WEBVTT - The Trial: The final showdown 0:00:00.640 --> 0:00:03.920 It was a showdown today in the mushroom murder trial. 0:00:04.519 --> 0:00:08.000 The lead barristers of both the prosecution and the defense 0:00:08.200 --> 0:00:12.680 addressed the jury, with Nannette Rodgers finalizing the Crown's argument 0:00:13.039 --> 0:00:16.920 that Aaron Patterson told lies upon lies when her murder 0:00:16.960 --> 0:00:18.520 plot started to unravel. 0:00:19.320 --> 0:00:23.239 We say there is no reasonable alternative explanation for what 0:00:23.440 --> 0:00:27.320 happened to the lunch guests other than the accused deliberately 0:00:27.360 --> 0:00:31.680 sourced death cap mushrooms and deliberately included them in the meal. 0:00:31.760 --> 0:00:35.479 She served them with an intention to kill them. In 0:00:35.520 --> 0:00:37.480 the lead up to the lunch and in the periods 0:00:37.560 --> 0:00:41.440 after the lunch, Aaron Patterson told so many lies it's 0:00:41.479 --> 0:00:44.320 hard to keep track of them. She has told lies 0:00:44.520 --> 0:00:49.000 upon lies because she knew the truth would implicate her. 0:00:49.960 --> 0:00:53.880 Meanwhile, Colin Mandy started the defense case by saying his 0:00:54.040 --> 0:00:57.160 client never planned to kill her lunch guests and had 0:00:57.200 --> 0:00:59.520 a motive to keep them in her world. 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:03.360 She didn't plan it. She never planned to kill anyone, 0:01:03.720 --> 0:01:06.920 and when they did get very, very sick, she panicked 0:01:07.440 --> 0:01:10.880 because that's when she realized that it might have been 0:01:10.959 --> 0:01:14.080 the meal and the spotlight would be on her. And 0:01:14.280 --> 0:01:18.240 that's a very powerful reason why you can't, in our submission, 0:01:18.560 --> 0:01:22.400 find this element of intention. It's why you should have 0:01:22.520 --> 0:01:26.360 a reasonable doubt about it. It is an implausible theory 0:01:26.720 --> 0:01:29.039 when you take a step back and look at the 0:01:29.040 --> 0:01:29.679 big picture. 0:01:30.640 --> 0:01:33.360 In Room four of the La Trobe Valley Law Courts, 0:01:33.520 --> 0:01:37.959 both sides came out swinging. I'm Brook Greebert Craig, and 0:01:38.000 --> 0:01:44.240 this is the mushroom cook We just finished day thirty 0:01:44.280 --> 0:01:47.680 three of Aaron Patterson's trial, and as always I'm joined 0:01:47.680 --> 0:01:51.680 by court reporter Laura Placella. We've had a big day, Yes, 0:01:51.800 --> 0:01:56.280 another one this morning. Doctor Rogers continued with the prosecution's 0:01:56.440 --> 0:02:01.400 fourth calculated deception, which was the sustained cover Aaron embarked 0:02:01.400 --> 0:02:05.200 on to conceal the truth to remind listeners the other 0:02:05.280 --> 0:02:09.040 three with a fabricated cancer claim Aaron used as a 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:12.920 reason for the lunch, the lethal doses of poison Aaron 0:02:13.040 --> 0:02:17.000 secreted in the beef Wellington's and Aaron's attempts to make 0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:20.800 it seem like she also suffered death cap mushroom poisoning. 0:02:21.480 --> 0:02:24.160 So there were four elements to the sustained cover up, 0:02:24.320 --> 0:02:27.960 two of which doctor Rogers mentioned yesterday. But today she 0:02:28.120 --> 0:02:31.760 turned to the disposing of the dehydrator that she said 0:02:31.880 --> 0:02:36.240 Erin had used to dehydrate death caps. Erin has admitted 0:02:36.320 --> 0:02:39.079 that she dumped the appliance the day after she was 0:02:39.160 --> 0:02:42.919 released from Monash Medical Center, but doctor Rogers said today 0:02:42.960 --> 0:02:45.760 the only reason that Aaron dumped it was because she 0:02:45.919 --> 0:02:48.600 knew she had used it to prepare the deadly meal. 0:02:49.000 --> 0:02:52.200 This is what doctor Rogers said today. These are her words, 0:02:52.240 --> 0:02:53.120 but not her voice. 0:02:53.840 --> 0:02:58.200 If there was nothing incriminating about the dehydrator, why hide it? 0:02:58.960 --> 0:03:02.520 And there is only one reasonable explanation. She knew it 0:03:02.520 --> 0:03:06.080 would incriminate her. She knew that she had dehydrated death 0:03:06.120 --> 0:03:09.600 cap mushrooms in that appliance, and that she had deliberately 0:03:09.639 --> 0:03:12.519 done so, and she knew that keeping it was going 0:03:12.560 --> 0:03:15.400 to be far too risky. So one of the first 0:03:15.440 --> 0:03:17.680 things that she did after getting back from the Monash 0:03:17.720 --> 0:03:20.960 Hospital was to race out to the tip and dump it, 0:03:21.639 --> 0:03:24.760 try to make it disappear. If not for the careful 0:03:24.800 --> 0:03:29.040 analysis of the accused spank records conducted by Senior Constable 0:03:29.200 --> 0:03:33.359 Meg Crawford, no one would ever have known about the dehydrator. 0:03:34.160 --> 0:03:37.880 Aaron Patterson certainly wasn't telling anyone about it. In fact, 0:03:37.920 --> 0:03:40.080 when she was asked by police during the record of 0:03:40.120 --> 0:03:43.200 interview on fifth of August whether she knew anything about 0:03:43.200 --> 0:03:47.120 a dehydrator in her house. She answered with a completely 0:03:47.160 --> 0:03:48.680 straight face no. 0:03:49.560 --> 0:03:52.280 Doctor Rogers then moved on to the last element of 0:03:52.320 --> 0:03:56.200 the sustained cover up, which was Aaron deliberately concealing her 0:03:56.320 --> 0:04:01.200 usual mobile phone from police. Rogers talked the jury through 0:04:01.320 --> 0:04:04.640 Phone A, which was her usual phone, Phone B, which 0:04:04.680 --> 0:04:07.280 was her dummy phone, and Phone C, which was her 0:04:07.400 --> 0:04:10.760 NOKIAF phone. Laura, let's start with Phone A. 0:04:11.640 --> 0:04:15.520 The game of phones continues, so with Phone A, as 0:04:15.560 --> 0:04:19.560 you just said, brook Erin's usual phone. Doctor Rogers explained 0:04:19.600 --> 0:04:22.839 today that this phone was using the SIM card ending 0:04:22.920 --> 0:04:25.520 in seven eighty three in the lead up to the 0:04:25.600 --> 0:04:29.039 lunch and she said this simcard was also infhone A 0:04:29.480 --> 0:04:32.159 right up until the start of the search warrant, which 0:04:32.240 --> 0:04:35.920 was executed at Aaron's house on August five. But doctor 0:04:36.000 --> 0:04:38.880 Rogers told the jury today that while detectives were at 0:04:39.000 --> 0:04:43.039 Erin's house, Phone A was being handled without their knowledge. 0:04:44.040 --> 0:04:47.080 She reminded the jury of the evidence that the simcard 0:04:47.240 --> 0:04:50.560 lost connection with the network at some point that day 0:04:50.760 --> 0:04:54.840 between twelve oh one pm and one forty five PM, 0:04:55.160 --> 0:04:57.800 and she alleged this was because Aeron removed the SIM 0:04:57.920 --> 0:05:02.960 card before concealing Phone A from police. She reiterated to 0:05:03.000 --> 0:05:05.479 the jury today that police have never been able to 0:05:05.520 --> 0:05:09.279 recover Phone A, even after returning to Aaron's house for 0:05:09.320 --> 0:05:10.960 a second time in November. 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:14.520 Let's move on to Phone B. What did doctor Rogers 0:05:14.560 --> 0:05:15.839 say about that device? 0:05:17.360 --> 0:05:20.039 For the first time, we heard doctor Rogers call Phone 0:05:20.080 --> 0:05:23.520 B the dummy phone, and this was the device that 0:05:23.720 --> 0:05:26.160 Erin handed to police at the end of the search 0:05:26.279 --> 0:05:29.960 on August five, and she accused Erin today of setting 0:05:30.040 --> 0:05:34.120 up this dummy phone to deliberately trick the police. She 0:05:34.160 --> 0:05:36.919 said that police found nothing on Phone B because it 0:05:37.000 --> 0:05:40.880 had been factory reset multiple times by Erin, including on 0:05:40.920 --> 0:05:44.320 August five and August six, the day after the search. 0:05:45.279 --> 0:05:47.480 She then turned to the SIM card that was in 0:05:47.520 --> 0:05:50.320 Phone B when it was handed over, and that was 0:05:50.360 --> 0:05:54.279 a SIM card ending in eight three five. Erin claimed 0:05:54.360 --> 0:05:56.599 last week that she was setting up a new phone 0:05:57.000 --> 0:05:59.919 the week of the search, but doctor Rogers said that 0:06:00.000 --> 0:06:02.440 the jury could reject her claim because it was not 0:06:02.520 --> 0:06:05.400 a phone or a phone number that the accused could 0:06:05.400 --> 0:06:07.520 say she was truthfully using. 0:06:08.279 --> 0:06:11.679 Great let's finish with Phone C, which was the Nokia phone. 0:06:12.560 --> 0:06:15.280 Doctor Rogers told the jury that after Erin took the 0:06:15.279 --> 0:06:18.080 SIM card ending in seven eighty three, which was her 0:06:18.160 --> 0:06:21.920 usual SIM card, out of Phone A, she then later 0:06:21.960 --> 0:06:25.680 placed it into Phone C, the Nochia. She said that 0:06:25.839 --> 0:06:29.479 Erin continued to use this number in Phone C even 0:06:29.600 --> 0:06:32.320 after she returned home from her record of interview on 0:06:32.400 --> 0:06:36.680 August five. She said, Erin's usage of this simcard made 0:06:36.680 --> 0:06:39.599 it quite clear that this was her usual SIM card 0:06:40.160 --> 0:06:42.640 and not the SIM card ending in eight three five 0:06:43.000 --> 0:06:45.640 that was in Phone B when Aaron handed it over. 0:06:46.600 --> 0:06:49.640 Here's doctor Rogers's explanation for why Aaron did what she 0:06:49.720 --> 0:06:50.799 did with the phones. 0:06:51.839 --> 0:06:55.520 All of this conduct, the factory resets, the handing over 0:06:55.640 --> 0:06:58.920 of the blank dummy phone, pretending that Phone B was 0:06:58.960 --> 0:07:02.720 her phone number. All of this was designed to frustrate 0:07:02.839 --> 0:07:06.400 the police investigation of this matter. It was all done 0:07:06.480 --> 0:07:09.080 so that the police would never see the contents of 0:07:09.120 --> 0:07:12.960 the accused's real mobile phone. We suggest to you that 0:07:13.040 --> 0:07:16.720 the only reasonable explanation for engaging in all of this 0:07:16.840 --> 0:07:20.520 deceptive conduct is that she knew that the information on 0:07:20.680 --> 0:07:24.760 Phone A, her usual mobile phone, would implicate her in 0:07:24.840 --> 0:07:27.239 the deliberate poisoning of the lunch guests. 0:07:28.120 --> 0:07:32.480 After doctor Rogers finished her four calculated deceptions, she moved 0:07:32.520 --> 0:07:36.040 on to Aeron's claim that she must have accidentally foraged 0:07:36.240 --> 0:07:37.480 death cat mushrooms. 0:07:38.280 --> 0:07:41.400 Doctor Rogers said that she anticipated the defense would argue 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:45.280 that the jury cannot discount the possibility that Erin had 0:07:45.320 --> 0:07:48.920 innocently foraged for wild mushrooms for a family meal, but 0:07:49.080 --> 0:07:54.000 accidentally collected death cap mushrooms in that process before dehydrating them, 0:07:54.400 --> 0:07:58.040 placing them into a tupperware container with other dehydrated mushrooms, 0:07:58.560 --> 0:08:02.720 and therefore unknowingly including them in the beef wellingtons. But 0:08:02.800 --> 0:08:06.200 doctor Rogers said the only evidence of Erin ever foraging 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:10.800 for mushrooms came from her Her children told an investigator 0:08:10.840 --> 0:08:13.200 that they did not know their mum to pick and 0:08:13.240 --> 0:08:17.120 eat wild mushrooms, and Erin never discussed foraging with her 0:08:17.160 --> 0:08:20.400 Facebook friends. Doctor Rogers explained to the jury why the 0:08:20.440 --> 0:08:23.120 prosecution say Aarin lied about foraging. 0:08:23.440 --> 0:08:28.080 The suggestion now that these mushrooms may have been accidentally foraged, 0:08:28.400 --> 0:08:32.840 we suggest, is a very late change to the accused's story. 0:08:33.520 --> 0:08:35.600 You might think that at some point it dawned on 0:08:35.679 --> 0:08:39.560 her that the Asian grocery story didn't add up, particularly 0:08:39.600 --> 0:08:42.080 when faced with the evidence about the remnants of the 0:08:42.120 --> 0:08:46.600 death cap mushrooms having been found in her dehydrator, she 0:08:46.640 --> 0:08:49.320 had to come up with something new. You should simply 0:08:49.480 --> 0:08:53.520 disregard this new claim that this was a horrible foraging 0:08:53.640 --> 0:08:57.280 accident as nothing more than an attempt by the accused 0:08:57.559 --> 0:09:00.319 to get her story to fit the evidence that the 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:02.120 police compiled in this case. 0:09:03.080 --> 0:09:06.600 Doctor Rodgers then moved onto motive. She said the evidence 0:09:06.760 --> 0:09:10.480 didn't demonstrate that Aaron had any particular motive. 0:09:11.040 --> 0:09:13.679 Motive is not an element of the crime of murder 0:09:13.960 --> 0:09:17.200 or the crime of attempted murder, and it is only 0:09:17.280 --> 0:09:20.200 the elements of the offense that you must find proven 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:25.200 beyond reasonable doubt that makes sense. People do different things 0:09:25.200 --> 0:09:28.720 for different reasons. Sometimes the reason is obvious enough to others. 0:09:29.080 --> 0:09:32.480 At other times, the internal motivations are only known by 0:09:32.520 --> 0:09:35.600 the person themself. You don't have to know why a 0:09:35.640 --> 0:09:38.760 person does something in order to know they did it. 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:43.439 While doctor Rodgers said the prosecution didn't need to prove motive, 0:09:43.640 --> 0:09:46.880 she still took the jury to evidence about the relationship 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:50.800 between Aaron Simon and Donn and Gale she told the 0:09:50.880 --> 0:09:53.720 jurors they had heard evidence over the course of the 0:09:53.800 --> 0:09:57.520 trial that showed that they loved each other. Doctor Rogers 0:09:57.559 --> 0:10:00.640 added that Aaron professed her love for Donni Gale in 0:10:00.720 --> 0:10:04.840 her record of interview, and Simon testified that Aaron seemed 0:10:04.840 --> 0:10:08.640 to love his parents, but she said the relationship between 0:10:08.640 --> 0:10:11.280 Aaron and her parents in law was not always a 0:10:11.320 --> 0:10:15.680 harmonious one. After a child support dispute arose between Aaron 0:10:15.760 --> 0:10:18.959 and Simon in October twenty twenty two. 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:23.120 Don and Gail were dragged unwillingly into the conflict between 0:10:23.200 --> 0:10:28.040 the accused and Simon over child support. That was Simon's evidence. 0:10:28.400 --> 0:10:32.000 Simon said he noticed a substantial change in his relationship 0:10:32.040 --> 0:10:35.440 with the accused in late twenty twenty two over the 0:10:35.440 --> 0:10:38.679 issue of child support, which had not abated by the 0:10:38.800 --> 0:10:41.959 end of that year. As you have heard, child support 0:10:42.000 --> 0:10:45.720 became a significant source of tension between the accused and 0:10:45.800 --> 0:10:49.840 Simon Patterson, how much Simon Patterson was paying, whether it 0:10:49.920 --> 0:10:52.559 covered the school fees, and the payment of the children's 0:10:52.559 --> 0:10:53.560 medical bills. 0:10:54.080 --> 0:10:56.800 Doctor Rogers said that the evidence showed that the divide 0:10:56.880 --> 0:10:59.760 between Erin and don and Gale was deeper than they 0:10:59.800 --> 0:11:03.880 ever She said that Aaron expressed her true feelings to 0:11:03.960 --> 0:11:08.280 her Facebook friends in bitter, angry messages she wrote about 0:11:08.280 --> 0:11:10.839 her parents in law, where she called them a lost 0:11:10.880 --> 0:11:12.800 cause and said fuck em. 0:11:13.679 --> 0:11:16.360 The point of this evidence is that it shows we 0:11:16.400 --> 0:11:20.280 say that the accused was leading a duplicitous life when 0:11:20.280 --> 0:11:23.360 it came to the Pattersons, she presented one side while 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:25.720 expressing contrary beliefs to others. 0:11:26.480 --> 0:11:30.360 Then doctor Rodgers asked the fourteen jurors to personally think 0:11:30.440 --> 0:11:33.000 about what they would do if this was a horrible 0:11:33.120 --> 0:11:37.880 accident that happened to them Laura. As doctor Rogers explains, 0:11:38.040 --> 0:11:40.760 our listeners may also think about what they would do 0:11:40.920 --> 0:11:42.280 if they were in this situation. 0:11:43.400 --> 0:11:45.760 If you were told that the meal you had cooked 0:11:45.800 --> 0:11:48.520 and served to your family was thought to have possibly 0:11:48.559 --> 0:11:52.040 contained deathcat mushrooms, what would you do. Would you go 0:11:52.080 --> 0:11:56.080 into self preservation mode, just worrying about protecting yourself from blame. 0:11:56.480 --> 0:11:59.360 Would you race away from the hospital and do who 0:11:59.400 --> 0:12:02.560 knows what for an hour and a half. Would you 0:12:02.600 --> 0:12:05.800 be reluctant to receive treatment. Would you take two and 0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:08.920 a half hours to eventually agree to get your kids 0:12:08.920 --> 0:12:11.760 to hospital? Would you lie about the source of the 0:12:11.880 --> 0:12:15.960 ingredients to medical practitioners and the health department officials for days, 0:12:16.320 --> 0:12:21.400 even though the truth might help those you claim to love. No, 0:12:21.800 --> 0:12:24.240 that's not what you do. You would do everything you 0:12:24.280 --> 0:12:26.120 could to help the people you love. 0:12:26.840 --> 0:12:29.800 She went on to say, you would tell. 0:12:29.559 --> 0:12:33.280 The treating medical practitioners every scheric of information that might 0:12:33.360 --> 0:12:36.120 help to identify the cause of the illness, so that 0:12:36.120 --> 0:12:38.679 they could get the right treatment to your loved ones, 0:12:39.040 --> 0:12:41.840 regardless of any risk of blame that might fall on you. 0:12:42.320 --> 0:12:45.200 If your children had come within cooi of the same meal, 0:12:45.880 --> 0:12:48.000 you would move mountains to get them to hospital as 0:12:48.080 --> 0:12:52.280 quickly as possible. And if you yourself had truly consumed 0:12:52.320 --> 0:12:55.040 the same meal, you would gladly receive all of the 0:12:55.040 --> 0:12:58.640 medical treatment you could get your hands on. Aaron Patterson 0:12:58.679 --> 0:13:01.560 acted the way she did because she knew what she 0:13:01.600 --> 0:13:02.880 had done. 0:13:02.960 --> 0:13:06.160 Doctor Rogers said that Aaron panicked not because she realized 0:13:06.200 --> 0:13:10.080 she had made a grave foraging mistake, but because doctors 0:13:10.160 --> 0:13:13.280 had figured out that death caps were behind the illnesses 0:13:13.360 --> 0:13:16.880 of the guests. She said, innocent panic did not explain 0:13:17.040 --> 0:13:20.880 the extensive and prolonged efforts that Erin went to in 0:13:20.960 --> 0:13:23.600 order to cover up what she had done. She said. 0:13:23.600 --> 0:13:26.240 It also did not explain why Erin chose to persist 0:13:26.320 --> 0:13:29.199 with her lies when the lives of the guests were 0:13:29.240 --> 0:13:29.720 at stake. 0:13:30.679 --> 0:13:33.960 Doctor Rogers first took the jury through the lies Erin 0:13:34.120 --> 0:13:38.240 has omitted, lies about never owning a dehydrator and never 0:13:38.280 --> 0:13:39.959 having forage from mushrooms. 0:13:41.559 --> 0:13:45.000 But then doctor Rogers turned to the lies Erin hasn't admitted. 0:13:45.200 --> 0:13:45.560 She said. 0:13:45.600 --> 0:13:48.480 These included lying in a record of interview about being 0:13:48.640 --> 0:13:52.440 very helpful to the Department of Health, lying about why 0:13:52.480 --> 0:13:55.400 she held the lunch, and lying when she said she 0:13:55.520 --> 0:13:58.079 never told the lunch guests that she had been diagnosed 0:13:58.120 --> 0:14:03.240 with cancer. Doctor Rogers said her starkest lie was the 0:14:03.240 --> 0:14:06.520 one she told about having an appointment to explore gastric 0:14:06.559 --> 0:14:07.560 bypass surgery. 0:14:08.280 --> 0:14:11.679 The prosecution says that you cannot accept the accused as 0:14:11.679 --> 0:14:16.280 a truthful, honest and trustworthy witness. She has told too 0:14:16.320 --> 0:14:18.960 many lies and you should reject her evidence. 0:14:19.920 --> 0:14:22.600 Doctor Rogers told the jury to think of the case 0:14:22.760 --> 0:14:26.120 like a jigsaw puzzle. One piece on its own may 0:14:26.160 --> 0:14:28.640 not tell you very much about what the picture is, 0:14:28.760 --> 0:14:31.520 but when you start putting more together and looking at 0:14:31.560 --> 0:14:34.360 it as a whole, the picture becomes clearer. 0:14:35.320 --> 0:14:38.160 Doctor Rogers then revealed to the jury that there was 0:14:38.320 --> 0:14:43.440 one final deception, a fifth that she had not previously mentioned. 0:14:44.480 --> 0:14:46.920 The deception she has tried to play on you the 0:14:47.000 --> 0:14:50.360 jury with her untruthful evidence. When she knew her lies 0:14:50.400 --> 0:14:53.400 had been uncovered, she came up with a carefully constructed 0:14:53.480 --> 0:14:58.080 narrative to fit with the evidence. Almost there are some 0:14:58.120 --> 0:15:01.640 inconsistencies that she just came do not account for, so 0:15:01.960 --> 0:15:05.440 she ignores them, says she can't remember those conversations, or 0:15:05.560 --> 0:15:09.000 says other people are just wrong, even her own children. 0:15:10.240 --> 0:15:13.080 As she neared the end of her closing address, doctor 0:15:13.160 --> 0:15:16.480 Rogers said that the evidence in this case showed that 0:15:16.640 --> 0:15:20.320 Erin prepared and allocated the meal, that she was the 0:15:20.320 --> 0:15:23.160 only person who consumed the meal but did not fall 0:15:23.200 --> 0:15:28.080 seriously ill, that she was familiar with the i Naturalist website, 0:15:28.280 --> 0:15:30.560 that her phone was in the very two locations in 0:15:30.600 --> 0:15:34.000 Gippsland where death caps had been cited and recorded in 0:15:34.040 --> 0:15:37.800 April and May twenty twenty three, that she was dehydrating 0:15:37.880 --> 0:15:41.600 mushrooms consistent with death caps, and remnants of death caps 0:15:41.640 --> 0:15:45.479 were found in her dehydrator. That she concealed her actions, 0:15:45.880 --> 0:15:50.800 including by dumping her dehydrator, and finally that she told many, 0:15:50.840 --> 0:15:54.800 many lies about the true source of the mushrooms. Doctor 0:15:54.880 --> 0:15:57.600 Rogers told the jury, when they consider all of this evidence, 0:15:58.160 --> 0:16:02.000 they will be satisfied that the used deliberately sourced death caps, 0:16:02.800 --> 0:16:06.360 serve them to Don, gail Ian and Heather, and did 0:16:06.400 --> 0:16:10.000 so intending to kill them. She then thanked the jury 0:16:10.080 --> 0:16:11.360 before returning to her seat. 0:16:12.280 --> 0:16:16.160 Aaron's barrister, Colin Mandy, then began his closing address. 0:16:16.840 --> 0:16:19.440 He started by telling the jurors there were two simple 0:16:19.480 --> 0:16:23.200 issues that they had to determine. The first was is 0:16:23.240 --> 0:16:26.360 there a reasonable possibility that death caps were put into 0:16:26.400 --> 0:16:30.320 this meal accidentally? And the second was is it a 0:16:30.320 --> 0:16:33.840 reasonable possibility that Erin did not intend to kill or 0:16:33.880 --> 0:16:37.200 cause serious injury to her guests. He said if either 0:16:37.240 --> 0:16:40.920 of those were reasonable possibilities, then the jury would have 0:16:41.040 --> 0:16:45.160 reasonable doubt and must acquit his client of all charges. 0:16:45.600 --> 0:16:48.200 He then met a criticism of the approach taken by 0:16:48.200 --> 0:16:50.000 the prosecution in this trial. 0:16:50.920 --> 0:16:54.680 Their approach is this working from the assumption that Aaron 0:16:54.760 --> 0:16:58.240 Patterson is guilty of these crimes, pick and choose the 0:16:58.280 --> 0:17:01.520 evidence that fits that theory, and then tie it all 0:17:01.560 --> 0:17:05.880 together in an attempt to present a coherent narrative and 0:17:06.280 --> 0:17:10.280 ignore the things that don't fit. So they have constructed 0:17:10.359 --> 0:17:14.160 that case theory by, as I say, picking and choosing 0:17:14.240 --> 0:17:19.840 evidence while ignoring the context, cherry picking convenient fragments while 0:17:19.840 --> 0:17:22.320 discarding inconvenient truths. 0:17:22.880 --> 0:17:25.439 Mister Mandy then went on to tell the jury what 0:17:25.640 --> 0:17:28.919 happened in the wake of the lunch was a terrible tragedy. 0:17:29.520 --> 0:17:32.600 He said, since the four guests were good, innocent people, 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:36.600 the jurors may have a desire to punish whoever caused 0:17:36.600 --> 0:17:40.120 their deaths, but he told the jurors they must fiercely 0:17:40.200 --> 0:17:42.200 guard against that kind of reasoning. 0:17:43.119 --> 0:17:46.240 Mister Mandy then moved on to motive, or more specifically, 0:17:46.320 --> 0:17:48.840 a lack of motive, and so that it made it 0:17:48.920 --> 0:17:52.600 more likely what happened was an accident. He told the 0:17:52.680 --> 0:17:55.960 jury that the defense had actually presented positive evidence of 0:17:56.000 --> 0:18:00.240 a lack of motive, dubbing it an antimotive. It was 0:18:00.240 --> 0:18:03.120 at this point that mister Manny pointed to Don tutoring, 0:18:03.240 --> 0:18:07.320 Erin's son, and the pair also completing science experiments together. 0:18:08.600 --> 0:18:11.320 He said that Erin had a motive to keep Doningale 0:18:11.520 --> 0:18:14.640 in her world. This is what he went on to say. 0:18:15.240 --> 0:18:18.680 Absolutely no doubt that Erin was devoted to her children. 0:18:19.520 --> 0:18:23.440 Why would she take wonderful, active, loving grandparents away from 0:18:23.520 --> 0:18:26.960 her own children. At the time the middle of twenty 0:18:27.000 --> 0:18:30.760 twenty three, she was in a good place. Aaron was 0:18:30.760 --> 0:18:33.399 in a good place. She had a big, beautiful house. 0:18:33.760 --> 0:18:36.960 She had just landscaped the garden. She had her children, 0:18:37.200 --> 0:18:40.520 who she loves deeply. She had them with her most 0:18:40.560 --> 0:18:45.920 of the time, effectively sole custody. She was very comfortable financially. 0:18:46.400 --> 0:18:49.520 Her body image wasn't great, it hadn't been for a 0:18:49.560 --> 0:18:52.600 long time, but she was planning to do something about that. 0:18:53.160 --> 0:18:57.600 She was looking forward to returning to study. All things considered, 0:18:57.960 --> 0:19:01.320 she was in a good place, and in that context 0:19:01.600 --> 0:19:04.560 we submit to you that she is most unlikely to 0:19:04.640 --> 0:19:09.080 have planned to murder people, especially if it is inevitable 0:19:09.320 --> 0:19:10.560 that it would be discovered. 0:19:11.200 --> 0:19:14.760 Mister Mandy then took the jury to the dehydrator. He said, 0:19:14.760 --> 0:19:18.359 if Aaron had been planning this murder from April twenty 0:19:18.480 --> 0:19:22.040 twenty three, she would not have bought the dehydrator in 0:19:22.160 --> 0:19:25.280 her own name, with her own details, using her own 0:19:25.320 --> 0:19:29.720 credit card, taken photos of the dehydrator, taken photos of 0:19:29.760 --> 0:19:33.720 the mushrooms in the Dehydrata, shared the photos in a 0:19:33.800 --> 0:19:37.320 Facebook chat and waited so long before getting rid of 0:19:37.400 --> 0:19:41.320 the dehydrator itself. Mister Mandy added that if she had 0:19:41.400 --> 0:19:43.920 planned to kill the guests, she would not have sent 0:19:43.960 --> 0:19:46.800 the images of the murder weapon and the murder method 0:19:47.040 --> 0:19:48.880 to her own Facebook fronts. 0:19:49.400 --> 0:19:52.920 Mister Mandy told the jury that an intelligent person carefully 0:19:52.920 --> 0:19:56.360 planning a murder would know if you poisoned four people 0:19:56.520 --> 0:19:59.320 at a lunch at your house, the meal would be 0:19:59.359 --> 0:20:02.399 under suspicion and the focus would be on the cook 0:20:02.880 --> 0:20:06.600 very very quickly. But he said, according to the prosecution theory, 0:20:07.000 --> 0:20:11.040 Aaron pushed ahead with her lunch regardless. He admitted she 0:20:11.200 --> 0:20:14.480 panicked in the days after the lunch when, as the cook, 0:20:14.760 --> 0:20:17.960 the spotlight was on her. He said she dumped the 0:20:18.000 --> 0:20:21.880 dehydrator not to dispose of evidence, but because she panicked 0:20:21.920 --> 0:20:25.880 following conversation she had with Simon where he accused her 0:20:25.920 --> 0:20:29.880 of poisoning his parents with the dehydrator. He said her 0:20:29.920 --> 0:20:32.600 actions on the day she drove to the tip to 0:20:32.680 --> 0:20:36.040 dump it spoke volumes about her state of mind. 0:20:36.720 --> 0:20:39.560 She drives to the tip in her own car, pays 0:20:39.600 --> 0:20:42.800 for disposal of the dehydrator with her own bank card 0:20:43.359 --> 0:20:47.679 doesn't attempt to disguise those actions in any way. It 0:20:47.680 --> 0:20:51.320 could only have been panic, not because she was guilty, 0:20:51.400 --> 0:20:55.239 but because that's what people might think. It was a 0:20:55.320 --> 0:20:58.960 deep shock to her how these four people became so 0:20:59.200 --> 0:21:03.440 seriously unwell. It was a deep shock to her because 0:21:03.560 --> 0:21:06.959 she never intended it to happen. And if that's a 0:21:07.000 --> 0:21:11.120 reasonable possibility, then she must be found not guilty. 0:21:12.040 --> 0:21:14.960 Mister Mandy then moved on to the leftovers of the meal. 0:21:15.560 --> 0:21:19.359 He refuted the prosecution's claim that Aaron had been forced 0:21:19.400 --> 0:21:21.600 to tell police where the leftovers were. 0:21:22.640 --> 0:21:25.919 She told the police where to find them without hesitation. 0:21:26.720 --> 0:21:29.680 She must have been confident that there was no poison 0:21:29.960 --> 0:21:32.840 in order to do that, He went on to say, 0:21:33.840 --> 0:21:36.359 a guilty person on the Crown case, being at the 0:21:36.359 --> 0:21:39.680 premises for some time that morning, would have already thrown 0:21:39.720 --> 0:21:42.360 them out. You might think, get rid of them, put 0:21:42.400 --> 0:21:45.359 them in the neighbor's bin or a public bin, bury 0:21:45.400 --> 0:21:48.840 them in the backyard, or do something else. There had 0:21:48.880 --> 0:21:52.320 been two days to do all of that. Instead directing 0:21:52.359 --> 0:21:54.880 the police where to find the evidence that there were 0:21:54.880 --> 0:21:59.280 deathcap mushrooms in the meal, at that time on Monday morning. 0:21:59.560 --> 0:22:02.600 The inference that you can draw from that is that 0:22:02.840 --> 0:22:06.800 she genuinely believed that there were not deathcap mushrooms inside 0:22:06.800 --> 0:22:09.400 that bin, inside those leftovers. 0:22:10.280 --> 0:22:13.879 Mister Mandy then spoke about erin taking to the witness box. 0:22:14.480 --> 0:22:17.560 He said she didn't have to do this. He reminded 0:22:17.560 --> 0:22:20.399 the jury that she was cross examined for five hours 0:22:20.400 --> 0:22:25.560 a day over five days, recounting information from two years ago, 0:22:25.760 --> 0:22:28.879 and was questioned about every minutia of her movements and 0:22:29.000 --> 0:22:32.119 every single conversation she had with the witnesses. In this case, 0:22:32.760 --> 0:22:34.240 she has the right to silence. 0:22:34.760 --> 0:22:37.639 She didn't have to answer any questions. She could have 0:22:37.720 --> 0:22:41.760 stayed in the dock and said absolutely nothing, not given evidence. 0:22:41.840 --> 0:22:45.520 In the case, the prosecution has to prove the case, 0:22:46.000 --> 0:22:49.159 and that's part of the exercise. She doesn't have to 0:22:49.200 --> 0:22:52.959 prove anything. And yet she decided to give evidence, to 0:22:53.000 --> 0:22:56.879 give her account, and to subject herself to several days 0:22:56.880 --> 0:23:01.560 of cross examination by a very experienced ba arister. Let's 0:23:01.640 --> 0:23:04.639 consider her position in choosing to do that, not only 0:23:04.680 --> 0:23:07.399 your scrutiny, of course, but the scrutiny of the whole 0:23:07.480 --> 0:23:11.720 world being closely cross examined about the fine details of 0:23:11.800 --> 0:23:15.000 her account and about every word that she said to 0:23:15.080 --> 0:23:18.439 other people two years ago in twenty four hours to 0:23:18.480 --> 0:23:19.400 forty eight hours. 0:23:19.880 --> 0:23:23.280 Mister Mandy's closing address finished early today because he was 0:23:23.320 --> 0:23:26.720 starting to cough and his voice was failing him, but 0:23:26.840 --> 0:23:28.840