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Speaker 1: Sorry. I feel too uncomfortable about coming to the lunch

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Speaker 1: with you, Mom, Dad, Heather and Ellian tomorrow, but I'm

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Speaker 1: happy to talk to you about your health and implications

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Speaker 1: of that at another time. If you'd like to discuss

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Speaker 1: it on the phone, just let me know.

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Speaker 2: That's really disappointing. I've spent many hours this week preparing

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Speaker 2: lunch for tomorrow, which has been exhausting in light of

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Speaker 2: the issues I'm facing, and spent a small fortune on beef.

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Speaker 2: I Philip to make beef Wellington's because I wanted it

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Speaker 2: to be a special meal, as I may not be

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Speaker 2: able to host a lunch like this again for some time.

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Speaker 2: It's important to me that you're all there tomorrow and

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Speaker 2: that I can have the conversations that I need to have.

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Speaker 2: I hope you'll change your mind. Your parents and Heather

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Speaker 2: and Ian are coming at twelve thirty. I hope to

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Speaker 2: see you there.

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Speaker 3: You've just heard a reading of text messages between Aaron

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Speaker 3: Patterson and her ex husband Simon and exchange they had

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Speaker 3: a day before Aaron cooked the fateful mushroom lunch. It

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Speaker 3: talks to a fractured relationship. Today, Simon took to the

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Speaker 3: stand and told the jury about his life with the

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Speaker 3: woman accused of killing his parents and his auntie. I'm

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Speaker 3: Brook Greenbert Craig and this is the Mushroom Cook. Welcome back, Laura.

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Speaker 4: Can you believe we're nearly at the end of the week.

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Speaker 3: I know it's gone so fast. Yes, the jury heard

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Speaker 3: from Simon today and he spoke at length about his

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Speaker 3: relationship with Aaron Patterson.

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Speaker 4: Today was the first day of evidence in the trial,

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Speaker 4: and Simon was the first prosecution witness. So this involves

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Speaker 4: him getting into the witness box, taking an oath, and

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Speaker 4: then he's questioned by the lead prosecutor. We mentioned her yesterday,

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Speaker 4: Nannette Rodgers, and like you said, he was questioned a

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Speaker 4: lot at length about his relationship with Erin and the

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Speaker 4: circumstances surrounding the lunch.

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Speaker 3: The center of this case is this deadly lunch where

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Speaker 3: three people died in the days after it. If we

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Speaker 3: go back to Simon being invited to the lunch, talk

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Speaker 3: me through about what the jury heard.

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Speaker 4: He told the jury today that he was invited to

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Speaker 4: that lunch on July sixteen, twenty twenty three, And just

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Speaker 4: to remind our listeners, the lunch was on July twenty nine,

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Speaker 4: so she's let them know about the lunch about two

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Speaker 4: weeks earlier at a church service. At the time, Simon

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Speaker 4: said he would come despite being reluctant, but the day

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Speaker 4: before the lunch he texts her late at night, and

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Speaker 4: that exchange is what our listeners heard at the top

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Speaker 4: of the episode. So Simon was asked about this text

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Speaker 4: exchange today, but he was also asked a series of

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Speaker 4: questions just about his relationship with Erin, describing what she

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Speaker 4: was like, how the relationship had an on and off nature.

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Speaker 4: Let's unpack that now.

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Speaker 3: The jury heard that Simon and Aaron met in the

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Speaker 3: early two thousands when they were both working at Monash

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Speaker 3: City Council. Simon was a civil engineer and Erin was

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Speaker 3: working as an RSBCA representative.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, he said she always loved animals.

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Speaker 3: He also said that she's witty, intelligent and funny as well.

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Speaker 4: And he speaks about those being some of the traits

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Speaker 4: that led to him falling in love with her all

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Speaker 4: those years ago.

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Speaker 3: Something of note that Simon said was that Aaron had

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Speaker 3: always been a devoted mother to her two kids. He

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Speaker 3: said that her daily life really revolved around them and

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Speaker 3: she took her role as a parent very seriously. Simon

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Speaker 3: also spoke about Aaron's relationship with his parents, Don and

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Speaker 3: Gale Patterson.

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Speaker 4: He spoke quite a lot about Don and Aaron sharing

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Speaker 4: a love of knowledge and learning, and said they shared

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Speaker 4: an interest in the world.

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Speaker 3: Don and Gale were quite supportive of Aaron and Simon's

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Speaker 3: relationship even though they separated and reconciled a lot throughout

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Speaker 3: their marriage.

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Speaker 4: And just in terms of the timeline, we heard that

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Speaker 4: Simon and Aaron met in the early two thousands. They

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Speaker 4: were married by two thousand and seven, had children in

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Speaker 4: two thousand and nine and twenty fourteen, but by twenty

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Speaker 4: fifteen they permanently separated.

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Speaker 3: In that time, Aaron and Simon did a lot of

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Speaker 3: traveling together. They really shared the same passion of exploring nature.

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Speaker 4: They did share a lot of these common interests. And

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Speaker 4: the interesting thing is is despite separating in twenty fifteen,

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Speaker 4: they remained friends. And Simon said today they remained friends

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Speaker 4: for quite a number of years up until about twenty

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Speaker 4: twenty two when something happened with his tax return.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, their relationship did turn soura at that point in time.

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Speaker 4: Simon told the jury today that when he was dropping

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Speaker 4: off the two children one day at Aaron's house, she

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Speaker 4: said she had become aware of a change in his

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Speaker 4: tax return where his marital status had been altered to separated.

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Speaker 3: Aaron was not happy about that, and she made that

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Speaker 3: very clear to Simon at the time.

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Speaker 4: Simon told the court that Aaron told him that change

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Speaker 4: in his marital status would have tax implications for the

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Speaker 4: two of them, and as a result, she demanded child

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Speaker 4: support from him moving forward. He then told the court

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Speaker 4: their relationship substantially changed. Something that once was a friendship

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Speaker 4: that involved chatty conversations over text, he said, turned to

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Speaker 4: very functional messages just about the day to day life

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Speaker 4: of their children.

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Speaker 3: Things that weren't an issue became an issue. Simon told

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Speaker 3: the court that Erin was keen to split their children's

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Speaker 3: school fees, but he told her child support had told

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Speaker 3: him not to do that because it was already covered

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Speaker 3: by the child support fees.

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Speaker 4: Simon recalled Erin being very upset about that. Simon was

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Speaker 4: questioned a lot today about the properties Aaron owned, some

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Speaker 4: with him, some without him, and.

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Speaker 3: That was all stemmed by the inheritance that Aaron was

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Speaker 3: given after her grandma died and her mother died.

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Speaker 4: The inheritance totaled about two million dollars, but Simon told

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Speaker 4: the court that it dribbled out in installments over about

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Speaker 4: eight years.

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Speaker 3: So just to clarify, Aaron was the beneficiary of two

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Speaker 3: separate estates. Aaron's grandma died in two thousand and six

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Speaker 3: and Aaron's mother died in twenty nineteen.

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Speaker 4: That's correct, and Simon told the jury Erin used part

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Speaker 4: of her inheritance very generously.

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Speaker 3: Simon has three siblings and Aaron and him lent them

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Speaker 3: around four hundred thousand dollars each.

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Speaker 4: And while we're talking about properties, there were a few

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Speaker 4: that were mentioned today in court, and I must admit

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Speaker 4: there were times where I was struggling to keep up.

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Speaker 4: Could you please explain You've.

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Speaker 3: Really put me on the spot here. Okay, I'm sorry,

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Speaker 3: it is complicated, so stay here with me. The jury

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Speaker 3: heard of four separate properties, two properties in Karenbara, one

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Speaker 3: in Mount Waverley and another one in lean Gatha, and

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Speaker 3: that's where the mill took place. Simon said that Aaron

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Speaker 3: put his name on the Mountain Waverley and lean Gather

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Speaker 3: the titles despite them being separated by this point in

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Speaker 3: twenty nineteen. Okay, now I'm going to bring it back

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Speaker 3: to the lunch and I'm going to throw to you Laura.

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Speaker 4: Oh no, this is Carmer. I guess we haven't touched

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Speaker 4: much on the lunch yet. But Simon was questioned by

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Speaker 4: both the prosecution and the defense today about the lead

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Speaker 4: up and the aftermath. We must remember that he wasn't

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Speaker 4: actually at the lunch himself. The day after the lunch,

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Speaker 4: on the Sunday, his parents told him they were quite unwell.

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Speaker 4: They described experiencing diarrhea and vomiting. Knowing that his aunt

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Speaker 4: and uncle, Heather and Ian, were also at the lunch,

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Speaker 4: he went over to their home to check that they

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Speaker 4: were okay.

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Speaker 3: And the prosecution really focused on questions that Heather asked Simon.

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Speaker 4: They did. Simon recalled Heather, telling him I noticed Aaron

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Speaker 4: served herself her food on a colored plate which was

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Speaker 4: different to the rest. Then later that afternoon, when Simon

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Speaker 4: was drying both Ian and Heather to hospital, Heather touched

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Speaker 4: on this topic again. She asked, is Aaron short of crockery?

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Speaker 4: Is that why she would have this different kind of

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Speaker 4: colored plate that she served herself on?

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Speaker 3: So that really stood out to Heather the fact that

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Speaker 3: there were different colored plates.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I believe the word she used was puzzled. She

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Speaker 4: says she was puzzled by it. But in response in

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Speaker 4: the car, Simon said to her Arin doesn't have that

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Speaker 4: many plates and that might be the reason why.

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Speaker 3: And as we heard yesterday in the prosecution openings, Crown

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Speaker 3: Prosecutor Nannette Rogers said the guess mills were served on

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Speaker 3: gray plates and Aaron served her meal on a tanned

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Speaker 3: orange plate.

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Speaker 4: Under cross examination today by Colin Mandy, Simon said that

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Speaker 4: Aaron owned a mixture of plates and that they weren't

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Speaker 4: all the same. After driving his aunt and uncle to hospital,

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Speaker 4: there was a point in time where Simon returned to

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Speaker 4: be with his parents and this was a point today

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Speaker 4: in court where Simon became visibly emotional.

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Speaker 3: Yes, the jury would have seen how emotional Simon got.

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Speaker 3: He asked for tissues and this is when he was

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Speaker 3: talking about how unwell his parents were in hospital.

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Speaker 4: He said his dad was substantially worse than his mum

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Speaker 4: and said it looked like he was really struggling, and

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Speaker 4: described him as lying on his side, hunched with a

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Speaker 4: discolored face. But then Later in his evidence, Simon spoke

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Speaker 4: about how Aaron appeared after the lunch. He told the

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Speaker 4: jury that she wanted to go to hospital, but was

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Speaker 4: worried she might pool her pants on the drive.

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Speaker 3: I know that sounds like a bit too much tea

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Speaker 3: am I, but it was set in court. Simon gave

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Speaker 3: evidence over many hours today. Is there anything we may

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Speaker 3: have missed, Laura, That's.

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Speaker 4: A good question. I'll just cast my mind back. He

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Speaker 4: did also mention that it was very rare for Aaron

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Speaker 4: to invite guests over to her home. He said that

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Speaker 4: as a wider family, especially when they were still together,

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Speaker 4: he didn't think they ever had a gathering of that

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Speaker 4: size at their house.

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Speaker 3: But Simon isn't done giving evidence yet. He will be

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Speaker 3: back on the stand tomorrow in front of the jury.

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Speaker 3: To stay up to date with all our latest coverage,

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Speaker 3: go to the mushroomcook dot com dot au