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In this episode, Aaron Patterson finishes her time on the witness stand after eight days. In the final hours of her evidence, more questions are asked about gastric bypass surgery. With the jury told lawyers have collected more information. The accused killer maintains she fed her children leftovers from the fatal lunch, and she answers three final questions from the prosecution.
Victoria's mushroom mystery, the mushroom lunch that claimed three lives an Australian family's meal is now the center of a homicide investigation. The bizarre tragedy now grabbing global headlines. Aaron Patterson's alleged victims died after eating a family lunch she'd serve them at her home.
I cannot think of another investigation that has generated this level of media and public interest.
Four of the guests of that lunch were much loved members of this church.
Only one will ever return.
People are feeling very heavy with having lost wonderful people.
Today, Aaron Patterson remained here inside her home.
She's continued to plead her innocence in a court room in Country Victoria.
Aaron Patterson is on trial accused of using death cap mushrooms to kill. She's pleaded not guilty to murdering three of her former in laws and attempting to kill a fourth, the town's church pastor. It's up to the jurors to decide what happened when Patterson's loved ones sat down to eat. Aaron Patterson has been on the witness stand across eight
days now. There's been days of cross examination and also questions with her defense barrister, initially an examination in chief and then now we've seen all of his final questions in the re examination as well.
It was quite a moment in the courtroom when the judge turned to the jury and said that now completes the evidence. As you said, eight days, the accused woman has been in the witness box, and you could hear a sigh from the packed court room and also from a number of jury members when the judge revealed that was what was happening and what was happening next. At that time, Aaron Patterson was seated, as you said, in
the witness box. She had been a little bit teary towards the end of her evidence, but largely had remained pretty stoic answering pretty much every question and even gave explanations as well as denials. There was a bit of a mixture of both, Penny.
Yeah, and we will in this episode take you through a number of different topics that the prosecution took Aaron Patterson through in the last part of her cross examination, as well as the re examination from the defense, and will bring you what both sides have asked Aaron Patterson in these final hours around gastric bypass surgery. But let's
start with the mushrooms from the Asian grosser. Now, Aaron Patterson says that she bought dried mushrooms from an Asian or Chinese grosser in the southeastern suburbs of Melbourne, and that she'd added this to the beef Wellington, but became concerned at one point that there may have been foraged mushrooms in that dried mushroom mixture. She's been asked a lot of questions about these particular mushrooms.
He's also been asked a lot of questions about what she recalls telling the other witnesses in the trial about those mushrooms and the order of events, and she recalled that the first person that she told about the fact that could be Asian mushrooms in the meal. Was Matthew Patterson,
her brother in law. Now Matthew at that time, the jury were told, was at hospital with his father and a toxicologist had come into the room and ask questions about where the mushrooms may have come from, and that's when Aaron Patterson says that she recounted that there was
these dried mushrooms that she'd used. And as part of this questioning to try and narrow down on exactly what she remembered, Penny and Nett Rogers put to the witness that she had worked for a number of years in that Monash City Council area and should that, according to the prosecution, mean that you really knew that area well, those suburbs, well, there was somewhere where you'd worked, and she also owned a property at one point.
Yeah, And it was mentioned to Aaron Patterson that she could name some of these particular streets that she'd shopped on, but she said in her cross examination that she didn't really know that this particular area well. And as she was being taken through the evidence of a number of different witnesses, public health officials, people that she'd had discussions with as they were trying to find the source of
this possible poisoning. It was put to her by the prosecution that she hadn't answered these questions, that she hadn't always been forthcoming in her communication on phones and on text messages and in what she was telling different people at different times, and the Crown Prosecutor Annette Rodgers accused Aaron Patterson of taking these authorities on a wild goose chase.
Yep yeap. She was asked whether or not this whole idea, this whole concept of having dried mushrooms in your pantry you'd purchased from this Asian grocer's store that you couldn't remember, was a big fat lie? Was it true? Were you making up this story in order to send investigators from the Health department from the Monash City Council on this while goosechase to find something that didn't exist, to give you more time to figure out what you were going
to do. And it was repeatedly put to Aaron Patterson, were a lot of these post lunch actions because you were worried that doctors had gotten non sooner rather than later, that deathcat mushrooms may have been involved, and she maintained no, repeatedly, repeatedly disagreed with any suggestion that there was deliberate mushroom poisoning.
In that lunch, we'll bring you.
A bit of the evidence. Now.
This is Nannette Rodgers, sc the Crown Prosecutor, speaking with Aaron Patterson in the cross examination, and she's talking about a part of the evidence where Aaron Patterson says in her police interview that she'd been very helpful to these health authorities. And you'll also hear some references to someone in this questioning, and that person is Sally Anne Atkinson.
She's been one of the witnesses and one of the people working with the health authorities to try and find the source of the Asian mushrooms.
This is voiced by actors.
I suggest that you weren't very very helpful to the department at all.
I was trying to be that was untrue, incorrect.
In fact, you sent them on a wild goose chase trying to locate this Asian groser correct or incorrect, incorrect. Initially you were not very responsive to the Department of Health. I think that's been your evidence.
No, it's not my evidence. The first time she rang me. I answered and spoke to her for fifteen.
Minutes on one August twenty twenty three at eight thirty three am.
Correct, But then.
You didn't respond to some of the other texts correct.
Correct. I think we've established why that was already.
And I suggest that the reason that you didn't answer some of those texts from her was because you did not want to be pressed for details about the Asian grocery store. Incorrect, because that story was not true.
Incorrect.
It was a lie that you used dried mushrooms from an Asian grosser correct or incorrect.
Incorrect.
You lied about the source of the death cap mushrooms because you knew you were gill of having deliberately poisoned your four lunch guests.
Incorrect.
Another part of Aaron Patterson's evidence that was gone back and forth on as part of the cross examination was what happened with her children around this lunch, and she maintains that she fed her son and her daughter on the Sunday night following the Saturday lunch the leftovers from this meal.
The evidence the jury has heard as part of this particular topic was that Aaron Patterson told medical personnel and authorities that the Sunday after the lunch, the dinner time. After the lunch, she had fed the leftovers to her children. She'd scraped off the mushroom paste, she'd scraped off the pastry,
and fed them what meat was left. She'd also then served up some beans and also some potato with hers part of her examination in the final days as well, we heard from the prosecution questions put to Patterson about what her kids recalled of that meal. So her children, the prosecution say, in their evidence, recalled that Aaron Patterson shared some of those leftovers with her children but didn't really eat a lot of them, and that her son
finished them off. But Aaron Patterson, while in the witness box, said no, no, no, that they have a wrong recollection of what happened. In fact, I didn't eat any of those leftovers. I tried to eat cereal, but I wasn't feeling very well.
She was taken to the evidence of another witness who says Aaron Patterson told her she tried to eat some cereal on that night, but not the dinner because she wasn't feeling well enough.
So she disputed the children's.
Recollection of that particular dinner meal that was served. She was also taken through her shopping in the lead up to this meal, and it was expressed by the prosecution that Aaron Patterson, through these shopping records, the Woolworth shopping records that have been shown in the courtroom, went to the shops multiple times.
To get ingredients for this meal. She agreed that.
She did, but when she was asked specifically by Annette Rogers sc about the meat of this particular recipe, the recipe in each's recipe was calling for that that was supposed to be a log, and the jury was again shown this recipe step by step up on the screens.
In the courtroom.
The net Rodgers put to Aaron Patterson, you could have tried to get a log like this, a bigger piece of meat from a local butcher. Aaron Patterson denied that. She said that she'd looked at her local Woolworths, that she couldn't find a bigger piece of meat, and so that's why she got the individual stakes. And she denied the allegation from the prosecution that she had deliberately sought out those individual steaks so as she could make individual meals to begin with.
And that meat and the size of the meat was another questioning element that arose in the final hours of Aaron Patterson's evidence about why did you cook six beef Wallingtons and when you knew you were only having four lunch guests. And her explanation was, she brought those I fill at stakes in twin packs and she'd put two of those twin packs in the freezer, and that's why she had therefore cooked an extra beef Wllington.
The jury's also heard a lot about other ingredients in this meal, specifically mushrooms, and Aaron Patterson agreed with the prosecution that she had purchased in the days leading up to the lunch around one point seventy five grams of mushrooms, and she agreed the recipe called for about seven hundred grams.
She told the prosecutor and Nett Rodgers that she'd eaten the extra kilo of mushrooms in those days between the twenty third and the twenty seventh of July, and that left her with seven hundred and fifty grams to make the meal.
Yeah, and she said it wasn't unusual for her to purchase large amounts of mushrooms and would in her memory, often purchase them a couple of times a week. But she did explain that her children didn't like mushrooms, her
daughter in particular didn't really like mushrooms. And she was then asked questions by the prosecution about well, did you then tell the authorities that you scraped off that mushroom pace, that those mushrooms were used to make purely to try and mislead them and to explain why the children weren't sick. That's another thing she denied. She said, no, no, no, no, no. We saw her get a little bit emotional when her children were mentioned in different parts of questioning, But this
was a denial. She really focused quite heavily on that. No, she did not make up this lie to try and cover her tracks as to why her children weren't sick.
Yeah, she maintained through her evidence that she had scraped off those mushrooms and the pastry, and that that had gone into an outdoor been at her home that was later collected by police and used for some testing through the different health authorities as the patients were falling sicker and sicker. Now, with what Aaron Patterson was being asked
around her children, eating this meal. It was put to her a number of times that she seemed, according to some witnesses in their evidence, reluctant to have the children treated at hospital. Now, she maintained that she may have been reluctant initially, but that's because she thought the children hadn't eaten the mushrooms and there was no real risk.
But she says once she realized that there was real concern that there could have been deathcat mushrooms in the meal eaten by the children, even though there was no mushrooms on the particular bit, they ate that she did want them to be checked out at hospital.
There was a couple of hours after the jury were told Aaron Patterson found out that there was this risk of death cap mushroom contamination that she arranged for her children to be collected from school and then taken to hospital to be examined. And we know that they did stay there overnight for observation.
And Aaron Patterson has been spoken to by the prosecution in the cross examination about how she was feeling at this time when she made the kids dinner on the Sunday night, it was put to her that there was evidence from a doctor from the Monash Medical Center that she later ended up at, that she'd thought she had
food poisoning symptoms. Aaron Patterson disputed that she said when she first arrived at the Lee and Gatha Hospital, which is the first hospital she went to on the Monday following the Sunday night, she felt that she had gastro symptoms, So she said she didn't think she had food poisoning and disputed that she made her children a dish when she thought that that leftovers could have made her sick initially.
She was then taken to some evidence and some different parts that the court has heard regarding when she found out that Don and Gail Patterson, her in laws, were unwell, and the court heard that she first knew on the Sunday that they weren't well.
It was a Sunday morning. The jury heard that Aaron Patterson found out through her estranged husband, Simon Patterson, that Don and Gail Patterson were unwell. She maintains so that she didn't think or know, or was informed in any way, shape or form that they were sick from something that
had come from the meal. In her mind, it may have just been this gastro that was going around and at that point when she fed her children the leftovers, she says, with the mushroom and pastry scraped off, that she really had no idea that it could be the meal that was making everybody sick.
Let's hear a little bit more of the evidence during the cross examination. This is the words of Aaron Patterson and Annette Rogers.
I suggest that you told well over a dozen people, including your son and daughter, health professionals, child protection workers, police, and a friend, that you had fed your children the same meal that you had served at lunch on twenty nine July twenty twenty three.
Oh, I was pretty clear. It was the meal minus the mushrooms and pastries, so not the same.
But yes, But isn't it the fact that on Sunday thirty July you found out that at least Don and Gail were unwell.
Yes, I did find out about that.
So why did you proceed to feed the same meal to your children when you knew or suspected that the meal that you'd served had made them ill?
I didn't. I didn't know suspect that.
Your son gave evidence in his recorded interview that you told him that Gail and Don were not well. Do you remember the evidence? I do you told that to him?
I'm sure I did.
Yeah, on the Sunday night.
I don't know when on the Sunday or I don't know when I told him that, but I did tell him.
The accused woman has also been taken through whether she deliberately sought out deathcap mushrooms. That's been a key part of all of the evidence in this trial. In her questioning, and she's told the court that she did not del liberately seek out mushrooms in either of the Gippsland towns of Locke and Outram, where there's been evidence that there were posts on the Iron Naturalist site about sightings of mushrooms in these locations.
We know from the evidence of one of the other witnesses, a cell tower expert. He maintains that he could see on the data that the phone connected to Aaron Patterson pinned in those particular areas on certain days. Aaron Patterson maintains that that is not true. Maybe she passed through the areas or or whatnot, but there was in no way she had any memory of deliberately driving to those two locations after posts were made on the Our Naturalist showing where deathcap mushrooms were growing. Yeah.
When she was asked about doctor Tom May's post regarding the deathcap mushrooms he'd cited at Outram, she told the court, Well, she said disagree when she was asked a question about seeing that particular post and then heading to that area. And we'll hear a little bit more about what she was asked regards adding another post in Locke and what she did after. The prosecution says she visited that particular area.
This is voiced by actors.
I suggest that you read the Christine McKenzie post that she'd posted on I Naturalist on eighteen April. Agree or disagree?
Disagree?
I suggest you drove to Locke from your house at Leanngatha to specifically find death cap mushrooms on twenty eight April.
Disagree, and I.
Suggest that you found some Agree or disagree?
Disagree, And I.
Suggest that within two hours of finding those death cap mushrooms you drove to the Hartley Wells Better Home Living in Leengatha and bought yourself a dehydrator at twelve seventeen PM.
I did buy that that day, yes, And.
The purpose of buying the dehydrator was to dehydrate death cap mushrooms. Agree or disagree?
Disagree now, Aaron Patterson told the court, Yes, as you heard, she did buy a dehydrature and it was on that particular day in April twenty twenty three.
She agreed it was in some part to preserve wild.
Mushrooms, to use them at different parts of the year, and also to preserve other foods.
Yeah, that's right. So she really disputed any accusation that it was purchased purely to dry death cap mushrooms and then feed them to her lunch guests. And she was also then asked a few questions about her foraging and whether or not there could have been deathcap mushrooms in what she'd foraged, And she was explaining to the jury that there's only a couple of months of the year that you can forage mushrooms. She said, this is autumn.
And she said, so it's that March April may period here in Victoria, Australia that you can purchase that you can forage for these types of mushrooms, she told the jury. So she would have only been possibly able to do it a handful of times.
Yeah, And she told the jury previously in some of her evidence which she was taken to by the Crown Prosecutor, that when she developed these interest in mushrooms around the COVID lockdowns of twenty twenty, that her children were with her on some of these walks and times where they saw these particular mushrooms out growing in the wild.
Now she disputed the.
Evidence of her estranged husband, Simon Patterson. He told the court that he had never and it's come through other witnesses evidence that he had and all the time he'd known her, never known her.
To forage or pick wild mushrooms.
And she sort of said, well, how would he necessarily know that? And she was taken through a number of different questions that maybe she not necessarily had told that to Simon Patterson.
She didn't think that she had.
She explained that in their signal chat groups, Penny, there was many, many, many messages that were sent between the family and also her and Simon Patterson, and she was asked why in none of those was there any mention of her foraging mushrooms, And she explained that that wasn't really a topic of conversation, cooking and recipes and meals,
wasn't something that her and Simon really talked about. It wasn't something that they enjoyed talking about, and that was her explanation of why there was nothing to be found there by the prosecution.
Yeah, she said that there was six thousand pages of messages, is what her defense barrister put to her in reexamination, and she said that they very rarely ever spoke, particularly about the meals they were preparing for themselves. She's also disputed some more of Simon Patterson's evidence regarding a conversation that she says they had at the Monash Medical.
Center where she alleges he said to.
Her is that how you poisoned my parents or what you used to poison my parents being the dehydrator, and he disputes that he ever said that. Now, Aaron Patterson maintained that he did say that, and that that is what led to her starting to think about forage mushrooms and then panicking in regards to that dehydrator. Now, going back to her children, as you mentioned before, she's disputed some of their evidence around what they had for dinner
that night. She's also now disputed some of the evidence of her son, who said on the Sunday morning when she wasn't feeling well, she was having a coffee at the dining room table. She says that was a herbal tea, but that she basically thinks her son has misinterpreted this because ninety nine percent of the time she would have been having a coffee and he couldn't necessarily see what was in that particular mug. But going back to her children and what she says was this habit of foraging
that she had from twenty twenty. She was really pressed by the prosecution on why her children didn't give evidence that they had seen her collecting mushrooms anywhere before.
Yeah.
So during the trial, as we've already mentioned in earlier episodes, a video recorded evidence for the children were played to the jury, and that's what Aaron Patterson was asked further questions about in the last few days of her testimony, and it was around whether or not she had foraged with her children, where they'd foraged, how often this may have occurred, and Aaron Patterson told the jury she recalled that her children were with her at times when she
would pick and forage wild mushrooms and believed telling the jury that her children may have been mistaken or may not have remembered that those things occurred.
Here's a little bit more of the evidence as the jury heard it. It's voiced by actors playing at Rogers and also Aaron Patterson.
I suggest that your children never knew you to pick wild mushrooms. Do you agree or disagree?
Disagree?
That's because you did not go foraging for non toxic mushrooms. Agree or disagree, Ah, incorrect. This is a story you have made up for this jury.
Agree or disagree, disagree.
One of the final topics that the Crown prosecutor covered off in the cross examination was the topic of phones and various elements about phones. The jury has heard about a number of different mobile devices that Aaron Patterson used at different times, and she was asked around some factory resets, and she says there's a particular phone which is referred to as Phone B.
She says that she reset.
That mobile phone on the fifth of August, agreeing that was well at the same day that police came to search her home, and that she then reset it on the sixth of August after it had been taken by police. That she did that remotely, but she did dispute when the prosecution put to her, did you reset this mobile phone while you were given some time to have some privacy and call a lawyer.
During this police raid, and she said no, she didn't.
She disputed the time that she had called the lawyer compared to what time the factory reset was being shown in the data and said no, that that wasn't during that particular time.
Yeah, this is incredibly technical evidence at times, and there's a number of different phones and simcards that have been mentioned, so to try and break down the timeline and simplify it a little bit, Aaron Patterson agreed that she purchased phone as Sam Sung in February twenty twenty three and use that for a number of months leading up to
quite close to the lunch. She told the jury that at that point the phone wasn't quite cutting it, and she decided that she wanted to use a different phone, and it was at this point and around the time of the lunch she said she also decided to get a new phone number because of some accusations that she says Simon Patterson was making and for her own safety.
The prosecut you should know, alleged that she changed her phone around the time of the lunch soon after the lunch, because she knew that there would be things on that searches internet searches, perhaps researching deathcap mushrooms. Aaron Patterson strongly denied this, and she strongly denied that she therefore changed her SIM card for the same reason. She said she handed over the phone and the SIM card that she
thought police wanted. She said that they didn't clarify with her exactly what they wanted, and she felt like she was doing the right thing. We do know that Phone A, this Samsung that was purchased in February twenty twenty three, has never been found, and it is Phone B another Samsung that was handed to police. Now, those factory resets,
Penny that you just mentioned occurred as well. She was asked about three of those in particular right towards the end of her evidence, and she agreed that she performed those factory resets, But she says for a variety of different reasons. One was because she was purely changing over her handsets and in the process of changing over her phone number as well and resigning up to accounts and
downloading apps and a like. But the final two resets, she said, yes, what were for different reasons, and that third one, the jury is heard was because she thought the police may have been silly enough to leave it on.
Yeah, she said that final reset as part of her evidence. She wanted to see if it was still connected.
To a network.
And we'll go now to some of the evidence as it was heard by the jury. Here's a little bit of what the court heard from Crown Prosecutor Andette Rodgers and Aaron Patterson regarding what happened with these phones.
You told police your phone number ended in eight three five.
I did.
That was the phone number of phone B it was. I suggest that that was a lie to the extent that that was not your usual phone number. Agree or disagree.
I wasn't asked if it was my usual phone number.
Your usual phone number was the one ending in seven eight three, correct.
It wasn't until until that day, Yeah, the day before when I was changing all my numbers.
After you factory reset this phone on to August, and I suggest it was to August. You only used it to make three phone calls.
I don't know how many it was.
Those three phone calls all occurred between around two pm on five August, when you were given privacy to contact a lawyer. Yep, you were happy to provide police with this phone phone b Yeah, happy to tell them that this phone number was your number eight three five correct. And I suggest you did that because you knew there was no data on this phone correct or incorrect.
No, I did it because they asked for my phone and I gave it to them.
It came to this point in the questioning, at the very.
End of all of these questions that were asked about the different phones and devices, Nanette Rogers said to the court, I'm nearly at the end, and basically that people would be pleased to hear that, which got sort of a bit of a chuckle and a reaction in the courtroom, including from the judge's.
She turned to the jury and Aaron Patterson and the judges she was mentioning this and that they may be quite relieved that she was getting towards the end of her evidences have been long days, Penny. The jury are given multiple breaks during the day, as are sitting at the bar table. But there was a little bit of humor in there right at the end of the day.
And then things felt like they changed to being far more serious again. When Nanette Rogers said, now I'm going to ask you three final questions. She signposted it that way, and then she turned to the accused woman in the witness box, and this is what she asked.
I suggest that you deliberately sourced death cap mushrooms in twenty twenty three. Agree or disagree, disagree. I suggest you deliberately included them in the Beef Wellington's You served to Don Patterson, Gail Patterson, Ian Wilkinson, and Heather Wilkinson agree or disagree, disagree, and you did so intending to kill them. Agree or disagree, disagree? Thank you. I have no further questions.
Now we'll be back after this with some more of what both the prosecution and the defense put to Aaron Patterson in these final hours regarding gastric bypass surgery. Now, in the final days of evidence, the listeners have already heard this that there's been multiple questions by the Crown prosecutor regarding plans Aaron Patterson said she had for a
gastric bypass or gastric sleeve weight loss surgery. Now she conceded in an earlier part of her evidence that maybe it was actually liposuction or a different kind of surgery because it was brought to her by the prosecutor that this Enrich clinic she'd named in Melbourne didn't actually offer gastric bypass surgery. And Aaron Patterson said when she was initially bought that evidence that she was really quite puzzled because she didn't remember the suburb being the same as.
Where she'd booked.
But she agreed she had booked an appointment, it was for a pre surgery consultation and that had been canceled. Now as part of her cross examination, she was taken to her her medical records. These have been collected from three GP clinics, is what the jury has been told by the lead detective as part of this investigation covering
the period of twenty twenty three. And Aaron Patterson agreed there was nothing in those GP records that referred her for weight loss surgery or specifically mentioned weight loss surgery.
And we got to this point, Penny, because Aaron Patterson was being asked about her cancer and whether or not she had cancer, and why she was allowing potentionally other family members to think that she had a serious illness such as cancer or may need some upcoming medical procedures connected to that serious illness. Now, she told the jury in her evidence that she had been wanting to get weight loss surgery, but she was embarrassed and didn't want
her family to know. So she'd gone out and researched this clinic, and in her evidence she named the clinic, and that then saw the prosecution bring in a new statement. And so Aaron Patterson was given this new statement and told to go away and read it over the lunch break and come back and be asked further questions about this. Now we heard that this was a statement, a police statement from somebody that was working at this Enrich clinic talking about the fact that they don't offer bypass or
gastric bypass related surgeries. They don't currently offer liposuction, and they really only offer cosmetic procedures for skin, nails, and hair. And it was at that point that Aaron Patterson agreed that yes, she must have been confused or mistaken and that they didn't offer this gastric bypass related surgery.
Here's a little bit of that evidence as.
The jury heard it between Nnette Rogers sc and also Aaron Patterson.
Now that you've had a chance to see and read that material. Firstly, do you accept that the Enrich Clinic does not offer, and has never offered, gastric bypass surgery?
Yes.
Secondly, do you accept that the Enriched Clinic does not offer, and has never offered pre surgery assessments relating to gastric bypass surgery?
I do.
And thirdly, do you accept that the in Rich Clinic only conducts examinations and procedures relating to the skin and its appendages such as hair and nails.
I do.
When we saw Colin Mandy sc get up for his re examination, which happens after we heard a little bit earlier in this episode, Nanette Rogers say that she had no further questions. He immediately spoke about the gastric bypass surgery and the plans for that, And in that Colin Mandy told the jury that his instructors, the lawyers that help him, had gone and as part of this got a little bit more information.
Yeah, they did a web search, is what the jury were told. And in that web search he explained that liposuction was available back in twenty twenty three, when Aaron Patterson would have made that appointment. She says she made the appointment for the thirteenth of September twenty twenty three, but actually ended up canceling it a couple of days before. But yeah, so they don't offer liposuction surgery at the moment, but they did back in that twenty twenty three periods.
So that was the clarification that Colin Mandy was seeking to make.
Yeah, and he also took Aaron Patterson and the jury through some other elements from that website where it said that these particular clinic had moved suburbs from Armadale in Melbourne to South Yarra in Melbourne, and he's brought that to Aaron Patterson. He also took her through some of
her phone records. It's saying he says that this showed she'd made the clinic, that the appointment at the clinic, and then also that she received a text message warning her that there was in the forty eight hour period if you want to cancel, you need to do it now or you'll be charged. And she agreed she did cancel that. Now here's a little bit of this evidence that was put to Aaron Patterson by Colin Mandy, her barrister.
It's voiced by actors.
It says live persuction with doctor Michael Rich. As of thirtieth of the sixth, twenty twenty four, doctor Rich will not be offering life persuction as a treatment option to our patients.
Yep, I see that.
What was your understanding about what was being offered by Enriched Clinic as of July twenty twenty.
Well, I understood them to be offering life persuction, and I also believe they offered the full range of weight loss surgery treatments like the bypass and the sleeve. I think they're two different types of things.
But yeah, why did you cancel the appointment?
It was a difficult time. It was a very difficult time.
And do you accept now from this material that you were mistaken about the fact that Enriched Clinic offered gastric bypass surgery?
Yes, I was obviously mistaken. Yes.
Now was more of the re examination.
It was only around half an hour that Colin Mandy spoke with his client at the very end of her evidence in front of the jury. He asked her a multiple questions sort of on a few different topics, and those included per potassium levels and the questions that she had asked. She says of medical staff when she was feeling unwell on the thirty first of July, a few
days after the lunch. Now, she told the jury that she had been tested for potassium around that time and that it was about two point six or a higher level, and that come the morning when she was talking with a toxicologist, that had come right back down, and she'd had two potassium supplements overnight in relation to those. She also was asked by her barrister about what's been called
some of the cooler Master evidence. This is a computer that she says came from her son's room that was examined by police, and she explained that when she was being asked questions earlier by the prosecution, and she insinuated that maybe she had been using the computer at that time,
maybe it was her children. She said she didn't really have an exact memory of that time, that she still didn't of seeing these I Naturalist posts or making particular purchases, but she accepts that she definitely could have been her. That she just answered in that way because she didn't have that exact memory. And then she also was taken to two other elements involving her children, and this is
where she became a little bit teary. On one occasion, the defense asked her a little bit about a ballet lesson that she said her daughter had that she says she needed to go pack her bag for when she left the Lee and Gatha Hospital the first time, and she said that yes, she did definitely have this rehearsal booked, and her barrister took her through that it had to be canceled and have a look at these text messages that she says with her estranged husband canceling those, and
that's when she became a little bit teary speaking about her daughter. And then she was taken to tie ab An area in Gippsland to the airport there the day after the lunch for her son to have a flying lesson, and again this is where she became a little bit teary, and in her words, she said that she didn't want to cancel on him because he was really passionate about this and he'd had a lot of canceled.
Lessons and that she didn't want to disappoint him.
But then it got again errand to a different point where things became much more serious and we heard some final things from the defense barrister.
Yeah.
The judge turned at this point to Colin Mandy and says, does the defense close its case? Is this where we're at now? And Colin Mandy agreed, and here's some of the words that.
The jury heard, and that closes your case. It does your honor all right, Well, ladies and gentlemen, that's the completion of the evidence in this case.
Now, the jury has been told at the completion of this part of the trial, the completion of Aaron Patterson's evidence, that there needs to be some legal discussions, that there's some legal responsibilities that the judge has in the way, that he will give some directions later on to the jury, and that they don't need to be present for that, and he didn't want them to wait around. So they were told that they can go home for the day.
Yeah, they were sent home earlier. There was a few smiles on that some of the juror's faces. Has been a long week and a few of them looked like they couldn't get up to get out soon enough. They have been told, though, what will happen next is that once these legal discussions have concluded, that they'll descend into what it called final closing submissions. The prosecution will go first. They're expected to take a couple of days where they
sum up their case. Then the defense will take a couple of days, potentially one or two days to sum up their case before we may have another day off, and then the judge will give the jury what's called his charge, his instructions before they go out to do final deliberations.
The jury was told to keep an eye on their phones, and they now have been told that they will not be sitting on the Friday, the final day of this particular week that we're recording, and that they're going to have a long weekend, so we'll bring you another episode when the jury.
Is back in the courtroom.
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Say Grace is created and hosted by me Penelope.
Lesh and me Aaron Pearson.
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