Latest / The Front / Mushroom cook Erin Patterson’s evidence, in her own words

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Mushroom cook Erin Patterson’s evidence, in her own words · The Front

• 0:04
  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, June four. Working from home is a critical
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: path to growing productivity in the economy of the future.
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  Speaker 1: That's the coalition's surprise new position. It's a turnaround from
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  Speaker 1: the disastrous election campaign bid to curtail work from home rights,
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  Speaker 1: which senior Liberals say helped lose them the election. But
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  Speaker 1: the opposition says it's keen to fight labor on other
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  Speaker 1: industrial changes like same job, same pay laws. Aaron Patterson
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  Speaker 1: felt her husband Simon was trying to distance her from
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  Speaker 1: his parents shortly before a family lunch that resulted in
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  Speaker 1: their deaths. That's the evidence given by Aaron Patterson herself
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  Speaker 1: from the witness box in the Victorian Supreme Court at Morwell.
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  Speaker 1: Patterson is pleading not guilty to three counts of murder
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  Speaker 1: and one of attempted murder after hosting a family lunch
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  Speaker 1: which left three elderly relatives dead. She says it was
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  Speaker 1: a terrible accident and a tragedy that she served of
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  Speaker 1: beef Wellington laced with deadly deathcap mushrooms. The Crown says
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  Speaker 1: it was murder. Today Aaron Patterson's.
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  Speaker 2: Evidence eron Trudy Patterson.
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  Speaker 1: That's how the woman accused of cooking up a fatal
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  Speaker 1: mushroom lunch started her evidence before the Victorian Supreme Court,
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  Speaker 1: where a jury is hearing evidence on three murder charges
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  Speaker 1: and a sole count of attempted murder. Aaron Patterson has
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  Speaker 1: pleaded not guilty. We've used voice actors throughout this episode
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  Speaker 1: to bring you the words spoken in court.
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  Speaker 3: The defense will call Aaron Patterson.
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  Speaker 1: Colin Mandy Casey, the Senior Council representing Aaron Patterson again
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  Speaker 1: by asking her about her life in July twenty twenty three,
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  Speaker 1: immediately preceding the mushroom lunch.
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  Speaker 3: In July of twenty twenty three, how old were your children.
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  Speaker 2: My children had just recently settled into a new school.
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  Speaker 2: They changed schools at the start of that term, so
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  Speaker 2: the children lived with me full time and they could
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  Speaker 2: see Simon whenever they wanted to. And practically what that
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  Speaker 2: meant was our daughter spent a big part of Saturday
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  Speaker 2: afternoons and evenings with Simon, and they often did extra
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  Speaker 2: things like go to the beach or go to the
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  Speaker 2: local pool whenever the idea struck them. But our son
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  Speaker 2: was only seeing his dad really a church or youth group.
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  Speaker 1: Patterson said she was financially comfortable enough not to have
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  Speaker 1: to work full time and was planning a new degree.
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  Speaker 2: At the start of twenty three. I'd been accepted into
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  Speaker 2: a Bachelor of Nursing at midwifery at Federation University, and
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  Speaker 2: I'd deferred that for one year. I was planning to
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  Speaker 2: take that up at the start of twenty four.
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  Speaker 1: Patterson said she'd drawn up her own plans for the
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: home she shared with the kids.
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  Speaker 2: I saw it as the final house, meaning I wanted
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  Speaker 2: it to be a house where the children would grow up,
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  Speaker 2: where once they moved away for UNI or for work,
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  Speaker 2: they could come back and stay whenever they liked, bring
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  Speaker 2: their children, and I'd grow old there. That's what I hoped.
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  Speaker 3: We've covered the good things in your life at the time.
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  Speaker 3: Were there parts of your life that weren't so good?
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  Speaker 3: In July of twenty twenty.
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  Speaker 2: Three, yeah, there was. I'd felt for some months that
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  Speaker 2: my relationship with the wider Patterson family, and particularly with
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  Speaker 2: Don and Gale, had perhaps had a bit more distance
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  Speaker 2: or space put between us. We saw each other less.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, partly it's a consequence of I no longer
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  Speaker 2: lived in the same town as Donn and Gale. But
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  Speaker 2: I'd begun to have concerns that Simon was not wanting
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  Speaker 2: me to be involved with the family too much anymore.
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  Speaker 2: Perhaps I wasn't being invited to so many things.
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  Speaker 3: And how was your relationship with Simon in July of
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  Speaker 3: twenty twenty three.
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  Speaker 2: It was functional From the start of the year to July.
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  Speaker 2: We mainly just related on logistical things like church, which
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  Speaker 2: the streaming the kids, But we didn't relate on friend
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  Speaker 2: things banter like we used to. That changed at the
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  Speaker 2: start of the year.
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  Speaker 3: We'll get back to that in due course. How in
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  Speaker 3: July of twenty twenty three, how did you feel about
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  Speaker 3: yourself physically?
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  Speaker 2: Not good? Why I'd been fighting a never ending battle
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  Speaker 2: of low self esteem most of my adult life and
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  Speaker 2: the further inroads I made to being middle aged less,
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  Speaker 2: I felt good about myself. I suppose put on more weight,
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  Speaker 2: could handle less exercise.
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  Speaker 3: Was it principally the weight tissue?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that was the large that was the bulk of it. Yep.
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  Speaker 3: And did you have plans to do anything about to
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  Speaker 3: address the weightissue? I did, And what were those plans?
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  Speaker 2: I was planning to have weight loss surgery, you know,
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  Speaker 2: is it gastric bypass? I was planning to do that.
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  Speaker 1: Mandy Ben took Patterson back to the start of her
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  Speaker 1: relationship with Simon Patterson. She said the pair met at
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  Speaker 1: Monash City Council, where she said he was a tr
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  Speaker 1: traffic engineer and she was an office administrator engaged by
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  Speaker 1: the RSPCA. In late two thousand and four. They shared
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  Speaker 1: lunches and after work drinks with a group of friends
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  Speaker 1: and gradually bonded over weekend camping trips. They were friends
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  Speaker 1: for eight months before they began dating in mid two
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  Speaker 1: thousand and five.
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  Speaker 3: When you met Simon, what were your views about religion?
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  Speaker 2: I was what you'd probably call a fundamentalist atheist, Like
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  Speaker 2: I was really very atheist.
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  Speaker 3: And what were Simon's views?
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  Speaker 1: Oh?
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  Speaker 2: He was a Christian. Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: And did your attitude towards religion change?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah?
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  Speaker 2: It did. Yeah. So through the course of those months
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  Speaker 2: December four jan Fab five, we had a lot of
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  Speaker 2: conversations about life, religion, politics, and a lot about religion.
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  Speaker 2: And I was trying to convert him to being an atheist.
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  Speaker 2: But things happened in reverse and I became a Christian.
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  Speaker 1: Patterson said she first met Simon's parents, Dawn and Gail Patterson,
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  Speaker 1: who would later die after eating her beef Wellington, in
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  Speaker 1: two thousand and five on her first trip to their town,
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  Speaker 1: corn Borough. Simon's uncle, Ian Wilkinson, was the minister at
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  Speaker 1: Cornborough Baptist Church.
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  Speaker 2: I remember being really excited about it because I'd never
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  Speaker 2: been to a church service before. I'd been to my
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  Speaker 2: sister's wedding inner church, but that was it. I was
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  Speaker 2: really looking forward to it.
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  Speaker 1: Wilkinson, who gave evidence earlier in this trial, was the
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  Speaker 1: sole survivor of the Mushroom Lunch. His wife, Heather, died
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  Speaker 1: after consuming the beef Wellington.
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  Speaker 2: I remember that there was a banner up on the
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  Speaker 2: wall behind where Ian was preaching. He was the pastor
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  Speaker 2: and he was giving a sermon that day, and there
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  Speaker 2: was a banner. It could still be there now, but
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  Speaker 2: it has on it faith, hope, and love. And Ian
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  Speaker 2: gave a sermon talking about that. There's a passage in
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  Speaker 2: the Bible that talks about faith, hope, and love, and
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  Speaker 2: the greatest of these is love. I remember Ian giving
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  Speaker 2: a sermon on that, and then we had communion, which
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  Speaker 2: I was welcome to participate paid in.
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  Speaker 3: What impact did that church service have on you?
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  Speaker 2: I had what can best be described as like a
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  Speaker 2: spiritual experience. I'd been approaching religion as an intellectual exercise
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  Speaker 2: up to that point. Doesn't make sense, is it rational?
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  Speaker 2: But what I had I would call a religious experience
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  Speaker 2: there and it quite overwhelmed me.
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  Speaker 1: Camping weekends were very important to Simon, his ex wife
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  Speaker 1: told the court, as he wanted a chance to really
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  Speaker 1: switch off from work. The couple also had a regular
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  Speaker 1: Bible study group with one of Simon's cousins and a
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  Speaker 1: few friends. They became engaged in two thousand and seven
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  Speaker 1: and had a wedding hosted by Donald Gale Patterson under
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  Speaker 1: a garden marquee in Corumborough. Aaron Patterson's own parents were,
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  Speaker 1: she said, on a train holiday in Russia, so she
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  Speaker 1: was walked down the aisle by Simon's cousin, David Wilkinson,
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  Speaker 1: son of Heather and Ian. They set out on a honeymoon.
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  Speaker 2: What we really wanted for our honeymoon was to drive
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  Speaker 2: around Australia, so Simon gave notice at his job. We
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  Speaker 2: gave away everything we had, sold Simon's car to Ian
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  Speaker 2: and Heather bought a miss and patrol and we just
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  Speaker 2: hit the open road.
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  Speaker 3: And where did you go?
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  Speaker 2: We first went to Sydney. Simon had some friends there
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  Speaker 2: that he wanted us to stay with, so we did
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  Speaker 2: that and then we just slowly meandered our way across Australia,
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  Speaker 2: but through the you know, like far West Birdsville, Unadada track,
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  Speaker 2: through the guts of it.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up, the marriage starts to crack. Aaron Patterson's evidence continues.
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  Speaker 2: After the break.
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  Speaker 1: After they'd be Calliday, the newlyweds settled down in Perth.
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  Speaker 2: Simon was pretty keen to keep traveling, and I was
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  Speaker 2: pretty keen to stop for a while and put down roots.
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  Speaker 2: I was keen to start having babies, I guess for
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  Speaker 2: one of a better way to phrase it. So we did.
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  Speaker 1: Their first child, a boy, was born in early two
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  Speaker 1: thousand and nine.
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  Speaker 3: How was I'm asking this for a reason. How was
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  Speaker 3: his birth? How were you after giving birth?
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  Speaker 2: His birth was very traumatic for what reason? It went
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  Speaker 2: for a very long time, and they tried to get
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  Speaker 2: him out with forceps and he wouldn't come out, and
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  Speaker 2: he started to go into distress and they lost his
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  Speaker 2: heart beat. So they did an emergency caesarean and got
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  Speaker 2: him out quickly.
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  Speaker 3: Now, as a result of that cesarean, you had to
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  Speaker 3: stay in hospital for a few days.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was sixteen years ago, so I'm not sure
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  Speaker 2: exactly how long, but it was probably roughly a week.
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  Speaker 2: My son was in the neonatal. I see you for
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  Speaker 2: a while.
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  Speaker 3: And how was it that you ended up leaving the hospital?
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  Speaker 2: So my son had got to a point where they
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  Speaker 2: were happy to discharge him. He was off oxygen, he
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  Speaker 2: was off the feeding tube, and they said he could
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  Speaker 2: be discharged to go home with Simon, but they wanted
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  Speaker 2: me to stay. They didn't think I'd healed quite well
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  Speaker 2: enough from the surgery, and they wanted me to stay,
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  Speaker 2: and I wanted to go with my son. So I
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  Speaker 2: remember having a conversation with Simon about it, and I
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  Speaker 2: was really upset and I said, I don't want to
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  Speaker 2: stay here by myself. I want to go home with
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  Speaker 2: our son. And Simon said to me, you can just
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  Speaker 2: do it. Let's just leave.
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  Speaker 3: Did that involve you discharging yourself against medical advice?
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  Speaker 2: Yeap, it did.
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  Speaker 1: Down and Gail Patterson came to stay, and the extended
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  Speaker 1: family rented an airbnb out of town.
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  Speaker 2: I remember being really relieved that Gail was there because
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  Speaker 2: I felt really out of my depth. I had no
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  Speaker 2: idea what to do with a baby, and I was
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  Speaker 2: not confident, and she was really supportive and gentle and
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  Speaker 2: patient with me.
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  Speaker 3: Did she give you advice?
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  Speaker 2: She did? What about about helping to settle him after
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  Speaker 2: a feed, about trying to interpret his cries? And she
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  Speaker 2: gave me good advice about just relax and enjoy it.
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  Speaker 2: You don't have to stick to this timetable, this schedule.
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  Speaker 2: Just relax and enjoy your baby.
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  Speaker 1: When the baby was a few months old, they set
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: out again for a trip around the top half of Australia,
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  Speaker 1: back in Thenisent Patrol and off to the Gibb River Road,
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  Speaker 1: then the tanem My Track up to Tenant Creek, across
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  Speaker 1: to Cairns and down to Townsville.
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  Speaker 3: And how were you feeling in November of two thousand
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  Speaker 3: and nine in terms of all that traveling you'd been doing.
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  Speaker 2: It had been a good holiday, but I'd had enough.
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  Speaker 2: I wanted to sleep in a real bed, and it
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  Speaker 2: was getting harder to camp with the baby. Like when
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  Speaker 2: we started off he was three months old, he slept
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  Speaker 2: a lot. I remember joking at the time that I
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: couldn't remember his eye color because his eyes were never open.
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  Speaker 1: Like.
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  Speaker 2: He slept a lot. So when we first started traveling,
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  Speaker 2: like we could time our long drives with these three
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  Speaker 2: hour naps that he had. But by November he was
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  Speaker 2: standing up and crawling and not sleeping a lot. It
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  Speaker 2: was a lot harder. I'd had a gut full.
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  Speaker 3: Did you and Simon talk about that?
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  Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, we did.
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  Speaker 3: And what was the agreement that you came to.
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  Speaker 2: The agreement we had was that I flew back to
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  Speaker 2: Perth and Simon followed with the baby in the patrol.
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  Speaker 1: Once back in Perth, the couple split, reunited, and then
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  Speaker 1: had periods of separation until about twenty fifteen.
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  Speaker 2: I would say that even though obviously our relationship was
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: struggling to cause a separation, it was really important to
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  Speaker 2: both of us to cooperate about our son and make
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  Speaker 2: it as easy on him as possible, as easy as
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  Speaker 2: the separation of his parents can be. Yeah, that was
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  Speaker 2: our priority.
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  Speaker 3: And was there any conflict between you as to how
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  Speaker 3: to look after him?
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  Speaker 2: No, there wasn't. There wasn't.
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: There must have been some tension to cause the separations.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, of course, there was.
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  Speaker 3: What was that about?
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  Speaker 2: Primarily what we struggled with over the course of our relationship.
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  Speaker 2: If we had any problems at all, it was we
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: just couldn't communicate well when we disagreed about something. We
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: could never communicate in a way that made each of
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  Speaker 2: us heard or understood, so we would just feel heard
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  Speaker 2: and not know how to resolve it.
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  Speaker 3: But that kind of tension didn't extend to how to
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  Speaker 3: look after your.
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  Speaker 2: Son, No, it didn't, because we both just loved him
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: didn't want him to They were adult problems. They were
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  Speaker 2: not problems for a child.
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: Your honor? Is that a convenient time?
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  Speaker 1: That's how lawyers with one eye on the clock signaled
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: to the judge that they can wrap up for the day.
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  Speaker 1: Aaron Patterson will return to the witness box at ten
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: thirty am on Tuesday.
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: You can tune in
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: To keep up with live updates from our reporters in court,
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: Ellie Dudley and John Ferguson at the Australian dot com
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: dot au