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Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.

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Speaker 1: It's Friday, November seven, twenty twenty five. One Nation has

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Speaker 1: doubled its membership base since the May election and is

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Speaker 1: establishing new party branches across regional Australia. One Nations weeks

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Speaker 1: away from launching a new Central Queensland branch after last

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Speaker 1: month poaching National's Tamworth members to set up a base

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Speaker 1: in the heart of Barnaby Joyce's New South Wales electorate

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Speaker 1: of New England. That's an exclusive live now at the

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Speaker 1: Australian dot Com Dot a you. Aaron Patterson waited until

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Speaker 1: the very last moment to launch her appeal against the

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Speaker 1: Mushroom murder convictions, and she's arguing she was the victim

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Speaker 1: of a gross miscarriage of justice. Patterson has always denied

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Speaker 1: wrongdoing and now she says the trial was unfair in

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Speaker 1: seven different ways. Today Patterson's bid to get out of jail.

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Speaker 1: How does Aaron Patterson say she was wrongly convicted? Well,

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Speaker 1: let's count the ways. There are seven grounds of appeal

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Speaker 1: in documents lodged by Aaron Patterson's lawyers with the Victorian

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Speaker 1: Supreme Court. And now, of course, it's up to the

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Speaker 1: Court of Appeal to decide whether or not to grant

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Speaker 1: leave to Aaron Patterson to proceed to the next stage. First,

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Speaker 1: the court will consider the application. If it considers an

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Speaker 1: appeal is justified, hearings will be scheduled. That's all likely

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Speaker 1: a long way off, so it's safe to say Patterson

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Speaker 1: will be spending Christmas in Victoria's toughest women's prison, the

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Speaker 1: Dame Phyllis Frost Center. Listeners to the front will remember

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Speaker 1: what Patterson's lawyer said about that prison at the sentencing hearing.

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Speaker 1: This is a voice acted exchange from back in August

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Speaker 1: between Patterson's then lawyer, Colin Mandy sc and Jennifer Hosking

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Speaker 1: at Commissioner with Corrections Victoria Holskins said Patterson had access

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Speaker 1: to a small mesh fenced yard outside her solitary cell,

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Speaker 1: which adjoins her next door neighbor's yard.

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Speaker 2: Miss Patterson currently communicates with one other person while they

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Speaker 2: are in separate yards. She does not currently physically mix

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Speaker 2: with other women in the unit.

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Speaker 3: That's yes, that's correct. She has approval to have access

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Speaker 3: with one other prisoner. I'm not aware of how frequently

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Speaker 3: that occurs, but she certainly approved to do that.

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Speaker 2: And although she has that approval, can I suggest to

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Speaker 2: you that she has never spoken one word to that

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Speaker 2: other prisoner.

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Speaker 3: I can't deny that. I have no further information on

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Speaker 3: that point. That could be for a range of reasons.

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Speaker 3: It could be the other person or her not wishing

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Speaker 3: to have that conversation.

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Speaker 2: And that other person is one of the prisoners who's

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Speaker 2: been in that unit for a number of years.

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Speaker 3: That's correct.

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Speaker 2: And they are serving a sentence for terrorism offenses. Is

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Speaker 2: that right?

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Speaker 3: Yes, that's correct, and.

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Speaker 2: They have attacked other prisoners whilst they've been in custody, correct,

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Speaker 2: that's correct.

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Speaker 1: Jennifer Hoskins said Patterson's cell was basic.

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Speaker 3: She has normal cell provisions, things like television, room for

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Speaker 3: her personal items. I understand she has. She's a keen

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Speaker 3: crocheer and she has a lot of woolen crochet equipment

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Speaker 3: in there. She has a computer. She has a computer

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Speaker 3: which she's had for some time and that's in her cell.

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Speaker 3: She also has her own pillows. She has a number

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Speaker 3: of crocheted blankets that she's made herself. She has toiletries, books, magazines,

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Speaker 3: She has a hair straightener and a fan.

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Speaker 1: So it's not surprising Patterson wants to get out. But

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Speaker 1: this isn't a complaint about her living conditions. It's Patterson

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Speaker 1: trying to get the verdicts themselves overturned. Remember, she was

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Speaker 1: convicted of the murder of her parents in law, Don

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Speaker 1: and Gale Patterson, and her husband's auntie, Heather Wilkinson. Heather's

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Speaker 1: husband In Wilkinson survived the lunch. Aaron Patterson had also

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Speaker 1: invited her estranged husband, Simon Patterson to the lunch that

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Speaker 1: he declined to attend, and it was revealed after the

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Speaker 1: trial that in evidence, the jury hadn't heard Simon Patterson

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Speaker 1: had previously told a Victorian court he believed his wife

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Speaker 1: had tried to poison him on multiple occasions before the lunch.

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Speaker 1: A jury of twelve found Patterson guilty of murder and

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Speaker 1: attempted murder, and in Victoria the jury has to be unanimous.

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Speaker 1: And remember Aaron Patterson has always denied wrongdoing. She says

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Speaker 1: she accidentally included deathcat mushrooms in the deadly meal and

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Speaker 1: never meant to harm these elderly relatives whom she loved.

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Speaker 1: So here's how Patterson says she was dudded. Ground one

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Speaker 1: of her appeal is read for you by an AI voice.

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Speaker 4: A fundamental irregularity occurred while the jury was sequested that

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Speaker 4: has fatally undermined the integrity of the verdicts and requires

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Speaker 4: the quashing of the convictions and an order for a

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Speaker 4: retrial so that justice cannot only be done, but be

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Speaker 4: seen to be done.

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Speaker 1: There are no more details in the appeal documents, but

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Speaker 1: avid watches of this matter will recall that in July,

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Speaker 1: Victorian Supreme Court Judge Christopher Beale, who heard the trial

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Speaker 1: and sentenced Patterson to thirty three years without parole, revealed

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Speaker 1: that there was an issue while the jury was sequestered

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Speaker 1: to consider its verdict. Back then, the judge said the

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Speaker 1: jury had been staying at the same hotel as the

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Speaker 1: police informant who charged Aaron Patterson, Detective Leading Senior Constable

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Speaker 1: Stephen Eppingstall, and two prosecution solicitors. The judge said there

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Speaker 1: had been no interaction with the jury. Pattison's second ground

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Speaker 1: is that the cell tower evidence and evidence of deathcap

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Speaker 1: mushroom sidings in lock and outram posted to our naturalist

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Speaker 1: should not have been adduced in the trial. Patterson says

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Speaker 1: they weren't relevant or the probative value of that evidence

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Speaker 1: was outweighed by its unfair prejudice. That's where Aaron Patterson's

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Speaker 1: phone was allegedly pinging off cell towers in the same

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Speaker 1: spots where deathcap mushrooms had been cited by off duty

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Speaker 1: mushroom fans who posted to this botany website I Naturalist.

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Speaker 1: The third ground is about photos and videos related to

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Speaker 1: mushrooms found on SD cards at Aaron Patterson's home. The

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Speaker 1: judge ruled those out of the trial, Aaron Patterson's saying

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Speaker 1: they should have been allowed in. It's possible that what

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Speaker 1: Aaron Patterson's going to argue is that the judge didn't

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Speaker 1: let the jury see and hear evidence of what Patterson said.

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Speaker 1: She was an avid forager and had photos to prove

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Speaker 1: it coming up how Patterson says her own Facebook posts

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Speaker 1: shouldn't have been seen by the jury. Aaron Patterson's fourth

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Speaker 1: ground of appeal is that the judge made a mistake

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Speaker 1: by allowing the jury to hear what's called the Facebook evidence.

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Speaker 1: That's where Patterson was communicating with online friends, and if

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Speaker 1: you recall the trial, she was very frank in her

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Speaker 1: feelings about Simon Patterson's family. Ground five is that a

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Speaker 1: substantial miscarriage of justice has occurred because of unfair and

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Speaker 1: depressive cross examination of Patterson. She's saying that Nanette Rodgers,

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Speaker 1: the Crown prosecutor, went too hard. Here's one of their

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Speaker 1: exchanges from the trial, read by voice actors Feces. When

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Speaker 1: Patterson claimed while in the witness box that she was

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Speaker 1: a sufferer of bulimia. She said after the lunch guests

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Speaker 1: went home, she polished off two thirds of an orange

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Speaker 1: cake Gail Patterson had baked. Patterson said, she then threw up.

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Speaker 5: Is it your evidence that the vomit was partly constituted

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Speaker 5: by the beef? Wellington? Correct?

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Speaker 3: I have no idea what was in the vomit at all.

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Speaker 5: Well, it's how.

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Speaker 3: Could I its vomit unless you can see a bean

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Speaker 3: or a piece of corn.

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Speaker 5: Well, you didn't have corn at the lunch.

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Speaker 3: That was an example.

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Speaker 5: I suggest that you did not tell a single medical

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Speaker 5: person that you had vomited after the lunch on the

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Speaker 5: afternoon of the twenty ninth of July.

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Speaker 3: That is true. I did not do that.

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Speaker 5: I suggest that that is something you would have told

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Speaker 5: them if it were true, correct or incorrect?

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Speaker 3: Incorrect?

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Speaker 5: Do you say it's incorrect because of your embarrassment?

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Speaker 3: I say it's incorrect because it's what happened.

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Speaker 1: Pattison's sixth ground is a claim that prosecutor Nanette Rogers

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Speaker 1: caused a substantial miscarriage of justice in her closing address,

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Speaker 1: and Ground seven elaborates on why Patterson says that's the case.

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Speaker 1: She says a substantial miscarriage of justice occurred because even

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Speaker 1: though in her opening address Nannette Rogers had said, we're

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Speaker 1: not going to present you with a motive here, We're

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Speaker 1: just going to show you the evidence, Patterson claims that

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Speaker 1: in her closing address, Nanett Rogers did imply a motive. Now,

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Speaker 1: the judges will look very closely at what Rogers said

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Speaker 1: in that closing but here's a snippet of it. To

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Speaker 1: be clear, we don't know if this is exactly what

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Speaker 1: Patterson is referring to in her appealed documents when she

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Speaker 1: says Rogers implied a motive. This is a voice actor.

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Speaker 5: The evidence shows you might think that the divide between

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Speaker 5: the accused and her in laws was deeper than they

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Speaker 5: ever knew. We say that the accused was leading a

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Speaker 5: duplicitous life. When it came to the Patterson's, she presented

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Speaker 5: one side while expressing contra beliefs to others. When Don

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Speaker 5: and Gale sent the accused messages about her ongoing financial

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Speaker 5: issues with Simon and mentioned praying, she replied with an

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Speaker 5: eye roll emoji. She was mocking them and their religious

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Speaker 5: beliefs despite attending church with them. If she did love

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Speaker 5: them as she claimed, one would expect her to inquire

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Speaker 5: after their welfare immediately in those circumstances. But what did

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Speaker 5: she do When Simon told her that Don and Gale

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Speaker 5: were in hospital? She immediately went on to talk about

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Speaker 5: her own symptoms, never asked a question about Don and Gale.

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Speaker 1: Now it's over to the Victorian courts to decide if

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Speaker 1: this appeal can go ahead. You can check out all

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Speaker 1: our reporting and analysis on this and all the great

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Speaker 1: court stories right now at the Australian dot com au