MELBOURNE: Erin Patterson, the Australian woman convicted last month of killing three relatives by serving them a beef Wellington laced with death cap mushrooms, also allegedly tried to poison her estranged husband years earlier, according to court evidence.
Simon Patterson told a pre-trial hearing in October 2024 that he had long suspected his wife’s cooking made him ill. He kept a spreadsheet of incidents — from penne bolognese and chicken curry to sandwich wraps — that coincided with severe sickness. He claimed he was poisoned during two camping trips and a walk, once nearly dying, becoming temporarily paralysed, and losing part of his bowel.
Prosecutors allege that in one instance, Erin served him a chicken korma curry deliberately laced with poison. The accusations date back to 2021 and 2022 but were not heard during her recent murder trial, as a judge split the charges into separate cases to ensure fairness.
Patterson, 50, was found guilty of murdering her mother-in-law, father-in-law and her husband’s aunt Heather Wilkinson in 2023, and of the attempted murder of Heather’s husband, who survived. She continues to insist the beef Wellington was accidentally contaminated with the world’s most lethal fungus.
