Everyone knows Erin Patterson, the ‘Mushroom Lady’, is a murdering psychopath and a crazy bitch. I mean, how else would you describe someone who not only murdered a bunch of innocent people and then staged elaborate but ridiculously implausible lies to try and get away with it, but is also implicated in years of suspected poisoning cases? ‘Crazy bitch’ is, frankly, being polite.
But if you say so publicly, the Karens will destroy you.
Just ask Dr Chris Webster.
He helped solve one of Australia’s biggest crimes. Now, Dr Chris Webster says he has paid the ultimate price.
The Victorian GP, who made headlines after raising concerns about convicted mushroom killer Erin Patterson, has confessed his outspokenness on the case has left him unemployed and penniless.
The Leongatha GP was the man who first smelled a rat when Patterson rocked up at hospital two days after serving her fatal beef Wellington. He watched her discharge herself against medical advice, then did what any decent doctor would do: rang triple-0 because he was worried about the kids still under her roof. He later gave key evidence that helped put the triple murderer away. Australia rightly hailed him as a hero.
Then he opened his mouth and offended the internet’s Karen Class.
After taking the stand as a key prosecution witness in the triple-murder case that captivated Australia, Dr Webster spoke to the media in the days after to express his outrage over the horrific Leongatha mass poisoning.
A litany of complaints about his language towards Patterson, specifically calling her a “sociopath” and “crazy b***”, resulted in the doctor facing sanctions from the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency.
Which is pretty much the Final Boss of the Karens.
Within 48 hours of the guilty verdict, AHPRA slapped conditions on his registration. Four months later his regional clinic was shuttered. Now the man who helped solve one of the most heinous crimes in recent Australian history is broke, jobless and being chased by the bank for tens of thousands in unpaid loans.
“In these twelve months since the verdict, I had vicious trolling and my registration had conditions imposed on it within 48 hours,” he said in a video.
He said the imposed conditions resulted in “severe financial hardship” for both him and the now-defunct clinic.
Bank statements show that four of his bank accounts have just one dollar in them – the other is overdrawn by $18.
“If you think I deserve to lose my livelihood, have my company bankrupt, have my reputation sh**-canned in the media – all for the heinous crime of calling a mass murderer a sociopath – then you’re wrong,” the 52-year-old told the camera.
Or a university-educated, middle-class white woman on social media.
The public, bless them, have not lost their minds. Comments poured in: “Country towns in Australia need good doctors: this is a travesty.” Locals are talking GoFundMe. One dryly predicted the bloke would make a million if he ever set up a tip jar. Yet the regulator remains unmoved. Doctors and nurses who spout antisemitic hate are left to carry on unmolested. But calling a woman who poisoned her relatives with death-cap mushrooms a “crazy bitch” is, apparently, a graver offence than the actual murders. This is the Australia the professional Karens have built.
Webster did the right thing twice: first as a doctor who refused to look the other way, then as a citizen who refused to pretend evil is complicated. For that he has been professionally crucified.
The mushroom murders shocked the nation because they were so coldly calculated. What should shock us more is that the man who helped stop the killer has been ruined for the crime of speaking plain English.
When the guardians of ‘professional standards’ care more about hurt feelings than dead bodies, the crazy bitches aren’t just the ones baking the pies. They’re the ones writing the rules.
