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The lies that convicted cold, snarky Erin Patterson · The Front

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: From the Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
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  Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, July eighth, twenty twenty five. Guilty. Aaron Patterson
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  Speaker 1: will spend the rest of her life in jail after
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  Speaker 1: being convicted of murdering three elderly relatives and attempting to
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  Speaker 1: murder a fourth with deadly death cap mushrooms. She's already
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: been in jail for eighteen months, something the jury, which
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  Speaker 1: hurt her case, didn't know before convicting her on Monday today.
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  Speaker 1: Why Patterson's decision to give evidence sealed her fate. There's
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  Speaker 1: a reason accused people don't usually give evidence. It's a
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  Speaker 1: massive risk to take a threefold gamble that the accused
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  Speaker 1: is smarter than the Crown prosecutor, capable of charming a
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  Speaker 1: jury and telling the truth. In Aaron Patterson's case, none
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  Speaker 1: of those were true. When Patterson's defense lawyer, Colin mac
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  Speaker 1: was directly asked by the judge on May twenty.
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  Speaker 2: Eight, you don't have to answer this question if you
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  Speaker 2: don't want to, but is your client giving evidence?
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  Speaker 3: Mandy said, I don't.
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  Speaker 4: Want to answer that question, your honor.
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  Speaker 1: We've used voice actors to bring you the words spoken
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  Speaker 1: in court. That exchange, of course, was in the absence
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  Speaker 1: of the jury, who must have been exhausted by the
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  Speaker 1: constant requests for them to leave the courtroom so the
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  Speaker 1: lawyers could hash something out. Mandy did call Patterson to
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  Speaker 1: give evidence, maybe at her insistence, maybe out of a
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  Speaker 1: rush of confidence that until that point things had been
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  Speaker 1: going so well for the defense, Mandy should have quit
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  Speaker 1: while he was ahead. On Monday, at two fifteen pm,
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  Speaker 1: the Victorian Supreme Court, sitting at Morwell in the Latrobe Valley,
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  Speaker 1: reconvened after ten weeks of trial, including seven days of
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  Speaker 1: jury deliberations.
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  Speaker 5: Madam four person and members of the jury, have you
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  Speaker 5: agreed on your verdicts we have on the charge of
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  Speaker 5: attempted murder against Ian Wilkinson. Do you find the accused
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  Speaker 5: Eron Trudy Patterson guilty or not guilty guilty on the
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  Speaker 5: charge of murder against Heather Wilkinson. Do you find the
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  Speaker 5: accused Aaron Trudy Patterson guilty or not guilty guilty on
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  Speaker 5: the charge of murder against Gail Patterson. Do you find
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  Speaker 5: the accused Aaron Trudy Patterson guilty or not guilty guilty
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  Speaker 5: on the charge of murder against Donald Patterson. Do you
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  Speaker 5: find the accused Aaron Trudy Patterson guilty or not guilty?
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  Speaker 1: Guilty? Aaron Patterson's time in the witness box was a catastrophe.
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  Speaker 1: As soon as Patterson opened her mouth, her deficiencies as
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  Speaker 1: a witness became clear. She began introducing ideas and theories
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  Speaker 1: the jury had never heard before, not in the police
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  Speaker 1: record of interview, not in Mandy's brief opening statement, not
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  Speaker 1: in any of her statements to Witnes who'd previously given evidence,
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  Speaker 1: like her online friends, her husband, or the various medical
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  Speaker 1: professionals she spoke to at the hospital. The Crown's case
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  Speaker 1: was that Erin Patterson faked a cancer scare to lure
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  Speaker 1: her husband and his elderly relatives to her house in
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  Speaker 1: the absence of the children for that lunch. So how
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  Speaker 1: would Patterson explain this to the jury?
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  Speaker 3: In pre lunch.
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  Speaker 1: Text messages to Gail Patterson, the jury had already been
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  Speaker 1: shown Aaron Patterson lied to her mother in law that
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  Speaker 1: she was having a needle biopsy than an mri. Hi
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  Speaker 1: Erin just wondering how you got on it your appointment today, Love,
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  Speaker 1: Gail and Don.
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  Speaker 6: Hi Gail sorry. I'd taken my daughter to see a
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  Speaker 6: movie last night. We saw The Little Mermaid. The appointment
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  Speaker 6: went okay, thanks for asking. I had a needle biopsy
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  Speaker 6: taken of the lump and I'm returning for an MRI
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  Speaker 6: next week and will know more after the results of
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  Speaker 6: those two things.
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  Speaker 1: In her evidence, Patterson also had to explain why the
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  Speaker 1: only surviving guest, Ian Wilkinson, clearly recalled her telling the
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  Speaker 1: luncheon group she believed she had Overian cancer, and then
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  Speaker 1: her joining the group in a post lunch prayer led
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  Speaker 1: by Ian for her safe recovery. Patison's story, presented to
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  Speaker 1: the jury over three days of friendly evidence in chief
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  Speaker 1: elicited by Mandy, went like this. Her real reason for
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  Speaker 1: holding the lunch was that she wanted help from the
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  Speaker 1: extended family with school pickups and drop offs during a
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  Speaker 1: planned medical procedure, not for cancer, mind but for gastric
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  Speaker 1: band surgery, something she'd resolved to do in convenience secrecy,
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  Speaker 1: and was conveniently too ashamed to tell anyone the truth about.
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  Speaker 1: She said she allowed the guests to think there was
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  Speaker 1: a possibility of Overian cancer because she had so deeply
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  Speaker 1: valued the loving concern Dawn and Gail had previously shown
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  Speaker 1: for her health, so it was right at the end
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  Speaker 1: of the.
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  Speaker 6: Meal, and I mentioned that I'd had an issue a
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  Speaker 6: year or two earlier where I thought that I'd had
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  Speaker 6: ovarian cancer and had various scans related to that, and
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  Speaker 6: then I'm not proud of this, but I led them
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  Speaker 6: to believe that I might be needing some treatment in
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  Speaker 6: regards to that in the next few weeks or months.
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  Speaker 2: And do you remember what you said about that in
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  Speaker 2: any more detail?
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  Speaker 3: Not specifically.
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  Speaker 6: I do remember I referred to an upcoming treatment because
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  Speaker 6: primarily in my mind, I was thinking I might need
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  Speaker 6: help with getting the kids to and from the bus
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  Speaker 6: or activities, and I thought I might need to explain
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  Speaker 6: why I was going up to hospital for a day
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  Speaker 6: or two. So that was really the focus of what
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  Speaker 6: I was talking about.
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  Speaker 2: Did you mislead them?
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  Speaker 3: I did.
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  Speaker 2: How did that conversation conclude?
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  Speaker 6: They all showed a lot of compassion about that. And
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  Speaker 6: then we saw Simon's car driving into the driveway coming
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  Speaker 6: back with the kids, and so Ian said, why don't
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  Speaker 6: we pray for Erin?
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  Speaker 3: And so that's what we did.
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  Speaker 2: Did you lie to them?
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  Speaker 3: I did lie to them, and why.
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  Speaker 2: Didn't you tell them the truth about what you were intending.
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  Speaker 3: I was really embarrassed.
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  Speaker 6: I was ashamed of the fact that I didn't have
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  Speaker 6: control over my body or what I ate. I was
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  Speaker 6: ashamed of that and embarrassed. I didn't want to tell anybody,
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  Speaker 6: but I shouldn't have lied to them.
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  Speaker 1: Patterson had booked a pre surgery assessment for the gastric
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  Speaker 1: band she told the jury for September. Mandy didn't ask
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  Speaker 1: why in July she would need to ask anyone for
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  Speaker 1: help with the children at least two months into the
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  Speaker 1: future for a type of minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery that
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  Speaker 1: typically requires a single day's stay in hospital. And then
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  Speaker 1: what Patterson clearly thought was the ace she was suffering
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  Speaker 1: from bulimia and that's why she had not suffered the
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  Speaker 1: ill effects of deathcap mushroom poisoning. Patterson said, after her
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  Speaker 1: lunch guests went home, she polished off two thirds of
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  Speaker 1: an orange cake Gail Patterson had baked.
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  Speaker 6: I had a piece of cake, and then another piece
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  Speaker 6: of cake, and then another.
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  Speaker 2: How many pieces of cake? Did you have?
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  Speaker 3: All of it?
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  Speaker 1: Then she threw up, and although the court was mercifully
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  Speaker 1: spared a description of exactly what was in the toilet bowl.
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  Speaker 1: Patterson's implication was that she had expelled poisoned beef Wellington
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  Speaker 1: along with the ex cake. When Crown prosecuted Nannett Roger's
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  Speaker 1: sc probed Patterson on this, she was characteristically defensive.
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  Speaker 4: Is it your evidence that the vomit was partly constituted
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  Speaker 4: by the beef Wellington? Correct?
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  Speaker 3: I have no idea what was in the vomit at all? Well,
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  Speaker 3: it's how could I its vomit unless you can see
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  Speaker 3: a bean or a piece of corn.
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  Speaker 4: Well, you didn't have corn at the lunch.
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  Speaker 3: That was an example.
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  Speaker 4: I suggest that you did not tell a single medical
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  Speaker 4: person that you had vomited after the lunch on the
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  Speaker 4: afternoon of the twenty ninth of July.
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  Speaker 3: That is true. I did not do that.
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  Speaker 4: I suggest that that is something you would have told
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  Speaker 4: them if it were true. Correct or incorrect?
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  Speaker 3: Incorrect?
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  Speaker 4: Do you say it's incorrect because of your embarrassment?
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  Speaker 3: I say it's incorrect because it's what happened.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up how Patterson's attempts to get a laugh from
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  Speaker 1: the jury failed. Before entering the witness box, Patterson had
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  Speaker 1: sat through the entire trial, watching from the dock. She
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  Speaker 1: had observed the jovial, collegial atmosphere that emerges in long trials.
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  Speaker 1: The judge, lawyers, and even some witnesses naturally become familiar
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  Speaker 1: with one another, and the odd laugh emerges. When Detective
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  Speaker 1: Senior Constable Stephen Epickstall was in the witness box, he
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  Speaker 1: charmed the jury with apparent ease. They chuckled at his
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  Speaker 1: self deprecating asides, like when he said his boss didn't
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  Speaker 1: like him spending too much money.
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  Speaker 2: You don't have to keep saying, ma'am. Yeah, it's a habit, sir,
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  Speaker 2: your honor, we'll save time.
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  Speaker 1: Patterson clearly thought she too, could get the old laugh
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  Speaker 1: out of the jury. She described on the evening before
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  Speaker 1: the fatal lunch trying to talk to her son and
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  Speaker 1: having to lift one headphone can off his ear to
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  Speaker 1: tell him something. The jury didn't laugh. She mentioned a
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  Speaker 1: building professional looking at the plans she'd drawn up for
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  Speaker 1: her dream home and telling her they were hopeless.
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  Speaker 6: I drew a design myself first in Microsoft paint and
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  Speaker 6: gave that to the building designer, and he said that'll
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  Speaker 6: never work engineering wise. Let's move it around a bit.
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  Speaker 6: But he modeled it quite closely on how I wanted
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  Speaker 6: things sorted out.
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  Speaker 1: Not a chuckle. Similarly, Patterson's few moments of breathy, tearfulness
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  Speaker 1: and distress seemed to fall flat. Not once did Justice
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  Speaker 1: Christopher Beale offer her a break, as judges often do
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  Speaker 1: when witnesses become distressed, and not once did she let
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  Speaker 1: out a torrent of unfiltered distress along the lines one
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  Speaker 1: might expect from someone deep in guilt laden grief. I
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  Speaker 1: cannot believe this has happened. I haven't slept a full
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  Speaker 1: night since July twenty twenty three. I will never recover
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  Speaker 1: from my terrible mistake. Patterson kept her composure even when
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  Speaker 1: her voice quavered. She was fully in control. It's easy
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  Speaker 1: to seem reasonable and friendly in examination. In chief, you'd
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  Speaker 1: have to be a pretty terrible witness to get into
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  Speaker 1: a fight with your own barrister. But Patterson then tried
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  Speaker 1: to foot it with the senior Crown Prosecutor Nanett Rogers
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  Speaker 1: in cross examination. Cross examination, as well as an opportunity
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  Speaker 1: to elicit evidence, is also a chance for the barrister
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  Speaker 1: to try and extract revelatory behavior from the witness. An
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  Speaker 1: angry snap, a tantrum, tears. Patterson stayed completely calm. On
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  Speaker 1: June tenth, under cross examination, she continued and you'd coolly,
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: insisting she could not remember ever visiting the Eye Naturalist website,
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  Speaker 1: despite searches on that site for death cap mushrooms on
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  Speaker 1: her computer.
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  Speaker 4: Who lived in your house on the twenty eighth of
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  Speaker 4: May twenty twenty.
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  Speaker 3: Two, myself and my two children.
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  Speaker 4: Are you suggesting it was your son?
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  Speaker 3: I'm not suggesting anything.
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  Speaker 4: Are you suggesting it was your daughter?
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  Speaker 3: I'm not suggesting anything.
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  Speaker 1: By not giving anything, Pattison gave Rogers exactly what she needed,
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  Speaker 1: the same flat, calm demeanor she exhibited after poisoning her family.
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  Speaker 1: Patterson's defense case was that she panicked after accidentally lacing
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  Speaker 1: the food with death caps, but in the witness box
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  Speaker 1: she showed she wasn't a panicer at all. She was
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  Speaker 1: testy and snippy.
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  Speaker 4: You knew that if you told police the truth then
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  Speaker 4: you would be immediately suspected by police of being involved
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  Speaker 4: in a poisoning event.
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  Speaker 3: That's probably true.
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  Speaker 4: Yes, I suggest that you had been dehydrating death cap
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  Speaker 4: mushrooms or after the date of the purchase of the
• 12:02
  Speaker 4: dehydrator to put into the beef Wellington's you served your
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  Speaker 4: four guests at the lunch, agree or disagree?
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  Speaker 3: Can you ask that again? Please?
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  Speaker 6: But before you do, I'm sorry to interrupt, but the
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  Speaker 6: microphone it covers your face and it makes it hard
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  Speaker 6: for me to fully I lip read a little.
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  Speaker 1: Bit, Another new piece of information for the jury, who'd
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  Speaker 1: never heard from Patterson or anyone else that she was
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  Speaker 1: hearing impaired this personicty, argumentative Patterson was very different from
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  Speaker 1: the patient, devoted mother who presented herself in evidence. In chief,
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  Speaker 1: she was more like the Aaron Patterson who emerged in
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  Speaker 1: the Facebook messenger chats. The jury had also seen the
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  Speaker 1: one who wrote.
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  Speaker 3: Things like this family, I swear to fucking God.
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  Speaker 1: She used eye rolling emojis to describe her reaction to
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: Don Patterson's suggestion she and Simon pray for God's help
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: in sorting out their problems. Then, in the witness box,
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: tried to deny they were eye rolls, cold, snarky, to smart,
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: by half cynical, A liar. That's who The Crown said
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  Speaker 1: Aaron Patterson really was turned out. The jury thought so too.
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: The Australian's own John Ferguson broke the story of these
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: mushroom murders way back in twenty twenty three, and along
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: with our reporters Elie Dudley and Muhammad Alfarez, he's reporting
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: live from Morewell at The Australian. Our subscribers get appelots
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: direct to their phones, all the hottest news and all
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: the best analysis. Join us at the Australian dot com
• 13:42
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