A court in Australia was told by the estranged husband of Erin Patterson that it was “very rare” for her to hold social gatherings at her home. Ms Patterson, 50, is charged with the murder of three relatives and the attempted murder of another.

She is accused of deliberately adding poisonous death cap mushrooms to a beef wellington lunch she prepared for the group of guests at her home in July 2023 – an allegation she denies. Three people died in hospital in the days after the meal, including Ms Patterson’s former in-laws, Don Patterson, 70, and Gail Patterson, 70, as well as Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, 66.

Local pastor Ian Wilkinson survived after weeks of treatment in hospital.

Ms Patterson has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Her defence team claims she “panicked” after seeing family members she loved becoming so ill following the gathering.

Appearing as the first witness in the trial this week, Simon Patterson told the court he had decided to turn down an invitation to attend the meal the day before. 

The jury was then shown text messages exchanged between the couple the day before the deadly lunch.

Mr Patterson said he felt “too uncomfortable” about attending the lunch.

His wife then responded: “That’s really disappointing. I’ve spent many hours this week preparing lunch for tomorrow.

“It’s important to me that you’re all there tomorrow and that I can have the conversations that I need to have.”

The prosecution is alleging Ms Patterson had invited the group to lunch “on the pretence she’d been diagnosed with cancer”.

In the opening statement, the prosecution’s lead barrister Nanette Rogers told jurors they would hear evidence Ms Patterson had travelled to a location near her home in Leongatha. Death cap mushroom sightings had been flagged in the area on a naturalist website. 

The prosecution also claimed that after the poisoning, Ms Patterson attempted to “conceal” her crime by disposing of a food dehydrator she allegedly used to prepare the deadly meal and allegedly lying to investigators about the source of the mushrooms used in the meal.

Ms Patterson’s barrister denied she deliberately served poisoned food to her guests, with the defence case being “that she panicked because she was overwhelmed by the fact that these four people had become so ill because of the food she had served them.”

The trial continues. Mr Patterson’s evidence is expected to conclude on Friday.