Latest / The Front / Mushroom trial begins: Murder, or a ‘terrible accident’?

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Mushroom trial begins: Murder, or a ‘terrible accident’? · 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 one, twenty twenty five. Big business says
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Speaker 1: they're worried the Albaneze government will keep going with industrial
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Speaker 1: relations reform if re elected, highlighting what they say would
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Speaker 1: be an eighteen billion dollar hit to the economy if
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Speaker 1: labor implements universal portable leave for casuals that would allow
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Speaker 1: low paid workers in sectors like disability, aged care and
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Speaker 1: cleaning to carry their entitlements for long service, sick and
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Speaker 1: careers leave to multiple employers. The federal election is two
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Speaker 1: sleeps away and you can read all our scoops and
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Speaker 1: analysis twenty four seven at the Australian dot com dot au.
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Speaker 1: It's a rumble in the Crumble, a high stakes battle
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Speaker 1: between two celebrity cooks, Nagi Mahashi and brook Bellamy. Mahahi
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Speaker 1: says recipes including chocolate caramel slice were lifted from her
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Speaker 1: wildly popular recipe Tineats Empire for Bellamy's book Bake with Brookie.
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Speaker 1: Bellamy denies any plagiarism. Aaron Patterson served a mushroom meal
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Speaker 1: that killed three elderly relatives and made another seriously ill.
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Speaker 1: The Crown says it was murder. Patterson says it was
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Speaker 1: all a terrible accident, and that in the aftermath Patterson
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Speaker 1: behaved in ways that might make her look guilty simply
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Speaker 1: because she was panicking. Today, the Front's Christen Amiot with
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Speaker 1: all the detail.
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Speaker 2: At lunchtime on July twenty nine, twenty twenty three, a
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Speaker 2: Victorian mother of two, Erin Patterson, served beef Wellington to
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Speaker 2: Don and Gale Patterson, the elderly parents of her husband, Simon,
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Speaker 2: and Ian and Heather Wilkinson, his aunt and uncle. For
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Speaker 2: three of those elderly people. The meal was fatal, and
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Speaker 2: now Erin Patterson, who is pleading not guilty, is facing
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Speaker 2: trial three counts of murder and one of attempted murder.
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Speaker 2: On day one of hearings Wednesday, the Crown took a
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Speaker 2: jury of fifteen through the events on that Winter's day
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Speaker 2: two years ago, Patterson, according to the Crown, case, invited
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Speaker 2: her extended family to lunch with the intention of killing them.
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Speaker 2: Ian Wilkinson is a pastor at the church where Erin
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Speaker 2: Patterson worshiped, and Heather was his wife. Simon Patterson wasn't
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Speaker 2: present at the lunch The court heard he and Erin
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Speaker 2: were separated at the time, but still in regular contact.
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Speaker 2: Rogers said he turned down his wife's invitation, texting her
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Speaker 2: that he didn't feel comfortable attending after their relationship soured.
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Speaker 2: These are the words spoken in court by the Crown prosecutor.
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Speaker 2: Doctor Nanette Rogers sc we've used voice actors throughout this episode.
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Speaker 3: The beef Wellingtons were prepared as a piece of steak,
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Speaker 3: covered with mushrooms and completely encased in pastry.
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Speaker 2: Rogers said. Aaron Patterson claimed to have used two different
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Speaker 2: types of mushrooms in the beef Wellington, a packet of
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Speaker 2: button mushrooms from Woolworth's and dried mushrooms from a Chinese
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Speaker 2: groser in the Melbourne suburbs.
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Speaker 3: Heather and Gale moved the four large plates from the
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Speaker 3: bench to the table, and the accused took the smaller,
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Speaker 3: lighter colored plate to her place at the table. They
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Speaker 3: said grace and started the meal.
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Speaker 2: The prosecutor said ian Heather and Donald ate their entire portions,
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Speaker 2: while Gail had about half and gave the rest to
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Speaker 2: her husband. The Crown told the jury the guest said
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Speaker 2: later how delicious the meal had been. After some catching up.
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Speaker 2: Rogers said, Aaron Patterson told the group she'd been diagnosed
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Speaker 2: with overian cancer, something both Crown and Defense now agree
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Speaker 2: was not true, and asked for their advice on whether
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Speaker 2: to tell her children. They prayed for her well being
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Speaker 2: before leaving the Leon Gather home that evening, the symptoms
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Speaker 2: began severe vomiting and diarrhea. While waiting for an ambulance
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Speaker 2: to collect them from their home. The next morning, Roger said,
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Speaker 2: the pastor's wife, Heather Wilkinson, asked Simon Patterson a question.
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Speaker 3: Unprompted. Heather said, I noticed that Aaron put her food
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Speaker 3: on a different plate to us. Her plate had colors
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Speaker 3: on it. I wondered why that was.
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Speaker 2: By August five, Heather Wilkinson and Gail and Donald Patterson
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Speaker 2: were dead suffering a multiple organ failure. All were diagnosed
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Speaker 2: with amenetia mushroom poisoning. The death cap Ian Wilkinson, the pastor,
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Speaker 2: now a widower, survived.
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Speaker 3: It is the prosecution case that the accused deliberately poisoned
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Speaker 3: with murderous intent each of Ian Wilkinson, Heather Wilkinson, Gail Patterson,
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Speaker 3: and Donal Patterson. On the twenty ninth of July at
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Speaker 3: her house and Lee and Gatha after inviting them for
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Speaker 3: lunch on the pretense that she'd been diagnosed with cancer
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Speaker 3: and needed advice about how to break it to the children.
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Speaker 3: It is also the prosecution case that A, the accused
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Speaker 3: did not consume death cap mushrooms at the lunch, and
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Speaker 3: that she pretended she was suffering the same type of
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Speaker 3: illness as the lunch guests to cover that up. This
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Speaker 3: is why we say she was reluctant to receive medical
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Speaker 3: treatment for death cap mushroom poisoning. B. The accused did
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Speaker 3: not really feed the leftovers of the poisoned beef Wellington
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Speaker 3: to the children. This is why she was reluctant to
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Speaker 3: have the children medically assist, because she knew that, like her,
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Speaker 3: they had not eaten any poison food. See the accused
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Speaker 3: lied about getting death cap mushrooms from an Asian grosser.
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Speaker 3: The accused disposed of the dehydrator, which contained death cap
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Speaker 3: mushroom remnants to conceal what she had done.
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Speaker 2: But why, Rogers told the jury the Crown did not
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Speaker 2: have to prove what Patterson's motive was, or even if
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Speaker 2: she had won.
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Speaker 3: What you will have to focus your attention on is
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Speaker 3: whether you are satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the accused
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Speaker 3: committed the charges on the indictment, not why she may
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Speaker 3: have done so.
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Speaker 2: Patterson has always denied any wrongdoing and has pleaded not guilty.
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Speaker 2: Later in this episode, you'll hear the defense case. The
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Speaker 2: court heard the first time Aaron Patterson complained of feeling
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Speaker 2: unwell was on the morning of Sunday, July thirty, the
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Speaker 2: day after the lunch, when she spoke with her husband
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Speaker 2: on the phone. She said she'd been experiencing diarrhea at
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Speaker 2: regular intervals from the evening of the twenty ninth acclaim,
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Speaker 2: the prosecutor told the court is refuted by eyewitness and
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Speaker 2: CCTV evidence. The court heard Eron Patterson drove her son
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Speaker 2: to his flying lesson on the Sunday afternoon and wasn't
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Speaker 2: observed stopping to use the toilet with any regularity.
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Speaker 3: The accused is captured on CCTV entering the public toilet
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Speaker 3: at the service station and exiting nine seconds later before
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Speaker 3: she selected the products from the store.
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Speaker 2: When she did present at an urgent care clinic on
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Speaker 2: the morning of Monday, July thirty one, two days after
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Speaker 2: the lunch, Rogers told the jury, Aaron Patterson was extremely
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Speaker 2: reluctant to be admitted to hospital. Doctors at leon Gather
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Speaker 2: Hospital had only just learned the Wilkinsons and the Pattersons
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Speaker 2: may have been poisoned by death cap mushrooms, so they
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Speaker 2: voiced their concern she should be assessed as soon as possible.
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Speaker 3: Amongst this discussion, the accused repeatedly said she needed to leave.
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Speaker 3: She said, I haven't come prepared to be admitted to
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Speaker 3: hospital and I was just coming to be checked. She
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Speaker 3: said she needed to go and sought her kids and
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Speaker 3: that she needed to go home and pack for hospital.
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Speaker 3: She was adamant that she would not stay.
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Speaker 2: Against the advice of doctors and nurses. The Crown says,
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Speaker 2: Aaron Patterson signed her own discharge form and left, telling
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Speaker 2: them she'd be back in twenty minutes. It was only
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Speaker 2: when one of the doctors informed Erin Patterson of his
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Speaker 2: plan to get the police involved, that she returned to
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Speaker 2: the hospital and agreed to be assessed.
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Speaker 3: Doctor Foot assessed the accused and she formed the impression
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Speaker 3: that the accused was moderately dehydrated and appeared to have
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Speaker 3: a gastro intestinal type illness.
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Speaker 2: The prosecutor also said Patterson didn't appear to appreciate the
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Speaker 2: urgent need for her children, aged nine and fourteen at
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Speaker 2: the time of the alleged murders, to be tested.
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Speaker 3: The accused responded that the children had not been present
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Speaker 3: for the lunch, but had eaten some of the leftovers.
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Speaker 3: The next day, the accused said that the mushrooms had
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Speaker 3: been scraped off as the children did not like mushrooms.
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Speaker 3: The accused became and said she didn't want to involve
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Speaker 3: her kids. She did not appear to be concerned so
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Speaker 3: much about the children's health, but rather about stressing them out.
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Speaker 3: Doctor Webster was blunt and said they could be scared
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Speaker 3: and alive or dead.
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Speaker 2: At the same time, Aeron Patterson was being transferred to
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Speaker 2: the Monash Medical Center for treatment. Police went through her
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Speaker 2: bins and retrieved a bag of leftover beef Wellington, which
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Speaker 2: was taken to experts at the Royal Botanic Gardens in
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Speaker 2: Melbourne for analysis. No evidence of death caps was found
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Speaker 2: in the leftovers. Both Erin Patterson and her children were
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Speaker 2: kept at the Monash Medical Center for observation overnight. The
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Speaker 2: Crown says Erin Patterson started using a new phone from
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Speaker 2: around mid January of twenty twenty three, and that she
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Speaker 2: had two simcards on the go. Roger said Erin performed
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Speaker 2: a number of factory resets on the devices, including one
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Speaker 2: which was done remotely after the phone had been seized
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Speaker 2: by police. The prosecutor said Aaron Patterson's browsing history showed
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Speaker 2: she'd looked at a website I Naturalist where locals had
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Speaker 2: reported death cap mushrooms growing in April and May of
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Speaker 2: twenty twenty three, and that's where the phone records come in.
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Speaker 2: Patterson's phone was pinging cell towers, Rogers told the court
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Speaker 2: in the areas where the Eye Naturalist users had reported
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Speaker 2: death caps.
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Speaker 3: In approximately March, April and May twenty twenty three, the
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Speaker 3: accused started posting messages in the Kelly Lane group chat
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Speaker 3: about dehydrating mushrooms.
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Speaker 2: Kelly Lane is a former Australian water polo player who
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Speaker 2: was convicted of murdering her newborn daughter in nineteen ninety six.
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Speaker 2: The prosecutor said Aaron Patterson was a member of a
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Speaker 2: group on Facebook where members discussed the case and had
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Speaker 2: struck up online friendships with some of them.
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Speaker 3: The accus explained in the chat that she'd been dehydrating mushrooms,
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Speaker 3: blitzing them into powder, and hiding powdered mushrooms in everything
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Speaker 3: included putting poundered mushrooms into chocolate brownies without her children knowing.
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Speaker 2: Police alleged Aaron Patterson disposed of a food dehydrator at
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Speaker 2: a nearby landfill on August three, but it was collected
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Speaker 2: by police the next day. Her fingerprints were later identified
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Speaker 2: on the appliance, and it was determined it contained death
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Speaker 2: cap mushroom residue, but at an interview conducted by police
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Speaker 2: on August five, Patterson told police she'd never dehydrated food.
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Speaker 2: The Crown prosecutor said an expert review of Aaron Patterson's
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Speaker 2: medical records showed it was unlikely she'd been poisoned at
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Speaker 2: the lunch on July twenty nine, and that she'd never
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Speaker 2: been diagnosed with cancer.
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Speaker 3: It is the prosecution case that the accused used the
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Speaker 3: false claim that she had serious medical issues to ensure
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Speaker 3: and to explain why the children would not be present
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Speaker 3: at the lunch on twenty ninth July.
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Speaker 1: Coming up Aaron Patterson's defense to the chargers.
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Speaker 2: The defense case is that what happened at the home
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Speaker 2: of Aaron Patterson in leon Gatha was a terrible accident,
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Speaker 2: and that Patterson had panicked in the aftermath. On Wednesday afternoon,
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Speaker 2: the barrister for Patterson, Colin Mandy, sc made his opening
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Speaker 2: submissions to the jury of fifteen men and women.
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Speaker 4: Allegations are easy to make, but it's proving them that matters.
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Speaker 4: The starting point for you is that Aaron Patterson is
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Speaker 4: innocent of this charge.
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Speaker 2: Mandy said. Patterson doesn't dispute that three people died after
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Speaker 2: attending lunch at her home, or that another person became
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Speaker 2: seriously ill. He told the court his client is a loving,
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Speaker 2: attentive mother to her children and a valued member of
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Speaker 2: the wider Patterson family, even after the breakdown of her relationship.
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Speaker 4: The defense case is that she panicked because she was
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Speaker 4: overwhelmed by the fact that these four people had become
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Speaker 4: so ill because of the food that she'd served. Might
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Speaker 4: someone panic in a situation like that? Is it possible
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Speaker 4: that people might do and say things that are not
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Speaker 4: well thought out and might in the end make them
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Speaker 4: look bad. So as you listen to the evidence, you
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Speaker 4: should consider when it comes to that fundamental issue of
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Speaker 4: Eron's intention. Did she have a motive to kill.
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Speaker 1: The trial continues on Thursday. Our reporters Elie Dudley and
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Speaker 1: John Ferguson are in court every day. You can follow
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Speaker 1: their coverage live at the Australian dot com dot au