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Hear Erin Patterson’s police interview in full · The Front

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Before we begin, a quick note. We've used voice actors
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: throughout this episode to bring you the words spoken in court.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: It's Wednesday, May twenty eight, twenty twenty five. Gas is
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: back with a vengeance in Queensland with the chris of
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: fully liberal government to unlock sixteen thousand square kilometers for
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: exploration to address looming energy shortages. Sydney University's latest recruit
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: is genuine Royalty Princess of Norway Ingrid Alexandra Glucksburg twenty
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: one is to study a Bachelor of Arts, but the
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: usual jokes about arts grads don't apply. This one is
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: second in line to the throne and will one day
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: be Queen Ingrid. You can read our colleague Richard Ferguson's
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: hilarious take on that story right now at The Australian
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: dot com dot au. Aaron Patterson told police she'd never
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: foraged for mushrooms and didn't own a dehydrator, even after
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: police had seized CCTV showing Patterson dumping a dehydrator at
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: a tip. Today, we're bringing you Aaron Patterson's police interview
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: recreated by voice actors after it was played at the
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Supreme Court trial where she's pleaded not guilty to murder.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: My name's Luke Farrell, detective sergeant. The reason we hear
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: today is to execute a search warrant, sure, and it's
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: in connection with the death of two people over the
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: last couple of days.
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: Hey died.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: That's the opening moment of a day that's become very
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: important in the trial of Aaron Patterson, the Victorian mother
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: of two who's accused of murdering three elderly relatives and
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: attempting to murder a fourth. She has pleaded not guilty
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: at eleven forty am. On August five, twenty twenty three,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: four police officers showed up at Patterson's home on the
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: outskirts of Lea and Gaffer, a small community in Victoria's Gippsland.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: Homicide Detective Luke Farrell took the lead, and after that
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: exchange on the doorstep, the officers spent four hours combing
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: through the house. On Tuesday, Prosecutor Jane Warren took Detective
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: Sergeant Farrell through photos taken on the day and.
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: On the bench there, what do we see that.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: Is a cookbook recipe Team Eats Dinner cookbook.
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: Did you open the book and look inside the book
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: at the time of locating this, Yes, I did, okay,
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: And did you locate a recipe of relevance to your inquiries?
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: Yes, So it wasn't a bookmark page, but on a
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: separate page there was a beef Wellington recipe. Yes, and
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: that page was spatted with cooking liquids.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: The cops went through the house, seizing electronic devices and
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: other items, and then they took Erin Patterson to one
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: Thaggy Police station to answer some questions. Today, we're going
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: to voice act for you that interview, which was recorded
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: on video and played to the jury on Tuesday. The
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: interviewing officer was Detective Leading Senior Constable Stephen Eppingstall of
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: Victoria Police's Homicide Squad. He's the lead investigator in this matter.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: Eppingstall told the court one of his first actions in
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: the case on August four, five days after the lunch,
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: was to ask a tactical intelligence officer, Detective Senior Constable
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: Meg Crawford, to begin looking through Aaron Patterson's records, including
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: bank details. Crawford found a transaction from two days earlier
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: August iiO made by Aaron Patterson at the Kunwara Transfers station.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: The local tip police obtained CCTV of Patterson at the
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: tip and visited to recover the item she deposited, a
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: black Sunbeam food dehydrator. After searching Patterson's home, Eppingstall was
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: ready to ask his questions.
• 4:13
  Speaker 5: This is a DVD recorded interview between Detective Leading Senior
• 4:16
  Speaker 5: Constable Stephen Eppingstall and Aaron Patterson of Leon Gatha, conducted
• 4:21
  Speaker 5: at the one Thaggy Police Station on Saturday, the fifth
• 4:23
  Speaker 5: of August twenty twenty three. The other person present is
• 4:26
  Speaker 5: my cooperator, Detective Senior Constable David Martin. Eron. Do you
• 4:31
  Speaker 5: agree The time is now four forty one by my watch? Yep.
• 4:36
  Speaker 5: Could you please state your full name and address.
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: For me, Aaron, Trudy Patterson, Lee and Gatha.
• 4:43
  Speaker 5: Now, as we discussed earlier, and we've been together for
• 4:45
  Speaker 5: a few hours now, it was after eleven thirty that
• 4:47
  Speaker 5: we came to your house today. We want to discuss
• 4:50
  Speaker 5: the deaths of Heather Wilkinson and Gal Patterson today with you.
• 4:54
  Speaker 5: When we were at the house earlier, we discussed that
• 4:56
  Speaker 5: you hadn't really been kept in the loop, and it
• 4:59
  Speaker 5: come as news to you that Heather and Gaiale had
• 5:01
  Speaker 5: both passed away. Following eating at your house. Donald, Ian, Gale,
• 5:05
  Speaker 5: and Heather all became so ill that they ultimately ended
• 5:07
  Speaker 5: up in the intensive care unit at both danny On
• 5:10
  Speaker 5: Hospital and then moved to Austin Hospital. Following that they've
• 5:14
  Speaker 5: had a deterioration in their condition that they become so
• 5:18
  Speaker 5: ill that their livers have failed. All right, Donald underwent
• 5:23
  Speaker 5: a transplant last night, okay, and his condition is still
• 5:26
  Speaker 5: extremely critical. As I advised before, Heather and Gale have
• 5:30
  Speaker 5: passed away. In relation to Ian, I don't have a
• 5:34
  Speaker 5: current prognosis in relation to where he's at. We're trying
• 5:37
  Speaker 5: to understand what has made them so ill. Do you
• 5:41
  Speaker 5: understand why we're asking these questions?
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
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  Speaker 5: On the other hand, conversely, we're trying to understand why
• 5:48
  Speaker 5: you're not that ill. Do you understand why we're interviewing
• 5:52
  Speaker 5: you today?
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: Yeap, I do. But I'm sure you understand too that
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: I've never been in a situation like this, and I've
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: been very very helpful with the health department through the
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: week because I wanted to help that side of things
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  Speaker 3: as much as possible, because I do want to know
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: what happened. So I've given them as much information as
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: they've asked for and offered up all the food and
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  Speaker 3: all the information about where the food came from at
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: the house.
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  Speaker 5: And I must say, for the record again you were
• 6:22
  Speaker 5: very helpful at the house and you did point out
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  Speaker 5: a couple of things for us that will help us
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  Speaker 5: with our investigation, mainly the fruit platter that you said
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  Speaker 5: how they bought for you, and the gravy and the
• 6:32
  Speaker 5: fridge or the pantry that you said was from the
• 6:34
  Speaker 5: night and you kept on advice from the Health Department,
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  Speaker 5: so thank you for that. You also pointed out a
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  Speaker 5: recipe book on the counter and you referred me to
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  Speaker 5: page two hundred and fifty odd the recipe for beef Wellington,
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  Speaker 5: and you indicated that was the recipe you'd cooked. We
• 6:49
  Speaker 5: didn't see a lot of food Fromation Grossers or Indian
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  Speaker 5: gross or those kinds of stores.
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: Did you look in my fridge. I've got a lot
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  Speaker 3: of Asian cooking stuff in my fridge.
• 7:00
  Speaker 5: I did to find more of that kind of stuff
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  Speaker 5: at the Mount Waverley address, do you think or no?
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  Speaker 3: Because I did a big clean out of the pantry,
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  Speaker 3: which is the last time that I was there, because
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: I'm going to sell that place.
• 7:12
  Speaker 5: Obviously, we've got concerns in relation to the mushrooms and
• 7:14
  Speaker 5: where they've come from. Is that something you've done in
• 7:17
  Speaker 5: the past, foraging for mushrooms or anything like that.
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: Never, never, never, do.
• 7:24
  Speaker 5: You preserve foods or anything like that. No, have you
• 7:29
  Speaker 5: ever dehydrated food or anything?
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: No.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: Coming up more of Aaron Patterson's police interview. That's after
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: the break.
• 7:59
  Speaker 5: You've described the relationship with your ex partner, Simon. I'd
• 8:02
  Speaker 5: like to understand why you had his parents and his uncle.
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: And aunt over for lunch because I've no other family
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: and they've always been really good to me, and I
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: want to maintain those relationships with them in spite of
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: what's happened with Simon. I love them a lot. They've
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: always been really good to me, and they always said
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: to me that they would support me with love and
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: emotional support even though Simon and I were separated, and
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: I really appreciated that. Because my parents are both gone,
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  Speaker 3: my grandparents are all gone. They're the only family that
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: I've got and they're the only grandparents that my children have,
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: and I want them to stay in my kid's life,
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: and that's really important to me. I think Simon hated
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: that I still had a relationship with his parents, but
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: I love them. Nothing that's ever happened between us, nothing
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: is ever done to me, will change the fact that
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: they are good, decent people that have never done anything
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: wrong by me.
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  Speaker 5: Ever, so we've been told that. On the thirty first
• 9:03
  Speaker 5: of July, So two days after the lunch you went
• 9:06
  Speaker 5: to the Lambgatha Hospital. I think you were only there
• 9:08
  Speaker 5: for about five minutes and then you left. Can you
• 9:11
  Speaker 5: explain why you went there for five minutes?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, because I just went there thinking I needed a
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: couple of bags of saline because I was really dehydrated.
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: And they said they want to admit me and send
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  Speaker 3: me to Melbourne. And when you've got animals at home
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: and children who have multiple after school activities, you can't
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: just be told to drop everything and you're off to
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: Melbourne for the night. So I had to go home
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: and feed the animals and pack my daughter's ballet bag.
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: And I did that and I went back.
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  Speaker 5: Who did you speak to?
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: So I walked in and there was like, I don't
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: think they were a nurse. It was like, I don't know,
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  Speaker 3: it could have been an enrolled nurse or it was
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: like to help a person in the triage room, right,
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: And she says, like, are you okay? And I said said, well, no,
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: I have to run to the toilet. I've got diarrhea.
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: And she wasn't quite sure where it was, and so
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  Speaker 3: she went and found out and showed me where it is,
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: and then she said, I'll go and find someone. I'll
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: get a nurse or a doctor for you. And so
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  Speaker 3: I went to the toilet, I came back out. I
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: was waiting in the triage area and then a doctor
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  Speaker 3: came out, Dr Webster, and he said to me, sorry,
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  Speaker 3: we're going to be a little whild because we've got
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: a couple of critical patients in the hospital. And I said,
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: that's fine, don't worry about me. I'm just a gastroad case.
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: I'm not urgent, obviously. And he said, oh, what's your
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: name and I said Erin and he said, oh, we've
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: been expecting you because other people that you ate with
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: on Saturday are sick. And he said can you come
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: through and I said sure, and then he said to me,
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: I can't remember the exact words, but he said something
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: along the lines of we've got a concern that they've
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: eaten death cap mushrooms and I said what and he said, yeah,
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: that's what we think they've eaten, and then started asking
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: me about what food I served them, and I told him.
• 11:12
  Speaker 5: All right, I understand you went down at the hospital
• 11:14
  Speaker 5: and got treatment of that. What kind of treatment did
• 11:17
  Speaker 5: you get?
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: Oh, they hooked me up to a drip. They said
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: that they were concerned. So Dr Webster had to leave.
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: I think he was at the end of his shift,
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: and he passed on to another doctor and she said
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: to me, because the concern is that everybody's eaten something
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: that hurts your liver, we need to give you this
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: protective medicine. And so there was saline or something or other,
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: but she said, we need to get you this and
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: then put you in an ambulance up to Melbourne where
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: they can give you more, where they can get you better.
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: So I got saline and other stuff. How long are
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: you at the hospital for till Tuesday?
• 11:57
  Speaker 5: And again full disclosure, so you understand, we've obtained warrants
• 12:01
  Speaker 5: to medical records for everyone involved in this, so we'll
• 12:04
  Speaker 5: get medical records in relation to new treatment there as well.
• 12:08
  Speaker 5: Sure you were at home in person when we did
• 12:11
  Speaker 5: a search warrant today, right, And like I said, we'll
• 12:15
  Speaker 5: give you a little copy of this everything we've seized.
• 12:18
  Speaker 5: Kitchen fire left bottom drawer instruction manual for a Sunbeam
• 12:22
  Speaker 5: Food Lab. Electronic dehydrator. What's that in relation to you
• 12:27
  Speaker 5: know anything about a dehydrator in your house? No, do
• 12:31
  Speaker 5: you own a dehydrator? No?
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: Oh, I've got manuals of lots of stuff like that.
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: Over the years, I've had all sorts of appliances and
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: I just keep them all.
• 12:40
  Speaker 5: Okay, Okay, when did you own a dehydrator?
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: About eight or nine years ago?
• 12:47
  Speaker 5: Okay, what did you use that for?
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: Like when I first got the Thermomix, I got really
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: excited about making everything from scratch, you know, and I
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: did get a lot of you know, like everything from
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: scratch ingredients, and I did a lot of that. So
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: we'll have something like that.
• 13:05
  Speaker 5: Okay, kitchen bench located against the wall. Recipe Tineat's book.
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: That's that recipe book.
• 13:12
  Speaker 5: That's the same book that the Wellington recipe comes out of.
• 13:15
  Speaker 5: M well I think of it. One other thing that
• 13:18
  Speaker 5: I should mention again to your credit. Police went around
• 13:21
  Speaker 5: the house on that morning on the thirty first, and
• 13:24
  Speaker 5: they were obviously responding to the hospital call to check
• 13:26
  Speaker 5: up on you, and they spoke to you on the
• 13:28
  Speaker 5: phone and you gave them the pin code for your
• 13:30
  Speaker 5: gate and directed them to the bin where there were
• 13:32
  Speaker 5: some leftovers. What were those leftovers that you directed them to?
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: Uneeded food from the lunch.
• 13:38
  Speaker 5: So you helped them getting that so it would be sampled.
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: Because my kids ate them too, So there was stuff
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: that was left over and it went straight in the bin.
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: And so when I went to the hospital and they
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: said they were concerned that everyone ate some contaminated food,
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: I said, well, there's the leftovers in the bin. You
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: can have it. Feel free to look through it. And
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: I said I'll go and get it if you want.
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: And they said that's fine, you need to go on
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: a drip. We'll call the police. And I said, well,
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: that's fine, just let them know I need to give
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: them a pin code. So they did that and a
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: bag of food appeared a bit later.
• 14:16
  Speaker 5: Yep, so again thank you for helping us locate that.
• 14:19
  Speaker 5: All right, erin do you agree? The time is now
• 14:23
  Speaker 5: five point thirty pm by my watch? All right, I'm
• 14:26
  Speaker 5: going to suspend the interview.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: Now, the video stopped and Justice Christopher Biale told the
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: jury that irrelevant material had been edited out of the video.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: Prosecutor Jane Warren confirmed with Stephen Eppingstall that Don Patterson
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: died later that night. A few weeks later, Ian Wilkinson
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: was released from hospital and police continued their inquiries.
• 14:55
  Speaker 4: As a result of those inquiries, was the accused arrested
• 14:58
  Speaker 4: by police on the second of November twenty twenty three
• 15:00
  Speaker 4: and formally charged.
• 15:02
  Speaker 5: Yes, ma'am.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: Aaron Patterson has consistently denied deliberately poisoning anyone and has
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: pleaded not guilty to all charges. The trial continues on Wednesday.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: The Australian subscribers get all our live coverage, plus the
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: reporting from our team on the ground, John Ferguson and
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: Ellie Dudley. Check it out at the Australian dot com
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: dot Au