Speaker 1: We're here at the Herald Sun office in Melbourne. It's
Speaker 1: the King's birthday today and in the King Versus Aaron Patterson,
Speaker 1: the jury has a day off for the second time.
Speaker 1: We've assembled the entire team for another bonus episode. I'm
Speaker 1: Brook greebt Craig.
Speaker 2: I'm Laura Plascela, and I'm Anthony Dowsley and this is
Speaker 2: the Mushroom Cook.
Speaker 1: Hi guys, welcome back, Hey Brook.
Speaker 3: Hey Brook. It's been another week and a couple more
Speaker 3: to go.
Speaker 1: I guess so Aaron Patterson has taken the stand, hasn't she?
Speaker 3: Hang on a minute. You're calling it the stand. Now,
Speaker 3: I've got some old legal contexts that are text messaging
Speaker 3: me and emailing me. They don't like this word, the stand.
Speaker 3: They say it is an americanism. So what we call it,
Speaker 3: apparently is the witness box. But what are we going
Speaker 3: to go with.
Speaker 2: Look, you've got that advice. Let's go with the witness box.
Speaker 3: Okay, the witness box.
Speaker 1: I like the stand, so I think I'll stick to that.
Speaker 3: Guys, let's go.
Speaker 1: So, dows can you talk us through in summary what
Speaker 1: we've heard from Aaron.
Speaker 3: We got to see her enter the stand or the
Speaker 3: witness box for about forty one minutes on Monday and
Speaker 3: continue on during the week. It delved not only into
Speaker 3: the really essential facts of this case, but it delved
Speaker 3: into her life in general. We heard a little bit
Speaker 3: about her growing up. We heard some really personal issues,
Speaker 3: such as when she said that she had been weighed
Speaker 3: as a child and how that had an impact on
Speaker 3: her relationship with food. We heard a lot about food.
Speaker 3: We heard how she had struggled with her weight and
Speaker 3: how it had impacted on her mental health. And we
Speaker 3: heard right up until the lunch, the fatal lunch, that
Speaker 3: was something that was really on her mind.
Speaker 2: And as we've touched upon in previous episodes, Aaron was planning,
Speaker 2: she said, to have gastric bypass surgery because of these
Speaker 2: body image issues.
Speaker 1: And what else was Aaron asked about.
Speaker 2: During her evidence in chief was questioned by her defense
Speaker 2: barrister Colin mandy In about mushrooms, about how she prepared
Speaker 2: the beef Wellington, what she did the day of the lunch,
Speaker 2: what she did the day after the lunch, and about
Speaker 2: the searches that were conducted at her house by police.
Speaker 1: So, with Aaron taking the stand, there's obviously been an
Speaker 1: increase in public interest in the case.
Speaker 3: That was quite startling to watch. I was in Melbourne
Speaker 3: and getting images back from Warwell where you both are
Speaker 3: of queues outside the court. More well's not the biggest
Speaker 3: court in Victoria, and there's only a certain amount of
Speaker 3: seats inside courtroom four. And yeah, it's packed now. There
Speaker 3: was so much interest in what Aaron Patterson was going
Speaker 3: to have to say, so she gave her forty one
Speaker 3: minutes at the start on day two. So the crowds
Speaker 3: are turning up now and there's all sorts of people
Speaker 3: in their gallery. One I noticed from Melbourne while I
Speaker 3: was watching a video screen was this really colorful looking guy.
Speaker 3: He's got colorful pants and top one. He's even got
Speaker 3: colorful hair. So all sorts of people are turning up
Speaker 3: to listen to Aaron Patterson give evidence.
Speaker 1: Yes, people have been rocking up to the law courts
Speaker 1: at seven am, queuing up or to get a spot
Speaker 1: in courtroom four.
Speaker 3: Are they missing out?
Speaker 1: Yeah, some people are. Actually I think there are about
Speaker 1: twenty seats reserved for the general public, so people are
Speaker 1: missing out.
Speaker 2: And just before Dowsy were speaking about the kinds of
Speaker 2: people sitting in the courtroom I would say it seems
Speaker 2: like there is more women than there are men. And
Speaker 2: I've even noticed some teenagers. And I think at one
Speaker 2: stage I saw a boy who was probably in primary
Speaker 2: school coming along with their parents and watching the proceedings.
Speaker 1: And some people have notebooks and they're taking notes.
Speaker 2: But one thing they've very much been told not to
Speaker 2: do is take out their phones. So the tip staff
Speaker 2: in the courtroom, mister Hastings, he's in charge of making
Speaker 2: sure the proceedings on smoothly and is keeping a watchful
Speaker 2: eye to make sure everyone is following the rules.
Speaker 1: So we've had an increase of interest from the general public,
Speaker 1: but there's also been an increase of interest from the media.
Speaker 3: Actually, I got a question about that. How's the click
Speaker 3: clacking of all the typewriters and laptops going in their
Speaker 3: typewriters and old term the laptops. I'll go in there
Speaker 3: with my typewriter because I'm so old. But what about
Speaker 3: the noise from the media in there. I mean, it
Speaker 3: can get intense when certain parts of evidence come up
Speaker 3: and the media want to take notes word for word.
Speaker 2: I know all of us journalists are really mindful when
Speaker 2: we're in the courtroom, to try to keep the click
Speaker 2: clacking at a minimum. I was in court several days
Speaker 2: last week and there was a lot of evidence we
Speaker 2: were hearing from Erin, and you do want to get
Speaker 2: it down so you can take the most accurate notes,
Speaker 2: but you're just trying as hard as you can to
Speaker 2: make sure you're typing softly.
Speaker 3: Is anyone using the old notebook and pen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there are. I've seen a few journals doing that.
Speaker 2: And using their shorthand. It's very impressive. I did learn
Speaker 2: how to use shorthand, but I never got fast enough,
Speaker 2: so it's the laptop for me.
Speaker 1: I think we've also seen an increase of media in
Speaker 1: the overflow room. We've spoken about that before, Laura, Can
Speaker 1: you describe the room for our listeners.
Speaker 2: The room usually is in an overflow room. It's reserved
Speaker 2: for the jury pool, so at the start of a trial,
Speaker 2: when there is a large group of people brought to
Speaker 2: court to be in a jury, this is the room
Speaker 2: they wait in before they're brought into court. But for
Speaker 2: the last six weeks it's pretty much been a hub
Speaker 2: of journalists. We are all in there with our laptops,
Speaker 2: our charges, and where they're watching one big screen that's
Speaker 2: usually fixed on the witness of the day and that
Speaker 2: is where most of us will observe the trial from.
Speaker 1: So I would say in the first couple of weeks
Speaker 1: there were about fifteen journals sitting in in the overflow room,
Speaker 1: but I would say last week there was probably around
Speaker 1: thirty to forty of us, some international media like the BBC.
Speaker 2: Yes, and the Daily Mail as well from the UK.
Speaker 2: And when I walked into the overflow room on that day,
Speaker 2: I think it was the Wednesday, I was almost taken
Speaker 2: aback because there was usually many empty seats beforehand when
Speaker 2: we were hearing from expert witnesses. It was very dense
Speaker 2: evidence and on some of those days there weren't too
Speaker 2: many of us in the overflow room, but like you said, Brook,
Speaker 2: on that day there were dozens.
Speaker 1: And I think because you and I have been living
Speaker 1: in more well, we're kind of in a vacuum in
Speaker 1: our own little bubble in regards to the trial. But Dows,
Speaker 1: can you speak to our listeners more about the international
Speaker 1: interest We've done.
Speaker 3: Some radio pieces have been on the BBC. Brook, You've
Speaker 3: been doing a piece with the Washington Post, was it, Yes?
Speaker 1: I spoke to a journalist from the Washington Post, so
Speaker 1: he did an online story about the trial.
Speaker 3: There was a piece in the paper about a youtubeer
Speaker 3: in America getting hundreds of thousands of subscribers. What have
Speaker 3: you been noticing, Laura.
Speaker 2: There's also been a lot of content on TikTok, some
Speaker 2: videos being produced by journalists but also influencers. There was
Speaker 2: a girl who came down to court. I think it
Speaker 2: was in the first week. She said she was an
Speaker 2: influencer and she came along to record a video for
Speaker 2: her followers on what it was like to sit in
Speaker 2: on the trial.
Speaker 3: Ugh, influencers, All right, we'll move on.
Speaker 2: Dows doesn't like this time.
Speaker 3: I'm still working on my typewriter, so you know, all
Speaker 3: these things are new to me.
Speaker 1: So last week we found out more about the timeline
Speaker 1: of the trial after Justice Christopher Bill spoke to the
Speaker 1: jury about it. Dows, can you talk our listeners through
Speaker 1: what we can expect over the coming weeks.
Speaker 3: So the trial is going to go a little bit
Speaker 3: longer than we first anticipated, but we haven't got that
Speaker 3: much to go. We will hear the end of Aaron
Speaker 3: Patterson's testimony, so she'll finish her cross examination, and then
Speaker 3: they'll go back to her lawyer. They'll ask some more
Speaker 3: questions to finish it off. Then she'll be excused from
Speaker 3: the stand. She'll go back to the dock. Then what
Speaker 3: happens is that they have closings, so both sides, the
Speaker 3: prosecution and defense, will close. The defense will go last,
Speaker 3: So that's the summation of the trial, and they'll be
Speaker 3: telling the jury what verdict they think they should deliver
Speaker 3: in the end. Then what happens is it Justice Beale
Speaker 3: will address the jury with what they call a charge
Speaker 3: to the jury, that's explaining the law and how the
Speaker 3: evidence of the case will be. There'll be a summary
Speaker 3: of that. Then they go out for verdict, and we
Speaker 3: don't know when they'll come back.
Speaker 1: So I think it's fair to say that a few
Speaker 1: of us will be camping outside the law courts, right.
Speaker 2: Yes, and who knows how many days.
Speaker 3: Will be there for that's right. Verdicts are stressful because
Speaker 3: you don't know when they're coming back, and when they do,
Speaker 3: it's quick, so you've got to get there and you've
Speaker 3: got to be ready.
Speaker 1: But rest assured, we will be here and we'll be
Speaker 1: giving you all the latest updates in the case. But
Speaker 1: for now, head to the mushroomcook dot com dot au
Speaker 1: for more