Speaker 1: Two days after the Mushroom Lunch and lean gather, a
Speaker 1: local senior constable was sent on a job to Aaron
Speaker 1: Patterson's home. He was there to do a welfare check
Speaker 1: on her. She was the cook of the Beef Wellington mill.
Speaker 1: Her home was deserted, or at least that's what it
Speaker 1: looked like to the cop. He stopped at the gate
Speaker 1: and made a call to get an access code. He
Speaker 1: was looking for something. Guided by Aaron at the other
Speaker 1: end of the phone, he started searching. He had gloves
Speaker 1: on two pairs. His search took him to a bin
Speaker 1: with a red lid that sat outside the house. Inside
Speaker 1: that bin, inside a Woolworth's bag, he found it some
Speaker 1: samples of what he described as tainted food. It was
Speaker 1: what was left of a beef Wellington. I'm Brooke Greebert
Speaker 1: Craig and this is the Mushroom Cook. So it's day eight, Laura.
Speaker 2: I can't believe it's Thursday. This week has gone very fast.
Speaker 1: I know we're almost at the end of week two. Indeed,
Speaker 1: what you heard at the top of the episode was
Speaker 1: a description of a local police officer fetching the leftovers
Speaker 1: of the Beef Wellington from Aaron's house.
Speaker 2: He gave evidence today in court. His name was Adrian
Speaker 2: Martinez Villalobos and I'm annunciation thank you. I'm relieved I
Speaker 2: got through that one. He told the jury today that
Speaker 2: he attended Aaron's property after that triple zero call from
Speaker 2: doctor Chris Webster which we spoke about yesterday. He arrived
Speaker 2: at the house but no one appeared to be home,
Speaker 2: so he rang doctor Webster back to get an update,
Speaker 2: and it was at that point that he found out
Speaker 2: that Aaron had returned to lean Gatha Hospital. But as
Speaker 2: we heard yesterday, while doctor Webster had the police officer
Speaker 2: on the phone, he thought he should ask him to
Speaker 2: have a look around to see if he could find
Speaker 2: any of the leftover beef Wellington specifically.
Speaker 1: In court, the police officer said that he was asked
Speaker 1: to find any tainted food.
Speaker 2: And as you described Brook, he double gloved and needed
Speaker 2: some information from erin which we heard in court she
Speaker 2: was happy to provide. He described her as being quite
Speaker 2: cooperative over the phone and he was able to gain
Speaker 2: access into her property to search one of her waistbins.
Speaker 1: So he said in court today that he didn't actually
Speaker 1: need to go inside her house because he found the
Speaker 1: leftovers in a bin on the outside of.
Speaker 2: Her house, and he described sifting through the bin and
Speaker 2: finding the bag that Erin had described. She had told
Speaker 2: him that a brown paper Woolworth's bag was most likely
Speaker 2: the one that would contain the leftovers, and once he
Speaker 2: found a bag that matched that description, he fished it
Speaker 2: out and he noted to the court that it was
Speaker 2: actually seeping a little bit and had to find another
Speaker 2: bag so he could pop it in the police van.
Speaker 1: He then transported those leftovers to lean Gatha Hospital where
Speaker 1: the bag was taken into the urgent care department.
Speaker 2: And yesterday we touched on the evidence of doctor Veronica
Speaker 2: Foot who then retrieved that bag and took photos of
Speaker 2: the beef Wellington for the doctors at Monash Medical Center.
Speaker 1: And Laura, where did that bag of leftovers end up?
Speaker 2: We learned a little bit more about that today Paramedic
Speaker 2: Alan Spencer, she gave evidence about transferring Erin from lean
Speaker 2: Gatha Hospital to Monash Medical Center and in her evidence
Speaker 2: she explained how when they were getting her ready for transfer,
Speaker 2: her and her colleague were also handed this brown Woolworths
Speaker 2: bag with the leftover beef Wellington, so it could be
Speaker 2: brought into Melbourne to Monash Medical Center for testing.
Speaker 1: And did she say anything about Aaron.
Speaker 2: She was asked a few questions about how Aaron presented
Speaker 2: during this trip. She said the journey from lean Gatha
Speaker 2: to Monash Medical Center was about an hour and forty minutes.
Speaker 2: She asked if at any point in that journey Aaron
Speaker 2: asked them to pull over because she needed to use
Speaker 2: the bathroom, and she said that didn't happen.
Speaker 1: Aaron complained about feeling nauseous, and she also complained about
Speaker 1: having a headache.
Speaker 2: And they wanted to give her panadol, but they needed
Speaker 2: to check first whether or not that was a smart
Speaker 2: idea given she was already starting to receive some treatment
Speaker 2: for suspected mushroom poisoning. They rang the poisons hotline and
Speaker 2: they suggested fentanyl instead, so Miss Spencer told the court
Speaker 2: they gave her some fentanyl and then described the rest
Speaker 2: of their journey as non eventful. When asked how Erin
Speaker 2: was during the journey, she said that she was fairly
Speaker 2: calm and nonchalant.
Speaker 1: She also said that Aaron was quite chatty throughout the trip. Now, Laura,
Speaker 1: I think it's a good time to talk about the
Speaker 1: evidence that Aaron Patterson's daughter gave today in court.
Speaker 2: I think I'll start off by noting that while she
Speaker 2: did give evidence today in court, she actually wasn't there
Speaker 2: in person. So when children give evidence in trials, it
Speaker 2: is it's fairly common for their evidence to be pre
Speaker 2: recorded so they don't need to be there in person
Speaker 2: and subjected to cross examination by the defense. Erin's daughter's
Speaker 2: evidence was recorded back in August twenty twenty three, so
Speaker 2: only a month after the lunch, and that was played
Speaker 2: today in front of the jury, and things did become emotional.
Speaker 1: Now, that was a thirty three minute video that we
Speaker 1: saw in court today. How was Erin throughout it?
Speaker 2: When the video started to play, she did become emotional.
Speaker 2: She has a screen in front of her where she
Speaker 2: can watch the footage, and when her daughter popped up
Speaker 2: on the screen, she did become quite tearful. She did
Speaker 2: reach for a tissue at one stage and clutch that.
Speaker 2: Throughout the recording, her daughter's evidence got underway with her
Speaker 2: simply being asked by the interviewer for her name, and
Speaker 2: when she said the name to the interviewer, you could
Speaker 2: see Erin malving her daughter's name from the dock.
Speaker 1: At the start of the interview Eron's daughter was asked
Speaker 1: to describe what happened at the lunch, and she simply replied,
Speaker 1: I wasn't there, so I don't know what happened.
Speaker 2: But while she said she wasn't there, the interviewer did
Speaker 2: ask her some questions about the things that happened both
Speaker 2: before and after. She was asked whether she was told
Speaker 2: about the lunch in advance, and she said her mum
Speaker 2: told her about it the day before, and she said
Speaker 2: that it was her understanding that the guests would come
Speaker 2: over so they could talk about adult stuff. She was
Speaker 2: then asked if she remembered what they ate for lunch,
Speaker 2: and she said she didn't know what it was called,
Speaker 2: but she recalled seeing it in the oven that morning
Speaker 2: and saying it involved some sort of meat. She described
Speaker 2: going to the movies that Saturday afternoon, and then after
Speaker 2: that she saw her dad, and then by the evening
Speaker 2: she was back at home at her mum's.
Speaker 1: In the interview, Aaron's daughter was asked about Aaron's sickness
Speaker 1: the morning after the lunch. This is what she said.
Speaker 1: It's her words, but not her voice.
Speaker 3: She just needed to go to the toilet a lot,
Speaker 3: and she felt seek in her gut.
Speaker 4: Did she tell you she wasn't feeling well?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 4: And what did she tell you?
Speaker 3: She said that she had diarrhea and her tummy was sore.
Speaker 4: Okay, she had diarrhea and her tummy was sore. Did
Speaker 4: she tell you she vomited or anything like that.
Speaker 3: I don't think she told me.
Speaker 4: Did you see her going to the toilet a lot?
Speaker 4: How many times do you think she went to the toilet?
Speaker 3: I saw her go like ten times.
Speaker 4: Ten times, okay? And was that in the morning?
Speaker 2: Was it that was.
Speaker 3: In the morning through to the afternoon.
Speaker 2: She said that they didn't go to church that day
Speaker 2: because her mum wasn't feeling well, and then talked about
Speaker 2: having the leftovers. She mentioned remembering eating steak, mashed potato,
Speaker 2: and green beans, and she also said that they played
Speaker 2: Monopoly on the Sunday.
Speaker 1: And Laura, the interviewer also asked about the plates at
Speaker 1: Aaron's home.
Speaker 4: Yes.
Speaker 2: She was asked to describe the plates at her mum's home,
Speaker 2: and at first she just said they were round plates.
Speaker 2: The interviewer prompted her further and she said there was
Speaker 2: a black and red plate and some white ones, before
Speaker 2: saying I think that's all the colors we have, just
Speaker 2: to remind our listeners. Ian, the only guest to survive
Speaker 2: the meal, gave evidence earlier this week about the lunch
Speaker 2: and said he remembers the guests eating their meals off
Speaker 2: gray plates while Aaron ate her serve off an orange
Speaker 2: tan plate.
Speaker 1: And we'll hear more of Aaron's daughter's evidence tomorrow in court.
Speaker 2: That's right. So who else spoke in court today? We
Speaker 2: heard from a number of medical witnesses. We've heard from
Speaker 2: quite a few so far in this trial. We had
Speaker 2: a nurse called Cindy Munro take to the witness box
Speaker 2: today and she treated both Heather and Ian when they
Speaker 2: arrived at Lee and Gath Hospital and then later on
Speaker 2: also treated Erin when she represented. But she was asked
Speaker 2: today to describe Erin when she was treating her and
Speaker 2: how she appeared, and she said that she did not
Speaker 2: believe she looked as unwell as Heather and Ian did.
Speaker 2: She said she recalled Ian being so unwell that he
Speaker 2: could barely lift his head off his pillow, and said
Speaker 2: Heather was quite unsteady on her feet, but said in comparison,
Speaker 2: Aaron was sitting up in her bed and didn't look
Speaker 2: unwell to her.
Speaker 1: Miss Munroe also said that initially Aaron did not want
Speaker 1: any medical intervention and Aaron said I don't want any
Speaker 1: of this multiple times.
Speaker 2: By the end of Miss Monroe's evidence, she did say, though,
Speaker 2: that Aaron agreed to treatment before she was transferred to
Speaker 2: Monash Medical Center.
Speaker 1: After Aaron was brought to Monash Medical Center by the
Speaker 1: paramedic that we heard from earlier, what happened.
Speaker 2: Tanya Patterson, who is the wife of Matthew Patterson, So
Speaker 2: stay with me here, guys. Who is so Jimond's brother,
Speaker 2: Simon being Erin's estranged husband, I think we got that.
Speaker 2: She gave evidence in court today about the conversations she
Speaker 2: had with Erin when she was visiting, and one of
Speaker 2: the things she said was that Aaron asked how the
Speaker 2: lunch guests were. But Tanya said she had had a
Speaker 2: discussion with her husband previously about not wanting to tell
Speaker 2: Erin too much because they wanted to leave that up
Speaker 2: to her husband Simon. So all Tanya said she told
Speaker 2: Erin was that they were going downhill, but that was
Speaker 2: all the information she really had.
Speaker 1: And she also mentioned something about cruises, didn't she.
Speaker 2: That's right. She said she had recently been on a
Speaker 2: cruise and Erin was interested in taking her children on one,
Speaker 2: so they had a conversation about that as well. So
Speaker 2: that's a wrap for today. Was there anything else that
Speaker 2: we missed? Yes, there was something that the jury heard
Speaker 2: at the start of the day that I will mention,
Speaker 2: just as Christopher Beale, who is the judge presiding over
Speaker 2: this case, he told them that there was some work
Speaker 2: happening in the background between both the prosecution and the
Speaker 2: defense that was speeding things along, and he said to
Speaker 2: the jurors that he expects the case to conclude earlier
Speaker 2: than he initially thought.
Speaker 1: So that means the trial will be done before the
Speaker 1: sixth week mark.
Speaker 2: Well maybe, but we'll definitely have to wait and see.
Speaker 1: Thanks Laura, but rest assured, until the trial is over,
Speaker 1: we will be here every day giving you new podcast episodes.
Speaker 1: So for all the latest on this case, go to
Speaker 1: the mushroomcook dot com dot au