire going so I didn’t watch her prepare it,” he said. Days later, he was in a coma, had part of his bowel removed, and twice his family was told to say goodbye.
In September 2022, a vegetable wrap on a coastal trip left him slurring his speech, seizing, and paralysed except for his neck, tongue and lips. A doctor friend suggested keeping a food diary.
By February 2023, Simon suspected Erin. He told the doctor about cookies she claimed were baked by their daughter, fearing they were tainted – possibly with antifreeze – and said Erin repeatedly called to check if he had eaten them. Investigators later found a file on her computer containing information about rat poison.
Simon quietly told close relatives. His sister, Anna Terrington, warned their parents the night before the fatal lunch. “Dad said, ‘No, we’ll be ok’,” she recalled. After the tragedy, Heather Wilkinson’s daughter, Ruth Dubois, said Simon gathered the family in a hospital chapel to explain his past illnesses. “[He said] he had stopped eating food that Erin had prepared… but he thought he was the only person she was targeting.”
The court also heard prosecutors alleged Patterson showed a long-standing interest in poisonous mushrooms. In 2020, she posted on a Facebook poisons help forum claiming her cat had vomited after eating fungi under a tree – alongside photos of mushrooms. Prosecutors said Patterson had never owned a cat.
It was also revealed she visited a local tip the afternoon of the fatal lunch and returned days later to dispose of the food dehydrator used to prepare the meal. The judge allowed the jury to hear about the second visit, but not the first.
Patterson will be sentenced on August 25.