Speaker 1: From the Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
Speaker 1: It's Friday May twenty three, twenty twenty five. Victoria police
Speaker 1: directed anti Israel protesters to gather outside of Melbourne's synagogue
Speaker 1: before a violent clash in twenty twenty three. That's an
Speaker 1: exclusive live at the Australian dot com dot you right now,
Speaker 1: gangster Johnny Reagan attempted to murder a famous whistleblowing brothel keeper.
Speaker 1: That's the startling new revelation in a fresh episode of
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Speaker 1: Australia's most notorious criminals turned into a monster and why
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Speaker 1: The Gangster Ghost where heavy listening. The Crown case in
Speaker 1: the Aaron Patterson triple murder trial is racing towards a conclusion,
Speaker 1: and the juries heard Facebook messages extracted from Aaron Patterson's phone,
Speaker 1: which allegedly called her ex husband a deadbeat and his
Speaker 1: parents a lost cause. Aaron Patterson is pleading not guilty
Speaker 1: to three counts of murder and one of attempted murder. Today,
Speaker 1: how the case against Aaron Patterson is playing out In
Speaker 1: coming days in the chile Victorian town of Molwell, a
Speaker 1: jury will retire to consider two competing versions of one
Speaker 1: Momentous Lunch the Crown.
Speaker 2: It is the prosecution case that the accused deliberately poisoned
Speaker 2: with murderous intent each of Ian Wilkinson, Heather Wilkinson, Gail Patterson,
Speaker 2: and Donald Patterson on the twenty ninth of July at
Speaker 2: her house and Lee and Gatha after inviting them for
Speaker 2: lunch on the pretense that she'd been diagnosed with cancer
Speaker 2: and needed advice about how to break it to the
Speaker 2: children and the defense.
Speaker 3: The defense case is that she panicked because she was
Speaker 3: overwhelmed by the fact that these four people had become
Speaker 3: so ill because of the food that she'd served. Allegations
Speaker 3: are easy to make, but it's proving them that matters.
Speaker 3: The starting point for you is that Aaron Patterson is
Speaker 3: innocent of this charge.
Speaker 1: Those are the prosecution and defense lawyers. Their words are
Speaker 1: read for you by voice actors addressing the jury at
Speaker 1: the start of the trial of Victorian mother Aaron Patterson,
Speaker 1: accused of the murder of three elderly relatives and the
Speaker 1: attempted murder of a fourth. The Crown says Aaron Patterson
Speaker 1: researched and obtained death cap mushrooms, cooked them into a
Speaker 1: beef Wellington and served them to her parents in law
Speaker 1: and her husband's aunt and uncle. The defense says she
Speaker 1: never meant harm anyone. After four weeks of evidence, the
Speaker 1: Crown's case is racing to a conclusion, and then it
Speaker 1: will be the defense's turn to bring witnesses and present
Speaker 1: evidence to the jury. Of course, the defense doesn't have
Speaker 1: to prove anything. It's the Crown which must prove beyond
Speaker 1: reasonable doubt not only that Aaron Patterson's actions resulted in
Speaker 1: three deaths, but that she intended to kill Doningale Patterson,
Speaker 1: Auntie Heather, and uncle Ian Wilkinson, the only guest to
Speaker 1: survive that July twenty twenty three lunch.
Speaker 4: The case has been really varied from deeply personal to
Speaker 4: quite technical. So, for example, when we heard evidence from
Speaker 4: Ian Wilkinson, the sole surviving guest of this fatal beef
Speaker 4: Wellington lunch. That was quite personal, quite emotional. But then
Speaker 4: we've also heard from the doctors who treated Aaron Patterson,
Speaker 4: the Pattersons and the Wilkinsons. After the lunch, we've heard
Speaker 4: from a cell tower expert talking about the data extracted
Speaker 4: from Aaron Patterson's cell phone records. It's all been quite
Speaker 4: dense and quite technical, so yeah, it's been really varied.
Speaker 1: Ellie Dudley is The Australian's Legal Affairs correspondent and she
Speaker 1: joins us from the Victorian Supreme Court, sitting at Molwell
Speaker 1: in the Latrobe Valley. Fifteen jurors were impaneled at the
Speaker 1: beginning of this trial. One has already been dismissed, a
Speaker 1: man whom Justice Christopher Biale told the court had been
Speaker 1: discussing the matter with family and friends.
Speaker 5: You must not conduct your own research into the case
Speaker 5: or discuss the case with others who are not on
Speaker 5: the jury.
Speaker 1: That's a voice actor reading the words of Justice Bihl
Speaker 1: to the remaining jurors after they heard evidence about what
Speaker 1: Aaron Patterson had allegedly been searching on her computer.
Speaker 5: When you're retired to consider your verdict, you will have
Speaker 5: heard or received in court all the information that you
Speaker 5: need to make your decision.
Speaker 6: Erin's very intelligent. I guess some of the things that
Speaker 6: attracted me to her in the first place was definitely
Speaker 6: her intelligence. She's quite witty and can be quite funny.
Speaker 1: That's a voice actor reading the words of Simon Patterson,
Speaker 1: Aaron Patterson's husband and the father of their two children.
Speaker 1: He was invited to the lunch but told his estranged
Speaker 1: wife he didn't want to come, something that in text
Speaker 1: messages read to the jury, she objected.
Speaker 6: To, Sorry, I feel too uncomfortable about coming to the
Speaker 6: lunch with your mum, dad, Heather and I and tomorrow.
Speaker 6: But I'm happy to talk about your health and implications
Speaker 6: of that at another time. If you'd like to discuss
Speaker 6: on the phone, just let me know.
Speaker 1: Five minutes later, Aaron Patterson replied, a voice actor reads
Speaker 1: her words.
Speaker 7: That's really disappointing. I've spent many hours this week preparing
Speaker 7: lunch for tomorrow, which has been exhausting in light of
Speaker 7: the issues I'm facing, and spent a small fortune on beef.
Speaker 7: I Philip to make beef Wellington's because I wanted it
Speaker 7: to be a special meal as I may not be
Speaker 7: able to host a lunch like this again for some time.
Speaker 7: It's important to me that you're all there tomorrow and
Speaker 7: that I can have the conversations that I need to have.
Speaker 7: I hope you'll change your mind. Your parents and Heather
Speaker 7: and Ian are coming at twelve thirty. I hope to
Speaker 7: see you there.
Speaker 4: Simon Patterson was a really interesting witness. At times he
Speaker 4: appeared to be quite joyful, and at other times he
Speaker 4: got very emotional, particularly when talking about his parents on
Speaker 4: their deathbeds. After this Beef Wellington lunch, he spoke about
Speaker 4: his troubled marriage with Aaron Patterson, about how they split
Speaker 4: for good in twenty fifteen, despite the earlier parts of
Speaker 4: their relationship being marred by shorter separations, but he said
Speaker 4: that their relationship was quite amicable. When they split in
Speaker 4: twenty fifteen, they still went on family holidays together. They
Speaker 4: co parented their children. He said that they would text
Speaker 4: back and forth about politics, they would make jokes with
Speaker 4: one another, but then in twenty twenty two that all
Speaker 4: changed when he says, accidentally listed himself as separated on
Speaker 4: his tax return, and Aaron Patterson became upset by that
Speaker 4: and asked him to start paying her child support in
Speaker 4: a formal capacity, so while doctors were frantically trying to
Speaker 4: treat these patients in hospital. On July thirty one, twenty
Speaker 4: twenty three, so two days after the lunch, the leftovers
Speaker 4: of the meal were sent in an urgent taxi to
Speaker 4: a research scientist at the Royal Botanic Gardens of Victoria
Speaker 4: called Camille Trong.
Speaker 1: They were sent to.
Speaker 4: Her in her office, but due to a miscommunication, she
Speaker 4: had gone home and they ended up getting taken to
Speaker 4: her home by one of her colleagues. And what she
Speaker 4: did was she put on gloves. She carefully removed the
Speaker 4: leftovers from the packaging that they were sent to her in.
Speaker 4: She used tweezers and under a microscope she analyzed this
Speaker 4: leftover meal.
Speaker 1: Ian Wilkinson, the sole survivor of the lunch, recounted in
Speaker 1: close detail his account of how everything went down, from
Speaker 1: Aaron Patterson plating up the individual serves of beef Wellington
Speaker 1: to the conversation they had over the meal. He's a
Speaker 1: voice actor reading Ian Wilkinson's words.
Speaker 8: I believe that she was saying she had cancer. It
Speaker 8: wasn't an impression. She plainly said that she had some
Speaker 8: sort of cancer. She said that she was very concerned
Speaker 8: because she believed it was very serious, life threatening. She
Speaker 8: was anxious about telling the kids, and she was asking
Speaker 8: our advice about that. I thought this is the reason
Speaker 8: that we'd been invited to the lunch.
Speaker 1: Simon Patterson told of the frantic events of the morning
Speaker 1: after the lunch when he spoke to his parents and
Speaker 1: then his aunt and uncle, realizing they were all seriously unwell.
Speaker 1: He took his aunt and uncle to hospital and then
Speaker 1: doctors and nurses began the frantic process of trying to
Speaker 1: work out what on earth was wrong with them, and
Speaker 1: in the days after the lunch, Aaron Patterson's red car
Speaker 1: was captured on CCTV driving to the Kunwara transfer station
Speaker 1: and the landfill.
Speaker 4: She got out of the driver's door, she walked around
Speaker 4: the back of the car. She opened up the boot,
Speaker 4: and she took out what was a large black device
Speaker 4: from the back of the car and walked in into
Speaker 4: a big green, corrugated iron shed. The jury was also
Speaker 4: shown an image of what they were told was the
Speaker 4: device taken out of the bin in that shed, which
Speaker 4: was a black dehydrator.
Speaker 1: Coming up the Facebook messages allegedly extracted from Aaron Patterson's phone.
Speaker 1: On Thursday, a new twist, the jury was told Facebook
Speaker 1: messages had been extracted from Aaron Patterson's phone under the
Speaker 1: handle Eron Erin Erin. The messages relate to the split
Speaker 1: between Simon and Aaron Patterson, including a disagreement on how
Speaker 1: child support should be paid.
Speaker 7: Simon's dad contacted me this morning to say that he
Speaker 7: and Gail had tried to talk to Simon about the
Speaker 7: matters I raised and to get his side, but he
Speaker 7: refused to talk about it other than to signal he
Speaker 7: disagreed with what I said.
Speaker 1: That's a voice actor reading the Facebook messages extracted from
Speaker 1: Aaron Patterson's phone.
Speaker 7: Beyond that, he said he won't talk about it. So
Speaker 7: Don said they can't adjudicate if they don't know both sides,
Speaker 7: and Simon won't give his side, so he said, all
Speaker 7: he can ask is that Simon and I get together
Speaker 7: and pray for the children this family. I swear to God,
Speaker 7: I said to him about fifty times yesterday that I
Speaker 7: didn't want them to adjudicate. Nobody bloody listened to me.
Speaker 7: At least I know they're a lost cause. I wonder
Speaker 7: if they've got any capacity for self reflection at all.
Speaker 7: I mean, clearly, the fact that Simon refused to talk
Speaker 7: about personal issues in parts stems from the behavior of
Speaker 7: his parents and how they operate. According to them, they've
Speaker 7: never asked him what's going on with us, why I
Speaker 7: keep kicking him out, why his son hates him, etc.
Speaker 7: It's too awkward or uncomfortable or something. So that's his
Speaker 7: learned behavior. Just don't talk about this.
Speaker 1: In early December twenty twenty two, the messages appear to
Speaker 1: refer to an alleged conversation between Don Patterson, Simon's father,
Speaker 1: and Erin, and then he also said Simon indicated there
Speaker 1: was a solution to the financial issues if I withdraw
Speaker 1: the child support claim. My head nearly exploded and I
Speaker 1: was like what, and Don goes, oh, sorry, just ignore
Speaker 1: what I said. I don't want to get involved. So anyway,
Speaker 1: I sent a group message to them all last night
Speaker 1: saying how Simon's behavior is unconscionable and asking me to
Speaker 1: withdraw the child support claim is wrong and disadvantages me
Speaker 1: and his children, and how dare he, etc. Don messages
Speaker 1: to say he and Gail don't want to get involved.
Speaker 7: I'm sick of this. I want nothing to do with them.
Speaker 7: I thought his parents would want him to do the
Speaker 7: right thing, but it seems they're concerned about not wanting
Speaker 7: to feel uncomfortable and not wanting to get involved in
Speaker 7: their son's personal matters. Are overwriting that so them, and in.
Speaker 1: A message allegedly sent the next day, December seven, twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two.
Speaker 7: His parents sent me a message yesterday after noon, and
Speaker 7: Simon sent me one last night. But I've read neither
Speaker 7: and I don't think I will. I don't want to
Speaker 7: hear it. Simon's will just be horrible and be gaslighting
Speaker 7: and abusive, and it'll ruin my day, and his parents'
Speaker 7: message will just be more weasel words. By refusing to
Speaker 7: hold Simon to account, they've made it clear his word
Speaker 7: means more than mine, So that speaks volumes. Even if
Speaker 7: they claim they haven't taken sides. They've had Simon for
Speaker 7: tea every night for three months and never once picked
Speaker 7: up the phone to me since the separation, asking if
Speaker 7: I'm okay and need help, So that tells me their choices.
Speaker 7: Simon wants to walk away from his responsibilities too, well,
Speaker 7: that's his choice.
Speaker 1: Then, an alleged mention of the financial arrangements.
Speaker 7: His mum was horrified that I'd claimed child support. Why
Speaker 7: isn't she horrified Her son is such a deadbeat that
Speaker 7: I had no choice but to claim.
Speaker 1: Ellie Dudley's the Australian's Legal affairs correspondent and she's covering
Speaker 1: this trial live. You can read her coverage, along with
Speaker 1: that of senior writer John Ferguson, anytime at the Australian
Speaker 1: dot com dot au