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The court has been shown footage of Patterson’s daughter being interviewed by police.

The couple’s daughter told the interviewer her mother told her the day before the 29 July 2023 lunch that she was having Ian, Heather, Don, and Gail over because she wanted to talk to them about “adult stuff”.

The young girl said the morning of 29 July 2023 she went into the kitchen and saw her mother making a coffee.

She said there was also something in the oven, which looked lilke meat.

The girl said her mother told her at that point that she, her brother, and their friend, would be going to the movies while the adults had lunch.

The girl said her mother later dropped her, her brother, and their friend to McDonalds, where they ate lunch before making the “one minute” walk over to the movies, where they watched a film..

After the movies, her father picked them up before dropping the two boys off (either both at her mother’s home or each at their respective homes, she couldn’t remember) while she hung out with her father, she said.

The girl said her mother told them the next day that she was feeling sick with “diarrhoea and a sore tummy”.

Asked whether she saw her mother going to the toilet, the girl said: “I saw her go like ten times (throughout that day).

“We were going to go to church but mum was feeling to sick,” she said.

“(For the rest of the day) I played on my computer then we had dinner.

“I don’t remember going anywhere.”

The interviewer asked what the girl, her mother, and brother ate for dinner that night, and she said they had the leftovers - “steak, mash potatoes, and beans” - from the lunch.

Asked whether there was gravy, the girl said: “I don’t think so”.

The interviewer then asked Patterson’s daughter if she could describe the plates at her mother’s home.

Patterson’s daughter: “They are just round plates.

“There is a black and red one and there are some white ones and I think they are all the colours we have.”

Interviewer: “Tell me about the black and red plate.”

Patterson’s daughter: “That is the plate (my brother) uses.”

Interviewer: “At dinner time, did mum have food with you guys?”

Patterson’s daughter: “Yes. She ate the same as us.”

Interviewer: “And did you eat all of your dinner?”

Patterson’s daughter: “I think so.”

Interviewer: “And your brother?”

Patterson’s daughter: “Yes”

Interviewer: “How about mum?”

Patterson’s daughter: “Mum wasn’t very hungry so she didn’t eat all of it.”

Asked if that was because she was still sick, the girl agreed and said her mother was still and going back and forth to the toilet at that point in the night.

Interviewer: “What happened after dinner?”

Patterson’s daughter: “We went to bed.”

Paramedic Ellen Spencer transferred Patterson from Leongatha Hospital to Monash Hospital on Monday 31 July, 2023.

Spencer said she had been advised prior to picking up Patterson that the mother-of-two was one of five people who had fallen sick after a lunch from suspected mushroom poisoning.

Spencer said she was advised Patterson was going to Monash Hospital because that was where her children were going.

Spencer said when she and her colleague, Darcy Cummins, arrived to collect Patterson, they saw her walking with an IV pole after going to the toilet.

“Ms Patterson appeared well. She was alert and had normal skin colour,” Spencer said.

“We then introduced ourselves and asked her to explain to us her symptoms.

“She said she had had diarrhoea up to 30 times over the past few days.”

Prior to the 90-minute drive to Monash Hospital, Spencer said she and Cummins told Patterson to let them know if she needed them to pull over because of her diarrhoea, but she never requested to stop.

Spencer said Patterson’s appeared ‘calm and chatty’ throughout the ride.

However, at one point during the journey, she complained of a headache, prompting Cummins to call a poison’ advice line for assistance in prescribing Patterson with a painkiller.

Spencer explained that panadol would be the typical treatment, however, due to the possibility it could further strain her liver (if she was suffering from mushroom poisoning) they received advice to give her ‘fentanyl’.

“We gave her fentanyl through the nose and that was effective,” Spencer said.

“Ms Patterson was very calm and nonchalant. It was an uneventful journey.

“She maintained her vital signs, her skin colour remained the same.. There was no changes from when we met her.”

Under cross-examination, the defence put it to Spencer that Patterson had been on an IV drip and medication from the time they first met her, which she agreed.

Spencer also agreed that Patterson had shown concern during the discussions regarding liver damage and choices of medication.

Under cross-examination, Tanya Patterson has revealed her husband, Matt, instructed her not to tell Patterson about Don and Gail’s condition.

Tanya told the court, before she went to visit Patterson in hospital, her husband told her to refrain from telling the mother-of-two about her former parents-in-laws’ health condition as Simon should be the one to tell her.

The court previously heard from Simon Patterson that his estranged wife did not ask about her lunch guests’ health, which he found odd.

Tanya told the court Patterson asked her about the health of the lunch guests when she first entered the mother-of-two’s hospital room.

Tanya: ”I told her things were changing quickly. I think she said Don and Gail were in induced comas and I said that is what I knew.“

Tanya told the court she then told Patterson if she wanted further information, she would have to ask Simon.

Defence: “Did Erin say to you that she had tried to find out from Simon?”

Tanya: “Yes.”

Tanya Patterson, who is married to Simon’s brother Matt, said she visited Patterson in hospital on Tuesday 1 August, 2023.

While in Patterson’s room, Tanya said they spoke about the four lunch guests, cruise holidays they were interested in, and the mother-of-two’s time in hospital.

“She asked me how they (the lunch guests) were doing and I said they were going downhill quickly,” Tanya said.

“She said she knew that Don and Gail were in a coma and I said that was the latest and if she wanted to know more to wait for Simon (to tell her).

“She (also) said she didn’t really sleep that night and her potassium was low.”

Tanya said a toxicologist came in to Patterson’s room while she was there.

She said she offered to leave the room while Patterson spoke to the toxicologist, but the mother-of-two said it was fine if she stayed.

“Erin asked (the toxicologist) ‘How’s my potassium?”’and the doctor said her potassium levels were fine and for someone who had diarrhoea, it really wasn’t as low as they would have expected it to be,” Tanya said.

Tanya said the toxicologist also said the drip Patterson had been placed on overnight was implemented as a precaution.

Tanya said she then left and went and saw Patterson’s two children, who were in another room at the hospital with their father, Simon.

She said she later texted Patterson and told her the children were well and just waiting around, with the mother-of-two responding “thank you very much” and “thanks for visiting”.

While she couldn’t recall Patterson’s exact phone number, Tanya said she received the message from the number she had “always known” the mother-of-two to have.

The court heard the next time Tanya heard from Patterson was via an email on 7 August, 2023 - by which point Don and Gail Patterson had passed away.

Tanya confirmed Patterson’s email was to ask if she and Matt would take in her two children if child protection officers became involved with the family.

A senior constable has told the court he attended Patterson’s home on Monday 31 July, 2023, to collect the leftovers from the lunch.

The court previously heard Dr Christopher Webster called police when Patterson left the hospital around 8am that morning.

She later returned to the hospital and, while she was there, officers visited her home and picked up the leftovers.

The police officer said he received instructions from Patterson over the phone as to where the leftovers would be located.

He said Patterson advised the food scraps would be in either the indoor bin or outside bin in a brown Woolworths bag.

The senior constable said the leftovers were in the outdoor bin.

“There was maybe some cans (in the bag too), but it was primarily one and a bit beef wellingtons,” he said.

The officer said he double wrapped the bag in plastic to contain a ‘gravy-like’ liquid that was beginning to seep from the paper.

Cop: “Yes.”

She provided police with the authority to enter the house?”

Cop: “Correct.”

Defence: “And you found the leftovers in the area described by Erin?”

Cop: “Yes.”

Nurse Cindy Munro has told the court she told Patterson her two children would need to attend hospital for treatment as they had consumed leftovers of the lunch.

However, Munro said Patterson was reluctant to bring her children to the hospital.

Munro: “She said: ‘No no, I scraped off all the mushrooms’ and ‘the children were not unwell’.

“She did not want to cause a hassle or to take them out of school

“She became quite teary. She said I don’t want to stress them out.”

“I did say to her, even if she scraped off the mushrooms, some of it could have seeped through the meat and they could of been exposed to the toxins and that needed the immediate hospitalisation of the children.”

Munro said Dr Foote came in and again reassured Patterson about why she was being treated and why it was necessary for the children to also attend hospital.

Munro said Patterson repeated her insistent that she did not want to worry the children, before eventually agreeing to arrange for her children to present for care.

Nursing manager Cindy Munro said she was asked by a busy colleague to cannulate Patterson on 31 Monday July 2023 when the mother-of-two returned to Leongatha Hospital after self-discharging earlier that morning.

Munro said the hospital had used all of their supplies for a poisoning medication on Ian and Heather, so arrangements were being made to be delivered more from Korumburra.

“I went back in to tell her there would be a delay (in getting the medication) and that I was here to check her vital signs and cannulate,” Munro said.

Prosecution: “How did Erin look to you at that point?”

Munro: “She didn’t look unwell like Heather and Ian. Ian was so unwell he could barely lift his head off the pillow.

“Erin was sitting up in the trolley and she didn’t look unwell to me.”

Munro said while she was cannulating, Patterson said “multiple times” that she “didn’t want any of this (meaning the medication or IV drip) and “didn’t understand why she was getting any of it”.

“So I stopped what I was doing, I went to check with Dr Foote and then I came back and Dr Foote had to come back and reassure her that she was having the medication and what it was for.”

The court has heard from nurse Kylie Ashton who, along with Dr Veronica Foote, spoke to Erin Patterson when she arrived at Leongatha Hospital on July 31, 2023.

“She (Patterson) would not come to a cubicle for a formal assessment,” Ashton said.

“I would have told her the others were unwell and it was important we did a thorough assessment.

“She had told me that she had been the fifth member of the lunch and that she consumed the meal that was prepared and that she had had diarrhoea and nausea since that occasion but no vomiting.

“I think she had been advised (to attend) as a fifth member (of the lunch), but I am not sure who by.

“She said she had not come to hospital prepared to be admitted and that she needed to go and sort out her children.

“I implored her to stay... (But) she got up and said she needed to leave.”

Ashton said she gave Patterson a form to sign, which would declare that she was leaving hospital on her own volition against the advice of medical staff.

Ashton said Patterson signed the form and left.

The court previously heard Patterson returned to the hospital a few hours later.

Under cross-examination, Colin Mandy SC put it to Ashton that Patterson said she would be returning to the hospital after she made arrangements for her children.

“Not initially, she was just saying she couldn’t be there at that time,” Ashton said.

The court has been shown a ‘discharge at own risk’ form Erin Patterson signed as she left Leongatha Hospital on Monday 31 July, 2023.

The document reads:

“​I Erin Patterson am leaving from this hospital on my own responsibility against advice of the medical officer/ senior nursing staff.”​