It was rare for Erin Patterson to host guests; having four people over for a meal was not an ordinary, casual event for the mother of two.
Patterson told a jury in her murder trial that her beef Wellington lunch – to which she invited her estranged husband’s parents, Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister and her husband – Heather and Ian Wilkinson – was not a casual gathering she frequently put on.
After a full day in the witness box, Patterson, 50, confirmed that before that July 29, 2023, lunch she had never hosted the Wilkinsons before.
During cross-examination, Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers asked questions focused on the purpose of the lunch and why those guests were invited.
She then put to Patterson, who is on trial for the murder of Don, Gail, and Heather, and the attempted murder of Ian, whether she had lied about her health to ensure the guests would attend and to explain the children’s absence.
Patterson, her long brown hair out in the witness box for a fourth consecutive day, told the court that this was incorrect.
“I suggest you never thought you’d have to account for this lie about having cancer because you thought the lunch guests would die,” Rogers said.
“That’s not true,” Erin responded.
Today’s evidence has now concluded.
