The doctor who first treated triple-murderer Erin Patterson when she presented to hospital after poisoning her in-laws says he knew she was guilty from the start.
Doctor Chris Webster was the first medical professional to speak to Erin Patterson when she presented to Leongatha Hospital about 8am on July 31, 2023.
When she was reluctant to get treatment and self-discharged against medical advice, Webster called triple zero.
For the first-time, the triple zero call, along with dozens of other exhibits in the case against the triple-murderer, have been released.
“This is Dr Chris Webster calling from Leongatha Hospital. I have a concern regarding a patient that presented here earlier but has left the building and is potentially exposed to a fatal toxin from mushroom poisoning,” Webster told authorities in the triple zero call.
“I’ve tried several times to get hold of her on her mobile phone.”
Patterson left just five minutes after presenting to the hospital, when the nurse was due to begin observations, Webster told the triple zero operator.
“I had a brief chat with her about where the mushrooms were obtained and after that, while I was attending to the other patients, the nurse informed me she had discharged herself against medical advice,” he told the operator.
Speaking out for the first time, Webster said his “heart skipped a beat” when Patterson presented to hospital with gastro symptoms and revealed her name.
“I bypassed all of the usual triage protocols and just brought her straight in and sat her down and just looked her straight in the eye directly and said ‘the people at Dandenong suspect death cap mushroom poisoning, where did you get the mushrooms?'” Webster recalled.
“That’s when she said ‘Woolworths’. She was fairly impassive, wasn’t loud or hysterical, wasn’t crying. She just answered the question in a pretty matter-of-fact way.
“After that I was like OK, I don’t want to talk to you anymore, I know what you’ve done.”
Ian and Heather Wilkinson, were also at the hospital, desperately sick, but the doctor says something felt very sinister.
“She wasn’t shaking, Erin was sat in a chair, I don’t even remember her looking at Ian and Heather,” Webster said.
“She’s evil. She wanted people out of her life and rather than using normal channels she snuffed out their lives and attempted to snuff out another.”
Webster’s triple zero call was the first domino to fall in a chain reaction that ultimately exposed a killer.
“When she didn’t respond in a way that would instantly explain it was a tragic accident, from that moment in my mind she was guilty. She was evil, and she was very smart to carry it all out but she didn’t cross the Ts and dot the Is,” he said.
The next time Webster came face-to-face with Patterson was in the courtroom when he was called as a witness.
“When I looked at her, when I found the opportunity to sneak a peek, it was visceral, I felt the intensity, the hostility, the negativity, it was an intense gaze,” he said.
“She’s evil and she had a problem, she had a dilemma, and the solution that she chose is sociopathic.
“If you don’t like your in-laws there are other things you can do besides snuffing out a family.”
