Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
Speaker 1: It's Wednesday, May seven, twenty twenty five. Array of light
Speaker 1: for the Liberal Party. MP Tim Wilson has won back
Speaker 1: his seat of Goldstein, turfing out Teal Independent Zoe Daniel.
Speaker 1: Labour's environmental wing wants Anthony Albanesi to go faster on
Speaker 1: climate mitigation, arguing voters have shifted from the Greens to
Speaker 1: the government and want to see a twenty thirty five
Speaker 1: emissions target above seventy percent. You can read all the
Speaker 1: latest from the drastically reshaped federal political landscape right now
Speaker 1: at The Australian dot com dot au. The only survivor
Speaker 1: of a deadly mushroom lunch has told a jury after
Speaker 1: eating allegedly poisoned beef Wellington, he led a prayer for
Speaker 1: his niece, who's charge with three counts of murder and
Speaker 1: one of attempted murder. Aaron Patterson had told Ian Wilkinson,
Speaker 1: his wife, Heather, and her parents in law, Don and
Speaker 1: Gail Patterson, she feared she had ovarian cancer, but the
Speaker 1: jury has heard that was not true. Today, the first
Speaker 1: eyewitness account from a lunch that killed three people.
Speaker 2: Ian Wilkinson is an old man. He came into court
Speaker 2: wearing a vest and a collared shirt. He had a
Speaker 2: pin on his lapel which was a fish, the symbol
Speaker 2: of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: That's Ellie Dudley, the Australian's Legal affairs correspondent. She's covering
Speaker 1: the trial of Aaron Patterson, the Victorian mother of two
Speaker 1: who's pleaded not guilty to murdering three elderly relatives by
Speaker 1: poisoning them with deaf cap mushrooms hidden in a beef
Speaker 1: Wellington and attempt to murder a third. That third guest
Speaker 1: is Ian Wilkinson, a Baptist pastor and the only surviving
Speaker 1: guest from that July twenty twenty three mushroom lunch at
Speaker 1: Aaron Patterson's house in Lee and Gatha in Country Victoria.
Speaker 1: On Tuesday, Ian Wilkinson stepped into the witness box in
Speaker 1: the Victorian Supreme Court, sitting at the Latrobe Valley Law
Speaker 1: Courts in Morewell.
Speaker 2: Aaron Patterson's been sitting in court every day. She's sitting
Speaker 2: in a little box with a window in front of
Speaker 2: her up the back of the court. So there is
Speaker 2: a moment that my colleague John Ferguson recalled when Anan
Speaker 2: Wilkinson walked into court, the jury were already in there,
Speaker 2: and he appeared to hold Aaron Patterson's gaze for a
Speaker 2: period of time before walking up to the witness box,
Speaker 2: giving his oath and then beginning to give evidence.
Speaker 1: Ian Wilkinson, now seventy one, is related to Aaron Patterson
Speaker 1: by marriage through his late wife, Heather. Ian Wilkinson told
Speaker 1: the court Heather, who was sixty six in July twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three, was working as an English teacher with new migrants.
Speaker 1: Heather was Aaron Patterson's auntie. She was the younger sister
Speaker 1: of Erin's mother in law, Gail Patterson. We've used voice
Speaker 1: actors to bring you the words spoken in court.
Speaker 3: She was the baby of the family.
Speaker 2: He laughed quite a bit while he was giving evidence.
Speaker 2: Something that I said to John Ferguson, the associate editor
Speaker 2: of The Australian who's covering this trial with me, was
Speaker 2: that he seems really joyful, which was unexpected to me.
Speaker 2: You know, he's lost his wife, he's lost his wife's
Speaker 2: sister and her husband. He's had an astronomical amount of
Speaker 2: media attention. His whole life has been uprooted, but he
Speaker 2: appeared to be quite joyful. He's frail to an extent,
Speaker 2: but perhaps not as frail as you would expect him
Speaker 2: to be as somebody who spent over a month in
Speaker 2: hospital after being allegedly poisoned with death cat mushrooms. He
Speaker 2: just appears to be a gentle old man.
Speaker 1: Ian Wilkinson and Aaron Patterson had been related for several decades.
Speaker 1: He remembered on only two previous occasions visiting Aaron at home,
Speaker 1: but never stepping inside.
Speaker 3: We were outside the house and in the driveway, I
Speaker 3: suppose you'd call it, and we spoke there. We spoke
Speaker 3: to Aaron on the doorstep.
Speaker 1: Prosecutor Jane Warren's words are read by a voice actor.
Speaker 1: How would you describe Erin as a person?
Speaker 3: Well, just seemed like normal person to me. You know.
Speaker 3: When we met, things were friendly. We never had arguments
Speaker 3: or disputes or she just seemed like an ordinary person.
Speaker 3: I don't know how to describe it. Our relationship was friendly, amicable.
Speaker 3: It didn't have much depth. We were more like acquaintances.
Speaker 3: We didn't see a great deal of each other.
Speaker 1: When in July twenty twenty three, Aaron Patterson invited the
Speaker 1: Wilkinsons and her parents in law, Don and Gale Patterson
Speaker 1: to lunch at her new home in Land. Gaffer Ian
Speaker 1: Wilkinson remembered his wife being thrilled.
Speaker 3: Heather came through. I was still in the main body
Speaker 3: of the church. She came through from the hall and
Speaker 3: told me we'd been invited to Aaron's home from a meal.
Speaker 3: She was fairly excited and she said that good news
Speaker 3: sort of thing. There was no reason given for the lunch,
Speaker 3: and I remember talking to Heather wondering why suddenly the invitation.
Speaker 1: How did you feel about the invitation.
Speaker 3: We were happy to be invited. Yeah, seemed like maybe
Speaker 3: our relationship with Aaron was going to improve.
Speaker 1: When they arrived carrying a fruit platter, Heather Wilkinson was
Speaker 1: keen to investigate Aaron Patterson's pantry, her husband said. Heather
Speaker 1: was keen to have a pantry of her own at
Speaker 1: home and interested in ideas. She and Gail Patterson started
Speaker 1: moving towards the pantry. Wilkinson told the jury.
Speaker 3: Heather was calling out to me, come and look at
Speaker 3: the pantry. I'd noticed that Aaron was very reluctant about
Speaker 3: the visit to the pantry and not yet started following them.
Speaker 3: I thought that maybe the pantry's a mess. It's going
Speaker 3: to be an embarrassment, so I wouldn't add to the
Speaker 3: embarrassment by joining the pantry. They went to look at
Speaker 3: the pantry, and Erin followed them in, and they stood
Speaker 3: in there for some time talking about the pantry. Heather
Speaker 3: called out to me, come in here and have a look.
Speaker 3: I thought i'd be polite and just stayed where we
Speaker 3: were standing, talking with Don.
Speaker 1: He said. As Aaron mashed potatoes and put the food
Speaker 1: on the plates on the kitchen bench, both Heather and
Speaker 1: Gale offered to help.
Speaker 3: The offer was rejected and Aaron plaited. There was mashed potatoes,
Speaker 3: green beans, and beef Wellington.
Speaker 1: The beef Wellington. Did you see where that came from
Speaker 1: before it was plaited?
Speaker 3: No, I didn't. Each person had an individual serve. It
Speaker 3: was very much like a pasty if you imagine a
Speaker 3: pasty being put on a plate. It was a pastry case,
Speaker 3: and when we cut into it there was steak and mushrooms.
Speaker 3: There were four large gray dinner plates and one smaller
Speaker 3: plate a different color. It was an orangey tan sort
Speaker 3: of color.
Speaker 1: Once the food was plated. How were those plates distributed?
Speaker 3: Well, the plates were distributed by three different people. Gail
Speaker 3: picked up two of the gray plates and put them
Speaker 3: on the table. Heather picked up two of the gray
Speaker 3: plates and put them on the table, and Aaron picked
Speaker 3: up the odd plate and carried it to the table.
Speaker 3: She took it to her place at the table.
Speaker 1: They said grace and it began eating, and Wilkinson said
Speaker 1: he and Heather both ate their entire meal while Gaiel
Speaker 1: ate half her beef wellington? Doohn Patterson ate his entire meal?
Speaker 1: And he also ate the half of the beef wellington
Speaker 1: that his wife Gail didn't finish. And there was some
Speaker 1: banter or teasing about that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's why I remember. There was talk about husbands
Speaker 3: helping their wives out by eating extra food. Heather mentioned, oh,
Speaker 3: we should have shared a beef wellington because she thought
Speaker 3: the meal was a bit on the large side for her.
Speaker 3: So that's the reason I remember who ate what?
Speaker 1: They shared a cake and some fruit, And that's when,
Speaker 1: according to Ian Wilkinson, Aaron Patterson revealed she had cancer.
Speaker 1: He thinks he recalls her saying it was overian cancer.
Speaker 3: She said that she was very concerned because she believed
Speaker 3: it was very serious, life threatening. She was anxious about
Speaker 3: telling the kids, and she was asking our advice about that.
Speaker 3: I thought this is the reason that we'd been invited
Speaker 3: to the lunch.
Speaker 1: The jury has heard in the Crown's opening statement that
Speaker 1: the prosecution case is that Aaron Patterson used the story
Speaker 1: about having cancer as a pretext for inviting the elderly
Speaker 1: relatives and her husband, Simon to the lunch without the
Speaker 1: children being present. Simon Patterson declined the invitation. Aaron Patterson's
Speaker 1: defense has conceded she did not have cancer, but reject
Speaker 1: that case theory. In the witness box, Ian Wilkinson said
Speaker 1: Aaron Patterson wanted advice on how to speak to the children.
Speaker 3: Don spoke first and he said he thought it would
Speaker 3: be best to be honest with the kids. Then there
Speaker 3: was a bit of general conversation and that was what
Speaker 3: we all thought.
Speaker 1: They stopped the conversation after Aaron's son came home with
Speaker 1: a friend.
Speaker 3: I prayed, asking God's blessing on Aaron, that she would
Speaker 3: get the treatment she needed, that the kids would be okay,
Speaker 3: that she'd have wisdom in how she told the kids.
Speaker 3: Then the prayer concluded as the boys arrived in the room.
Speaker 1: The Wilkinsons left about three pm. After Ian worked on
Speaker 1: his sermon for the next day, they went to bed
Speaker 1: around eleven pm.
Speaker 3: I don't think either of us had fallen asleep, and
Speaker 3: Heather got up abruptly out of bed and made her
Speaker 3: way the laundry and I could hear vomiting. She was
Speaker 3: vomiting into the laundry trough. It wasn't very long after
Speaker 3: that that I also felt the need to go and vomit.
Speaker 3: It continued right throughout the night. We had vomiting and diarrhea.
Speaker 3: That that continued right through the night.
Speaker 1: Ian Wilkinson told the jury they spent the night camped
Speaker 1: near the bathrooms. Around dawn, Heather spoke to Donal Gail Patterson,
Speaker 1: and later that morning Simon Patterson, Erin's husband, came to
Speaker 1: the house.
Speaker 3: He was quite concerned about us. He asked us to
Speaker 3: call an ambulance. Heather and I said, ah, this is
Speaker 3: case of gastro you know, a few hours will be
Speaker 3: all right.
Speaker 1: Simon insisted and took the Wilkinsons to Curranborough Hospital, where
Speaker 1: his parents were, but they were sent on to Lean
Speaker 1: Gather hospital.
Speaker 3: I recall in the lean Gaffa Hospital, Heather reminding me
Speaker 3: that there were different plates. I think she just plainly
Speaker 3: said there were different colored plates. Wondering why we were ill,
Speaker 3: She just noticed the difference in the colours between the
Speaker 3: plate erin was using and our plates.
Speaker 1: The doctor on duty, Chris Webster, thought it was food poisoning.
Speaker 3: My memory was that suspicion was falling on the meat.
Speaker 1: Exhausted, the pair spent the night in adjoining hospital beds.
Speaker 3: We were abruptly woken up by a group of nurses
Speaker 3: who literally ran us down the corridor in our beds
Speaker 3: to the urgent care area. Chris Webster was waiting in
Speaker 3: the urgent care area. He said that he had a
Speaker 3: communication from the Daninong Hospital indicating suspected mushroom poisoning. He
Speaker 3: was very frank. He said it's an extremely serious situation.
Speaker 3: He said there is a time critical treatment available and
Speaker 3: he was very concerned that we'd be transported quickly to Daninong.
Speaker 1: They were sedated, intubated and taken to the Austin Hospital
Speaker 1: in Melbourne to be treated for amanita poisoning death cap mushrooms.
Speaker 1: After a fortnight in hospital, Ian Wilkinson was dis charged
Speaker 1: to rehab, where he spent several weeks. By the time
Speaker 1: he returned home, his wife was dead, along with Dawn
Speaker 1: and Gale Patterson coming up what Aaron Patterson's defense barrister
Speaker 1: asked Ian Wilkinson in cross examination. In cross examination, Aaron
Speaker 1: Patterson's barrister, Colin Mandy s C probed numerous parts of
Speaker 1: Ian Wilkins's evidence. Aaron Patterson's defense, outlined by Mandy in
Speaker 1: his opening address to the jury, is that the fatal
Speaker 1: lunch was a tragedy and a terrible accident. Colin Mandy
Speaker 1: wanted to know if Aaron Patterson came to Ian Wilkinson's
Speaker 1: church services more frequently than he had previously indicated. Wilkinson
Speaker 1: said yes, sometimes she came fortnightly instead of monthly. Mandy
Speaker 1: asked Wilkinson to agree that sometimes his wife, Heather would
Speaker 1: drop around and see erin and drop in some sweet
Speaker 1: treats for the kids.
Speaker 3: She did drop around some food.
Speaker 1: Mandy wanted to know if Aaron had been helpful with
Speaker 1: live streaming Ian's church services during COVID. He agreed. Mandy
Speaker 1: also wanted to know if Ian Wilkinson had changed his
Speaker 1: story since first speaking to the police. In his police statement,
Speaker 1: Wilkinson said only that Aaron had described suspected cancer, that
Speaker 1: she wasn't definitive about having had a diagnosis. Mandy probed
Speaker 1: this distinction. Wilkinson said he was now confident Aaron Patterson
Speaker 1: said she definitely did have cancer.
Speaker 3: I think she was saying she had cancer because she
Speaker 3: talked about a diagnostic scan of some sort that showed
Speaker 3: a tune. I believe that she was saying she had cancer.
Speaker 3: It wasn't an impression. She plainly said that she had
Speaker 3: some sort of cancer. Her voice was low at that point.
Speaker 3: I couldn't exactly catch what sort of cancer she was naming,
Speaker 3: but she named a type of cancer. She went on
Speaker 3: to speak about the scan and that this was a
Speaker 3: serious situation, a situation that made her afraid for the
Speaker 3: future of her kid's.
Speaker 1: The trial continues. You can follow all Ellie Dudley and
Speaker 1: John Ferguson's reporting anytime at the Australian dot com dot
Speaker 1: au