Speaker 1: In terms of the meal that you cooked for the
Speaker 1: lunch which is the subject of this trial. Yes, do
Speaker 1: you accept that there must have been deathcap mushrooms in
Speaker 1: that meal?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 1: I do. And speaking globally, do you remember where the
Speaker 1: mushrooms that went into that meal came from? So all
Speaker 1: of the mushrooms that went into.
Speaker 2: The meal, right, So the vast majority came from the
Speaker 2: local Wilworth's in Leongatha. Yes, and there were some from
Speaker 2: the grocer in Melbourne.
Speaker 3: That was actors voicing the words of defense barrister Colin
Speaker 3: Mandy and his client, accused murderer Aaron Patterson. It was
Speaker 3: the first time she was asked about the beef Wellington
Speaker 3: meal at the center of this trial, the first time
Speaker 3: she said there must have been deathcap mushrooms in it.
Speaker 3: Her responses formed part of her day long testimony. Today,
Speaker 3: testimony will break down this episode. I'm Brooke Greebert Cray
Speaker 3: and this is the Mushroom cook. It's day twenty five
Speaker 3: of Aaron Patterson's murder trial, and I'm here with court
Speaker 3: reporter Laura Plassella. It was another big day in court,
Speaker 3: wasn't it.
Speaker 4: Yes, Erin took the stand for the entire day, she
Speaker 4: was wearing a different outfit than she was yesterday. She
Speaker 4: was in a navy blouse with white polka dots on it,
Speaker 4: but she still had her hair out, and today she
Speaker 4: brought her glasses with her.
Speaker 3: In yesterday's episode, we wanted our listeners to hear Erin
Speaker 3: in her own words as she gave evidence for the
Speaker 3: first time, but in today's episode will be providing more
Speaker 3: contexts around the topics.
Speaker 4: That she was asked about yes At the top of
Speaker 4: the episode, our listener's heard in exchange between mister Mandy
Speaker 4: and Aaron today where she was specifically asked about the
Speaker 4: lunch on July twenty nine, and this was actually the
Speaker 4: first time she has been asked in court by mister
Speaker 4: Mandy about this lunch. It hasn't been touched on before,
Speaker 4: and she admitted in her response that there must have
Speaker 4: been death caps in that meal. Now it has been
Speaker 4: a few episodes since we've mentioned the defense case. Just
Speaker 4: as a reminder, Erin has pleaded not guilty to three
Speaker 4: counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. She
Speaker 4: says what happened at that lunch was a tragedy and
Speaker 4: a terrible accident.
Speaker 3: Erin was also asked about her love of mushrooms and
Speaker 3: she said she discussed fungi with her Facebook friends, who
Speaker 3: have given evidence already in this trial.
Speaker 4: Erin explained to the jury today how much she loves
Speaker 4: mushrooms of all different varieties. She explained how she would
Speaker 4: buy mushrooms from the local woolies near where she lived,
Speaker 4: as well as farmers' markets and Asian grocers whenever she
Speaker 4: came to Melbourne. These grocers were located around one of
Speaker 4: her properties in Mount Waverley, namely in suburbs such as Oakley,
Speaker 4: Clayton and Glen Waverley, and she said that she would
Speaker 4: visit these stores when she was staying in Melbourne with
Speaker 4: her children during the school holidays. The court heard that
Speaker 4: some of the mushrooms she brought from these doors included shataki,
Speaker 4: enochi or porscini mushrooms, and she said she would use
Speaker 4: them in a variety of dishes such as curries, pasta
Speaker 4: dishes and soup. When asked today by mister Mandy what
Speaker 4: she liked about exotic mushrooms, she said, they just taste
Speaker 4: more interesting, they have more flavor.
Speaker 3: Aaron told the jury that she developed an interest in
Speaker 3: wild mushrooms in early twenty twenty during COVID lockdowns in Victoria.
Speaker 3: Aaron said she spotted mushrooms growing in the paddocks at
Speaker 3: one of her properties at Shelcott Road in karram Burra,
Speaker 3: and this is where she had animals. I think it's
Speaker 3: important to note to our listeners that over eleven years
Speaker 3: Aaron owned six properties. She owned four in karram Burrough
Speaker 3: and that included in Nason Street Anthony Court, and she
Speaker 3: had two properties on Shelcott Road. She had another property
Speaker 3: in Mount Waverley at Lion Street which we mentioned earlier.
Speaker 3: And finally she had another property at Gibson Street in
Speaker 3: Lean Gathera and that's where the lunch took place. On
Speaker 3: July twenty nine, twenty twenty three.
Speaker 4: Erin told the court that it took a while for
Speaker 4: her to confidently identify the mushrooms she was spotting. She
Speaker 4: said she relied on a Facebook group for mushroom lovers,
Speaker 4: where people could post the mushrooms they were seeing in
Speaker 4: the wild and ask other people to help identify them.
Speaker 4: After she said her knowledge increased, she began regularly picking
Speaker 4: mushrooms and cooking them. Minmeals, including those she served her children.
Speaker 4: She told the court she would chop the mushrooms up
Speaker 4: very small so her children couldn't pick them out. She
Speaker 4: told the court the mushrooms they were eating tasted good
Speaker 4: and she didn't get sick.
Speaker 3: Mister Mandy also asked Aaron questions about her purchasing a
Speaker 3: dehydrator in April twenty twenty three. The jury previously heard
Speaker 3: that Aaron dumped this dehydrator at Kunwara Tip and police
Speaker 3: seized it. Asked why she bought the dehydrator, Aaron said,
Speaker 3: I liked eating wild mushrooms, but it's a very small season.
Speaker 3: You can't keep them too long in the fridge, so
Speaker 3: it was one way of sort of preserving them and
Speaker 3: having them available later on throughout the year. But it
Speaker 3: wasn't just for mushrooms, so I thought perhaps I could
Speaker 3: use it to preserve a whole range of things.
Speaker 4: Between twenty twenty and twenty twenty three, Erin said she
Speaker 4: foraged for mushrooms from a whole range of locations around
Speaker 4: where she lived in Leengatha and carr And Borough. This
Speaker 4: also included picking mushrooms on some of the properties she owned.
Speaker 4: Mister Mandy asked her today whether she ever foraged for
Speaker 4: mushrooms under oak trees, and she said she did not.
Speaker 4: Photos were shown to Erin today that have been previously
Speaker 4: shown to the jury. She confirmed these were photos she
Speaker 4: had taken that had been extracted from devices seized from
Speaker 4: her home. In the photos, the jury could see trays
Speaker 4: from the dehydrader and on them there were slices of
Speaker 4: dried mushrooms. She explained that she was doing some experimenting
Speaker 4: with the de high and wanted to see how long
Speaker 4: it would take to dry out fungi and what temperature
Speaker 4: the dehydrata needed to be.
Speaker 2: Said to so Laura.
Speaker 3: At the start of the episode, our listeners would have
Speaker 3: heard an exchange between mister Mandy and Aaron. Can you
Speaker 3: talk more about where Aaron said the mushrooms in the
Speaker 3: beef Wellington were from?
Speaker 4: As we've heard previously, Aaron said that the mushrooms in
Speaker 4: the Beef Wellington came from a Woolworth's and Leandngatha and
Speaker 4: an Asian grocer in Melbourne. She told the court today
Speaker 4: that she wasn't quite clear exactly where she bought them,
Speaker 4: but she remembered buying them in April, bringing the product
Speaker 4: home and realizing they smelled very pungent. She didn't think
Speaker 4: a mushroom with that smell would work well in the
Speaker 4: dish she was making at the time, so she put
Speaker 4: them in a container and then placed that container in
Speaker 4: her pantry. She told the court that that container with
Speaker 4: the dried mushrooms from the Asian grocer was in her
Speaker 4: pantry around the time she was dehydrating wild mushrooms in
Speaker 4: May and June, and she went on to say that
Speaker 4: she remembered putting dehydrated wild mushrooms into a container that
Speaker 4: already held other dried mushrooms.
Speaker 3: Okay, let's move on from mushrooms, and let's talk about
Speaker 3: another topic that Aaron was asked questions about, that being
Speaker 3: child support.
Speaker 4: The jury has previously heard evidence that Aaron and Simon
Speaker 4: permanently separated in twenty fifteen, but had remained friends until
Speaker 4: around October twenty twenty two. This was when a dispute
Speaker 4: arose about child support after Aaron had found out that
Speaker 4: Simon changed the marital status on his tax return to single.
Speaker 4: Erin told the court that she was annoyed that Simon
Speaker 4: had not told her that he was making this change
Speaker 4: on her tax return, and if he had told her earlier,
Speaker 4: she would have been able to make an application for
Speaker 4: a family tax benefit.
Speaker 3: Erin spoke to her friends about the child support issue
Speaker 3: in a Facebook group chat. She became emotional today when
Speaker 3: answering questions about those messages that she sent. When speaking,
Speaker 3: Erin and wiped her eyes with her hand and grabbed
Speaker 3: a tissue. She went on to say that she had
Speaker 3: been part of this chat since January twenty twenty.
Speaker 4: The messages that Erin was being asked about today were
Speaker 4: sent in December twenty twenty two, and they are about
Speaker 4: Don's response to the issue. Don being Simon's father. The
Speaker 4: jury were once again shown these messages in court. Here
Speaker 4: is the first one.
Speaker 2: So Don said, they can't adjudicate if they don't know
Speaker 2: both sides, and Simon won't give his side, so he said,
Speaker 2: all he can ask is that Simon and I get
Speaker 2: together and pray for the children this family. I swear
Speaker 2: to fucking God.
Speaker 4: Erin told the court today that she sent this message
Speaker 4: to her Facebook friends because she felt hurt, frustrated, and
Speaker 4: a little bit desperate. Here's more of what she said today.
Speaker 2: I knew that the women would probably support me. Being
Speaker 2: annoyed about those things, and so I sent them to
Speaker 2: them knowing they would probably latch on and become like
Speaker 2: a cheer squad for your problems. Does that make sense?
Speaker 2: She then went on to say, I wish I never
Speaker 2: said that. I feel very feel ashamed for saying it,
Speaker 2: and I wish the families didn't have to hear that
Speaker 2: I said that they didn't deserve it.
Speaker 3: Mister Mandy then asked Aaron questions about this message she
Speaker 3: sent her online friends.
Speaker 2: I'm sick of this shit. I want nothing to do
Speaker 2: with them. I thought his parents would want him to
Speaker 2: do the right thing, but it seems they're concern about
Speaker 2: not wanting to feel uncomfortable and not wanting to get
Speaker 2: involved in their son's personal matters. Are overwriting that?
Speaker 3: So fulcom Aaron told the court she regretted the language
Speaker 3: that she used. Here's more of what she said.
Speaker 2: I needed to vent. I needed to get the frustration
Speaker 2: off my chest, and the choices are go into the
Speaker 2: paddock and tell the sheep or vent to these women.
Speaker 2: I regret the language that I used, but I knew
Speaker 2: that they would rally around me. I probably played up
Speaker 2: the emotion to get that support.
Speaker 3: In court today. Aaron went on to say that she
Speaker 3: didn't mean those things.
Speaker 2: I was really frustrated with Simon, but it wasn't done
Speaker 2: Gale's fault, it wasn't the family's fault, and it wasn't
Speaker 2: even entirely Simon's fault. I played a part in the
Speaker 2: issue too.
Speaker 3: Ultimately, Aaron said it was wrong to try and involve
Speaker 3: Don and Gail and she should have approached it differently
Speaker 3: with Simon. Let's move on to another topic. Yesterday. Aaron
Speaker 3: spoke about her low self esteem in July twenty twenty three,
Speaker 3: but today mister Mandy asked her more about her relationship
Speaker 3: with food.
Speaker 4: She explained that she has struggled with body image issues
Speaker 4: ever since she was a teenager. She said she tried
Speaker 4: every diet under the sun, and also battled Bolimia. This
Speaker 4: is what she said today. I mean, it's been a
Speaker 4: rollercoaster over the years. When I was a kid, Mum
Speaker 4: would weigh us every week to make sure we weren't
Speaker 4: putting on too much weight, and so I went to
Speaker 4: the extreme of barely eating then and through my adult
Speaker 4: years going the other way binging. I suppose, for lack
Speaker 4: of a better word, I had never had a good
Speaker 4: relationship with food, a healthy relationship with food.
Speaker 3: Erin and mister Mandy also had an exchange about her health,
Speaker 3: in particular about cancer. In week one of the trial.
Speaker 3: When Simon gave his evidence, he said Aaron had invited him,
Speaker 3: along with Don, Gail Ian and Heather to lunch as
Speaker 3: she wanted to discuss some important medical issues. According to Ian,
Speaker 3: Aaron told her guests she had cancer and described it
Speaker 3: as life threatening.
Speaker 4: However, the defense have conceded since the beginning of the
Speaker 4: trial that Erin was never diagnosed with cancer, but have
Speaker 4: suggested that Erin only told the lunch guests that she
Speaker 4: had a suspected diagnosis of cancer. Here's her exchange with
Speaker 4: mister Mandy today.
Speaker 1: I want to ask you some questions now about your
Speaker 1: health over the years. The first question is, have you
Speaker 1: ever been diagnosed with ovarian cancer?
Speaker 2: I have not.
Speaker 1: Have you ever had a needle biopsy on a lump
Speaker 1: on your elbow?
Speaker 2: I've never had a needle biopsy anywhere.
Speaker 1: Were you worried about having ovarian cancer at any stage?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was. I was quite worried about it at
Speaker 2: certain times.
Speaker 1: And the jury has seen some medical records from the
Speaker 1: end of twenty twenty one. Exhibit are yeap where you
Speaker 1: went to the doctor and complained and suggested to the
Speaker 1: doctor that you might have of a cancer. Is that right? Yeah?
Speaker 2: I did do that.
Speaker 1: What were your symptoms? What was going on?
Speaker 2: I'd been having for a few months by then, a
Speaker 2: multitude of symptoms. I felt very fatigued. I had ongoing
Speaker 2: abdominal pain, I had chronic headaches. I put on a
Speaker 2: lot of weight in quite a short period of time,
Speaker 2: and had like my feet and my hands seemed to
Speaker 2: retain a lot of fluid. And what set me over
Speaker 2: the edge to actually go to the doctor was my
Speaker 2: wedding ring suddenly wouldn't fit, and so I took them
Speaker 2: to the local jeweler to be resized, and only a
Speaker 2: few weeks later when I picked them up, they, like
Speaker 2: my hands had outgrown them again and I so this
Speaker 2: was like a rapid thing that caused me concern.
Speaker 1: Now the notes indicate this Aaron Worries ovarian cancer has
Speaker 1: been googling her symptoms.
Speaker 2: That's right, yep?
Speaker 1: Is that what you had been doing?
Speaker 2: I had, yep. I consulted doctor Google.
Speaker 1: Were there any other reasons about from your own symptoms
Speaker 1: where you thought you might have avarian cancer.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there were a few. I had a family history
Speaker 2: of it on both sides of my parents. I'd had
Speaker 2: an overian cyst myself in about two thousand and two,
Speaker 2: and my daughter had an ovarian mass when she was
Speaker 2: a baby. Erin went on to say that her daughter's
Speaker 2: experience in hospital damaged her faith in the medical system,
Speaker 2: especially since they dismissed her concern about her daughter's ovarian mass.
Speaker 2: Erin also said she suffered chronic headaches and started googling
Speaker 2: her symptoms, convincing herself that she had a brain tumor
Speaker 2: or a brain disease.
Speaker 3: To finish off, Laura, let's talk about the long queue
Speaker 3: that was outside La Troe Valley Law Courts today. I
Speaker 3: believe some people were lining up at six am.
Speaker 4: News broke very late yesterday that Erin would be taking
Speaker 4: the stand in her own trial, so there wasn't much
Speaker 4: time for members of the public to get down to
Speaker 4: the courthouse in Morwell to hopefully snag a seat. But
Speaker 4: today people were very much prepared. Like you said, Brooke,
Speaker 4: they were arriving very early to get their spot in
Speaker 4: the queue.
Speaker 3: Yes, I think by eight am there were about twenty
Speaker 3: people in the line, and the doors to the courthouse
Speaker 3: don't actually open until nine am.
Speaker 4: Not everyone got a seat at the beginning of the trial,
Speaker 4: which kicks off at ten thirty every day, but we
Speaker 4: will say that the staff at the courthouse in Morwell
Speaker 4: have been doing a great job of making sure everything's
Speaker 4: been running smoothly considering that more people than usual are
Speaker 4: coming through the building.
Speaker 3: Yes, we definitely have to give a shout out to
Speaker 3: the security guards. They do an awesome job. And I
Speaker 3: think that's all for today, so we will be back
Speaker 3: tomorrow as Aaron Pattison takes the stand for a third day.