Speaker 1: It was the gathering that formed the center of this trial,
Speaker 1: the few hours in a country house that propelled Aaron
Speaker 1: Patterson to international headlines. Four weeks ago. The only guest
Speaker 1: to survive the Mushroom lunch took to the stand and
Speaker 1: described these hours, the discussion at the table, and the
Speaker 1: beef Wellington dish. But today, in the witness box, it
Speaker 1: was the accused who gave her version of the lunch,
Speaker 1: how she prepared the meal and what she said happened after.
Speaker 1: I'm Brooke Creeper Crane and this is the Mushroom Cook.
Speaker 1: It's day twenty six of Aaron Patterson's murder trial, and
Speaker 1: I'm back with court reporter Laura Possella. Hi, Laura.
Speaker 2: It's been another big day, hasn't it.
Speaker 1: Yes, it has. So today Aaron took the stand for
Speaker 1: the third day in a row.
Speaker 2: Yes, and today was the first day that we heard
Speaker 2: her speak about the lunch in detail. It was touched
Speaker 2: upon very briefly yesterday when she was asked a question
Speaker 2: by her defense barrister Colin Mandy. But we spent hours
Speaker 2: today unpacking both the events before the lunch, what happened
Speaker 2: during the lunch, and the days after the lunch. Mister
Speaker 2: Mandy brought his client through the timeline in chronological order,
Speaker 2: so we'll do the same today.
Speaker 1: So let's start with how Aaron said she prepared the lunch.
Speaker 2: She told the court that she went through a long
Speaker 2: process when it came to deciding what she wanted to cook.
Speaker 2: She had previously cooked a shepherd's pie for Don and Gale,
Speaker 2: but she said that she didn't feel like it was
Speaker 2: special enough for this lunch. She said that her mother
Speaker 2: would cook beef Wellington on important occasions when she was younger,
Speaker 2: so she thought she would give it a crack herself.
Speaker 2: She had a recipe tin Eats cookbook called Dinner that
Speaker 2: had a beef Wellington recipe inside it, so she said
Speaker 2: she used that, but she had to make some deviations.
Speaker 1: Aaron told the jury that she couldn't find a big
Speaker 1: meat log that the recipe called for, so she used
Speaker 1: individual steaks instead. She said the different meat meant that
Speaker 1: the quantities of mushroom and pastry would also be changed
Speaker 1: from the original recipe. Aaron also said that she included
Speaker 1: no mustard and no presciutto because Don didn't eat pork.
Speaker 1: The recipe also included a crape player, but Aaron said
Speaker 1: that she thought it looked complicated, so she used Fillo
Speaker 1: pastry instead.
Speaker 2: She began prepping the meal on the Friday, that is,
Speaker 2: July twenty eight, by salting the meat and getting the
Speaker 2: juices out of it, and she even said she took
Speaker 2: time to google how not to stuff up a beef Wellington.
Speaker 2: On Saturday morning, she said she woke up early to
Speaker 2: get started on the mushroom duck cel. The mushroom du
Speaker 2: cel is the mushroom paste that coats the meat, and
Speaker 2: that involved her frying garlic and chopping up shalots. She
Speaker 2: said she added Woolworth's mushrooms into the pan and then
Speaker 2: she cooked it for a long time. While she was cooking,
Speaker 2: she said she had a taste and in her opinion,
Speaker 2: it tasted a little bit bland. So she decided to
Speaker 2: put in some dried mushrooms that she had purchased from
Speaker 2: an Asian grosser back in April. Eron told the court
Speaker 2: that these dried mushrooms were being held in a container,
Speaker 2: and mister Mandy asked her today whether or not she
Speaker 2: believed there were any other mushrooms in that container. She
Speaker 2: conceded that now she believes there was a possibility there
Speaker 2: were forage mushrooms in there as well, she told the court.
Speaker 2: She chopped them up, and she sprinkled them over the
Speaker 2: mushroom duck cells and pushed them in slightly with a
Speaker 2: utensil she called an egg flip. Mister Mandy then asked
Speaker 2: her more about how she prepared the beef wellington. Here
Speaker 2: is more of their exchange. These are their words, but
Speaker 2: not their voices.
Speaker 3: Can you talk us through the rest of the process
Speaker 3: of preparing the meal?
Speaker 4: So, after doing what I needed to do with the
Speaker 4: duck cell in the frypan, I used the egg flip
Speaker 4: to transfer it out onto baking paper on an oven
Speaker 4: tray to put in the fridge for a little while.
Speaker 4: And I fried off the steaks on each side and
Speaker 4: let them rest, And then I started doing the process
Speaker 4: of putting the wellingtons together. Do you want me to
Speaker 4: go through that?
Speaker 3: Yes? Okay.
Speaker 4: So after frying off the steaks and letting them rest
Speaker 4: and cool a bit, I used the egg flip again to,
Speaker 4: I guess, lift a little bit out of the oven
Speaker 4: tray and put on each steak.
Speaker 3: Lift a little bit of the duck cell.
Speaker 4: The duck cell that's right, Like you could lift out
Speaker 4: a sort of you know that shaped out of the
Speaker 4: tray and transfer it to the steak. I did that
Speaker 4: for both. I think I did it for both sides
Speaker 4: of the steaks, and then wrapped each one in filo
Speaker 4: and then wrapped each one in puff pastry.
Speaker 1: Mister Mandy then took Aaron to messages sent the day
Speaker 1: before the lunch where Simon told her he wouldn't be
Speaker 1: coming because he felt too uncomfortable. Simon told the jury
Speaker 1: Aaron invited him because she wanted to discuss some medical news.
Speaker 1: Alistoners have heard the messages before, but here's the exchange
Speaker 1: between Simon and Aaron. Again.
Speaker 5: Sorry, I feel too uncomfortable about coming to the lunch
Speaker 5: with you, mom, Dad, Heather, and Millian tomorrow, but I'm
Speaker 5: happy to talk to you about your health and implications
Speaker 5: of that at another time. If you'd like to discuss
Speaker 5: it on the phone, just let me know.
Speaker 4: That's really disappointing. I've spent many hours this week preparing
Speaker 4: lunch for tomorrow, which has been exhausting in light of
Speaker 4: the issues I'm facing, and spent a small fortune on
Speaker 4: beef by Philip to make beef Wellington's because I wanted
Speaker 4: it to be a special meal, as I may not
Speaker 4: be able to host a lunch like this again for
Speaker 4: some time. It's important to me that you're all there
Speaker 4: tomorrow and that I can have the conversations that I
Speaker 4: need to have. I hope you'll change your mind. Your
Speaker 4: parents and Heather and Ian are coming at twelve thirty.
Speaker 4: I hope to see you there.
Speaker 1: Mister Mandy asked Erin why she sent that message to Simon.
Speaker 1: Here's what she said in court.
Speaker 4: I was hurt he didn't want to come, but I
Speaker 4: was also really anxious and stressed about this upcoming procedure
Speaker 4: that I was going to have, and I just wanted
Speaker 4: to know that it would be sorted and I wouldn't
Speaker 4: have to worry about whether I would have help with
Speaker 4: the kids or not. So I just wanted him to
Speaker 4: come so I could talk to with about that.
Speaker 2: Aaron said that apart from the small fortune claim and
Speaker 2: the fact she wanted it to be a special meal,
Speaker 2: the rest of the message was exaggerated. Here is more
Speaker 2: of what she said.
Speaker 4: I just really wanted him to come so I could
Speaker 4: talk about the medical stuff and not worry about it anymore.
Speaker 4: I didn't mean to do any of that. I shouldn't
Speaker 4: have done any of that, but that's what I was
Speaker 4: thinking at the time.
Speaker 3: What did you want him to feel when he read
Speaker 3: that message?
Speaker 4: I guess I wanted him to feel a little bit
Speaker 4: bad about canceling at the last minute, after he would
Speaker 4: have known. I'd done a lot of preparation.
Speaker 3: And when you say I've spent many hours this week
Speaker 3: preparing lunch for tomorrow, was that true.
Speaker 4: I didn't do any preparing other than shopping and researching
Speaker 4: the recipe. So I guess the answer to your question
Speaker 4: is no, it wasn't true.
Speaker 1: Mister Mandy then went on to ask questions about the
Speaker 1: day of the lunch on July twenty nine. Aaron said
Speaker 1: she had planned for the dishes to be ready by
Speaker 1: twelve thirty pm, when her guests were due to arrive.
Speaker 1: Aaron told the jury Heather brought a fruit platter and
Speaker 1: Gale brought an orange cake.
Speaker 2: She explained that she served five dishes, with the sixth
Speaker 2: beef Wellington put into the fridge on the tray it
Speaker 2: was cooked on. She said she told the guests to
Speaker 2: grab a plate before she grabbed the last one herself
Speaker 2: and joined them at the table. She said today that
Speaker 2: she didn't remember what plate she used, as the jury
Speaker 2: has previously heard Erin said, the Wilkinsons ate all of
Speaker 2: their meals, don ate all of his as well as
Speaker 2: Gail's leftovers, as she didn't finish hers. And then Aaron
Speaker 2: said she ate between a quarter and a third of
Speaker 2: her own meal because she was eating slowly and talking
Speaker 2: a lot. Aaron said she had a health issue she
Speaker 2: wanted to discuss with her guests. Here is what she
Speaker 2: said about that conversation.
Speaker 4: So it was right at the end of the meal,
Speaker 4: and I mentioned that I'd had a maybe not scare
Speaker 4: is the right word, but I'd had an issue a
Speaker 4: year or two earlier where I thought I had ovarian
Speaker 4: cancer and had various scans about and related to that.
Speaker 4: And then I'm not proud of this, but I led
Speaker 4: them to believe that I might be needing some treatment
Speaker 4: in regards to that in the next few weeks or months.
Speaker 3: And can you remember what you said about that in
Speaker 3: any more detail?
Speaker 4: Not specifically. I do remember I referred to upcoming treatment
Speaker 4: because primarily in my mind, I was thinking I might
Speaker 4: need help with getting the kids to and from the bus.
Speaker 4: Or activities, and I might need to explain why I
Speaker 4: was going out to hospital for a day or two.
Speaker 4: So that was really the focus of what I was
Speaker 4: talking about.
Speaker 3: Did you mislead them?
Speaker 4: I did.
Speaker 2: Aaron told the court that the upcoming treatment she had
Speaker 2: referred to was actually the plan she had to have
Speaker 2: gastric bypass surgery, but she was too ashamed to tell
Speaker 2: her guests. Here is another exchange between her and mister Mandy.
Speaker 3: And why didn't you tell them the truth about what
Speaker 3: you were intending.
Speaker 4: I was really embarrassed. I was ashamed of the fact
Speaker 4: that I didn't have control over my body or what
Speaker 4: I ate. I was ashamed of that and embarrassed. I
Speaker 4: didn't want to tell anybody, but I shouldn't have lied
Speaker 4: to them.
Speaker 1: After the guest had left, Aaron told the jury she
Speaker 1: ate a piece of orange cake before eating another, then another.
Speaker 1: In the end, she said she ate two thirds of
Speaker 1: that cake. She told the jury that she felt sick
Speaker 1: and overfull and went to the toilet and brought it
Speaker 1: back up again. On Tuesday, Aaron told the jury that
Speaker 1: she had struggled with binge eating and bolimia for most
Speaker 1: of her life.
Speaker 2: Aaron told the court that she felt better later that afternoon,
Speaker 2: but started experiencing diarrhea from about ten pm. She didn't
Speaker 2: sleep very much that night, she said, and the next
Speaker 2: morning she went downstairs to speak with her children before
Speaker 2: making herself a herbal tea. The court heard that she
Speaker 2: decided they wouldn't be going to church that day, but
Speaker 2: that afternoon, she said, she decided to still drive her
Speaker 2: son to his flying lesson in Taiab. She said she
Speaker 2: still felt nauseous and had diarrhea, but her symptoms weren't
Speaker 2: as bad as they were night before. Here's what she
Speaker 2: said today in court about the journey to the flying lesson.
Speaker 4: So, maybe about half an hour into the trip, I
Speaker 4: felt like I needed to go to the toilet. So
Speaker 4: he pulled over on a stretch of the road where
Speaker 4: there's quite a bit of bush along the way.
Speaker 3: Do you remember where that was?
Speaker 4: It's before the South Gibson Highway meets the Bass Highway,
Speaker 4: somewhere around the Noyora turnoffish somewhere around there.
Speaker 3: And what happened? You pulled over?
Speaker 4: Yes, So, and I went off into the bush and
Speaker 4: went to the toilet.
Speaker 3: What kind of going into the toilet was it?
Speaker 4: So?
Speaker 2: I had diarrhea and what happened after that?
Speaker 4: So I cleaned myself up a little bit with tissues
Speaker 4: and put them in a dog Pooh bag and put
Speaker 4: it in my handbag and we hit the road again.
Speaker 3: There's evidence that on the way at three twenty pm
Speaker 3: you stopped at the BP in calder Meat and the
Speaker 3: internal footage shows you going into the bathrooms. Why did
Speaker 3: you go into the bathrooms?
Speaker 4: I put the dog Pooh bag with the soiled tissues
Speaker 4: in the bin.
Speaker 3: And when you came out of the bathroom you purchased
Speaker 3: some things I did.
Speaker 1: Aaron said. Her diary continued and that she didn't want
Speaker 1: to cook anything for the kids, so she gave them
Speaker 1: leftovers of that beef Wellington meal that were in the fridge.
Speaker 1: She said she removed the pastry and mushrooms from the
Speaker 1: leftover in Wellington, splitting it onto two plates, which were
Speaker 1: served with potatoes and beans. She said her children ate
Speaker 1: both meals.
Speaker 2: Mister Mandy then brought erin to the events of July
Speaker 2: thirty one. The monday. Erin recalled that she still woke
Speaker 2: up feeling unwell, so she decided she would go to
Speaker 2: lean Gatha Hospital to get some saline. The jury has
Speaker 2: previously heard that Erin arrived at the hospital around eight
Speaker 2: am and was greeted by doctor Chris Webster at the entrance.
Speaker 2: Erin told the court that she told doctor Webster that
Speaker 2: she wasn't an urgent patient. She said she just had
Speaker 2: gastro and he asked for her name. When she told
Speaker 2: him her name was Erin Patterson, she said that doctor
Speaker 2: Webster said words to the effect of we were expecting you.
Speaker 2: Erin told the court that she remembered feeling quite unsettled
Speaker 2: because when she said her name, it was clear that
Speaker 2: doctor Webster knew who she was. He told her that
Speaker 2: they were concerned that she had been exposed to death
Speaker 2: cap mushrooms and asked her where she had bought the
Speaker 2: mushrooms from. Aaron said that she was shocked and confused.
Speaker 2: She didn't understand how death caps could be in the meal.
Speaker 2: Earlier today, mister Mandy asked Arin more questions about her
Speaker 2: foraging for mushrooms. She denied ever foraging for mushrooms in
Speaker 2: Locke and Outram, those being the two areas where doctor
Speaker 2: Tom May and Christine McKenzie spotted death cap mushrooms and
Speaker 2: posted their locations to citizen science website by Naturalist. She
Speaker 2: also denied ever seeing their posts.
Speaker 1: As the jury has previously heard, Aaron left the hospital
Speaker 1: after only being there for five minutes. She discharged herself
Speaker 1: against medical and she said she left to go feed
Speaker 1: her animals and organize her daughter's ballet items. The court heard.
Speaker 1: Hospital records showed that Erin returned at nine forty eight am.
Speaker 1: She record telling doctor Webster that her children had eden
Speaker 1: leftovers of that meal on Sunday night.
Speaker 2: Erin said that the doctors at the hospital wanted the
Speaker 2: children to come there themselves because they were concerned the
Speaker 2: toxins from the death caps had seeped into the meat,
Speaker 2: despite the fact that Erin said she had scraped them off,
Speaker 2: They said it was better to be safe than sorry.
Speaker 2: Erin was taken by ambulance to Monash Medical Center, where
Speaker 2: eventually she was joined by Simon and their two children.
Speaker 2: The next day, on August one, the four of them
Speaker 2: were still at the hospital. Erin recounted a conversation that
Speaker 2: she had with Simon and the children, where they explained
Speaker 2: to the children that there were concerns over the lunch
Speaker 2: that she had cooked. Erin told the court today that
Speaker 2: that led to a discussion about mushrooms and her dehydrader.
Speaker 2: More broadly, they spoke about how their daughter doesn't like
Speaker 2: mushrooms and how Erin had used the dehydrader to be
Speaker 2: able to dry mushrooms, chop them up into small pieces,
Speaker 2: and put them into food for her to eat. Aaron
Speaker 2: said that after that conversation, the children had left the room,
Speaker 2: leaving her and Simon. She spoke more today about what
Speaker 2: was said between the two of them.
Speaker 3: Did you and Simon have any conversation?
Speaker 4: Yeah, So during that conversation with the children about the
Speaker 4: taste tests, and we're discussed in that conversation that I
Speaker 4: dried the mushrooms and I don't remember if it was
Speaker 4: Simon or I that initiated it, but there was a
Speaker 4: conversation about how I had used a dehydrated to do that,
Speaker 4: and he said to me, is that how you poisoned
Speaker 4: my parents using that dehydrader?
Speaker 3: And what was your response?
Speaker 4: I said, of course not.
Speaker 3: Did that comment by Simon cause you to reflect on
Speaker 3: what might have been in the meal?
Speaker 4: It caused me to do a lot of thinking about
Speaker 4: a lot of things. Yeah, it caused me to reflect
Speaker 4: a lot on what might have happened.
Speaker 3: Okay, well, can you explain to us what crossed your
Speaker 3: mind then and what you were thinking about?
Speaker 4: So it got me thinking about all the times that
Speaker 4: i'd used it, and I.
Speaker 3: Had used the dehydrator that's right.
Speaker 4: And how I had dried foraged mushrooms in a weeks earlier,
Speaker 4: and I was starting to think, what if they'd gone
Speaker 4: in the container with the Chinese mushrooms?
Speaker 3: How did that make you feel scared?
Speaker 4: Responsible, really worried because child protection were involved, and Simon
Speaker 4: seemed to be of the mind that maybe this was intentional,
Speaker 4: and I just I just got really scared.
Speaker 2: Aaron told the court that around this time she also
Speaker 2: thought it was a possibility that the dried mushrooms from
Speaker 2: the Asian grosser were behind the guest's illnesses.
Speaker 1: Let's move on to the next day, August two, Laura,
Speaker 1: what did Aaron do?
Speaker 2: By this stage, she's back at her home in Leengatha
Speaker 2: after being discharged from one as medical center, and she admitted,
Speaker 2: as her legal team has done before, that she dumped
Speaker 2: her dehydrata at the local tip. Mister Mandy asked her
Speaker 2: about this today.
Speaker 3: Why did you do that?
Speaker 4: Child protection were coming to my house that afternoon, and
Speaker 4: I was, I was scared of the conversation that might
Speaker 4: flow about the meal and the dehydrator, And I was,
Speaker 4: and I just was. I was scared of that, that
Speaker 4: they would blame me for it, blame you for for
Speaker 4: making everyone sick, And I was scared they'd remove the children.
Speaker 3: Did you tell anyone that you had come to the
Speaker 3: realization that death cap mushrooms might have been in the meal?
Speaker 4: No, I didn't.
Speaker 3: Did you tell anyone that foraged mushrooms might have been
Speaker 3: in the meal? No, you had been told that the
Speaker 3: suspicion was that death cap mushrooms had been in the meal. Yes,
Speaker 3: What did that make you think about weather or what
Speaker 3: might have been in the dehydrator?
Speaker 4: Well, I thought there might be evidence of that, evidence
Speaker 4: of any forage mushrooms in there.
Speaker 1: Aaron went on to tell the jury that two days later,
Speaker 1: on August four, she told child protection workout Katrina Cripps
Speaker 1: that she was concerned about Simon.
Speaker 2: Erin said she told Miss Cripps that she wanted to
Speaker 2: change her phone number. She said she was becoming concerned
Speaker 2: about Simon's behavior and his allegations, and that meant she
Speaker 2: was feeling concerned for her security, she wanted to make
Speaker 2: sure he couldn't contact her.
Speaker 1: Mister Mandy then asked Aaron about the phone she handed
Speaker 1: to police the next day on August five, when they
Speaker 1: searched her Lee and Gatha home. Laura, what did she
Speaker 1: say about that phone?
Speaker 2: Our listeners were probably hoping we would never have to
Speaker 2: touch on Phone A and Phone B again, but it
Speaker 2: was touched upon again today by mister Mandy, who first
Speaker 2: asked her about this phone. You've spoken about, Brooke, the
Speaker 2: one she handed to police, and this one has been
Speaker 2: dubbed Phone B. The jury has previously heard that multiple
Speaker 2: factory resets were conducted on this phone in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 2: Erin explained today that the first one, on February twelve,
Speaker 2: was because her son had damaged his phone, so she
Speaker 2: gave him Phone B to use and she had bought
Speaker 2: a new one. He needed to conduct that factory reset,
Speaker 2: so he was able to use the phone for himself,
Speaker 2: but the court heard he stopped using Phone B after
Speaker 2: he took it to a school camp and it got
Speaker 2: covered in mud which got stuck inside the charging port.
Speaker 2: Erin told the court that the phone was drying out.
Speaker 2: At her house, almost forgotten about until August when she
Speaker 2: had this conversation with Miss Cripps about wanting to have
Speaker 2: a new phone number. She told the court that she
Speaker 2: conducted a second factory reset on August two so she
Speaker 2: could wipe her son's information off this phone and set
Speaker 2: it up for herself. She explained to the court that
Speaker 2: by this time the mud had dried out and Phone
Speaker 2: B could be charged again, but she went on to
Speaker 2: say that she reset the phone again on August five,
Speaker 2: the day of the search, because she panicked and didn't
Speaker 2: want police to find photos of mushrooms and the dehydrata
Speaker 2: that she believed were in her Google Photos app. She
Speaker 2: eventually handed this phone to police, but Erin admitted that
Speaker 2: she reset the phone the next day, on August six.
Speaker 2: She said this was out of panic, saying that she
Speaker 2: tried to see if she could log into her Google
Speaker 2: account remotely and conduct the reset that way, and she
Speaker 2: said to the court that it worked and Laura.
Speaker 1: Phone A was also mentioned today, wasn't it?
Speaker 2: That's right? So Phone A was the phone that Erin
Speaker 2: was using before she set up Phone B. After having
Speaker 2: that conversation with Miss Cripps, she told the court that
Speaker 2: on August five, when police were searching her home, Phone
Speaker 2: A was sitting on a window sill near a charging station.
Speaker 2: When she returned home that afternoon after her record of interview,
Speaker 2: she said she was handed a property seizure record by
Speaker 2: detectives which stated that two devices had been taken, and
Speaker 2: she said this left her confused. She told the court
Speaker 2: she looked around her home and was able to find
Speaker 2: a Nokia phone that was left in a basket and
Speaker 2: Phone A that remained on that window sill at this
Speaker 2: point in time. Phone A had a simcard in it
Speaker 2: ending in seven eighty three, which was Erin's normal phone number,
Speaker 2: the one she said she had wanted to move away from.
Speaker 2: But she said she put this simcard into the Nokia
Speaker 2: and continued to use it, conceding that Simon would most
Speaker 2: likely need to contact her about the children moving forward.
Speaker 1: Thanks Laura, that was a great explanation. As always, Aerin
Speaker 1: will be back on the stand tomorrow and she's expected
Speaker 1: to be cross examined by the prosecution team. To stay
Speaker 1: updated with this case, go to the mushroomcook dot com
Speaker 1: dot au