Australian woman Erin Patterson is giving evidence in her triple-murder trial
The court has heard Ms Patterson, 50, cooked and served a beef wellington meal containing toxic death cap mushrooms at her home in regional Victoria in July 2023, which killed three relatives and seriously injured another
The prosecution says Ms Patterson included the poisonous mushrooms deliberately - she denies this and her defence team says it was a "terrible accident"
Her estranged husband's parents, Don and Gail Patterson, both died as well as Gail Patterson's sister, Heather Wilkinson. Heather's husband, Ian Wilkinson, became ill but survived
Her testimony today centred on the breakdown of her marriage and health anxieties which developed in the lead up to the lunch for her relatives at her home
Yesterday, she told the court that her relationship with her in-laws had grown more distant by 2023
Watch: Three things you need to know about Australia's mushroom murder trial
Less than an hour after taking to the witness stand, Erin Patterson has been excused and court has finished up for the day.
She'll be back to give evidence when court resumes at 1030 local time (0130GMT) tomorrow.
Helen Sullivan
Senior Journalist
Earlier, Ms Patterson said that Gail, Simon's mother, had been very helpful after the birth of her son, giving her advice on how to soothe him.
Gail is among the people who died following a lunch at Erin's home.
"I remember being really relieved that Gail was there. I felt really out of my depth… she was really supportive and gentle and patient with me," Ms Patterson said.
Katy Watson
Australia correspondent
After detailing a brief period of separation between the couple when their first child was an infant, Erin Patterson told the court that she and Simon Patterson struggled to work out their disagreements.
“If we had any problems at all it was… we couldn't communicate well when we disagreed about something,” she said.
“We would just feel hurt and not know how to resolve it.” She is asked if that tension extended to questions over how to look after their son, and says it did not.
“Because we both loved him. They were adult problems, they weren't problems for a child," she says.
Katy Watson
Australia correspondent
Ms Patterson tells the court that she left hospital before being discharged - her son’s condition had improved but the hospital didn’t think she had healed enough but she didn’t want to stay alone. She got upset and talked to her husband Simon Patterson and she left against medical advice.
Katy Watson
Australia correspondent
Ms Patterson is now being asked to describe her son's birth - she said it was “very traumatic".
"It went for a very long time and they tried to get him out with forceps and he wouldn’t come out.
"He started to go into distress and they lost his heartbeat."
Her voice choking up, she explains doctors performed an emergency caesarean to get him out quickly.
Simon Atkinson
Australia producer
The case is being heard in Latrobe Valley Law Courts - a fairly small and unimposing modern building on the main road through the town of Morwell in regional Victoria.
It is about a 45-minute drive from the Leongatha home, where the lunch took place.
The judge, barristers and some of the court staff are travelling here each week and staying nearby (accommodation had been hard to find!). Court finishes at lunchtime on Fridays - in part to allow out-of-towners to get home for the weekend.
Jurors however have been drawn from the local area.
Katy Watson
Australia correspondent
Asked about her religion when she met Simon Patterson, Erin Patterson says: "I was what you would probably call a fundamentalist atheist - I was really very atheist."
Her estranged husband Simon Patterson is a Christian.
Ms Patterson is asked if her attitude towards religion changed after meeting him.
Through the course of December 2004 to February 2005, they had a lot of conversation about life, politics and religion, she says.
"I was trying to convert him to being an atheist and things happened in reverse and I became a Christian," she says.
Katy Watson
Australia correspondent
Ms Patterson says that by 2023 she had felt for some months that her relationship with the wider Patterson family - Don and Gail in particular - had perhaps developed a bit more distance or space.
"We saw each other less," she says.
"I’d come to have concerns that Simon was not wanting me to be involved too much with the family anymore."
Katy Watson
Australia correspondent
Ms Patterson has described her relationship with her estranged husband as "functional".
She is then asked about her self-esteem, and responds that she didn't feel good physically. She says she has been fighting a never-ending battle over self-esteem for most of her adult life.
Ms Patterson's barrister has started by asking her about her personal life around the time of the lunch in July 2023.
In a clear voice, the 50-year-old is answering questions about her children, her finances, her newly built house (which she'd moved into a year prior), and her study plans. She reveals she had been accepted to study a bachelor's degree of nursing and midwifery.
Tiffanie Turnbull
BBC News, Sydney
So far the only witnesses the trial has heard from are those from the prosecution. Erin Patterson taking the stand today marks the start of the defence's turn.
At the beginning of the trial in April, Ms Patterson's barrister told the court they would argue the "tragedy" was a "terrible accident".
She admits she lied to police and disposed of some evidence in the days after the lunch, Colin Mandy said, but while the prosecution are trying to cast that behaviour as "incriminating", the reality was she "panicked because she was overwhelmed".
The jury is being asked to weigh up evidence and decide whether Erin Patterson is guilty of four charges: three of murder, and one of attempted murder.
The case centres around a beef wellington lunch she served at her home in Leongatha in July 2023.
Three people died in hospital in the days after the lunch, including Ms Patterson's former in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, as well as Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson, 66. Heather's husband, 71-year-old Baptist pastor Ian Wilkinson, survived after weeks of treatment in hospital.
Prosecutors say Ms Patterson intentionally served up the meal containing mushrooms. She has pleaded not guilty - her defence says it accepts deadly death cap mushrooms were in the meal but that it was an accident and Ms Patterson "didn't intend to cause anyone any harm".
Tiffanie Turnbull
BBC News, Sydney
Image source, ReutersErin Patterson is about to give evidence in court in her murder trial.
Ms Patterson is accused of cooking a beef wellington lunch which killed three relatives and seriously injured another.
She denies the allegations. The defence say what happened was a tragic accident, and that she unintentionally served the poisonous death cap mushrooms.
The case has attracted interest around the world.
Over the past month, the jury has heard from more than 50 witnesses put forward by the prosecution - including the only surviving guest, and also Ms Patterson's estranged husband - but this is the first time we'll hear from Ms Patterson herself.