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Mushroom expert told authorities death cap poisoning was impossible · The Front

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  Speaker 1: From the Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
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  Speaker 1: It's Thursday May fifteen, twenty twenty five. A whistleblower tried
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  Speaker 1: to warm the ndis a disability care provider was sending
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  Speaker 1: untrained staff out on the job a year before it
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  Speaker 1: was investigated for possible fraud. Cocoon SDA says it's done
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  Speaker 1: nothing wrong. That's an exclusive live now at the Australian
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  Speaker 1: dot com dot a U. A mushroom expert asked to
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  Speaker 1: analyze the remains of a fatal beef Wellington lunch kept
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  Speaker 1: the leftovers in her fridge at home. That's part of
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  Speaker 1: the expert evidence as the Aaron Patterson murder trial digs
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  Speaker 1: into exactly how three people died after a family meal.
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  Speaker 1: Aaron Patterson is pleading not guilty. Today. Where Aaron Patterson's
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  Speaker 1: defense lawyers are going with detailed evidence about mushrooms, the
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  Speaker 1: infinite variety of mushrooms. That's where the erin Patterson murder
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  Speaker 1: trial is going deep with expert evidence about exactly what
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  Speaker 1: deadly mushrooms look like and how they might be similar
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  Speaker 1: or different in appearance to perfectly innocuous ones.
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  Speaker 2: There are millions of mushrooms in regional Victoria. Who knew.
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  Speaker 2: Some are poisonous, some are not poisonous. Some have bumps
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  Speaker 2: on their caps, some don't have bumps on their caps.
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  Speaker 2: Some are white, some are brown, some are yellow, some
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  Speaker 2: are green. There are lots of mushrooms in Victoria.
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  Speaker 1: Ellie Dudley is The Australian's Legal affairs correspondent and she's
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  Speaker 1: covering the trial in more Well, in Victoria's Latrobe Valley.
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  Speaker 1: The crown case is that Aaron Patterson deliberately cooked deaf
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  Speaker 1: cap mushrooms in a beef Wellington she served to four
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  Speaker 1: elderly relatives on July twenty nine, twenty twenty three. She's
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  Speaker 1: pleaded not guilty, and her defense says it was a
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  Speaker 1: terrible accident. Ellie, I believe you now called for a
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  Speaker 1: degree in micology after sitting through several days of this
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  Speaker 1: evidence about mushrooms.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I'm considering a career change. Goodbye journalism,
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  Speaker 2: hello micology. But yeah, look, I know all about the
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  Speaker 2: buttery collybr the springfield cap, the shaggy parasol honey mushrooms
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  Speaker 2: and of course, most importantly, deaf cat mushrooms.
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  Speaker 1: Ellie, We won't know until the defense's closing statement exactly
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  Speaker 1: where they're going to take this, but we do know
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  Speaker 1: that Aaron Patterson's lead defense counsel, Colin Mandy is c
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  Speaker 1: told the jury on day one the deaths were a
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  Speaker 1: terrible tragedy. He's a voice actor reading Colin Mandy's words.
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  Speaker 3: The starting point for you is that Aaron Patterson is
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  Speaker 3: innocent of this charge. So as you listen to the evidence,
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  Speaker 3: you should consider when it comes to that fundamental issue
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  Speaker 3: of Eron's intention. Did she have a motive to kill?
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  Speaker 1: So where has the mushroom evidence taken us so far?
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  Speaker 1: And what do the defense lawyers want to know from
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  Speaker 1: these expert witnesses.
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  Speaker 2: So what defense counsel Sophie Stafford was doing today with
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  Speaker 2: mycologist Tom May was showing him photos of death cat
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  Speaker 2: mushroom look alikes and asking for him to identify similarities
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  Speaker 2: I guess with deathcat mushrooms, So things like them having
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  Speaker 2: a smooth top, them having a cup at the bottom
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  Speaker 2: of the stem, things like that, and identifying the fact
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  Speaker 2: that he couldn't definitively say based off a photo whether
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  Speaker 2: these were deathcat mushrooms or if they were other mushrooms entirely.
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  Speaker 1: Tom May gave some evidence about the smell of deathcat mushrooms.
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  Speaker 1: What's the significance of that. Well, at some.
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  Speaker 2: Point Aaron Patterson told one of her doctors that the
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  Speaker 2: mushrooms had an extremely strong smell, and Tom May today
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  Speaker 2: gave evidence that he has dried out deathcat mushrooms before.
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  Speaker 2: He said they've got quite a bitter sweet smell when
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  Speaker 2: they're first picked, but once they're right out, he said,
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  Speaker 2: they've got an extremely unpleasant smell.
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  Speaker 1: We heard from another mycologist, Camille Trong, who told the
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  Speaker 1: jury she was asked to analyze some leftovers that had
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  Speaker 1: been obtained from Aaron Patterson's home. That was happening as
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  Speaker 1: doctors were trying to work out what was wrong with
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  Speaker 1: Aaron Patterson's lunch guests, her elderly relatives Don Gale Patterson
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  Speaker 1: and Ian and Heather Wilkinson. It's a real contrast, isn't it,
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  Speaker 1: Between the urgency and sort of rising panic of the
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  Speaker 1: doctors back at the hospital and Camille Trong's quite painstaking
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  Speaker 1: and careful examination of the leftovers she'd been given.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, the jury is being painted a very interesting image
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  Speaker 2: of all these doctors running around various hospitals with four
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  Speaker 2: people who are dying in front of them. And then
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  Speaker 2: you've got Camille Trong in her home where the beef
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  Speaker 2: Wellington leftovers ended up with Tweeze's gloves a microscope sort
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  Speaker 2: of painstakingly examining these very finely chopped mushrooms that had
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  Speaker 2: been sent to her in an urgent taxi from the
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  Speaker 2: Modash Medical Center. Part of that evidence, which was quite interesting,
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  Speaker 2: is that Camille Trong said that she didn't find any
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  Speaker 2: deathcat mushrooms in the sample that she had been sent.
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  Speaker 2: She said the only mushrooms that she found were mushrooms
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  Speaker 2: you'd typically find in a grocery store.
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  Speaker 1: She also said she told authorities when they were asking
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  Speaker 1: about what potentially could have poisoned these people, that she
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  Speaker 1: didn't think it was likely to have been deathcat mushrooms.
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  Speaker 1: Why not She.
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  Speaker 2: Said that it was unlikely because deathcat mushrooms hadn't been
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  Speaker 2: spotted in the area. The other part of that is
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  Speaker 2: she was told by Laura Muldoon, who's the emergency registrate
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  Speaker 2: at the Monish Medical Center, that she had been told
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  Speaker 2: by Aaron Patterson that the mushrooms had been brought from
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  Speaker 2: a supermarket and also from a Chinese grocery store, and
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  Speaker 2: Camille Trong told the court that it was probably impossible
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  Speaker 2: that deathcap mushrooms could have been bought from a store
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  Speaker 2: because they are growing the wild and they can't be cultivated.
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  Speaker 1: Dr Tom May, who's alter ego, of course is Funky Tom.
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  Speaker 1: He's one of the people who posted these images of
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  Speaker 1: deathcap mushrooms on the Eye Naturalist website. When he was
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  Speaker 1: in the witness box, Ellie did he seem to indicate
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  Speaker 1: that it was easy to tell a deathcat mushroom from
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  Speaker 1: any other kind of mushroom.
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  Speaker 2: He wasn't very definitive when he was identifying death cat mushrooms.
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  Speaker 2: So he works for effectively the poisons hotline in Victoria,
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  Speaker 2: and so when he is sent an image, he isn't
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  Speaker 2: definitive when describing it as a deathcat mushroom or not.
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  Speaker 2: He says that some of its features can be highly
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  Speaker 2: consistent with death cat mushrooms, things like that smooth top,
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  Speaker 2: the yellowish cap, the lump on the bottom of the stem.
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  Speaker 2: So he drew comparisons between deathcat mushrooms and deathcat mushroom
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  Speaker 2: look alikes, and he said that when looking at an image,
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  Speaker 2: he would be hesitant to say that that mushroom is
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  Speaker 2: a deathcat mushroom. But that would be a different scenario.
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  Speaker 2: Say if he was out in the field, when he
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  Speaker 2: was with a bunch of field workers or students, and
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  Speaker 2: he saw a deathcat mushroom, he said that he would
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  Speaker 2: be much more likely to be definitive in that instance.
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  Speaker 1: Here's what prosecutor Nanette Rogers told the jury in her
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  Speaker 1: opening Right at the beginning of this trial, Aaron Patterson's
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  Speaker 1: browsing history showed she had looked at a website I Naturalist,
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  Speaker 1: where experts and amateurs can share the location of wildlife
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  Speaker 1: they've spotted in the bush. And that's where the phone
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  Speaker 1: records come in. Patterson's phone was pinging cell towers, Rogers
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  Speaker 1: told the court in areas where I Naturalist uses had
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  Speaker 1: earlier reported death caps. In April twenty twenty three, a
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  Speaker 1: retired pharmacist named Christine Mackenzie observed deathcap mushrooms on a
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  Speaker 1: walk with her husband and grand in the township of Locke,
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  Speaker 1: about twenty eight kilometers from Lean Gather, where Patterson lived.
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  Speaker 1: We've used a voice actor to bring you Nannett Rodger's
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  Speaker 1: words spoken in court.
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  Speaker 4: She collected and disposed of every example of death cap
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  Speaker 4: mushrooms that she could find. She did this because she
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  Speaker 4: knew how dangerous they were. She posted four photographs of
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  Speaker 4: this sighting to the I Naturalist website page using her
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  Speaker 4: username Chris mc k, which GEO tagged the discovery location.
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  Speaker 1: Rogers said on twenty eight April, Patterson bought a Sunbeam
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  Speaker 1: dehydrator on.
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  Speaker 4: That morning, two and a half hours before she bought
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  Speaker 4: the dehydrator. The accused mobile service starter from her phone
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  Speaker 4: suggests that she traveled to and remained in the Loch
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  Speaker 4: area before returning to Corumborough.
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  Speaker 1: Three weeks later, my cologist Tom May posted on Our
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  Speaker 1: Naturalist that he'd found deathcap mushrooms at Nielsen Street outrom
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  Speaker 1: pinpointing the location to with it twenty meters of where
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  Speaker 1: he found the mushrooms. May use the handle Funky Tom.
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  Speaker 4: The very next day, the accused mobile service darter suggests
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  Speaker 4: that she traveled to and remained in the Lock area
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  Speaker 4: at around ten am before returning to Lean Gathera Later
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  Speaker 4: that same day. Her mobile service stater suggests that having
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  Speaker 4: traveled to Locke between nine and ten am, she traveled
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  Speaker 4: from Lean gathera to the Outram area at around at
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  Speaker 4: eleven am before returning to lian Gatha.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up another mushroom death and why authorities fear more
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  Speaker 1: people are at risk, The trial has heard Victorian authorities
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  Speaker 1: were worried about people cooking and eating deadly mushrooms after
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  Speaker 1: a death last year. In twenty twenty four, according to
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  Speaker 1: Aaron Patterson's defense counsel Sophie Stafford, sc a woman died
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  Speaker 1: after consuming Amanita Falloides death cap mushrooms she found in
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  Speaker 1: her garden. So this is a.
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  Speaker 2: Story about a woman who in April twenty twenty four
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  Speaker 2: found mushrooms in the front of her home and she
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  Speaker 2: cooked them into a meal that she served to her
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  Speaker 2: and her son.
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  Speaker 1: Now when they ate them.
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  Speaker 2: In April twenty twenty four, they went to bed that
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  Speaker 2: night completely fine, woke up the next morning no issues.
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  Speaker 2: Off they went. A month or so later, she found
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  Speaker 2: mushrooms again and again showed them to her son, again
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  Speaker 2: made them into a meal that both she and her
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  Speaker 2: son ate, but this time at about two am that night,
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  Speaker 2: she woke up unwell. She was going to the bathroom.
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  Speaker 2: Her son came and checked on her, and she was
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  Speaker 2: very unwell. He fell unwell as well at about six am.
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  Speaker 2: They both ended up in hospital the next day. She
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  Speaker 2: died and he survived. And it was later found by
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  Speaker 2: the coroner that it was due to death capt mushroom
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  Speaker 2: poisoning that both of these people fell ill, and how
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  Speaker 2: the mother ended up eventually dying.
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  Speaker 1: Sophie Staffords see who is Aaron Patterson's barrister, told the
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  Speaker 1: court that both those mushrooms, the innocuous ones that didn't
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  Speaker 1: make the mother and son sick, and then the ones
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  Speaker 1: that apparently killed the mother, were growing in the same
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  Speaker 1: spot in that front yard. Now, the mycologist, doctor May,
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  Speaker 1: said he'd been asked by the Victorian Department of Health
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  Speaker 1: to advise on how to respond to coronial recommendations that
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  Speaker 1: arose from that case, including that there should be more
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  Speaker 1: public health messaging about the dangers of consuming wild mushrooms.
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  Speaker 1: Did we hear whether that had happened, that there had
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  Speaker 1: been more public health messaging.
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  Speaker 2: Doctor May indicated that the Victorian Department of Health was
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  Speaker 2: very concerned about what to do after this mother died
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  Speaker 2: after eating wild mushrooms that she had found on her property.
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  Speaker 2: And other evidence that doctor May has given is that
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  Speaker 2: He advises on people effectively undergoing an apprenticeship before they
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  Speaker 2: forage for wild mushrooms, that they get proper training under
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  Speaker 2: their belt before they undertake that sort of a task.
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  Speaker 2: Because there appears to be a rise in people foraging
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  Speaker 2: for wild mushrooms in Victoria. So look with this rising
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  Speaker 2: popularity of foraging, which he says is partly to do
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  Speaker 2: with the COVID nineteen pandemic, clearly there is more that
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  Speaker 2: has been done or more that is being done about
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  Speaker 2: people looking for wild mushrooms in this state.
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  Speaker 1: Ellie Dudley is The Australian's Legal affairs reporter. You can
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  Speaker 1: follow her live coverage and read our colleague John Ferguson's
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: analysis and reporting every day at The Australian dot com
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  Speaker 1: dot au