From the Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
It's Thursday May one, twenty twenty five. Big business says they're worried the Albaneze government will keep going with industrial relations reform if re elected, highlighting what they say would be an eighteen billion dollar hit to the economy if labor implements universal portable leave for casuals that would allow low paid workers in sectors like disability, aged care and cleaning to carry their entitlements for long service, sick and
careers leave to multiple employers. The federal election is two sleeps away and you can read all our scoops and analysis twenty four seven at the Australian dot com dot au. It's a rumble in the Crumble, a high stakes battle between two celebrity cooks, Nagi Mahashi and brook Bellamy. Mahahi says recipes including chocolate caramel slice were lifted from her wildly popular recipe Tineats Empire for Bellamy's book Bake with Brookie.
Bellamy denies any plagiarism. Aaron Patterson served a mushroom meal that killed three elderly relatives and made another seriously ill. The Crown says it was murder. Patterson says it was all a terrible accident, and that in the aftermath Patterson behaved in ways that might make her look guilty simply because she was panicking. Today, the Front's Christen Amiot with all the detail.
At lunchtime on July twenty nine, twenty twenty three, a Victorian mother of two, Erin Patterson, served beef Wellington to Don and Gale Patterson, the elderly parents of her husband, Simon, and Ian and Heather Wilkinson, his aunt and uncle. For three of those elderly people. The meal was fatal, and now Erin Patterson, who is pleading not guilty, is facing trial three counts of murder and one of attempted murder.
On day one of hearings Wednesday, the Crown took a jury of fifteen through the events on that Winter's day two years ago, Patterson, according to the Crown, case, invited her extended family to lunch with the intention of killing them. Ian Wilkinson is a pastor at the church where Erin Patterson worshiped, and Heather was his wife. Simon Patterson wasn't present at the lunch The court heard he and Erin were separated at the time, but still in regular contact.
Rogers said he turned down his wife's invitation, texting her that he didn't feel comfortable attending after their relationship soured. These are the words spoken in court by the Crown prosecutor. Doctor Nanette Rogers sc we've used voice actors throughout this episode.
The beef Wellingtons were prepared as a piece of steak, covered with mushrooms and completely encased in pastry.
Rogers said. Aaron Patterson claimed to have used two different types of mushrooms in the beef Wellington, a packet of button mushrooms from Woolworth's and dried mushrooms from a Chinese groser in the Melbourne suburbs.
Heather and Gale moved the four large plates from the bench to the table, and the accused took the smaller, lighter colored plate to her place at the table. They said grace and started the meal.
The prosecutor said ian Heather and Donald ate their entire portions, while Gail had about half and gave the rest to her husband. The Crown told the jury the guest said later how delicious the meal had been. After some catching up. Rogers said, Aaron Patterson told the group she'd been diagnosed with overian cancer, something both Crown and Defense now agree was not true, and asked for their advice on whether
to tell her children. They prayed for her well being before leaving the Leon Gather home that evening, the symptoms began severe vomiting and diarrhea. While waiting for an ambulance to collect them from their home. The next morning, Roger said, the pastor's wife, Heather Wilkinson, asked Simon Patterson a question.
Unprompted. Heather said, I noticed that Aaron put her food on a different plate to us. Her plate had colors on it. I wondered why that was.
By August five, Heather Wilkinson and Gail and Donald Patterson were dead suffering a multiple organ failure. All were diagnosed with amenetia mushroom poisoning. The death cap Ian Wilkinson, the pastor, now a widower, survived.
It is the prosecution case that the accused deliberately poisoned with murderous intent each of Ian Wilkinson, Heather Wilkinson, Gail Patterson, and Donal Patterson. On the twenty ninth of July at her house and Lee and Gatha after inviting them for lunch on the pretense that she'd been diagnosed with cancer and needed advice about how to break it to the children.
It is also the prosecution case that A, the accused did not consume death cap mushrooms at the lunch, and that she pretended she was suffering the same type of illness as the lunch guests to cover that up. This is why we say she was reluctant to receive medical treatment for death cap mushroom poisoning. B. The accused did not really feed the leftovers of the poisoned beef Wellington
to the children. This is why she was reluctant to have the children medically assist, because she knew that, like her, they had not eaten any poison food. See the accused lied about getting death cap mushrooms from an Asian grosser. The accused disposed of the dehydrator, which contained death cap mushroom remnants to conceal what she had done.
But why, Rogers told the jury the Crown did not have to prove what Patterson's motive was, or even if she had won.
What you will have to focus your attention on is whether you are satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the accused committed the charges on the indictment, not why she may have done so.
Patterson has always denied any wrongdoing and has pleaded not guilty. Later in this episode, you'll hear the defense case. The court heard the first time Aaron Patterson complained of feeling unwell was on the morning of Sunday, July thirty, the day after the lunch, when she spoke with her husband on the phone. She said she'd been experiencing diarrhea at regular intervals from the evening of the twenty ninth acclaim, the prosecutor told the court is refuted by eyewitness and
CCTV evidence. The court heard Eron Patterson drove her son to his flying lesson on the Sunday afternoon and wasn't observed stopping to use the toilet with any regularity.
The accused is captured on CCTV entering the public toilet at the service station and exiting nine seconds later before she selected the products from the store.
When she did present at an urgent care clinic on the morning of Monday, July thirty one, two days after the lunch, Rogers told the jury, Aaron Patterson was extremely reluctant to be admitted to hospital. Doctors at leon Gather Hospital had only just learned the Wilkinsons and the Pattersons may have been poisoned by death cap mushrooms, so they voiced their concern she should be assessed as soon as possible.
Amongst this discussion, the accused repeatedly said she needed to leave. She said, I haven't come prepared to be admitted to hospital and I was just coming to be checked. She said she needed to go and sought her kids and that she needed to go home and pack for hospital. She was adamant that she would not stay.
Against the advice of doctors and nurses. The Crown says, Aaron Patterson signed her own discharge form and left, telling them she'd be back in twenty minutes. It was only when one of the doctors informed Erin Patterson of his plan to get the police involved, that she returned to the hospital and agreed to be assessed.
Doctor Foot assessed the accused and she formed the impression that the accused was moderately dehydrated and appeared to have a gastro intestinal type illness.
The prosecutor also said Patterson didn't appear to appreciate the urgent need for her children, aged nine and fourteen at the time of the alleged murders, to be tested.
The accused responded that the children had not been present for the lunch, but had eaten some of the leftovers. The next day, the accused said that the mushrooms had been scraped off as the children did not like mushrooms. The accused became and said she didn't want to involve her kids. She did not appear to be concerned so much about the children's health, but rather about stressing them out. Doctor Webster was blunt and said they could be scared and alive or dead.
At the same time, Aeron Patterson was being transferred to the Monash Medical Center for treatment. Police went through her bins and retrieved a bag of leftover beef Wellington, which was taken to experts at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne for analysis. No evidence of death caps was found in the leftovers. Both Erin Patterson and her children were
kept at the Monash Medical Center for observation overnight. The Crown says Erin Patterson started using a new phone from around mid January of twenty twenty three, and that she had two simcards on the go. Roger said Erin performed a number of factory resets on the devices, including one which was done remotely after the phone had been seized
by police. The prosecutor said Aaron Patterson's browsing history showed she'd looked at a website I Naturalist where locals had reported death cap mushrooms growing in April and May of twenty twenty three, and that's where the phone records come in. Patterson's phone was pinging cell towers, Rogers told the court in the areas where the Eye Naturalist users had reported death caps.
In approximately March, April and May twenty twenty three, the accused started posting messages in the Kelly Lane group chat about dehydrating mushrooms.
Kelly Lane is a former Australian water polo player who was convicted of murdering her newborn daughter in nineteen ninety six. The prosecutor said Aaron Patterson was a member of a group on Facebook where members discussed the case and had struck up online friendships with some of them.
The accus explained in the chat that she'd been dehydrating mushrooms, blitzing them into powder, and hiding powdered mushrooms in everything included putting poundered mushrooms into chocolate brownies without her children knowing.
Police alleged Aaron Patterson disposed of a food dehydrator at a nearby landfill on August three, but it was collected by police the next day. Her fingerprints were later identified on the appliance, and it was determined it contained death cap mushroom residue, but at an interview conducted by police on August five, Patterson told police she'd never dehydrated food.
The Crown prosecutor said an expert review of Aaron Patterson's medical records showed it was unlikely she'd been poisoned at the lunch on July twenty nine, and that she'd never been diagnosed with cancer.
It is the prosecution case that the accused used the false claim that she had serious medical issues to ensure and to explain why the children would not be present at the lunch on twenty ninth July.
Coming up Aaron Patterson's defense to the chargers.
The defense case is that what happened at the home of Aaron Patterson in leon Gatha was a terrible accident, and that Patterson had panicked in the aftermath. On Wednesday afternoon, the barrister for Patterson, Colin Mandy, sc made his opening submissions to the jury of fifteen men and women.
Allegations are easy to make, but it's proving them that matters. The starting point for you is that Aaron Patterson is innocent of this charge.
Mandy said. Patterson doesn't dispute that three people died after attending lunch at her home, or that another person became seriously ill. He told the court his client is a loving, attentive mother to her children and a valued member of the wider Patterson family, even after the breakdown of her relationship.
The defense case is that she panicked because she was overwhelmed by the fact that these four people had become so ill because of the food that she'd served. Might someone panic in a situation like that? Is it possible that people might do and say things that are not well thought out and might in the end make them look bad. So as you listen to the evidence, you should consider when it comes to that fundamental issue of Eron's intention. Did she have a motive to kill.
The trial continues on Thursday. Our reporters Elie Dudley and John Ferguson are in court every day. You can follow their coverage live at the Australian dot com dot au