Wilkinson’s husband, long-serving Korumburra Baptist Church pastor Ian Wilkinson, fell critically ill but recovered.
Patterson has pleaded not guilty, with her defence arguing that while the lunch did contain poisonous mushrooms, she did not intentionally poison anyone and the case is a tragic accident.
‘Dr Google’: Patterson describes health fears
The topic of questioning has moved on to Patterson’s health concerns, and she concedes she never had cancer nor received a needle biopsy.
Prosecutors allege she used the “false claim” of a cancer diagnosis as the impetus for the lunch, while her defence argues she raised a suspicion she had ovarian cancer at the lunch.
“Have you ever had cancer?” defence barrister Colin Mandy, SC, asked.
Patterson responded: “I have not.”
A short time later Mandy asked if she was ever worried about cancer.
“Yes, I was quite worried about it,” she replied.
Patterson outlined how over the years she had several negative experiences with the hospital system not believing her when she raised concerns about her children’s health, only to be proven right.
“What they communicated to me was I was an over-anxious mother and should just relax,” she said.
“It considerably damaged my faith in the hospital system. I didn’t trust that these people knew what they were doing and I was in a heightened state of anxiety.”
From about the end of 2021, Patterson told the jury that she had a “multitude of symptoms”, including fatigue, abdominal pain, headaches and weight gain.
She said she turned to “Dr Google” amid her mistrust of the medical system.
She told the court she convinced herself that she had ovarian cancer, then a brain tumour, then multiple sclerosis, lupus and a “whole family of auto-immune disorders”.
“I think I wasted a lot of time, not just my time but medical people’s time, through all my Dr Googling,” she said.
“It’s hard to justify it, but with the benefit of hindsight, I just lost so much faith in the medical system.”
Erin wanted to get back together with Simon
Patterson was quizzed on her finances, revealing she received a large inheritance after her grandmother died in 2006 and her mother in 2019.
She said the inheritance allowed her and her husband Simon Patterson to purchase property, as well as assist Simon’s siblings to purchase their family homes with interest-free loans.
For the three siblings and their partners, it was “in the order of A$400,000… maybe a little less” each to be paid back as they could, she said.
Patterson said after they separated in late 2015, she and Simon split everything down the middle, including their properties and debts.
Asked why she included Simon’s name on the title of a property purchased in the Melbourne suburb of Mount Waverley in 2019, Patterson said it was a signal to Simon demonstrating commitment.
“I always thought we would bring the family back together, that’s what I wanted and I did that because I wanted some way to demonstrate that to Simon… something tangible to say I see a future for us,” she said.
‘Love me’: Patterson tearful in witness box
Patterson told the jury on Tuesday morning that her friendship with her husband never changed after their separation in 2015.
Patterson, 50, first took the stand on Monday after Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers, SC, closed the prosecution case.
Giving evidence for 45 minutes until the hearing was adjourned, she detailed the early stages of her relationship with her estranged husband.
She returned to court on Tuesday, wearing a navy blouse with white spots and standing about 8m opposite the jury as they entered.
Under questioning from Mandy, Patterson said the “primary” issue that caused a breakdown in her relationship with Simon was communication.
“If we had a disagreement, or any kind of conflict, we didn’t seem to be able to talk about it in a way where either of us felt heard or understood,” she said.
“We really liked each other still, it was just the living together that didn’t work.”
Patterson told the jury that after their separation in 2015, she remained a part of her husband’s family and was included in family events.
“It never changed, I was just their daughter-in-law and they just continued to love me,” she said tearfully.
Patterson details family concerns
Taking the stand shortly after 3.30pm on Monday, Patterson began to answer questions about her relationship, struggles with her weight, religious beliefs, motherhood and the lead-up to the fatal lunch.
Her voice started off soft, growing in volume and confidence as the minutes ticked over but faltered once when talking about the “very traumatic” birth of her son in January 2009.
Frequently, she would pause for a second or two, her eyes closed, before answering a question.
Patterson told the jury that she first met her husband when the pair were working at the Monash City Council in Melbourne in 2004.
She said they first began socialising through friends at the council, but the relationship grew deeper through “conversations about life, religion and politics” while camping together.
Describing herself then as a “fundamental atheist”, she said she sought to convert her Christian boyfriend before attending a service from Wilkinson.
“I had a religious experience there and it quite overwhelmed me,” she said.
Patterson said she developed a close relationship with Don and Gail and was walked down the aisle by Simon’s cousin, David Wilkinson, in June 2007 because her parents were on a train in Russia.
Soon after the couple hit the open road, “meandering” across the country before settling for a time in Perth.
Here she said she fell pregnant and their son was born before they continued their road trip across the Top End.
After months on the road, Patterson said she’d “had a gutful” and flew from Townsville back to Perth and the couple separated for the first time.
“What we struggled with over the entire course of our relationship … we just couldn’t communicate well when we disagreed about something,” she said.
“So we would just feel hurt and not know how to resolve it.”
Patterson said she felt her relationship with her estranged husband’s family had grown distant in the first few months of 2023 but said her relationship with Simon was “functional”.
“I had felt for some months that my relationship with the wider Patterson family, and particularly Don and Gail, had perhaps had a bit more distance or space put between us,” she said.
“We saw each other less … I’d begun to have concerns that Simon was not wanting me to be involved too much with the family anymore. Perhaps I wasn’t being invited to so many things.”
The trial continues.