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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 Wednesday, June twenty four to twenty twenty five. Almost

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Speaker 1: three million low paid workers are getting a pay rise.

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Speaker 1: The wage bump announced by the Fair Work Commission works

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Speaker 1: out to be about thirty two dollars a week for

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Speaker 1: those on the minimum wage. A controversial so called supertax

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Speaker 1: is potentially up for negotiation. The Prime Minister says he

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Speaker 1: wants to work with the Coalition on real tax reform,

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Speaker 1: and that means potential changes to the unrealized capital gains tax,

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Speaker 1: which would hit Australians with superbalances over three million dollars.

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Speaker 1: Those stories alive right now at the Australian dot com

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Speaker 1: dot a U. A weeping Aaron Patterson says she regrets

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Speaker 1: expletive ridden text messages she sent about her former in

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Speaker 1: laws who died after eating a beef Wellington she prepared

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Speaker 1: in twenty twenty three. She's pleading not guilty to three

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Speaker 1: counts of murder and a single count of attempted murder,

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Speaker 1: and she's giving evidence in her own defense in the

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Speaker 1: Victorian Supreme Court today. What happened when Aaron Patterson was

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Speaker 1: asked about the mushroom lunch for the first time in court.

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Speaker 1: Aaron Patterson returned to the witness box in the Victorian

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Speaker 1: Supreme Court in Morewell on Tuesday, the juries hearing evidence

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Speaker 1: on three murder charges and one of attempted murder relating

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Speaker 1: to a twenty twenty three lunch where guests consumed beef

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Speaker 1: Wellington allegedly laced with deathcap mushrooms. Aaron Patterson has pleaded

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Speaker 1: not guilty. We've used voice actors throughout this episode to

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Speaker 1: bring you the words spoken in court. Patterson said after

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Speaker 1: her grandmother died in two thousand and six, she was

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Speaker 1: one of a number of beneficiaries of the estate. The

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Speaker 1: money enabled her to travel around the world with her

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Speaker 1: then husband, Simon Patterson, and to buy a home in

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Speaker 1: Quinnenup in country Western Australia without a mortgage. Patterson told

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Speaker 1: her senior council Colin Mandy Casey. She gave loans of

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Speaker 1: approximately four hundred thousand dollars apiece to three of Simon

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Speaker 1: Patterson's siblings, with repayments only to cover inflation, and the

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Speaker 1: money enabled her to start a secondhand bookstore in twenty thirteen.

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Speaker 1: She and Simon moved back to Victoria.

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Speaker 2: Our son was a very extroverted child, and he seemed

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Speaker 2: to struggle with the lack of siblings and contact with

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Speaker 2: cousins and living in the middle of nowhere with no

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Speaker 2: friends to play with. We'd gone back to Victoria once

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Speaker 2: or twice, and he just loved being with his cousins

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Speaker 2: and Nana and Papa, and we wanted to come back

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Speaker 2: for him. And secondly, I was trying and ended up

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Speaker 2: being pregnant with our daughter. I wanted to be near

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Speaker 2: Don and Gail when we had her.

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Speaker 1: Don and Gale Patterson were Simon Patterson's parents, who would

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Speaker 1: both die in twenty twenty three after eating Aaron Patterson's

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Speaker 1: beef Wellington.

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Speaker 3: And during that time after twenty fifteen, how was your

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Speaker 3: relationship with Donna and Gail?

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Speaker 2: It never changed. I was just their daughter in Lauren.

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Speaker 2: They continued to love me.

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Speaker 3: So does that mean that in terms of Don and Gail,

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Speaker 3: you and the children continued to see them often?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we did. We went to their house often for

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Speaker 2: lunch with Simon. Without Simon. They would drop in and

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Speaker 2: knock on my door, sometimes drop things off. They'd have

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Speaker 2: my son over to play and have sleepovers. They were

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Speaker 2: very involved.

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Speaker 1: Mandy asked Patterson about Heather and Ian Wilkinson, who was

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Speaker 1: the pastor at Cornborough Baptist Church.

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Speaker 2: So I'd always have a chat with them after church

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Speaker 2: if I could. Ian was very popular as the pastor

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Speaker 2: and always had a lot of people wanting to talk

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Speaker 2: to them. But Heather would always make a point of

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Speaker 2: coming to talk to me, and I saw them sometimes

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Speaker 2: at Christmas gatherings outside of the family, and I probably

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Speaker 2: didn't get to chat to Ian so much, but Heather

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Speaker 2: would always go out of her way to come and

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Speaker 2: sit with me and make sure that I had company.

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Speaker 1: She was asked about Facebook chats the jury has previously

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Speaker 1: been shown. Mandy wanted to know what was her attitude

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Speaker 1: to religion during those years or to God.

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Speaker 2: It remained how it had been since two thousand and five.

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Speaker 2: I was and am a Christian.

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Speaker 3: Did you ever tell Christine Hunt that you were an atheist?

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Speaker 1: No, I didn't know, Patterson said she would have only

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Speaker 1: said that she was previously an atheist. Patterson described the

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Speaker 1: sale of various properties and the purchase of a family

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Speaker 1: home in Lee and Gatha, which was put into both

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Speaker 1: her and Simon Patterson's names.

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Speaker 2: Well, from my perspective, it was I always I thought

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Speaker 2: we would bring the family back together. That was what

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Speaker 2: I wanted, and I did that because I wanted some

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Speaker 2: way to demonstrate to Simon that that's what I really

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Speaker 2: believed and wanted. It was something tangible to say I

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Speaker 2: see a future for us.

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Speaker 1: Mandy asked about Patterson's health records over the years, including

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Speaker 1: a GP visit in twenty twenty one when she feared

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Speaker 1: she had ovarian cancer.

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Speaker 2: I'd been having for a few months by then, a

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Speaker 2: multitude of symptoms. I felt very fatigued. I had ongoing

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Speaker 2: abdominal pain. I had chronic headaches. I put on a

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Speaker 2: lot of weight in quite a short period of time,

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Speaker 2: and had like my feet and my hands seemed to

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Speaker 2: retain a lot of fluid.

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Speaker 3: Now the notes indicate this, Aaron worried about ovarian cancer,

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Speaker 3: has been googling her symptoms. That's right, yep, is that

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Speaker 3: what you'd been doing? I had yeap, I consulted doctor Google.

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Speaker 1: Patterson said she'd struggled to get any health professional to

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Speaker 1: listen to her. Her concerns about her baby daughter too, So.

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Speaker 2: Right from when she was born, I thought there was

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Speaker 2: something wrong. She cried a lot, but not normal crying.

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Speaker 2: I'd already had one baby by then, and I knew

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Speaker 2: what to expect. She cried a lot for long durations

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Speaker 2: that I thought demonstrated pain, and I took her to

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Speaker 2: a lot of doctors and even the hospital, and what

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Speaker 2: they communicated to me was I was an over anxious

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Speaker 2: mother and she would just relax and she's just a

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Speaker 2: normal baby.

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Speaker 1: She said. With both her daughter and son, they turned

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Speaker 1: out to have medical issues that doctors hadn't been able

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Speaker 1: to diagnose. Patterson said it all undermined her faith in medicos.

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Speaker 1: She requested a brain MRI, and when that came back negative,

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Speaker 1: asked for a spinal MRI. She googled ovarian cancer, brain tumors,

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Speaker 1: ovarian cancer that metastasized to the brain and lungs, heart conditions, lupus,

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Speaker 1: and multiple sclerosis.

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Speaker 2: The train just kept going. I think I wasted a

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Speaker 2: lot of time, not just my time, but medical people's

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Speaker 2: time through all my doctor googling. It's hard to justify it,

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Speaker 2: but with the benefit of hindsight, I can see that, like,

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Speaker 2: I just lost so much faith in the medical system

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Speaker 2: that I decided that anything to do with my health

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Speaker 2: or the children's health. I'm going to have to solve

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Speaker 2: that problem myself. But there's a reason why doctors have

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Speaker 2: medical training to enable them to navigate their way through

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Speaker 2: it so that every headache is not a brain tumor.

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Speaker 1: Mandy turned to Patterson's relationship with her husband, Simon and

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Speaker 1: how it deteriorated in twenty twenty two during a dispute

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Speaker 1: about child support payments.

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Speaker 2: I'd been preparing to do my tax return, and as

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Speaker 2: we always did, I asked Simon for his income to

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Speaker 2: put down on my tax return and wanted to give

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Speaker 2: him mine. It arose out of the discussions that he'd

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Speaker 2: put himself down as single on the tax return, so

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Speaker 2: that wasn't necessary anymore. She said.

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Speaker 1: She wanted to claim the family tax bear, and to

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Speaker 1: do that had to put in a child support application

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Speaker 1: to cent a link. She said Simon Patterson seemed agreeable

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Speaker 1: to that. In October of twenty twenty two, Patterson became

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Speaker 1: upset about finding out on a Friday that the following

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Speaker 1: day would be a seventieth birthday lunch for her mother

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Speaker 1: in law, Gail Patterson.

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Speaker 2: I felt hurt because I thought I'd been left off

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Speaker 2: the invite list, and I was also annoyed with myself

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Speaker 2: because I'd forgotten that it was a big birthday coming

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Speaker 2: up for Gail. But yeah, I was hurt.

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Speaker 1: In November twenty twenty two, another dispute, Patterson asked Simon

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Speaker 1: to pay for an anesthetist bill for their son. The

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Speaker 1: jury was shown a text message exchange between Simon and

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Speaker 1: Aaron Patterson.

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Speaker 2: The Department of Human Services instructed me not to pay

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Speaker 2: you anything for the kids from now on, So I

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Speaker 2: cannot pay that. I'm afraid it's not paying me'sying he's anthetist.

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Speaker 1: On December five, it flared up again during a discussion

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Speaker 1: about their son's pocket money.

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Speaker 2: You can cancel your pocket money transfers into the Department

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Speaker 2: of Human Services told you not to pay for anything

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Speaker 2: for the kids anymore.

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Speaker 1: In court, Aaron Patterson said.

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Speaker 2: It looks like I was being a little bit petty

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Speaker 2: in that response. By the last sentence, I was clearly

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Speaker 2: using his words back to him. I was being a

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Speaker 2: bit petty.

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Speaker 1: She tried to involve Don and Gail Patterson in mediation

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Speaker 1: about how the children's school fees would be paid.

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Speaker 2: Overwritingly, they thought that Simon and I should set all

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Speaker 2: the issue together, but they didn't want to become like

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Speaker 2: official mediators.

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Speaker 1: Patterson said she vented in frustration on a Facebook group

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Speaker 1: with women she'd been speaking to online since twenty twenty.

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Speaker 2: This family, I swear to fucking God, I'm sick of

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Speaker 2: this shit, so fuck it. Nobody listens to me at

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Speaker 2: least so I know they're a lost cause.

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Speaker 1: In court, Patterson said she was stressed and believed this

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Speaker 1: was a private chat.

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Speaker 2: I wish I'd never said it. I feel very I

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Speaker 2: feel ashamed for saying it, and I wish the family

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Speaker 2: didn't have to hear that I said that. They didn't

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Speaker 2: deserve it.

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Speaker 3: Why did you write that to your Facebook friends?

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Speaker 2: I needed to vent. I needed to get my frustration

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Speaker 2: off my chest. And the choice was either to go

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Speaker 2: into the paddic and tell it to the sheep or

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Speaker 2: vent to these women. But I regret the language that

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Speaker 2: I used, but I knew that they would rally around me.

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Speaker 2: I probably played up the emotion a little bit to

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Speaker 2: get that support.

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Speaker 3: And did you mean those things?

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Speaker 2: No? I didn't. I was really frustrated with Simon, but

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Speaker 2: it wasn't don in Gale's fault. It wasn't the family's fault.

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Speaker 2: It wasn't even entirely Simon's fault. I played a part

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Speaker 2: in the issue too.

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Speaker 3: Did you understand that then?

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Speaker 2: I think at the time I thought I was right

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Speaker 2: and he was wrong. But I reflected on it a

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Speaker 2: lot in New Zealand and I realized that I was

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Speaker 2: wrong to try and involve Donn Gale and I should

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Speaker 2: have approached it differently with Simon.

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Speaker 1: Aaron Patterson told the jury she'd battled her weight and

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Speaker 1: self esteem since adolescence.

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Speaker 2: When I was a kid, my mum would weigh us

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Speaker 2: every week to make sure we weren't putting on too

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Speaker 2: much weight, and so I went to the extreme of

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Speaker 2: barely eating. Then through my adulthood going the other way

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Speaker 2: and binging. I suppose, for one of a better word.

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Speaker 2: I never had a good relationship with food, a healthy relationship.

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Speaker 1: She said she would throw up after binge eating something

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Speaker 1: she did in secret while the children were.

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Speaker 3: At school, and who knew about it?

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Speaker 2: Nobody? Nobody, everybody now, but nobody knew then.

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Speaker 1: Patterson said she'd picked and cooked mushrooms since first noticing

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Speaker 1: their proliferation in the local area on family walks during

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty.

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Speaker 3: Had you always liked eating mushrooms. Yeah, I had why.

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Speaker 2: They taste good and they're very healthy.

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Speaker 3: In terms of varieties of mushrooms, did you eat different varieties?

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Speaker 2: I did. I'd buy all the different types that woolies

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Speaker 2: would sell. We'd have local farmers markets and I'd get

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Speaker 2: different sorts there from grocers up in Melbourne. Yeah, I

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Speaker 2: tried all of them. I'd use them in curries or

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Speaker 2: pasta dishes or soup, spaghetti.

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Speaker 3: And what did you like about the more exotic mushrooms?

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Speaker 2: They just taste more interesting, more flavor.

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Speaker 1: She said she found field and horse mushrooms in the

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Speaker 1: paddocks on her own property, and also foraged in places

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Speaker 1: like the local botanic gardens and rail trail. She said

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Speaker 1: there was one type of mushroom growing in her back

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Speaker 1: paddock that she wasn't able to identify, so she didn't

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Speaker 1: eat those. And she said her children sometimes helped her

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Speaker 1: to pick mushrooms when they.

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Speaker 3: Were out and about.

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Speaker 2: When I got to a point where I was confident

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Speaker 2: about what I thought they were, I cut a bit

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Speaker 2: off one of the mushrooms, fried it up with some

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Speaker 2: butter ate it and then saw what happened. And what

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Speaker 2: happened they tasted good and I didn't get sick.

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Speaker 3: And thereafter? What did you do with the mushrooms that

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Speaker 3: you found on that property?

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Speaker 2: So? If I saw mushrooms, the same mushrooms growing, I

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Speaker 2: would usually pick them and eat them and sometimes put

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Speaker 2: them in meals. We all ate.

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Speaker 3: You said you put them in meals? We all ate?

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Speaker 3: Does that mean you and the children?

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Speaker 2: Yep?

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Speaker 3: How did you put them in the children's meals? What

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Speaker 3: did you do?

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Speaker 2: I chopped them up very very small so they couldn't

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Speaker 2: pick them out.

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Speaker 1: Coming up, Pattison is asked for the first time in

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Speaker 1: court about the fatal lunch. For the first time in

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Speaker 1: this trial, Aaron Patterson was asked directly on Tuesday afternoon

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Speaker 1: about the fatal mushroom lunch.

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Speaker 3: In terms of the meal that you cooked for the lunch,

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Speaker 3: which is the subject of this trial. Do you accept

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Speaker 3: that there must have been deathcap mushrooms in that meal? Yes?

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Speaker 2: I do.

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Speaker 3: And speaking globally, do you remember where the mushrooms that

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Speaker 3: went into that meal came from? So all of the

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Speaker 3: mushrooms that went into that meal.

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Speaker 2: Right, So the vast majority came from the local Woolworths

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Speaker 2: in Leongatha, and there were some from the grocer in Melbourne.

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Speaker 3: So there's been evidence that you told people that you

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Speaker 3: bought some mushrooms from an Asian groser in April. That's right.

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Speaker 3: Do you remember that event? Is that an event clear

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Speaker 3: in your mind.

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Speaker 2: Not the specific purchase of them. No, it's not clear.

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Speaker 1: Patterson said she remembered going to an Asian grocer in

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Speaker 1: the April school holidays when she and the children were

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Speaker 1: staying at Mount Waverley, but that she had also done

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Speaker 1: so on previous occasions.

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Speaker 2: There was Shitaki Poccini. I think an Oki was one

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Speaker 2: of them. Sometimes the bags might say something like wild

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Speaker 2: mushroom mix or forest mushroom like they wouldn't be specific

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Speaker 2: about the types of them.

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Speaker 1: Patterson said she bought a dehydrator in twenty twenty three

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Speaker 1: to better preserve mushrooms, and would dehydrate specimens, including button

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Speaker 1: mushrooms she brought from Woolworths, then store them in a

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Speaker 1: plastic container in her pantry. The jury heard she made

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Speaker 1: a social media post that said.

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Speaker 2: So fun fact, dehydrator reduces mushroom mass by ninety percent.

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Speaker 1: Colin Mandy took her back to the mushrooms she bought

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Speaker 1: from an Asian grocer in April twenty twenty three.

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Speaker 2: I remember that I was going to use them the

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Speaker 2: day that I bought them, but they were very pungent.

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Speaker 2: I didn't think that would be a great smell for

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Speaker 2: what I was making, so I just put them in

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Speaker 2: a container and put them in the pantry at that point.

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Speaker 3: And what happened to that container in the pantry?

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Speaker 2: So I took the container back home to Gibson Street

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Speaker 2: when we went home.

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Speaker 1: Gibson Street is Aaron Padda since home in LeeAnne Gatha,

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Speaker 1: where the fatal lunch would be held. Three months later.

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Speaker 1: She said those mushrooms were still in the container in

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Speaker 1: the pantry when she later dehydrated mushrooms in May and June.

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Speaker 3: Do you have a memory of putting wild mushrooms that

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Speaker 3: you dehydrated in May or June of twenty twenty three

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Speaker 3: into a container which already contained other dried mushrooms.

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Speaker 2: Yes, I did do that.

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Speaker 1: At that point, Justice Christopher Beale called an end to

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Speaker 1: the day. Aaron Patterson will return to the witness box

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Speaker 1: on Wednesday, June four at ten thirty am. You can

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Speaker 1: follow proceedings live reported by our colleagues Ellie Dudley and

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Speaker 1: John Ferguson from the courtroom. By joining our subscribers at

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Speaker 1: Theaustralian dot com dot au