Speaker 1: Hi, Erin Sally from the Department of Health. I spoke
Speaker 1: with you this morning. I've left a message for you
Speaker 1: to call me, but thought it might be helpful if
Speaker 1: I let you know the sort of information I want
Speaker 1: to discuss. I need to know what drinks were served
Speaker 1: at the lunch. I also need to know what type
Speaker 1: of shalots you purchased. And if you could please give
Speaker 1: me a basic description of the packaging of the mushrooms
Speaker 1: from the Asian grocer, that would be good. Approximate weight
Speaker 1: and size of the packaging, was it partially see through
Speaker 1: or not? And if you think of the names of
Speaker 1: the roads you were parking on or near when you
Speaker 1: went to the different grocery stores, then I can get
Speaker 1: the officers out looking around those areas. Even a landmark
Speaker 1: you might have remembered at the time would be helpful.
Speaker 2: Hi, Sally, sure, I will try to get that information
Speaker 2: all to you as soon as possible. I'm just dealing
Speaker 2: with trying to manage and look after the kids in
Speaker 2: hospital here and a bit snowed under trying to manage that.
Speaker 2: I'll get this info to you as soon as I can,
Speaker 2: but I've just been in a couple of meetings with
Speaker 2: people at the hospital when you've been trying to call.
Speaker 1: In the early days after the mushroom line, which Sally
Speaker 1: Ann Atkinson messaged Aaron Patterson searching for information, she was
Speaker 1: desperate to make sure poisonous ingredients hadn't found their way
Speaker 1: into grocery stores across Victoria, desperate to make sure there
Speaker 1: was no risk to the community. She described her search
Speaker 1: and what Erin told her today in court. I'm Brooke
Speaker 1: Greebert Craig, and this is the Mushroom Cook. It's week five,
Speaker 1: day nineteen of Aaron Patterson's murder trial, and once again
Speaker 1: I'm here in our makeshift podcast studio with my colleague
Speaker 1: court reporter Laura Plasela. Hi, Laura, Hey, Brook.
Speaker 3: I cannot believe we are in week five.
Speaker 1: I know it's crazy. Time flies when you're having fun, and.
Speaker 3: I will say it seems like our podcast studio is
Speaker 3: back to normal. Thank god.
Speaker 1: We had quite a number of witnesses in court today
Speaker 1: for to be exact, we also had a man briefly
Speaker 1: interrupt the proceedings, but we'll talk more on that later.
Speaker 1: Let's start with our first witness, Sally Ann Atkinson. She
Speaker 1: is a senior public health advisor at the Department of Health.
Speaker 1: She took the stand today and spoke about several phone
Speaker 1: calls and text message exchanges she had with Erin from
Speaker 1: August one, twenty twenty three, So this is three days
Speaker 1: after the lunch on July twenty nine.
Speaker 3: Yes, that's right. Miss Atkinson told the jury today that
Speaker 3: she received a disease notification relating to suspected deathcat mushroom poisoning,
Speaker 3: and she spoke with a toxicologist from Austin Health who
Speaker 3: filled her in on some of the details around the lunch.
Speaker 3: Miss Atkinson told the court that she then spoke to
Speaker 3: Erin to gather some more details. She spoke first about
Speaker 3: the symptoms Aaron was experiencing, considering on August one, Erin
Speaker 3: was herself at Monash Medical Center. She said that Erin
Speaker 3: told her she had been experiencing explosive diarrhea the night
Speaker 3: of the lunch that July twenty nine, and then every
Speaker 3: forty five minutes she was experiencing the same on July thirty.
Speaker 3: She said she started to feel better that night, but
Speaker 3: the next morning, on July thirty one, when she had
Speaker 3: a bowl of cereal, she began to feel worse, and
Speaker 3: that was the morning she went to lean Gatha Hospital.
Speaker 1: Miss Atkinson also said that Aaron told her about how
Speaker 1: she served the beef wellington.
Speaker 3: Yes, Miss Atkinson said she did ask Aaron some questions
Speaker 3: about the lunch. Erin confirmed she made a beef wellington
Speaker 3: that was served with mashed potatoes and beans, and she
Speaker 3: told her all the beef Wellingtons were plated individually and
Speaker 3: everyone around that table had the same food. Did jury
Speaker 3: have heard previously that Erin used a best selling recipe
Speaker 3: Tin Eats cookbook to make the beef wellington? And she
Speaker 3: told Miss Atkinson that she had never made the meal
Speaker 3: before and she wanted to do something fancy for her guests.
Speaker 3: Miss Atkinson was really trying to gather as much information
Speaker 3: as she could, so she also asked Erin about the
Speaker 3: mushrooms she used in the beef wellington meal. Aaron told
Speaker 3: her some of the mushrooms she used were purchased from
Speaker 3: a Woolworths and leand Gatha, and said she also used
Speaker 3: dried mushrooms that she purchased from an Asian grosser months earlier.
Speaker 3: In April, she explained to Miss Atkinson that she no
Speaker 3: longer had the packaging for the dried mushrooms, but she
Speaker 3: remembers it being a small sea through bag with a
Speaker 3: white label, noting that it didn't look very professional, and
Speaker 3: she told miss Atkinson that she bought the dried mushrooms
Speaker 3: in the first place because she wanted to use them
Speaker 3: for a pasta dish. She noted that they smelled funny
Speaker 3: when she opened the packaging, but miss Atkinson told the
Speaker 3: court that Erin indicated to her that she could have
Speaker 3: still used some of them in the meal.
Speaker 1: Miss Atkinson then told the jury she attended a group
Speaker 1: meeting with the Deputy Chief Health Officers, members of the
Speaker 1: Food Safety Unit, and the department's media team. During this meeting,
Speaker 1: they established that they needed to start and investigate.
Speaker 3: It's been a while since I've heard the words chief
Speaker 3: Health officer. Definitely felt like a throwback to COVID, but
Speaker 3: miss Atkinson was explaining that there was quite a lot
Speaker 3: of urgency around getting answers and trying to figure out,
Speaker 3: like you said at the top of the episode, Brook,
Speaker 3: whether there were any products being sold across Victoria that
Speaker 3: would put members of the public at risk. She came
Speaker 3: out of that meeting and tried to call Erin, but
Speaker 3: she didn't pick up, so she sent a text instead,
Speaker 3: and that was the exchange you heard at the top
Speaker 3: of the episode. Since Erin had told Miss Atkinson she
Speaker 3: was quite snowed under, she told the court that she
Speaker 3: did not hear back from her until the next day.
Speaker 1: So then what happened On August two?
Speaker 3: Miss Atkinson said she sent Erin another text message, and
Speaker 3: this was in the morning, around nine point thirty, and
Speaker 3: she was asking Erin to confirm a number of things.
Speaker 3: These included whether she had only cooked with the dried
Speaker 3: mushrooms once, whether any drinks were served at the lunch,
Speaker 3: whether she used a credit card to purchase the dried mushrooms,
Speaker 3: and she even asked her to confirm what shalotts she
Speaker 3: had used in the meal. Miss Atkinson told the court
Speaker 3: that she didn't receive a reply from Erin, but later
Speaker 3: that day she received a phone call from Katrina Cripps
Speaker 3: from Child Protection. Our listeners may remember Miss Cripps she
Speaker 3: gave evidence earlier in this trial, and she was actually
Speaker 3: at Aaron's house on August two to conduct a visit
Speaker 3: and she handed Erin a phone so she could talk
Speaker 3: to Miss Atkinson directly.
Speaker 1: So did Erin actually answer any of Miss Atkinson's questions.
Speaker 3: She did so over the phone. Miss Atkinson said that
Speaker 3: Erin confirmed the guests had drunk tea and coffee, as
Speaker 3: well as water at the lunch. She also confirmed that
Speaker 3: she did not locate a credit card purchase that related
Speaker 3: to an Asian grosser and told Miss Atkinson that it
Speaker 3: was likely she may have bought the dried mushrooms with cash.
Speaker 3: And then she also spoke about the previous use of
Speaker 3: these dried mushrooms. She told Miss Atkinson over the phone
Speaker 3: that they had never been used in another meal, saying
Speaker 3: that they smelled funny when she first open them, so
Speaker 3: decided not to use them and just put them in
Speaker 3: a container. Crown Prosecutor Jane Warren asked whether this statement
Speaker 3: was consistent with what Erin had previously told Miss Atkinson,
Speaker 3: and she said that it was not that it was different.
Speaker 3: She said that the initial conversation she had with Erin
Speaker 3: seemed to indicate that some of the dried mushrooms were
Speaker 3: used in this pasta dish, but then by the next
Speaker 3: day she was saying that they hadn't been used. Miss
Speaker 3: Atkinson told the court that Erin was not being very clear.
Speaker 1: After this phone call, there was another text message exchange.
Speaker 1: Miss Atkinson told the jury that Aaron originally said she
Speaker 1: bought all the ingredients except the dried mushrooms, on the Friday,
Speaker 1: but later she said she bought them over several days.
Speaker 1: These are their words, but not their voices. Hi erin Sorry,
Speaker 1: Counselor just asked what time of day did you buy
Speaker 1: the ingredients on Friday? Counselor looking at when the supermarket
Speaker 1: receives delivered and storage, etc. Time of shopping would help
Speaker 1: with their investigation. Thank you, Hi, Sally.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure exactly what time of day. I went
Speaker 2: a few times last week, and I know I got
Speaker 2: some of the ingredients on maybe Wednesday or Thursday. I
Speaker 2: know I bought some discounted Iphill at Stakes one time
Speaker 2: on one of those two days, and then I went
Speaker 2: back on either Thursday or Friday and bought a couple more,
Speaker 2: but they weren't discounted, just normal price, and I bought
Speaker 2: the rest of the ingredients at one of those shopping trips.
Speaker 2: I often go daily or every second day to pick
Speaker 2: up a bag or two and get what I need
Speaker 2: as I go, so it's hard to pinpoint an exact
Speaker 2: day I bought this or that, but I know I
Speaker 2: bought all of it at some stage last week on Wednesday,
Speaker 2: Thursday or Friday.
Speaker 3: The next day, on August three, there was another phone call.
Speaker 3: This time Miss Atkinson was really focusing on the meal
Speaker 3: and asked Aaron how she prepared the beef Wellington. She
Speaker 3: said Erin told her that she used button mushrooms and
Speaker 3: the dried mushrooms to make the mushroom pace that would
Speaker 3: coach the iphill at stakes. She described how Erin rehydrated
Speaker 3: the dried mushrooms before chopping them by hand. Miss Atkinson
Speaker 3: said Erin told her she then fried garlic and Shalott's
Speaker 3: in oil before adding all of the mushrooms until it
Speaker 3: cooked down into that paste. Miss Atkinson told the jury
Speaker 3: that she asked Aaron how many batches of this mushroom
Speaker 3: paste she made, and the court heard that Erin said
Speaker 3: she had only made one batch. Miss Warren asked miss
Speaker 3: Atkinson why she asked Erin this question, and she said
Speaker 3: that two batches would explain why some of the lunch
Speaker 3: guests were sick and some were not. The conversation then
Speaker 3: turned back to the dried mushrooms, and this time when
Speaker 3: she was asking her about the Asian grocer, Aaron mentioned
Speaker 3: that the grocer could have been located in Glen Waverley.
Speaker 3: Miss Akinson told the court that Aaron had never mentioned
Speaker 3: Glen Waverley to her before. Our listeners may remember that
Speaker 3: over the days in early August, Monasity Council were conducting
Speaker 3: an investigation, going to more than a dozen Asian grocers
Speaker 3: across Clayton and Mount Waverley to try to find a
Speaker 3: packet of dried mushrooms that matched Erin's description. Miss Atkinson
Speaker 3: was part of this process and was texting Erin asking
Speaker 3: if she recalled whether or not the mushrooms were sliced,
Speaker 3: or whether they were shataki or for cheney mushrooms.
Speaker 1: The jury heard there was another text message exchange between
Speaker 1: the pair on August four. This was about the leftovers
Speaker 1: of that lunch. Good morning, Erin. I was wondering if
Speaker 1: I could clarify with you please, what happened to the
Speaker 1: leftover food from the lunchtime meal when the five of
Speaker 1: you eate together. I know the pastry and mushrooms from
Speaker 1: the leftovers you scraped off were in the bin, but
Speaker 1: not sure if that was the same for the other leftovers.
Speaker 1: Thanks Sally, Yes, it all went in the bit. Thank
Speaker 1: you for confirming that I thought that would be the case.
Speaker 1: Let's move on to another witness. Doctor Brian Beer, a
Speaker 1: forensic pathologist at Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, gave evidence
Speaker 1: about the autopsies surrounding Donengale, Patterson and Heather wil consent.
Speaker 3: Doctor Beer said that for all three their causes of
Speaker 3: death were consistent with amatoxin poisoning, which is toxic mushroom poisoning,
Speaker 3: and he spoke about the injuries they had sustained, especially
Speaker 3: around the liver as well as the small and large bow.
Speaker 3: He said there was very extensive necrosis, which put in
Speaker 3: Layman's terms, mean most of the cells were dead. Doctor
Speaker 3: Beer was asked in relation to all three whether or
Speaker 3: not they had any pre existing health conditions at the
Speaker 3: time of the lunch. When it came to Heather, it
Speaker 3: said that she appeared to be in good health, but
Speaker 3: when he was asked about her sister, Gail, he said
Speaker 3: that she was diagnosed with encephalitis in twenty twenty, but
Speaker 3: he made it clear that this illness did not contribute
Speaker 3: to her death. When it came to Don, doctor Beer
Speaker 3: said that the autopsy showed he had a failed transplanted
Speaker 3: liver and science could also be seen of mild hypertensive
Speaker 3: heart disease, which is caused by high blood pressure. He
Speaker 3: actually said that there would be many people walking around
Speaker 3: with mild hypertensive heart disease that wouldn't even know they
Speaker 3: have it, and he gestured to the courtroom, saying there
Speaker 3: were probably some people in the public gallery who had
Speaker 3: it themselves, but just like he did with Gail, he
Speaker 3: confirmed that this did not contribute to his death. When
Speaker 3: asked about Don's health generally, doctor Ber said that there
Speaker 3: was nothing serious to note besides a slightly large heart
Speaker 3: and the fact he was overweight.
Speaker 1: The jury also heard from Ben Goodwin. He's a forensic
Speaker 1: officer at Victoria Police who examined the dehydrator with his colleagues.
Speaker 1: Just to remind our listeners, this is the same dehydrator
Speaker 1: that Aaron dumped at the local tip.
Speaker 3: The court heard that the dehydrator was seized by police
Speaker 3: on August four, two days after it was dumped by Aaron.
Speaker 3: On August two. He told the court he was tasked
Speaker 3: with taking samples from the dehydrata of possible vegetable matter.
Speaker 3: Was at at this point that photos of the dehydrata
Speaker 3: were shown to the jury and you could see the
Speaker 3: dehydrata had been taken apart for this analysis to occur.
Speaker 3: The jury could see the separate parts included the vents,
Speaker 3: the trays, as well as the door and the whole
Speaker 3: inside of the dehydrata. He said that when they found
Speaker 3: possible vegetable matter, they picked it up with tweezers and
Speaker 3: placed it into a specimen jar. In total, seven samples
Speaker 3: were taken from the appliance. Just like the leftovers, these
Speaker 3: samples also went on their own little journey after they
Speaker 3: were taken from the dehydrata. They were then transported to
Speaker 3: the lab of doctor Dimitri Girista Mulis, who analyzed these
Speaker 3: samples for the toxins present in deathcat mushrooms, namely alpha
Speaker 3: amaneiton and beta amaneiton. The jury has previously heard that
Speaker 3: from these seven samples, four tested positive for these amatoxins.
Speaker 1: While we're on the topic of the dehydrader, Sharman Fox
Speaker 1: Henry finished his evidence after four days in court. He
Speaker 1: was cross examined today by Aaron's barrister, Colin Mandy.
Speaker 3: Sc Yes, that's right. He may not need an introduction
Speaker 3: anymore because he's been on the stand across so many days.
Speaker 3: He is the senior digital forensics officer at Victoria Police
Speaker 3: who was tasked with examining devices that were seized from
Speaker 3: Aaron's house. As you said, Brook, he was cross examined
Speaker 3: by mister Mandy on a number of points, and one
Speaker 3: line of questioning related to a Samsung tablet that had
Speaker 3: been seized. The court was last week shown photos that
Speaker 3: were extracted from the device, and these included photos of
Speaker 3: the dehydrator. Mister fox Henry said the data that was
Speaker 3: extracted alongside these photos did not say whether it or
Speaker 3: any of the other photos had been received by anyone else,
Speaker 3: and he agreed with mister Mandy that the data also
Speaker 3: didn't say whether the user took the photo themselves or
Speaker 3: whether they were sent to the photo by someone else. Earlier,
Speaker 3: in his cross examination, mister Mandy asked mister fox Henry
Speaker 3: about the experience he had when it came to extracting data.
Speaker 3: He conceded that while he holds a number of qualifications now,
Speaker 3: he did not hold those qualifications. When he examined these
Speaker 3: devices in August twenty twenty three, he told the court
Speaker 3: his only training in data collection was from his previous
Speaker 3: experience in the audio visual unit at Victoria Police. Mister
Speaker 3: Mandy asked that when he was tasked with analyzing these
Speaker 3: devices in the cybercrime squad, whether he was really just
Speaker 3: following instructions from his peers, and mister fox Henry replied
Speaker 3: that he was.
Speaker 1: That was all the evidence today, But as we said
Speaker 1: at the top of the episode, there was an unexpected event.
Speaker 1: The hearing was briefly interrupted by a man who was
Speaker 1: seated in the public gallery.
Speaker 3: Yes, and he was actually seated right next to me.
Speaker 3: Our listeners may remember that there are six seats in
Speaker 3: the courtroom reserved for journalists, and I was sitting in
Speaker 3: one of those seats today, And we had just finished
Speaker 3: the mid morning break and mister fox Henry was about
Speaker 3: to return to the stand to finish the rest of
Speaker 3: his evidence. There was a moment of silence before mister
Speaker 3: Mandy commenced his questioning, and all of a sudden, the
Speaker 3: man sitting right next to me leapt to his feet
Speaker 3: and addressed Justice Christopher Beale directly he said, how can
Speaker 3: you be a judge and went on to make a
Speaker 3: number of allegations where a reference was made to concealed crimes.
Speaker 1: The man was dressed in a yellow T shirt with
Speaker 1: the words all we are saying is give truth a
Speaker 1: chance in black letters.
Speaker 3: But this outburst didn't last long at all. The informant
Speaker 3: in this matter, who was the detective leading this investigation,
Speaker 3: his name is Stephen Eppingstall. He made a beeline for
Speaker 3: the protester and very quickly he was frog marched out
Speaker 3: of court.
Speaker 1: So it's safe to say there were really no disruptions
Speaker 1: other than a brief few minutes.
Speaker 3: Right even less I reckon the whole thing was over
Speaker 3: in about thirty seconds, and before we knew it, mister
Speaker 3: Fox Henry was continuing his evidence.
Speaker 1: Thanks Laura, and to stay updated on the case, go
Speaker 1: to the mushroomcook dot com dot au for more