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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 Tuesday, June four. Working from home is a critical

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Speaker 1: path to growing productivity in the economy of the future.

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Speaker 1: That's the coalition's surprise new position. It's a turnaround from

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Speaker 1: the disastrous election campaign bid to curtail work from home rights,

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Speaker 1: which senior Liberals say helped lose them the election. But

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Speaker 1: the opposition says it's keen to fight labor on other

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Speaker 1: industrial changes like same job, same pay laws. Aaron Patterson

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Speaker 1: felt her husband Simon was trying to distance her from

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Speaker 1: his parents shortly before a family lunch that resulted in

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Speaker 1: their deaths. That's the evidence given by Aaron Patterson herself

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Speaker 1: from the witness box in the Victorian Supreme Court at Morwell.

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Speaker 1: Patterson is pleading not guilty to three counts of murder

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Speaker 1: and one of attempted murder after hosting a family lunch

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Speaker 1: which left three elderly relatives dead. She says it was

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Speaker 1: a terrible accident and a tragedy that she served of

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Speaker 1: beef Wellington laced with deadly deathcap mushrooms. The Crown says

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Speaker 1: it was murder. Today Aaron Patterson's.

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Speaker 2: Evidence eron Trudy Patterson.

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Speaker 1: That's how the woman accused of cooking up a fatal

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Speaker 1: mushroom lunch started her evidence before the Victorian Supreme Court,

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Speaker 1: where a jury is hearing evidence on three murder charges

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Speaker 1: and a sole count of attempted murder. Aaron Patterson has

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

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Speaker 1: to bring you the words spoken in court.

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Speaker 3: The defense will call Aaron Patterson.

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Speaker 1: Colin Mandy Casey, the Senior Council representing Aaron Patterson again

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Speaker 1: by asking her about her life in July twenty twenty three,

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Speaker 1: immediately preceding the mushroom lunch.

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Speaker 3: In July of twenty twenty three, how old were your children.

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Speaker 2: My children had just recently settled into a new school.

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Speaker 2: They changed schools at the start of that term, so

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Speaker 2: the children lived with me full time and they could

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Speaker 2: see Simon whenever they wanted to. And practically what that

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Speaker 2: meant was our daughter spent a big part of Saturday

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Speaker 2: afternoons and evenings with Simon, and they often did extra

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Speaker 2: things like go to the beach or go to the

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Speaker 2: local pool whenever the idea struck them. But our son

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Speaker 2: was only seeing his dad really a church or youth group.

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Speaker 1: Patterson said she was financially comfortable enough not to have

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Speaker 1: to work full time and was planning a new degree.

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Speaker 2: At the start of twenty three. I'd been accepted into

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Speaker 2: a Bachelor of Nursing at midwifery at Federation University, and

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Speaker 2: I'd deferred that for one year. I was planning to

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Speaker 2: take that up at the start of twenty four.

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Speaker 1: Patterson said she'd drawn up her own plans for the

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Speaker 1: home she shared with the kids.

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Speaker 2: I saw it as the final house, meaning I wanted

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Speaker 2: it to be a house where the children would grow up,

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Speaker 2: where once they moved away for UNI or for work,

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Speaker 2: they could come back and stay whenever they liked, bring

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Speaker 2: their children, and I'd grow old there. That's what I hoped.

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Speaker 3: We've covered the good things in your life at the time.

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Speaker 3: Were there parts of your life that weren't so good?

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Speaker 3: In July of twenty twenty.

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Speaker 2: Three, yeah, there was. I'd felt for some months that

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Speaker 2: my relationship with the wider Patterson family, and particularly with

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Speaker 2: Don and Gale, had perhaps had a bit more distance

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Speaker 2: or space put between us. We saw each other less.

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Speaker 2: I mean, partly it's a consequence of I no longer

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Speaker 2: lived in the same town as Donn and Gale. But

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Speaker 2: I'd begun to have concerns that Simon was not wanting

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Speaker 2: me to be involved with the family too much anymore.

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Speaker 2: Perhaps I wasn't being invited to so many things.

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Speaker 3: And how was your relationship with Simon in July of

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Speaker 3: twenty twenty three.

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Speaker 2: It was functional From the start of the year to July.

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Speaker 2: We mainly just related on logistical things like church, which

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Speaker 2: the streaming the kids, But we didn't relate on friend

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Speaker 2: things banter like we used to. That changed at the

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Speaker 2: start of the year.

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Speaker 3: We'll get back to that in due course. How in

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Speaker 3: July of twenty twenty three, how did you feel about

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Speaker 3: yourself physically?

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Speaker 2: Not good? Why I'd been fighting a never ending battle

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Speaker 2: of low self esteem most of my adult life and

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Speaker 2: the further inroads I made to being middle aged less,

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Speaker 2: I felt good about myself. I suppose put on more weight,

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Speaker 2: could handle less exercise.

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Speaker 3: Was it principally the weight tissue?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that was the large that was the bulk of it. Yep.

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Speaker 3: And did you have plans to do anything about to

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Speaker 3: address the weightissue? I did, And what were those plans?

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Speaker 2: I was planning to have weight loss surgery, you know,

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Speaker 2: is it gastric bypass? I was planning to do that.

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Speaker 1: Mandy Ben took Patterson back to the start of her

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Speaker 1: relationship with Simon Patterson. She said the pair met at

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Speaker 1: Monash City Council, where she said he was a tr

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Speaker 1: traffic engineer and she was an office administrator engaged by

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Speaker 1: the RSPCA. In late two thousand and four. They shared

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Speaker 1: lunches and after work drinks with a group of friends

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Speaker 1: and gradually bonded over weekend camping trips. They were friends

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Speaker 1: for eight months before they began dating in mid two

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Speaker 1: thousand and five.

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Speaker 3: When you met Simon, what were your views about religion?

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Speaker 2: I was what you'd probably call a fundamentalist atheist, Like

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Speaker 2: I was really very atheist.

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Speaker 3: And what were Simon's views?

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Speaker 1: Oh?

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Speaker 2: He was a Christian. Yeah.

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Speaker 3: And did your attitude towards religion change?

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Speaker 1: Yeah?

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Speaker 2: It did. Yeah. So through the course of those months

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Speaker 2: December four jan Fab five, we had a lot of

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Speaker 2: conversations about life, religion, politics, and a lot about religion.

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Speaker 2: And I was trying to convert him to being an atheist.

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Speaker 2: But things happened in reverse and I became a Christian.

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Speaker 1: Patterson said she first met Simon's parents, Dawn and Gail Patterson,

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Speaker 1: who would later die after eating her beef Wellington, in

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Speaker 1: two thousand and five on her first trip to their town,

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Speaker 1: corn Borough. Simon's uncle, Ian Wilkinson, was the minister at

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Speaker 1: Cornborough Baptist Church.

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Speaker 2: I remember being really excited about it because I'd never

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Speaker 2: been to a church service before. I'd been to my

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Speaker 2: sister's wedding inner church, but that was it. I was

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Speaker 2: really looking forward to it.

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Speaker 1: Wilkinson, who gave evidence earlier in this trial, was the

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Speaker 1: sole survivor of the Mushroom Lunch. His wife, Heather, died

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Speaker 1: after consuming the beef Wellington.

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Speaker 2: I remember that there was a banner up on the

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Speaker 2: wall behind where Ian was preaching. He was the pastor

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Speaker 2: and he was giving a sermon that day, and there

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Speaker 2: was a banner. It could still be there now, but

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Speaker 2: it has on it faith, hope, and love. And Ian

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Speaker 2: gave a sermon talking about that. There's a passage in

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Speaker 2: the Bible that talks about faith, hope, and love, and

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Speaker 2: the greatest of these is love. I remember Ian giving

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Speaker 2: a sermon on that, and then we had communion, which

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Speaker 2: I was welcome to participate paid in.

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Speaker 3: What impact did that church service have on you?

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Speaker 2: I had what can best be described as like a

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Speaker 2: spiritual experience. I'd been approaching religion as an intellectual exercise

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Speaker 2: up to that point. Doesn't make sense, is it rational?

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Speaker 2: But what I had I would call a religious experience

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Speaker 2: there and it quite overwhelmed me.

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Speaker 1: Camping weekends were very important to Simon, his ex wife

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Speaker 1: told the court, as he wanted a chance to really

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Speaker 1: switch off from work. The couple also had a regular

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Speaker 1: Bible study group with one of Simon's cousins and a

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Speaker 1: few friends. They became engaged in two thousand and seven

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Speaker 1: and had a wedding hosted by Donald Gale Patterson under

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Speaker 1: a garden marquee in Corumborough. Aaron Patterson's own parents were,

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Speaker 1: she said, on a train holiday in Russia, so she

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Speaker 1: was walked down the aisle by Simon's cousin, David Wilkinson,

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Speaker 1: son of Heather and Ian. They set out on a honeymoon.

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Speaker 2: What we really wanted for our honeymoon was to drive

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Speaker 2: around Australia, so Simon gave notice at his job. We

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Speaker 2: gave away everything we had, sold Simon's car to Ian

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Speaker 2: and Heather bought a miss and patrol and we just

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Speaker 2: hit the open road.

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Speaker 3: And where did you go?

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Speaker 2: We first went to Sydney. Simon had some friends there

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Speaker 2: that he wanted us to stay with, so we did

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Speaker 2: that and then we just slowly meandered our way across Australia,

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Speaker 2: but through the you know, like far West Birdsville, Unadada track,

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Speaker 2: through the guts of it.

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Speaker 1: Coming up, the marriage starts to crack. Aaron Patterson's evidence continues.

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Speaker 2: After the break.

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Speaker 1: After they'd be Calliday, the newlyweds settled down in Perth.

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Speaker 2: Simon was pretty keen to keep traveling, and I was

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Speaker 2: pretty keen to stop for a while and put down roots.

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Speaker 2: I was keen to start having babies, I guess for

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Speaker 2: one of a better way to phrase it. So we did.

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Speaker 1: Their first child, a boy, was born in early two

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Speaker 1: thousand and nine.

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Speaker 3: How was I'm asking this for a reason. How was

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Speaker 3: his birth? How were you after giving birth?

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Speaker 2: His birth was very traumatic for what reason? It went

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Speaker 2: for a very long time, and they tried to get

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Speaker 2: him out with forceps and he wouldn't come out, and

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Speaker 2: he started to go into distress and they lost his

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Speaker 2: heart beat. So they did an emergency caesarean and got

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Speaker 2: him out quickly.

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Speaker 3: Now, as a result of that cesarean, you had to

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Speaker 3: stay in hospital for a few days.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it was sixteen years ago, so I'm not sure

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Speaker 2: exactly how long, but it was probably roughly a week.

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Speaker 2: My son was in the neonatal. I see you for

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Speaker 2: a while.

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Speaker 3: And how was it that you ended up leaving the hospital?

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Speaker 2: So my son had got to a point where they

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Speaker 2: were happy to discharge him. He was off oxygen, he

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Speaker 2: was off the feeding tube, and they said he could

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Speaker 2: be discharged to go home with Simon, but they wanted

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Speaker 2: me to stay. They didn't think I'd healed quite well

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Speaker 2: enough from the surgery, and they wanted me to stay,

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Speaker 2: and I wanted to go with my son. So I

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Speaker 2: remember having a conversation with Simon about it, and I

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Speaker 2: was really upset and I said, I don't want to

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Speaker 2: stay here by myself. I want to go home with

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Speaker 2: our son. And Simon said to me, you can just

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Speaker 2: do it. Let's just leave.

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Speaker 3: Did that involve you discharging yourself against medical advice?

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Speaker 2: Yeap, it did.

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Speaker 1: Down and Gail Patterson came to stay, and the extended

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Speaker 1: family rented an airbnb out of town.

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Speaker 2: I remember being really relieved that Gail was there because

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Speaker 2: I felt really out of my depth. I had no

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Speaker 2: idea what to do with a baby, and I was

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Speaker 2: not confident, and she was really supportive and gentle and

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Speaker 2: patient with me.

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Speaker 3: Did she give you advice?

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Speaker 2: She did? What about about helping to settle him after

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Speaker 2: a feed, about trying to interpret his cries? And she

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Speaker 2: gave me good advice about just relax and enjoy it.

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Speaker 2: You don't have to stick to this timetable, this schedule.

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Speaker 2: Just relax and enjoy your baby.

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Speaker 1: When the baby was a few months old, they set

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Speaker 1: out again for a trip around the top half of Australia,

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Speaker 1: back in Thenisent Patrol and off to the Gibb River Road,

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Speaker 1: then the tanem My Track up to Tenant Creek, across

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Speaker 1: to Cairns and down to Townsville.

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Speaker 3: And how were you feeling in November of two thousand

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Speaker 3: and nine in terms of all that traveling you'd been doing.

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Speaker 2: It had been a good holiday, but I'd had enough.

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Speaker 2: I wanted to sleep in a real bed, and it

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Speaker 2: was getting harder to camp with the baby. Like when

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Speaker 2: we started off he was three months old, he slept

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Speaker 2: a lot. I remember joking at the time that I

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Speaker 2: couldn't remember his eye color because his eyes were never open.

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Speaker 1: Like.

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Speaker 2: He slept a lot. So when we first started traveling,

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Speaker 2: like we could time our long drives with these three

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Speaker 2: hour naps that he had. But by November he was

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Speaker 2: standing up and crawling and not sleeping a lot. It

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Speaker 2: was a lot harder. I'd had a gut full.

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Speaker 3: Did you and Simon talk about that?

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Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, we did.

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Speaker 3: And what was the agreement that you came to.

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Speaker 2: The agreement we had was that I flew back to

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Speaker 2: Perth and Simon followed with the baby in the patrol.

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Speaker 1: Once back in Perth, the couple split, reunited, and then

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Speaker 1: had periods of separation until about twenty fifteen.

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Speaker 2: I would say that even though obviously our relationship was

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Speaker 2: struggling to cause a separation, it was really important to

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Speaker 2: both of us to cooperate about our son and make

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Speaker 2: it as easy on him as possible, as easy as

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Speaker 2: the separation of his parents can be. Yeah, that was

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Speaker 2: our priority.

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Speaker 3: And was there any conflict between you as to how

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Speaker 3: to look after him?

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Speaker 2: No, there wasn't. There wasn't.

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Speaker 3: There must have been some tension to cause the separations.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, of course, there was.

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Speaker 3: What was that about?

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Speaker 2: Primarily what we struggled with over the course of our relationship.

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Speaker 2: If we had any problems at all, it was we

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Speaker 2: just couldn't communicate well when we disagreed about something. We

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Speaker 2: could never communicate in a way that made each of

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Speaker 2: us heard or understood, so we would just feel heard

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Speaker 2: and not know how to resolve it.

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Speaker 3: But that kind of tension didn't extend to how to

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Speaker 3: look after your.

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Speaker 2: Son, No, it didn't, because we both just loved him

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Speaker 2: didn't want him to They were adult problems. They were

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Speaker 2: not problems for a child.

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Speaker 3: Your honor? Is that a convenient time?

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Speaker 1: That's how lawyers with one eye on the clock signaled

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Speaker 1: to the judge that they can wrap up for the day.

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Speaker 1: Aaron Patterson will return to the witness box at ten

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Speaker 1: thirty am on Tuesday.

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Speaker 2: You can tune in

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Speaker 1: To keep up with live updates from our reporters in court,

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Speaker 1: Ellie Dudley and John Ferguson at the Australian dot com

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Speaker 1: dot au